New AT Keeley Halo Delay Pedal

Scented Meat said:
I obtained a Halo pedal and decided to head down the rabbit hole (especially as my "guitarist's elbow" has afforded me unwanted free time).

So here is my attempt at recreating the sound of Andy's Halo preset (the first preset on the pedal, unchanged from factory settings) using the MTD block. I initially had tried some diffusion, but this only hampered my efforts. So after adjustments to feedback, level, chorus, and EQ, I think I'm pretty close (though I'll bet others much smarter than I like @Admin M@ or @2112 or many others could improve upon this).

To begin with, the timing and intensity of repeats. The first 3 are the Halo, the last 3 the multidelay (all 6 are the same single muted scratch looped for consistency). I should mention the Halo is hooked up in stereo via Out3/In3, right next to the MTD block in my preset. I'm using (Andy-like) a compressor block with little compression but some boosting, into the Lonestar model clean channel, and a YA Mesa 2x12 IR. No reverb, of course.



And now a looped chord stab (again first 3 are Halo; last 3 Axe-FX)



Finally the same deal with a single looped staccato note

Click to expand...

That sounds excellent! Would you mind posting the settings, screenshot, or Block library?
 
ruso said:
That sounds excellent! Would you mind posting the settings, screenshot, or Block library?
Click to expand...
Here's the preset. This began as an effort to recreate his rig, as described in detail on last week's "That Pedal Show". The preset is a work in progress based on these screenshots I made from the video (edit: one of the screenshots was too large to upload, but you get the idea):

Screen Shot 2022-07-12 at 7.18.43 AM.png
Screen Shot 2022-07-12 at 12.12.56 PM.png

You'll want to shunt the Out3/In3 blocks, of course, and the IR will point you to a user cab, so watch out there. There is a reverb block, but as I mentioned it was bypassed during the above recordings.
 

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Scented Meat said:
Here's the preset. This began as an effort to recreate his rig, as described in detail on last week's "That Pedal Show". The preset is a work in progress based on these screenshots I made from the video (edit: one of the screenshots was too large to upload, but you get the idea):

View attachment 104838
View attachment 104839

You'll want to shunt the Out3/In3 blocks, of course, and the IR will point you to a user cab, so watch out there. There is a reverb block, but as I mentioned it was bypassed during the above recordings.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much! I’m going to go get lost in some stereo goodness. 😃
 
Scented Meat said:
Here's the preset. This began as an effort to recreate his rig, as described in detail on last week's "That Pedal Show". The preset is a work in progress based on these screenshots I made from the video (edit: one of the screenshots was too large to upload, but you get the idea):


You'll want to shunt the Out3/In3 blocks, of course, and the IR will point you to a user cab, so watch out there. There is a reverb block, but as I mentioned it was bypassed during the above recordings.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing, looks like the preset is empty though?
 
Scented Meat said:
I obtained a Halo pedal and decided to head down the rabbit hole (especially as my "guitarist's elbow" has afforded me unwanted free time).

So here is my attempt at recreating the sound of Andy's Halo preset (the first preset on the pedal, unchanged from factory settings) using the MTD block. I initially had tried some diffusion, but this only hampered my efforts. So after adjustments to feedback, level, chorus, and EQ, I think I'm pretty close (though I'll bet others much smarter than I like @Admin M@ or @2112 or many others could improve upon this).

To begin with, the timing and intensity of repeats. The first 3 are the Halo, the last 3 the multidelay (all 6 are the same single muted scratch looped for consistency). I should mention the Halo is hooked up in stereo via Out3/In3, right next to the MTD block in my preset. I'm using (Andy-like) a compressor block with little compression but some boosting, into the Lonestar model clean channel, and a YA Mesa 2x12 IR. No reverb, of course.



And now a looped chord stab (again first 3 are Halo; last 3 Axe-FX)



Finally the same deal with a single looped staccato note

Click to expand...

Sounds pretty close!

The MTD block version seems like there's a bit of swirl/tremolo/ping-poing going on in the repeats but sounds pretty close.
This is Preset 1A on the pedal? (i.e. Andy's?)
 
AlbertA said:
Sounds pretty close!

The MTD block version seems like there's a bit of swirl/tremolo/ping-poing going on in the repeats but sounds pretty close.
This is Preset 1A on the pedal? (i.e. Andy's?)
Click to expand...
It is Preset 1A on the pedal, yes.

I agree it's not exact; I tried not to impart too much modulation or stereo panning, but might've overdone it.

Also I'm a long way from having fine-tuned the various drive pedals. And since there's no "JHS @" pedal in the Axe, I used mine to get the King of Tones model close (after all, they're both sort of MIAB pedals, as I understand it).
 
Spent some time with @Scented Meat preset. The MTD gets you very close to the original. With headphones, the Halo seems to have a little of that 2290 phase/ultra-wide stereo thing going on.
 
I don't quite understand the Quad-Tap Delay. I thought it were 4 independent delays (as stated in the manual). Yet, when I turn down the level of the 1st delay line in the attached preset, the delay is still affected by the tempo setting of the 1st delay.

@Admin M@
 
yek said:
I don't quite understand the Quad-Tap Delay. I thought it were 4 independent delays (as stated in the manual). Yet, when I turn down the level of the 1st delay line in the attached preset, the delay is still affected by the tempo setting of the 1st delay.

@Admin M@
Click to expand...
Quad-tap delay is one delay line, tapped at 4 points, so I'm guessing Delay 1 controls the master time - then the rest are just the subdivisions (taps) of that master time.

@Scented Meat From what I understood when taking to Robert Keely is that it's two delay lines in series, not quite the same as 2-tap delay - you may want to try the Quad Series delay instead?
 
AlbertA said:
Quad-tap delay is one delay line, tapped at 4 points, so I'm guessing Delay 1 controls the master time - then the rest are just the subdivisions (taps) of that master time.

@Scented Meat From what I understood when taking to Robert Keely is that it's two delay lines in series, not quite the same as 2-tap delay - you may want to try the Quad Series delay instead?
Click to expand...

Aha, I must be interpreting the diagram in the manual in the wrong way.

Schermafbeelding 2022-07-14 om 21.08.52.png
 
AlbertA said:
@Scented Meat From what I understood when taking to Robert Keely is that it's two delay lines in series, not quite the same as 2-tap delay - you may want to try the Quad Series delay instead?
Click to expand...
Actually I think the dual delay in the normal delay block maybe better suited? Since you can assign modifiers to the Phase of each of the delay lines LFOs (again I'm basing this off what Keely told me about the delay lines) - this may be part of getting the "special sauce". Also it has the compander, which could simulate the saturation knob.

I would experiment with setting the following:
  • Time L to 1/4
  • Time R to 1/8 dot
  • L->R at 100%
  • R->L to 0%
  • Either Setting slightly different feedback for L->L and R-R OR
  • set them to 100% and use the Master feedback control as the main feedback control.
  • Enable compander
  • Set a modifier to the Phase parameter of LFO1 and 2 or both (if both, they should be different sources like say LFO1A and LFO1B)
 
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My take on this if anyone is interested. Tried coming at the delay a number of different ways that seemed more similar to his real rig and as @AlbertA says, finally settled on the Dual Delay block. Felt that using the cross feedback in that block was key to getting close.

Quad Series I tried and either I'm not understanding the block correctly or it just comes up with something nowhere close. Also tried two mono Memory Man in series before stereo cabs. That was the best I came up with before going to the Dual Delay.
 

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