Wish "Crackle" parameter added to tape delay

Budda

Axe-Master
Cliff has already posted about how to get wow and flutter (modulation below and above 6hz), but sometimes I really want that vinyl crinkle some pedals provide. Yes people want what used to be an undesirable sound now, there's been that discussion.

Hopefully enough users want this that it gets implemented. Perhaps it could be useful on all delay types, but my thought is tape and lo-fi tape specifically.

Thanks!
 
@Budda, you can get good results from the RANDOM modulation of any delay.

I like another approach however: here's "Crinkle Delays", a variant for you from my own preset collection.
It uses the LFO controller on Motor Speed of a tape delay. I made a few scenes to show it to you.
 

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@Admin M@ I will check this out tonight.

I did experiment with both LFO and sequencer on the motor speed, but couldnt quite get there. My thought is a dedicated parameter will take the guesswork out.

Im not so much trying to get chirps from changing speeds as much as the crackle of faulty systems. "Crinkle" may have been the wrong word haha.

I'll check out the preset and post back.
 
I checked out @Admin M@ preset, and while it has great modulation there's no "crinkle" (which I've changed to crackle to better explain what I'd like).

I also don't have the w@rped vinyl preset in my III.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

2:30 mark - you can hear the crackle on the repeats here
 
I checked out @Admin M@ preset, and while it has great modulation there's no "crinkle" (which I've changed to crackle to better explain what I'd like).

I also don't have the w@rped vinyl preset in my III.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

2:30 mark - you can hear the crackle on the repeats here

You might be able to get a "crackle" like sound with a synth block noise oscillator and some clever filtering...have it mixed in to taste and with a gate so that it triggers only if the input to (or output from) the delay block crosses a certain threshold? I think M@ posted an echoplex preset for the III a while back that used a synth block to simulate the background "hiss"associated with older tape units awhile back, which might be worth checking out for some inspiration.
 
It's in the factory banks. Always has been. Bank C, Preset 99.

Preset 99 is "studio clean" for me. I bought the unit second hand, so I think some things were deleted - there aren't 384 used presets made, including mine.

I wonder what the extra stuff actually is, I just thought up to 318 was factory haha.
 
That's Preset 99 of Bank C. Works out to Preset 355 (more or less, depending on how your numbering starts).

My 355 is empty. I think a lot got wiped before I got it. I do appreciate everyone's help on where to look though!
 
In my opinion, what's heard in that example is crackle, not crinkle. Tape delays don't really do that... but my vinyl preset does :)
 
Bumping this topic back up after ages -- I've got an FM3 in the post.

One of the parameters that Strymon does include in their tape emulations is crinkle (as opposed to the vinyl crackle/pops and scratches in this video discussed above). Here's an example of this parameter maxed out on the El Capistan:


It's similar to flutter, but it sounds like the tape itself is not flat, and the tape head is having difficulty tracking. Is that possible to achieve in the FM3 delays?

Here's Strymon's description of this param from the El Cap manual:
"TAPE CRINKLE: Controls the amount and severity of tape irregularities, including friction, creases, splices and contaminants. Tape Crinkle characteristics track accordingly to tape speed. Set to minimum for a fresh, clean tape. Set to maximum for a tape that has been mangled and chewed for years"
 
Bumping this topic back up after ages -- I've got an FM3 in the post.

One of the parameters that Strymon does include in their tape emulations is crinkle (as opposed to the vinyl crackle/pops and scratches in this video discussed above). Here's an example of this parameter maxed out on the El Capistan:


It's similar to flutter, but it sounds like the tape itself is not flat, and the tape head is having difficulty tracking. Is that possible to achieve in the FM3 delays?

Here's Strymon's description of this param from the El Cap manual:
"TAPE CRINKLE: Controls the amount and severity of tape irregularities, including friction, creases, splices and contaminants. Tape Crinkle characteristics track accordingly to tape speed. Set to minimum for a fresh, clean tape. Set to maximum for a tape that has been mangled and chewed for years"


I exchanged some messages with Simeon last year about achieving that exact sound. He very kindly worked on it and came back with something I was really happy with. I'll try find the block and attach for you but from memory the crinkle was achieved by running the mono tape delay in parallel, and attaching both Time and Level to an LFO set to random at around 30hz.

It's important to set your min and max values for Time and Level appropriately. For example if you are looking for a delay time of around 500ms then set min and max to around 490ms and 510ms, or even 495ms and 505ms (basically to taste but close). With the Level I found it worked best with min set to around -5db and max set to around +5db. If the min was set lower I found I couldn't hear the effect as well, if the max was set higher there was some digital clipping (maybe there are ways around this). The level modifier is what adds the crinkle effect. I've explained it to myself as essentially recreating the random, rapid shifts in echo level caused by varying levels of contact between the tape head and the tape itself due to tape crinkle (maybe that's not it).

I should note that Simeon didn't seem overly happy with his end result although I certainly was. He seemed to think there was more going on which was why he also added the LFO to Time, and suggested the effect might be applied after the delay repeats rather than to the delay repeats.
 
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