There is more choice in delays than there are repeats created from the feedback control, so we guide you through the best place to use certain styles and types

Delays are relatively uncomplicated, or at least that’s the way it should appear, but there is equally plenty of diversity when it comes to delay types, and timbral colour. Let’s start by highlighting some of the delay options, with an indication of where you might want to use them.

Of course, there are no hard and fast rules with delays in the software domain, and you can use any delay, anywhere you like, freely. The key thing to remember is whether it does what you want it to do, and sounds as you would like it to sound. If it doesn’t, you can be very sure that like London buses, another delay will be just around the corner.

Going straight

Let’s begin our tour by examining a basic, straightforward delay. Every DAW will be equipped with one of these; in fact it’s quite likely that there will be various different delay styles. Many of the parameters are identical across all platforms, so we will begin by looking at the Echo plugin, which forms part of the Logic Pro X package.

There are three controls which will dictate the basics for creating a successful delay. Other parameters will have an effect on elements such as tonal colour, but we will start with the basics.

The first control will be labelled something along the lines of Delay Time. Unlike delays of yesteryear, where they were not synchronised to a computer through a DAW, the timing would be measured in milliseconds, albeit in a relatively crude and inaccurate way. As you can see from Fig. 1, we don’t have a timing control, but we do have a Note control. This takes the hard work out of adjusting your delay or echo, by snapping the delay immediately to the tempo of your track. Instead of working with milliseconds, we are working with note values, such as the 1/8th note value that we see in our example. The good news is, there are plenty of note values to choose from, such as 1/4 note and 1/16th note, with dotted and triplet note values too. There’s more good news, because if you are unsure of the relative timing implication of these note values, you only have to plug in your delay and try them out, to find out what suits your track’s groove.