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Delaying tacticsWhy limit your delay plug-ins to just echo duties? With alittle creativity you can use them for so much more…

 Delay is a studio effect that often

gets taken for granted, but its

uses can extend far beyond the

obvious and there are loads of great

sounds to be had from it if you’re

prepared to get a little creative.

 There are lots of delay plug-ins

available; at least one will be included

 with your sequencer and there are

plenty going for free. But just to make

sure, we’ve supplied you with the very 

capable Big Tick Dual Delay on the DVD.

In the days of purely analogue

 technology, patching in an effects unit

meant using the auxiliary sends on your 

desk to feed a signal to it and then

returning the processed signal back to

 the desk on another channel. Everyone

 thought this way, so imaginative routing

 was par for the course.

 With today’s sequencers offering the

incredible flexibility that they do, many 

producers now eschew send/return

bussing in favour of the many insert

points available in their software mixers.

Doing away with the requirement of a

return channel to bring an effect return

back into the mix is great for ease of 

use, but certainly doesn’t inspire us to

go wild with routing possibilities. With

 that in mind, we’re going to show you

how to use your return channels to

open the door to a world of new – or 

revisited – possibilities, made possible

 with the combination of EQ and delay.

 We’re also going to show you how to

get a quality reverb effect using delay –

good news if you’re maxing out your 

processor with CPU-hungry reverb plugs.

 Then we’ll show you how to whack a

 filter onto a delay channel and do

exciting things with the delayed sound

 without affecting the original. And finally,

 we’ll offer some advice on how to

automate delay plug-ins to shape their 

sound. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s

even a history lesson on early tape-

delay units. Let’s do this… cm

On the DVDTUTORIAL FILES The Big Tick Dual Delay plug-in used in this tutorial canbe found on this month'sDVD-ROM, along with aselection of audio examples

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3 The next thing we need to do is insert an effect into the

FX Channel. We’re using the tasty Big Tick Dual Delay,

 which can be found on the DVD, but any delay plug-in

 will do. Click on one of the insert slots for the FX Channel and

select the plug-in. >>

2In the first Send slot of the mixer channel select FX 1.

 This will route a copy of the audio to the FX Channel,

into which we can load plug-ins. What this means is

 that you can make changes to the sound of the effected

audio in parallel to the uneffected audio. >>

1Boot up your sequencer – we’re using Cubase SX3 –

and set the tempo to 100bpm. Create an audio channel

and import the audio track Delay Tutorial Drums from

 the DVD. Set the cycle markers either side of the part and

enable cycle playback. Now create a stereo FX channel,

Project»Add Track»FX Channel. >>

STEP BY STEP EQ'd delay

6OK, now it’s time to get busy with the FX Channel.Return the FX channel fader to 0dB, then display the

 VST FX Channel Settings by clicking on the e button to

 the left of the fader on the FX channel strip. >>5

Display the mixer (Devices»Mixer ), and hit play. While the audio is playing back, drop the FX channel fader 

right down. Now no delay can be heard, only the dry 

signal. Bring up the FX channel fader slowly and you’ll

gradually hear more delay. This is the ‘conventional’ way in

 which effects like delay and reverb are usually used. >>

4Start playback. You should hear the dry and delayeddrums playing back together, but it’ll sound a bit of a

mess. To tidy things up, change the settings to those

displayed above. We’ve activated tempo sync by clicking on

 the green LED at the top right of the interface. >>

9

Finally, copy the settings above. We’ve applied a high-

pass filter to get rid of any delay that would affect thekick drum; a low-pass filter makes sure no cymbal

 frequencies get through; and a hefty peak in the mids gives a

nice resonant sound to the snare. Hit play, have a listen, and

 then get experimenting!

8

Now let’s try the same thing at the other end of the

scale and have a crack at the kick drum instead.Switch off your high-pass filter and, using a different EQ

band, create a low-pass filter. Sweep this down the frequency 

spectrum until the frequency value reads around 185Hz. Have

a listen and revel in the glory of your success. >>

7

Create a high-pass filter and sweep it up the frequency 

spectrum so that the frequency value reads about4500Hz. Hit play and listen to the effect. Only the

cymbals are being affected by the delay! Well, this isn’t strictly 

 true – we’re actually filtering out the rest of the spectrum,

allowing only the cymbal frequencies to pass. >>

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3Set the Dry control to 69% and the Wet control to 9%.

 The tempo defaults to 120bpm and you can leave it

 where it is. Finally, make sure that sync is switched off.

Hit play and have a listen. It’s pretty effective and much less

processor intensive than a reverb plug-in.

