Is delay the best effect?! Short answer is YES! Yes it is!
It’s an echo or copy.
Besides the fun and musical sounds it can make, delay is a great tool you can use to improve your musicianship!
It gives you instant feedback on what you just played. A clean digital delay will highlight nuances of your pick attack, your release of notes(when you mute), general dynamics, and timing. You will likely adjust your playing dynamic due to what you hear.
It’s an inspiring practice tool.
Guitarists often struggle playing slow and listening to the harmonic value of notes.
Slap a ¼ note delay on and you’ll instantly be content playing tied whole notes(8 beats). A good exercise for listening skills and timing. When you have that much space to work with, you begin to internally hear or project what note can come next without being in a rush.
If you want to play fast arpeggios, but are struggling to reach high speeds; make the delay a *dotted* 1/8 pattern and 1/8th notes become 1/16th notes. Playing an 1/8th note repeating pattern, the repeats will continue to fall in between the notes you pick(think Where The Streets Have No Names, or Another Brick In the Wall)
Delay is an input based metronome. Practicing with dot 1/8th will instantly tell you if you are rushing or dragging. It can help you fine tune your ability to play in the pocket and execute Staccato & Legato phrasing.
Try some basic triad arpeggio patterns
||: R 3 5 3:|| ||: 3 5 R 5:|| ||: 5 R 3 R:|| etc.
Basic starting settings for repeat(feedback) & delay time. [Mix or level to taste]:
- A minimal repeat & minimal delay time gives a slap back sound(like the echo slapping off the wall in a room). This is nice for creating dimension and subtle fatness to your dry signal.
- A minimal repeat & long delay time can be really good for highlighting a specific musical phrase.
- A long repeat & long delay time can be good for building a pad of sound underneath other musical events. These are good for ambience, volume swells and whale type sounds.
- A long repeat & minimal delay time can give you more of a spring reverb type sound; or a cool glitchy grab and hold type of effect.
Being able to quickly dial these settings gives you power to shape the guitar into another instrument.
Delay can shift the space and movement of an entire track.
It’s commonly used on most instruments, not just guitar. I love using tape delay on the snare drum in a DAW to create ghost notes. It can be a boost, modulation, saturator, reverb, filter, metronome, looper, stereo imager.
There are tons of delay units on the market. Any brand delay will do the functions discussed here, and you will get a lot of use out of a cheap 3 knob delay if your budget is tight.
If you want more specific flavors and functionality, the sky is the limit.
Go to a local guitar shop and you may find something you wouldn’t find online.
Basic Types:
Digital delay will give you clean copies of your notes
Analog delays give a different subtle flavor to the repeats vs digital
Tape delay will give you gritty and warbly options. The notes thin out more(often desired) and can give wild oscillation effects
Tap tempo, MIDI functionality, Saturation, Modulation, Looping are some advanced functionalities you may want, if you use a lot of delay.
The history and evolution of delay units is a deep subject. Ask questions at your local guitar shop, or feel free to come by our studio M-Th and we can chat.
If you want to be able to get hands-on with delays and other effects/amps, we have a Tone Talks summer camp June 26-29. This is a clinic where we explore parameters of technique, guitars, amps, and effects! Access more details and register at the link: https://namsfrisco.pike13.com/courses/286413
We also offer private lessons, and can explore these concepts one on one.
Voice, Piano, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Synth, Ukulele, Violin, Songwriting, Band, Audio Production & Recording, Nuendo, Cubase, Logic Pro X, Reason, Pro Tools, Abelton, Video Production & Editing lessons available!
Happy music making!
Cody