i'm a delay noob. help me

dudelove

dudelove

Well-known member
okay i have to admit i dont like using delay. but i realise i have to start learning how to use the delay.

firstly, i plan to get an analog delay, either the ibanez ad9 or mxr carbon copy if i have the money.

my first delay was the visual sound h2o. however i didnt dig the chorus and it had footswitch problems so i sold it away. now i have a boss PS-3 that has a 2sec digital delay.

well for me no matter how i tweak i cant get a desirable sound. i dont think its the pedal for sure. because i just went to blackwood today and tested the t-rex replica delay and damn it sounded good but somehow i couldnt get what i wanted. it just shows i dont know how to use one.

i want something like eric johnsons song "manhattan". could anyone give me advice on what i should be doing?

thanks guys.
 
What kind of sound do you want from your delay?
What kind of setting will you intend to use? Slapback?

If you want slightly dirty, warbly repeats (analog sounding), give the Carbon Copy, EM-5 Echo Machine or so I've heard, Skreddy Echo, a try..
If you want clean sounding delays, that does not sound too perfect, I highly recommend DOD delaysssss! :mrgreen:
 
If you want an all in one solution.. Get a Nova Delay or DL4 or DD20 or Eventide timefactor.
 
j_m_s: hey i'm actually interested in that you know. but that is way over my price range unfortunately. and yeah the nova delay colours a lil bit of ur tone.

and damn ej's tape echo. i'm kinda wondering what kinda settings i should be using for particular songs.

i mean stuff like the mix between dry and wet. how long delay time i should use. how many repeats.
 
i would like to mention i dont really need suggestions abt which delay to get. cos in the first place, i dont have cash and i have to stick with the ps-3's digital delay for now.

Godspeed: i'm not really looking for slapback. and i'm a delay idiot so i dont really know the terms. have u heard ej's manhattan? something like that. it makes ur guitar sound fuller and more.. crap i'm lost for words
 
i think i have a rough idea of what type of delay you want

the ps-3 has quite a decent delay. similar to the dd-3s

care to share your settings currently?

im watching the ej video now, seems like the delay time is below 330ms, you should try that setting on your ps-3 and tweak around

try setting your mix at 12 oclock and tweak your feedback to around 3 repeats
 
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mode 2. which is 125ms - 500ms. delay time abt 12:30. repeats abt 10 o clock and mix at 9.

it doesnt decay very nicely. too digital for my liking but it has to do for the moment.
 
oh yeah i understand your pain.

i had a rv-3 for awhile for it but was too crispy.

got a boss dm-3 instead. loving it
 
the delay in mahattan is actually quite mimimal with short repeats and mix less than half(in relative to the dry signal)

any delay shud be able to get similar setting, as long as theres a mix knob. For the ps3, its the balance knob. The delay time/rate most prolly in several hundred millisecond for mahatten(between 300ms to 600ms at most, if i didnt hear wrongly). The 2second delay on the ps 3 is actually quite long, by delay pedal standard. 2second=2000ms, within that space, i is can do lotsa things on geetar liao..
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to play with delay, the first thing that we need to do, is to "listen" and not play notes after notes after notes

Listen to

1) How the delay repeats ring out, be it using any gain pedal or clean geetar sound
2) How the time/rate affect the repeats, in relative to what we are playing.
3) How your playing notes "react" with the repeating notes

Think of a delay as a living organism. It react to what we feed into the pedal and it give us what we hear. Put in too many notes, it will return to us a wall of confusing notes mixed with our playing notes. Heh, unless chaos is the game, if not, let the delay breath while we play.

For some, the setting on mix/balance is lower, so that the repeats wont sound out too clearly and just provide a slight thickening effect to adding a slight different "dimension/colours" to the geetar sound(to some, its reverb).

Note in manhattan, the delay setting is set such that the repeats doesnt sound so upfront and only at certain part where theres a break, you can hear the repeats rings out.

If you wanna those kinda, play with the balance knob with short delay repeats and delay

forget bout getting the same characteristic of the delay sound in mahattan, imho(heh, which can go into analog/digital, high pass mod on digital delay for the repeats, modulated delay and lots of other more. It will be piaking boring) concentrate on getting the timing and mix setting right first and the feel of that track. That track is a wonderful piece to play. It need more of playing control and groove at the same time. The delay, imho, is secondary.
 
thanks bro, that helped alot. manhattan is one heck of a beautiful song. really tests how cleanly one plays. i'm still having problems with that.

hey but i didnt get what u meant by "How your playing notes "react" with the repeating notes"
 
the reacting part, refer to any u2 songs with delay. The correct term is dotted eight btw. The playing on the geetar is actually quite minimal, but because of the way/rhythmic patterns the edge is playing on the geetar, the delay repeats is actually "riding/reacting" on whatever is being played on the guitar, combined and end result is what we hear. As if the notes/chords are chasing after one another or like 2/3 other geetars playing together in different speed, one after another in same timing.

heh, i try to do it simple. First you play a note, then you hear the repeat(according to the delay rate/timing you set on pedal). Between the notes you play on geetar and the delay repeat sounding out, the space in between, is the delay rate/timing you have set earlier

within this space(between the note played on geetar and delay repeats heard thru amp) if you decide to play more/play less on the geetar, it will change the subsequent delay repeat pattern and overall the mood in the sound will change. So the reacting part just this.

oh, forget to add in earlier. Keep the repeat at mimimum for a start as well. Too many of it and with mix set too much, its going to throw your playing off when trying to keep in time with the music.
 
manhattan is a beautiful song.
damn my O's. if not i'll have so much more time.
if anyone happens to have a good setting for delay or distortion, posttt and shareee. :mrgreen:
 
Digital delays are good at reproducing the exact same sound which is what you don't want. It's good to have mild wet delays that actually fulfils the role of an extra long reverb. What you can do if you have budget problems is to get an Ibenez DE7 which has the option of making delays wetter in Echo mode, or get the Artec Analog Delay which is both around $100.
 
does the mxr carbon copy retail for 199 at davis? i'm considering the artec 4 knob one.

anyone used it before? i tested it out at blackwood ystd. i do not know whether it sounds good or not.
 
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