2 To make a delay sound like a reverb you have to use it

 very subtly and with very small values. Set the controls

 for both the left and the right channels of the Big Tick 

Dual Delay as far to the right as they’ll go. Set the Cutoff and

Rez controls to dead-centre. >>

1Delay can be used to create a similar effect to reverb

but with the advantage of causing less muddiness in

 the mix. It’s easy to do and can add a whole new 

 flavour to your sound. Import a vocal recording onto an audio

 track. We’ve supplied one for you on the DVD. >>

STEP BY STEP Using delay as reverb

3Still using the FX channel, let’s try a gated delay. First import a

 fairly dynamic piece of audio – Gated delay on the DVD. The gate

is used to ensure the delay effect can only pass during loud

passages. Insert your gate – we’ve used Dynamics»Dynamics . >>

4 Turn the gate on. Set the Attack time to as fast as possible and

 the Release time to 100ms. We’ve set the Threshold to -4dB: if 

 the signal level exceeds -4dB, the gate will open and stay open

 for 100ms. Have a listen. You’ll only hear the delay on the louder notes.

1Now let’s make things a little more complex and bung a filter over 

 the delay return so that only the delayed sound gets filtered. We’re

going to use the very handy Ohmygod! plug (on the DVD). Install it

and call it up in the next available slot on the FX channel. >>

2Now set up the filter. We’ve used a high-pass filter shape and a

 touch of distortion. First, set the Resonance control half way up

and the Cutoff fully clockwise, then hit play. Turn the Cutoff anti-

clockwise and check out that swooshing delay. >>

STEP BY STEP Processed delay

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Long before digital delays were invented,creative audio engineers looped taperound their multitrack recorders tocreate a ‘slap-back’ delay effect, whichquickly progressed into a morecomplicated standalone design. Tapedelay machines comprise a loop of magnetic tape wound round several tape heads. The first headrecords the input signal, while the followingheads play it back. Thenumber of repeats isdictated by thenumber of playback heads, whereas the time between eachrepetition is altered by speeding up or slowing

down the tape. The two tape delay 

kings were the MaestroEchoplex and theRoland Space Echo,

 which could be found in most studios in the 70s. They certainly weren’t a one-decade-wonder though. Their sound was so full of character that they continue to be used today and softwaredevelopers are still creating plug-ins that emulate them.

Dub fans will instantly recognise the tape delay sound that’s integral to thatparticular genre, and Jimi Hendrix usually had a tape delay knockingaround in the studio and even on stage. The sound is grungy and ultimately decays to a noisy mess, but that’s why 

 they’re loved and revered.Steinberg's Karlette VST tapedelay emulator is available

 for free at www.steinberg.net, in theDownloads area.

 There are plenty of other tape delay plug-ins out there though,as a little time spentsearching the internet will reveal.

The fabulous tape delayJARGON BUSTER3BUS

Discrete channel to which one or more audio channels can be routedbefore going to the master output.For example; by routing all drumchannels to their own bus, you can then alter the overall level of thedrum mix within the main mix.

3 FEEDBACK

 The level at which a delay tap is fedback to the effect’s input. The higher  the feedback level, the longer thedelayed sound will repeat.

3TIME CONTROL

Controls the time between theoriginal signal and the first repeat. Allsubsequent repeats occur at thesame time interval. A high Timesetting will give longer intervalsbetween repeats, while lower settingshave the opposite effect.

3TEMPO SYNC This function restricts certain delay plug-ins' tap times to intervals thatadhere to the master tempo of thesequencer, making it easier to set updelay effects that work with therhythm and tempo of a track.

6Back in the arrange page, click on the automation track 

parameter box and go to More»Inserts»Ohmygod!»

Filt Freq. Draw in a ramp up from 0 at the start of the

audio to the top value at the end of the audio.

4Click in the FX channel to select Panner»Pan Left-

Right. We want the sound to travel from left to right

and back again. Draw in a suitable curve. This is more

effective if you use a mono tap delay, so set the left and right

controls on the delay plug to the same value. >>

3Have a listen. The delay becomes more prominent as

 the audio progresses. Now select Mute in the control

parameter box. Again using the pointer tool, draw in a

square wave shape like that shown above. This will mute and

unmute the delay in a staccato fashion. >>

2Using the pointer tool, drag the envelope line right down

 to the bottom. Now click on the envelope in line with

 the end of the audio to create a node. Drag the node up

in a straight line as far as it will go (determined by value

 you’ve set on the effect’s interface) to create a ramp. >>

1Let’s automate that effects return channel. First of all,

click on the small plus sign in the bottom left corner of 

 the FX track to display the automation track. Click in the

control parameter box to display the drop-down menu and

select Inserts:1:Big Tick Dual Delay»Wet.  >>

STEP BY STEP Automated delay madness

7 Totally retro! The dubtastic

sounds of the Space Echo

(shown here in its second

incarnation) are still much

loved today 

5Finally, we’ll create a band-pass sweep up the frequency 

spectrum using Omygod!. Select the band-pass filter 

shape from the four buttons in the bottom right-hand

corner of the interface. Make sure the Resonance setting is

about halfway up. >>

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