Time based effects like reverb and delays as opposed to gain based processing like EQ and compression, is where some of the most inspirational techniques in mixing can be found. I remember my first encounter with a delay pedal as a teenager. It was life-changing and I’m still and self-proclaimed delay addict to this day. Likewise my first encounter with digital reverbs were equally inspirational (and self-indulgent. I think some of those reverb tails are still going…).

In this article we present five ideas for how you can get hands on with your time based effects and create something using the basic plugins which every DAW provides.

EQ Your Delays

Most Delay plugins have at least a low pass filter included so you can roll off the high frequencies. Darker delays are more pleasing to most users. They round off the detail allowing the delay to fill out the sound without competing with the dry signal as much. This high frequency roll off is also characteristic of analogue delays based on magnetic tape and bucket brigade delay circuits.

You can take control of this filtering in your delay path by inserting an EQ with your delay plugin. You’ll have to be running your delay with a send and return. Only EQ the delay, leaving the dry signal unaffected. Using a dedicated EQ gives more control than most delay plugins provide but the fun really starts if you set up a single repeat in the delay plugin and use a send to set up a feedback loop through the delay plugin, with the EQ getting applied over and over again for progressive changes as the sound repeats and if you take it further, instant dub effects. Add other plugs for extra flavour too. Endless fun…

Step Gate A Pad Using External Side Chain With Delay

Beloved of Trance music, using an external side chain from a muted track carrying a rhythmic pulse to open a close a gate which is applied over a legato sound can produce instant rhythmic interest. Often used with evolving pad sounds, it can be used with anything. Guitars take this treatment well, the Smiths How Soon Is Now used deep tremolo but the sound is reminiscent of this technique, but unlike tremolo this technique follows the rhythm of the audio triggering it rather than a regular pulse.

If you’re unclear about how to set up plugins to an external side chain check out this vide which shows the process in Pro Tools. Some DAWs do parts of this process for you.

Add time based reverbs to exploit the gaps created by the gate or add rhythmic echoes to the pulses for added complexity. It’s a great way to get to know external side chaining and, while a well known technique, isn’t as over-used as extreme side chain compression.

Reverse Reverb

In the old days reverse reverb was simple but laborious to achieve. The process was that you had two remove the tape from the machine and install it backwards. Rewinding the tape, playing the relevant track (which was now on a different tape track) out through the mixer and printing the reverb back to the tape resulted in a reverb which preceded the audio and swelled in to the words or notes in an extremely unnatural way. Extensively used in horror films as a ‘scary devil voice’ it's still a fantastic effect. Delay sounds different but is just as effective.

Rather than having to reverse reels of tape the process is easier in a DAW but exactly how you choose to achieve it will depend on exactly which tools you are using. All DAWs have a method for reversing audio in the timeline and if you can print the reverb using offline processing that is a convenient way to capture the reverb before reversing the audio again to get your right-way-round audio with reversed reverb. Some plugins make it really easy, for example Pro Tools’ AudioSuite reverbs have a Reverse button in the UI.

Thicken With Pitch Shift

This one is more of an alternative to a time based effect, in this case chorus. I’ve never really been much off a fan of chorus. I find it soupy and sickly. It's intended purpose of making a single instrument sound like multiple players isn’t going to fool anyone but it does thicken sounds. This is a fact which wasn’t lost on the designers of 80s polysynths. The ability to add richness to otherwise rather thin sounding analogue synths by adding a chorus has made the Juno series revered today. As a former owner I always found it more an admission of defeat. Sacrilegious today but I still maintain I’d have preferred more oscillators to detune against each other. over the “classic'“ (read “noisy”) Juno chorus!

The same applies to thickening audio sources and ever since Eventide Harmonisers took over the world, people have been using slight detuning effects to thicken guitars and voices just like one would with synth oscillators.

Any pitch shift plugin will do the trick, the results you get from pitch shift plugins can be disappointing when taken too far. Anyone who has tried octave shifts knows the results can be disappointing. But the beauty of detuning is that you are only moving the audio a few cents. Play with the effect. A little goes a long way and don’t be afraid to detune up and down by different amounts. The temptation is to pan the results wide for a big open sound, and this very effective but if you keep the results narrow you’ll get more of a thickening than a widening. Both are cool.

Pitch Shift Delay

The mention of harmonisers immediately makes me think pitch shifted delays. Taking the structure of the first example where a delay is on a send return loop and is creating a single repeat, with a send on the return channel setting up a feedback loop to recirculate the sound back through the return channel over and over again, you can replace the EQ plugin in the feedback loop with a pitch shift for cascading repeats which rise, fall or both.

This is not an everyday effect, Its musical uses are limited but if you’ve never tried this I highly recommend it.

The examples above all use Pro Tools but there are definitely equivalents in whatever DAW you choose to use. Do you have any effects tips you’d like to share?