long/short delay question

[mojogil]

I've talked to several sound folks who have said that they set up both a short and long delay in their aux's. My question is "what exactly does that mean"? I assume it refers to how much tail or slap back the delay has and one still adjusts the tempo with a tap for each delay. How do you guys set up your delays?
Thanks.

[TomyN]

Hi,

I avoid to use different delays at the same time, and try to use it on one (vocal-) channel a time only.

I use feedback set to zero, and tap it according to the song's tempo.

For some styles of music like R&R I use it fixed on a very short time (20-40ms) as a 'slapback' effekt.

Tomy

[Peter O]

I usually have two delays set up for vocals.
The first have feedback set to about 10% and I use it for 'slap back' (110-120 ms) and 1/8 note delay (usually around 200 ms) which I sometimes use to replace (some of) the reverb.
The second delay I use for 'long delays' at 40% feedback and tap it to match the 1/4 or 1/2 note length of the song (500-1000 ms typically).

Best regards
Peter Olsen

[hclague]

What Peter O said

Hal

[dbarrow]

I will often use triplet delay times, as this often cuts across the beat in a more pleasing way. It is up to your taste, of course. Also, I will offset the left and right delays by a few milliseconds for a more 3D effect. I have suggested to Bob to add an offset to the native delay plugin, so you could tap in the time, but already have a specific offset, either in milliseconds or percent ready to go. Strangely enough, the Behringer X32 has this built in to its delay plugin. I had bought one of those for my other engineers to use and realized the offset thing was already in there after I had thought of it for SAC. I haven't seen any other delay effects that have that built in to where you don't have to manually enter a L/R offset.

I also use very short Haas Effect delays as a channel plugin on guitars and keyboards to get them out of the middle of a stereo mix, setting one side to zero delay and the other side to something like 16 milliseconds or so and turning the source volume down to taste. By doing this kind of thing and using other imaging plugins like the Waves S-1, I can get some pretty dramatic three dimensional mixes where the backing instruments are out of the way of the vocal, kick, snare and bass in the center. In many cases I like this better for live mixes than hard panning instruments to one side or another. This way a listener on one side still hears everything, but in the middle it sounds very 3D and thick, allowing the vocal, kick, etc. to punch through. You could do this with backing vocals, as well.

[mojogil]

Thanks for the feedback

[Andy Hamm]

I usually have a long and a short ddl as well. On my short delay though, I insert a compressor with the vocal in the side chain. What this does is duck the short delay when the vocalist is actually singing, as some short delays tend to get a little messy and this keeps the clarity up, but you still get the tail end effect that doesn't muck things up.

[hkmorgan87]

I generally have two delays set up. A short one setup with a very short time and varying feedback that I use mostly as a reverb. And a longer one that I use as an actual delay. The times and feedback change song to song on the long delay.