The Life of a Pedal Whore- Delay Pedals
Out of all the pedal options out there, my all time favorite would be delay. I love delay in all of its forms. Long delay, slapback delay, reverb, digital, analog. It’s great. I have amassed a small collection of delay pedals at this point, and I have had the opportunity to test out a great deal of them outside of my collection.
A technical definition from Wikipedia would be:
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo. It is distinct from reverb, which provides "reflected" sound using a different technique.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_pedal
Basically, it copies whatever you play, and repeats it, like echoes, for as long as you tell it to. Some pedals allow infinite repeats, where as others fade out quickly. The amount of delay time provides the definition, where if the delay time is above 50 milliseconds, it is considered a delay or echo. If it is under 50ms, it is then defined as reverb.
Think of it like this:
Delay: Yelling your name into a canyon, and hearing it echo.
Reverb: Clapping in a school gym, and hearing it of fade out.
Currently, there are basically only two types of delays available to you: Analog and digital. They each have a unique sound, and specific applications.
Analog delay pedals are highly sought after, and command a high price, new and used. They generally are only capable of delay times of 50ms to 550ms. This is due to the type of chip required to make an analog sound (BBD chip). Moog has been the only company to get an actual analog delay over one full second. You can tell the tone of an analog pedal by the thick chewy ‘old’ sound of the repeats. They are very lo-fi, and the sound of each repeat generally gets muddier and muddier. Despite the written description, this sounds WONDERFUL. Newer non-analog pedals try to emulate the sound, but only pedals with analog bbd chips are capable of producing the thick beautiful sound of analog delay.
As great as an analog delay pedal sounds, it is not always right for the job. Sometimes you want a delay where the repeats are pristine, and 100% exact replicas of the initial sound. No tonal degradation. That’s where digital delays come into play. The use of new technology allows this, as well as providing almost infinite delay times, on top of infinite repeats.
Technology has really opened up a lot of options for delay pedals. The following is a list of a few features I have come to know and love.
Tap Tempo: Allows you to tap your foot to the beat of the song, setting the delay time to whatever you tapped. It allows you to really lock in with the drummer/band.
Modulated delay: Not really a new thing, but these are delays where the repeats have some form of modulation (usually chorus or vibrato) dedicated only to the repeats of delay. Frequented by U2 and Pink Floyd.
Dotted 1/8: Where the Streets Have No Name delay. This is where the delay time is actually a dotted 1/8th note per beat, instead of a full on quarter note.
Infinite Repeat: The early stages of ‘looping’ infinite repeats are delays that repeat forever. Just copies of your riff or passage that continue, until you turn it off. A cool practice or live tool to give the impression of two guitars.
FX Loop: This allows you to plug in a pedal INTO the actual delay. It’s kinda like a modulated delay, but you get to pick the pedal that creates ‘modulation’. It provides a seemingly endless amount of possibilities.
Expression Pedal: Some delay pedals allow you to control the delay time, mix of delay, or repeats with a wah style pedal. This way you can control that parameter without having to dial the actual knobs of the pedal.
A great new advantage of technology is modeling. Basically, we are now able to take a sound of a rare vintage pedal, and make a digital copy of it, and stick it in a cheap, highly available pedal. It is an invaluable tool. Line 6, Boss, Digitech, and Beheringer have all issued modeling pedals, although Line6 and Boss seem to be the best out there. I am personally a big fan of the Line6 DL4 delay modeler which has 16 different delay sounds. You may ask yourself, why the hell would you need 16 different types of delay, but when you have them at your fingertips, you find that you won’t be able to live without them!
A technical definition from Wikipedia would be:
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo. It is distinct from reverb, which provides "reflected" sound using a different technique.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_pedal
Basically, it copies whatever you play, and repeats it, like echoes, for as long as you tell it to. Some pedals allow infinite repeats, where as others fade out quickly. The amount of delay time provides the definition, where if the delay time is above 50 milliseconds, it is considered a delay or echo. If it is under 50ms, it is then defined as reverb.
Think of it like this:
Delay: Yelling your name into a canyon, and hearing it echo.
Reverb: Clapping in a school gym, and hearing it of fade out.
Currently, there are basically only two types of delays available to you: Analog and digital. They each have a unique sound, and specific applications.
Analog delay pedals are highly sought after, and command a high price, new and used. They generally are only capable of delay times of 50ms to 550ms. This is due to the type of chip required to make an analog sound (BBD chip). Moog has been the only company to get an actual analog delay over one full second. You can tell the tone of an analog pedal by the thick chewy ‘old’ sound of the repeats. They are very lo-fi, and the sound of each repeat generally gets muddier and muddier. Despite the written description, this sounds WONDERFUL. Newer non-analog pedals try to emulate the sound, but only pedals with analog bbd chips are capable of producing the thick beautiful sound of analog delay.
As great as an analog delay pedal sounds, it is not always right for the job. Sometimes you want a delay where the repeats are pristine, and 100% exact replicas of the initial sound. No tonal degradation. That’s where digital delays come into play. The use of new technology allows this, as well as providing almost infinite delay times, on top of infinite repeats.
Technology has really opened up a lot of options for delay pedals. The following is a list of a few features I have come to know and love.
Tap Tempo: Allows you to tap your foot to the beat of the song, setting the delay time to whatever you tapped. It allows you to really lock in with the drummer/band.
Modulated delay: Not really a new thing, but these are delays where the repeats have some form of modulation (usually chorus or vibrato) dedicated only to the repeats of delay. Frequented by U2 and Pink Floyd.
Dotted 1/8: Where the Streets Have No Name delay. This is where the delay time is actually a dotted 1/8th note per beat, instead of a full on quarter note.
Infinite Repeat: The early stages of ‘looping’ infinite repeats are delays that repeat forever. Just copies of your riff or passage that continue, until you turn it off. A cool practice or live tool to give the impression of two guitars.
FX Loop: This allows you to plug in a pedal INTO the actual delay. It’s kinda like a modulated delay, but you get to pick the pedal that creates ‘modulation’. It provides a seemingly endless amount of possibilities.
Expression Pedal: Some delay pedals allow you to control the delay time, mix of delay, or repeats with a wah style pedal. This way you can control that parameter without having to dial the actual knobs of the pedal.
A great new advantage of technology is modeling. Basically, we are now able to take a sound of a rare vintage pedal, and make a digital copy of it, and stick it in a cheap, highly available pedal. It is an invaluable tool. Line 6, Boss, Digitech, and Beheringer have all issued modeling pedals, although Line6 and Boss seem to be the best out there. I am personally a big fan of the Line6 DL4 delay modeler which has 16 different delay sounds. You may ask yourself, why the hell would you need 16 different types of delay, but when you have them at your fingertips, you find that you won’t be able to live without them!
