Lead Delay Settings

[jab]

I see this has been asked before, but I haven't seen many specific answers. Using a basic Boss digital delay, what delay time (~miliseconds), feedback (repeats), and effect level (mix) settings do you use for an overall good solo sound? I'm not a shredder, just a decent lead player that wants to fill out the solos.

 

[eltrain858]

i often default to 375+/-15ms with ~2 rounds of feedback and a fairly low effect mix.. higher mixes sound really cool by yourself but i find when i play with a band i start to lose the definition of my sound if the mix is too high..

i figured out a trick on my own that i'm sure is obvious to most people, but delay can be timed to the tempo of what you're playing (can be quarter note, eighth note, etc), and without a tap tempo there's still a pretty easy way to calculate the delay time you need.

beats per minute = beats per 60 seconds

to get seconds per beat, just divide 60 by the tempo in bpm

for a 120bpm tempo, 60/120=500ms

multiples of that (like 250ms or 1000ms) will give you different effects

my$.02

 

[Spherion]

I was just going to ask this myself--or at least as far as the mix level.

They say that overdoing delay and reverbs are a sure sign of an amateur engineer/guitarist/etc. But dammit, I like the sound of delays and I think it adds a 3rd dimension (air) while you're playing. I've reluctantly kept my FX loop delay and/or reverb mix to around 25% and have always been paranoid that THAT was probably too much to other people that haven't gotten tone deaf to it as I have.

For those that do use delay, I'm curious as to what other people set their delay mix level to? 'Same for reverb? I have about 1 second of reflections/feedback in my reverbs and mix it pretty low to be subtle, but yeah, it's a hall reverb and it's left on all the time. Is that bad?

Personally, I don't really dig doing tap tempos to get the delay every time I'm playing a different song and opt more for about 3/4 of a second with about 2 repeats for a comfortable "across the board" lead delay. For recordings I'd definitely agree that it'd be worth the effort to match tempo.

Despite feeling paranoid about having too much delay mix, it seems like a lot of guitarists in instructional videos have their delay up to be a lot more obvious than mine at 25%. Most of them sound like they're at around 35 - 45%. Perhaps that's because they're playing by themselves, or maybe a lot of guitarists DO mix it that wet. Hmm...

For the record, my TC Electronic M2000 processor has most of the mix levels at around 10% by default. Perhaps the experts at TC are trying to tell us something.

 

[ToneAddictJon]

I tend to keep my delay mix as low as possible, that way it's only really "heard" inbetween notes, but still adds body while playing. I have mine set around 400ms and 2-4 repeats. Lots of guitarist use lots of delay to cover up slop, or to make themselves sound faster (dragonforce, michael romeo). There is a place for lots of delay, but it really is a matter of using it tastefully IMO. Think of effects like dessert, it's not the main course, it's just there to add a little flavor after the fact, and if you make a meal of it, you'll make yourself sick (or at least your ears :wink: )

 

[Pinweaver]

On my dd3 in the loop I use a long delay with every setting at about 10h.

 

[inmyhands]

I like to use a DL4 with a parameter control pedal, (like a volume sweep pedal). You can set all the effect parameters with the pedal in the up position and then reset all the parameters with the pedal in the down position.

For example, I might set one of the 3 presets for a specific analog delay type at 300 ms with one repeat with very low volume to the repeats with the pedal in the up position and 4 repeats at equal volume between the primary and repeated note with the pedal in the down position. This way I can control the volume of the repeats during the performance and have the number of repeats increase as the volume is sweep up at, say, the end of a passage or piece.

Another preset might be set up so the sweep pedal only effects the time/ms of the repeats. Pedal sweeps from 200ms up to 400ms down. This is useful in songs that have slower and faster passages.

The third / last preset might be setup so the sweep pedal only controls the number of repeats. Sweep from 1 repeat to infinite repeats.

I've got other delay pedals that sound better overall. The Replex is my very favorite. But, none of the others offers the control "on the fly" like the DL4.

 

[Spherion]

I tend to keep my delay mix as low as possible, that way it's only really "heard" inbetween notes, but still adds body while playing

I think I'm gonna adopt that philosophy.

 

[Turumbar82]

I agree that the mix needs kept down. I'm also keeping my delay around 400ms with not many repeats and the mix low. I think it's okay to turn up the mix if you are playing a slow solo and you want to hear the delays but if you are playing something faster it sounds bad to me.

I disagree with people when they say delay hides sloppy playing. What happens when you use a delay? You hear the note you played multiple times right? So if you hit a bad note you will hear that bad note multiple times right? So wouldn't that make it that you have to play more precise in case you hit something wrong and have to hear that bad note echoing over and over again?

I guess maybe it just makes a player sound faster because for every note he plays you hear more notes.

 

[Strategy500]

On my MPX-1, I like to use a stereo delay with the left set at about 315ms and the right set at 425ms. This setting seems to work pretty good for me for just about everything. I will usually keep the mix at about 60%-75% wet with about enough delay to fade out completely after the third delay.

 

[highwaynine]

I see I'm kind of an oddball, here... :|

I agree that for leads it's good to keep the mix down, but I rarely have it below 50%. That's with only three "bounces" audible in a dead-quiet room. I never play very many notes very quickly, so this set-up does more to reinforce my sustain, and then fades away as I'm moving to the next note.

I also like to use delay (at almost 100%) during songs when I would otherwise be doing some busy picking. I love tap tempo - set the tempo, and play half as much as I would have to without the delay. Works nice with a gentle modulation.

YMMV :wink:

 

[inmyhands]

highwaynine,
I'm a little confused. With the mix control at 50% the volume level between the picked note and the "added" notes are equal. At 75% the delayed notes would be much louder than the original picked note and at 100 percent on the mix the picked note would be absent and only the trails would be heard.

I love delay/echo with beautiful slow passages, (like Pink Floyd), but, when playing something really fast with a lot of notes I set the delay for only one or at the most two repeats at a mix level where the delayed notes are truely in the backround and the fast picked notes are clearly front and center.

Rick

 

[highwaynine]

InmyHands,

Sorry about that...I either just got mixed up, calling 50% 100%, or that's how my GT-6 labels it.

Either way, yes, you're right about what it takes for faster playing. I just don't play that fast, so even with higher-gain lead sounds, my delay is louder, to give the illusion of sustain.

 

[MusicManJP6]

delay is my favorite effect and it sounds best on a good liquid solo...

 

[HamerFan]

I like 300ms with one strong repeat and a second barely audible one. For solos with less notes (Gilmourish) you can have louder delay settings. For quicker passages, lower mix is better, along with shorter delay times. I like a little delay on my clean sounds as well - probably 200ms with only one repeat, low mix.

 

[MusicManJP6]

I like 300ms with one strong repeat and a second barely audible one. For solos with less notes (Gilmourish) you can have louder delay settings. For quicker passages, lower mix is better, along with shorter delay times. I like a little delay on my clean sounds as well - probably 200ms with only one repeat, low mix.

Sounds about right to me. We have much in common it seems...

 

[ToneAddictJon]

I've been trying to nail some eric johnson tones lately, and in doing so I found new delay settings that work for everything (for me anyway) and that's just a 250ms stereo ping pong delay that last about 2-3 repeats on each side.