

You’ve arrived at digital delay-sounds like the end of the line right? Analog styles work great for gritty distorted vocals or dirty percussion sounds. Use analog delay wherever you need a stylish lo-fi delay with lots of character. With presets for specific classic units like the Boss DM-2 and EHX Deluxe Memory Man, you can’t go wrong with EchoBoy. Soundtoys EchoBoy wins again here for its fantastic analog models. Waves H-Delay is a great workhorse delay that features highly tweakable analog styles great for getting the characteristic murk and feedback of BBD delay. It’s a great way to get started with analog style delay. Smartelectronix AnalogDelay is a simple, no-nonsense analog delay plugin. The dark, murky repeats of analog delays were an instant hit and the much smaller form allowed delay to make it into guitar pedal format. But each successive feedback pass further degrades the integrity of the signal until it blurs into feedback. The repeats of an analog delay are already fairly dark and indistinct. Just like in the analogy, the process works well enough, but there’s inevitably some loss down the line.

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A voltage is passed along a series of capacitance sections like a line of people dumping water into the bucket of the person next to them. So engineers pioneered electronic delay with BBD chips.Ī “bucket brigade device” works exactly how you’d imagine. Musicians wanted a compact delay solution that was consistent and easy to work with live… Tape delay units sounded good but they were bulky, impractical and required lots of maintenance. Analog DelayĪs analog technology advanced in the mid-seventies, non-tape based delay alternatives began to appear. The various tape models are spot on in terms of accuracy and sound-great in any mix. It’s a super versatile and incredible sounding delay. Soundtoys EchoBoy is an industry-standard delay for classic tape sounds. It’s a great option If you’re looking for a simple, good-sounding tape echo at an affordable price IK Multimedia’s Tape Echo is a quality tape emulation from a respected brand. Best Tape Delay VSTsĮ-phonic Tape Delay is a simple but effective plugin for getting started with the sound of analog tape. Try out hi-fi studio tape models on vocals and grittier, worn tape styles on electric guitar. There’s something magical about the way a great tape delay sits in a mix. Tape delay is perfect wherever you need a warm but detailed delay with subtle modulation. Engineers jealously covet tape delays for their warm, musical repeats. What were considered imperfections at the time are highly sought-after today. Worn tape and improper biasing added saturation and blurred the repeats together slightly. The “wow and flutter” or subtle speed fluctuations of the tape caused the delayed signal to have a subtle, natural modulation. That left limited delay time available and caused the tape to wear out faster. To save space, the tape passed by the heads in a closed loop instead of spooling on a reel.

But tape delay effects didn’t exactly get it right. Here are the 4 main delay types: Tape DelayĮngineers realized early on that tape based recording systems could be adapted into echo units.ĭelay was originally intended to mimic the natural reflections of acoustic echo. No matter how complex a modern delay plugin might be, all delay effects are based on this simple concept. That signal is then played back later in time after a variable duration or delay time.Ī portion of the delayed signal is routed back to the input ( feedback) and the two signals are blended together (wet/dry mix) to create the illusion of cascading echoes. The input of a delay effect goes to a recording medium that makes a copy of the signal. In this article I’ll go through the 4 main types of delay, where to use them in your mix and the best delay plugins for every mix scenario.Īll delay effects are based on the same time-based principle. Luckily, If you know a bit about the different types of delay and the classic hardware that they’re modelled on, it’s much easier to choose the right one at the right time. Searching for the best one for your session can take you out of your creative flow pretty quick. But there are so many different delay plugins out there.
