I'm new to using delay (just got my first pedal a couple days ago)....I've got a question. I know many bands (Cocteau Twins among them) use delay pedals throughout entire songs...chords, and everything...what is the best strategy to go about writing a song with delay, so that the chords don't melt together and sound horrible when switching between them. Is it just holding them out? Picking the right chords?
Thanks for your help.
― Michael O'Brien, Wednesday, 11 January 2006 21:57 (twenty years ago)
vary the length of the delay. there's probably no real need for it to be really long, especially playing with chords. relatively shorter delays will probably sound better.
― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Wednesday, 11 January 2006 22:05 (twenty years ago)
what is the best strategy to go about writing a song with delay, so that the chords don't melt togetherI thought those bands wanted the chords to melt together. Just let the drummer keep the time.
― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Thursday, 12 January 2006 01:04 (twenty years ago)
What Delay pedal are you using, Michael?
The trick with delay at first is to set the "repeat" or "decay." Do you want a tight repeat (a slapback would be a very quick repeat a la rockabilly guitar) or do you want many repeats (e.g. 80s style atmospherics like The Cure, U2)?
Try setting 4 repeats and play a repeating figure, like the individual notes in a D chord on the 1,2,3rd strings in open position.
Then adjust the mix. The easiest mistake is to mix the wet signal too high, which creates a lot of mush. Quite often, I have about 10% wet, 90% dry. More than that can be overpowering.
If your delay has tap tempo, you are set. At this point, if you are playing with a drummer, or you have a tempo in mind, you can tap in the tempo, and the delay adjust.
Hope this helps.
― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 12 January 2006 01:11 (twenty years ago)