Delay and Echo Explained by Natalie Valance

One of the aboriginal furnishings to be acclimated in music recording was delay, or echo. One acumen for this is that it was an simple aftereffect to actualize on analog band machines. Later, appropriate tape-based delays were congenital accurately for the job. Adjournment is still a allotment of the a lot of frequently acclimated furnishings in avant-garde recordings. If you're accomplishing audio assembly you should be able-bodied abreast in application the altered types of adjournment effects.
I breach adjournment furnishings down into two above categories: answer furnishings and acceleration effects. Echoes are generally acclimated to accommodate "space" in a recording. An apparatus with just the appropriate bulk of answer on it sounds like it's added abroad from the adviser and tends to alloy in with accomplishments sounds. Answer can aswell be acclimated as a appropriate effect: We've all heard a assertive agenda or access answer several times while crumbling into the background. Doubling, on the added hand, while sometimes acclimated to actualize a assertive affectionate of space, is added generally acclimated to thicken a complete or to achieve it richer. The abstraction is to about the complete of two instruments arena the one access together.
Echo Furnishings Try putting a simple answer aftereffect on a articulate or advance guitar. If you accept a adjournment time that rhythmically makes faculty with the allotment (it's even bigger if you can accompany the adjournment time to the bounce application MIDI) and are accurate with the mix, you can actualize a actual nice spatial aftereffect after the abeyant muddiness of reverb. Generally delays amid 100 and 300ms plan well, admitting sometimes a best answer can be nice. The added legato the part, the bigger best adjournment times will acceptable sound. Try putting the capital apparatus in one approach while its adjournment is panned to the added side. Apply reverb to the adjournment for a apparitional affectionate of echo.
You can aswell try abacus about-face to the adjournment so you get assorted echoes. Be careful, though. It's simple to get agitated abroad and ataxia the mix. Some adjournment units acquiesce top frequencies to be formed off on repeats. This creates echoes that get progressively darker sounding, accurate to the way old analog- and tape-based delays sounded. Another absorbing aftereffect is a ping-pong delay, area the repeating echoes alternating amid the larboard and appropriate channels as they decay. Use this sparingly, though.
Taking the "ping-pong" abstraction to its analytic cessation are multi-tap delays. A multi-tap adjournment can actualize a bouncing and/or rhythmically absorbing alternation of audio contest from a individual source. Generally multi-tap delays are acclimated as a appropriate effect, but if anxiously activated they can be acclimated to actualize a ablaze ambient that about sounds like reverb, yet allows added amplitude for added instruments to sit in the mix. They're aswell nice for full-on crazy, aces effects.
Slapback delays were actual accepted in 1950's pop-music assembly (probably because of their change at the time), but they can still be acclimated finer if you are searching for a arresting effect. Admitting a slapback can tend to adjure images of Wolfman Jack and Happy Days, the aftereffect stands on its own, creating a actual specific blazon of astriction and affection that's sometimes just the appropriate blow in a recording.
Doubling Furnishings In the area of acceleration there are even added absorbing means to use delays. Simply putting a 30ms adjournment on a articulate or guitar part, while absolutely effective, is just the beginning. Ever capital to achieve that address guitar clue into a stereo clue after accepting it complete chorused? Try animadversion the dry guitar to one ancillary and active it into a abbreviate adjournment (20ms). Pan the delayed arresting the added way, mix them at the aforementioned akin and you accept stereo guitar. If you anxiously accept the adjournment time, you can actualize a actual spacious-sounding guitar after it aural "effected." Or accept a best adjournment and go for a added accomplished sound. Both are accurate depending aloft the circumstances.
You can use a abnormality alleged the Haas aftereffect to rebalance an absolute stereo arresting after in fact blurred the akin in either channel. Here's an example: Run just the larboard approach of a stereo arresting through a adjournment set to amid three and 20ms. Pan the appropriate approach and the delayed larboard approach in adverse admonition and apprehension how the stereo angel accouterment in the administration of the appropriate channel.
Another abode this works abundant is if you accept a allotment that's by itself in the mix, such as during a song intro. Put on headphones and pan the abandoned allotment to one side. The abridgement of annihilation in the added approach sounds actual unnatural. Even if panned to 12 o'clock, the address arresting is just apparent boring. Try abacus a few milliseconds of adjournment to the apparatus and animadversion the wet and dry signals adverse anniversary other. You'll get a nice, advanced stereo arresting that sounds panned against the dry side, after aural processed.
Drums Adjournment times amid 5 and 30ms can absolutely thicken a boom complete and achieve it complete added ambient. This works abundant in affiliation with a little reverb. Toms can get absolutely huge. Go advanced and try best adjournment times, too. You'll be afraid at how air-conditioned a actual slight bulk of 100ms adjournment can complete on a allurement drum. Agreement with your settings; the bounce and complication of the boom allotment will play a big allotment in how you set the ambit of your delay.
My aboriginal agenda adjournment amount me $1,850. The alone aftereffect it could do was delay, and it was not programmable. Today adjournment is generally taken for granted. But yield some time to alarm up a few adjournment patches and experiment. You may be afraid at what you can achieve with this simple effect.
One final chat of warning: Be accurate to analysis your mixes in address if you're arena with abbreviate adjournment times. It's actual simple to body an aftereffect that sounds abundant in stereo, but that creates tonal anomalies if the larboard and appropriate channels are summed together.