How to Use The Delay Pedal In Different Ways

When it comes to choosing the best guitar delay pedal, most people will think about popular brand names such as ; The Chase Bliss audio tuner recall,  Strymon Timeline, The Eventide H9 Harmonizer, The Walrus Audio Bellwether, and Digitech Obscura Altered Delay. The truth is that a delay pedal is just more than a brand name, but to choose the pedal needed most by your music, therefore you must not fall for the hype behind some brands. Here is a mini guide on how to get the best from your Guitar delay pedal;

The delay pedal controls

There are basically three controls in any Delay Pedal unit;

• Time,
• Feedback and,
• The Level.

The time control will determine the length of time between any two repetitions of your guitar signal. Many delay pedals do not have readouts for delay time, therefore you may not be able to measure it in milli-seconds. You just need to adjust the time knob to set the time. Boss DD-7 is one guitar delay pedal that automatically helps you adjust time setting within the chosen range.

The feedback simply determines the amount of repetitions. The minimum setting for most feedbacks is a single repetition of the original or first signal. Turning up the feedbacks, means you will get more repeats. You may get some delay units that have infinite repeats, especially when the control has been turned to the maximum.

The level is the component that controls the volume of the repeats on your delay pedal. No repeat is produced when you turn the level to the minimum, and when set at the maximum, then the repeat should be as loud as the original sound.

The placement of the signal chain

If you are planning to use your delay pedal in conjunction with some other devices, then you must make a plan on where exactly the effects will be located in the chain. This step is critical when you plan to use a distortion or over-drive pedal. A good suggestion is that you must place the dirt before delay- this step means you will delay the distorted signal, which may sound in-distinct if you don’t use this advice.

Take note of the fact that a distortion pedal will create the most impact on your guitar’s main tone, and most times it is placed first in the signal chain and a delay pedal is usually located towards the end of the chain, thus it can reproduce the effects that has been added to the sound of your guitar. You may have to experiment with different arrangement and see what works best.

 The doubling and modulation effect in delay pedal

Doubling refers to the use of some subtle delay tactics that results in the thickening of the sound being generated. You need to set the time of your delay pedal at between 50mm/s and 100 mm/s. You need to set 1 or 2 minimum for the Feedback, and increase the level up. Repeats do happen quickly, therefore you can easily create an illusion of a second guitar playing with you. To create a flanging or Pseudo-chorus sound, you can reduce the delay time from 50-100 mm/s to between 20 and 50 mm/s.

How to match Tempos with Delay Pedal 

Most of the Delay Pedals in the market today do not have delay time readings on their control knobs, and this could be a problem when you are playing your guitar to a fixed beat source. It is very important that you dial in a precise delay time, which will match the tempo of the band you are playing with, if you don’t, your repeats will counter the underlying beats. If the music you are playing is delay based, you can consider delay pedals such as Providence DLY-4 Chrono Delay because it includes an LED readout feature of the delay time.

If you are still unsure how this works, here is a clue; if your delay settings do not create a tap-tempo functionality, then you need to calculate the delay time based on the readings you get from the LED of the Delay Pedal.

The Dotted-Eighth Rhythmic Repeats

Eddy Van Halen , and David Gilmour are two guitarists who have used the Dotted Eighth Rhythmic repeats in several occasions. They used this trick to create an illusion that they were playing different notes at the same time. They also made it seem they were faster on the guitar than they really are. In order to perform this trick, simply set your Delay pedal repeat everything you have played immediately you have played the original note. Just after the delay of the initial entrance, and on the last 16^th of the first beat, the repeat you created will fill in the 2^nd and 4^th sixteenth notes, of the successive beats. You need to continue to play the eighth note.

In order to make the sound as natural as possible, you need to set the level of the delay pedal to the max so that it can match the volume of the original signal you created. Try as much as possible to keep your notes short and precise.

Using Delay as Harmonizer

Playing the harmony parts of twin guitar can be achieved using the Delay to create same effect. This effect is most suitable when parts that have been pre-compost are used, rather than those that were improvised. In this case, you may not be able to start the different parts simultaneously, therefore try and make use of a volume pedal in muting the opening line, then increase the volume when the harmony start. Alternatively, you can start a line, and then use a staggered entrance of the harmony line. Many songs, including the intro song in “The trooper” by Iron Maidens is an example of a staggered entrance harmony creation.

You can also create different tricks or effects with your Delay Pedal, these include; Counterpoint melodies, and Looping. It all depends on how you can use the basic tools- Time, Level, and Feedback.

Click here to get information about Tips to Choose a Best Analog Delay Pedal