Simple in its technical proposition but among the most versatile and sonically engaging of all studio effects, the humble delay is a signal processing staple that every producer needs to master. Here are six tips to give your echo-based exploits a boost… boost… boost… boost…
Get to know your delays
Although all delay effects are based on the timed offsetting and feedback looping of an input signal, there are, nonetheless, a variety of different types to get a handle on if you’re to pick the right one for any given musical situation. The ‘standard’ stereo delay, for example, facilitates independent adjustment of left and right channel delay times and possibly feedback amounts, making it the best choice for general purpose echoes that don’t necessarily draw too much attention, as well as chorusing and flanging. Then there’s the ping-pong delay, which alternates echoes between the left and right channels by adding the delay time of one to the delay time of the other – ideal for wide, psychedelic ‘bouncing’ echoes. And when more elaborate lines are called for, the multi-tap delay lets you set the precise timing of multiple discrete delay ‘taps’ to create complex rhythmic patterns.
As well as the delay generating technique deployed by your delay plugin, you also need to consider its sonic character. For a warm, potentially dirty vintage-style sound, reach for a tape or bucket brigade (BBD) delay; and when clarity and brightness are priorities, a regular ‘digital’ model (ie, one not specifically described as tape, BBD or any other variant) should be your go-to.
Insert or auxiliary?
It’s a question every novice producer asks at some point: Should a given delay be inserted directly into the channel being processed or used on an auxiliary channel as a send effect? The answer is perfectly straightforward. If your delay is being applied within a broader effects chain as part of a multi-stage sound design process, it probably needs to be inserted directly. If, on the other hand, you’re just looking to enhance an instrument or vocal with elementary echoes and spatialising, there’s no good reason not to stick it on an auxiliary bus, as you can then also route other channels to it, should the need arise. Indeed, sharing auxiliaries between multiple tracks in this way is standard practise at the mixing stage, as more than one or two disparate delays firing off at the same time can easily clutter up a mix.
Part of the process
Following on from that, there’s no reason why auxiliary delays can’t also be shaped and ‘designed’ using further effects, of course. Reverb is a prime candidate here, giving those echoes and feedback sweeps their own space and placement; but distortion, compression, EQ and chorus – and anything else you want to experiment with, really – can prove positively transformative.
Multi-effects are very handy for this sort of thing, making it easy to play around with diverse post-delay processing in a single plugin. Perhaps the ultimate example of this is Blue Cat Audio’s extraordinary Late Replies, which puts a deep eight-tap delay at the heart of a powerful ’modular’ architecture, in which every tap and the feedback circuit can be treated to up to four effects from a rich internal library, and/or any of your other VST/AU plugins. Insane!
Ducking delays
With multitap and high-feedback delays, it’s always important to ensure that the echoes don’t overwhelm the source signal whenever both are audible at the same time – unless you’re a fan of unintelligible vocals and confused guitars. Happily, an increasing number of delay plugins feature convenient built-in ducking systems, automatically reducing the volume of the wet output whenever a signal is present at the input. If your delay of choice isn’t so blessed, though, you can get exactly the same effect by inserting a compressor on the delay’s auxiliary return channel and keying its sidechain input off the source signal. Tailor the amount by which the echoes are lowered in volume with the threshold and ratio controls, and work the release time to determine how quickly they return to full volume whenever the input drops to silence.
Sync or swim
Many if not most electronic music producers tend to default to activating tempo sync on delay plugins, in order to keep them perfectly locked to the beat. However, manually setting delay times in milliseconds and seconds by ear instead can make a profound difference to the feel of a track, so step out of your comfort zone and give it a try.
How far you can go in terms of deviation from the grid will largely depend on the source material and amount of feedback dialled in. For example, a short, low-feedback delay on a hi-hat track will require careful positioning to ensure that it adds groove to the rhythm without messing it up; while a long feedback wash on a guitar chop might be allowed to wander all over the shop as it tails off, for a languid, dubby vibe.
Don’t be afraid to use real-time adjustment of delay time as a creative effect in its own right, either. Many tape delay plugins incorporate LFOs and other modulation sources with which to move it around, delivering weird pitching effects as the virtual tape speeds up and slows down.
Reversal of fortune
You’re no doubt familiar with the classic backwards reverb effect, where a vocal clip, say, is reversed and sent to a long, 100%-wet reverb, the tail of which is then recorded in isolation, reversed and placed back before the un-reversed vocal as a sort of riser leading into it. Well, for an alternative, more textural take on the technique, substitute the reverb for a high-feedback delay, tweaking the feedback amount (and, perhaps, filter cutoff and resonance) while recording it to shape the underlying ‘wash’. As with the reverb equivalent, you’ll likely need to cut and fade the end of the reversed delay signal (ie, the bit before the feedback builds up in the unreversed recording) prior to lining it up with the source clip to join the two cleanly, but the rhythmic, repeating nature of the effect yields a very different end result that can be especially effective during extended build-ups.
Share your tried-and-tested delay processing tricks in the comments.