Wish Delay repeat clearing

I tried a 'clearing the buffer' workaround by attaching modifiers to Delay Time and Master Feedback sending time to 1ms and fb to 0% for some time using an expression pedal (I don't have any switches to use). I set modifier attack/release to 0 and update rate to FAST.

If I swing pedal to one extreme and wait long enough (maybe 1/4-1/2 second) for the modifiers to both hit their minimum, it seems to clear the buffer with no artifacts.

However, if I do it too quickly, it doesn't clear it (with a repeating warped sound), I suspect because the modifiers are not actually getting to the minimum due to lag in the modifier response time.

Maybe others can figure out how to use a switch to do this reliably, but either way it seems a separate function for it would be great to have.
 
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yyz67 said:
I tried a 'clearing the buffer' workaround by attaching modifiers to Delay Time and Master Feedback sending time to 1ms and fb to 0% for some time using an expression pedal (I don't have any switches to use). I set modifier attack/release to 0 and update rate to FAST.

If I swing pedal to one extreme and wait long enough (maybe 1/4-1/2 second) for the modifiers to both hit their minimum, it seems to clear the buffer with no artifacts.

However, if I do it too quickly, it doesn't clear it, I suspect because the modifiers are not actually getting to the minimum due to lag in the modifier response time.

Maybe others can figure out how to use a switch to do this reliably, but either way it seems a separate function for it would be great to have.
Click to expand...

If you do it too fast, does it sound glitchy/weird?
 
yyz67 said:
If I swing pedal to one extreme and wait long enough (maybe 1/4-1/2 second) for the modifiers to both hit their minimum, it seems to clear the buffer with no artifacts.
Click to expand...

What's the maximum delay time you're returning to?

The easiest way to test this is with very long maximum times, like 8 seconds. Feedback isn't even really needed to test whether the buffer gets cleared. Try playing a 1-octave scale (8 notes) at 1 note per second into the 8000 ms delay. Then stop playing and immediately modify time to 1 ms. After a second or two, modify time back to 8000 ms. Do you hear silence or the rest of your chromatic scale from around Bb-B?
 
Bakerman said:
What's the maximum delay time you're returning to?
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I tried around 500~1000 ms with highish fb (as I didn't want to wait 8 secs to find out if it worked).

I got more zipper and glitches if I didn't also send Feedback to 0.

I wanted to find out how fast I could clear it and it seems to be about 1/4 second in that scenario. I'm pretty sure it would work in your scenario setting time to minimum for 1-2 secs -- but I didn't save the preset so maybe someone else can play with it.
 
Bakerman said:
What's the maximum delay time you're returning to?

The easiest way to test this is with very long maximum times, like 8 seconds. Feedback isn't even really needed to test whether the buffer gets cleared. Try playing a 1-octave scale (8 notes) at 1 note per second into the 8000 ms delay. Then stop playing and immediately modify time to 1 ms. After a second or two, modify time back to 8000 ms. Do you hear silence or the rest of your chromatic scale from around Bb-B?
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I hear the rest of the scale, which is what I would expect.

P.S. I'm having a hard time following this thread. Is someone suggesting that changing the delay time will clear the buffer?
 
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GlennO said:
I hear the rest of the scale, which is what I would expect.

P.S. I'm having a hard time following this thread. Is someone suggesting that changing the delay time will clear the buffer?
Click to expand...
That's what mixermang seemed to be claiming. As you've noticed, it doesn't clear it and you hear whatever was input 8 seconds ago when delay time returns to 8 seconds.
 
reducing delay time and feedback to minimum doesn't clear the buffer for whatever reason, however it's built it's set up more like a looper than most delays.

most every other delay device would have the time knob scale the whole buffer, the audible effect of everything getting pitched up to nothing and held at 0% feedback for even a moment would make you think there's nothing left, there usually isn't, but for whatever reason when time comes back up the buffer is still full.

here's a preset using scene controllers, 10 second delay on scene 1... Scene 2 time and feedback go to minimum. even if you stay on scene 2 for a while the buffer is still full when you go back to scene 1.
 

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  • delay buffer.syx
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VST/AU delay effects have the ability to clear the buffer, but that’s because there is a specific protocol for that purpose, which is used, for example, when resetting the transport. I’ve wtitten a lot of delay effects in my time and I would consider it to be rather odd if changing the delay time caused the buffer to clear.
 
i don't see how if time scales everything to minimum and feedback set to 0%, why would there be anything left in memory to stretch back out. usually when time is short and repeat is 1, it fires off once, then it's gone, there's nothing left until you feed it more
 
mixermang said:
i don't see how if time scales everything to minimum and feedback set to 0%, why would there be anything left in memory to stretch back out. usually when time is short and repeat is 1, it fires off once, then it's gone, there's nothing left until you feed it more
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Because that's not how the delay block works. The buffer isn't being "scaled". Adjusting time is like moving a playback head various distances from the (fixed) record head on a tape that's running at a constant speed. If you move the playback head right next to the record head (let's say 10 ms out, staying there for around for 500 ms) you haven't overwritten anything other than the last 500 ms of tape to pass by the record head. Once you move the playback head back to 8 seconds out, there's 7.5 seconds of material recorded before any of this happened. Adjusting time did nothing to clear or write silence to the buffer any faster.
 
mixermang said:
i don't see how if time scales everything to minimum and feedback set to 0%, why would there be anything left in memory to stretch back out. usually when time is short and repeat is 1, it fires off once, then it's gone, there's nothing left until you feed it more
Click to expand...
That’s not how delay effects work. The pitch goes up because the playback head moves relative to the deposit head. Nothing gets scaled or stretched and nothing happens to the buffer, so I don’t understand why anyone would think this would clear the buffer. Don’t take my word for it...try it with the AxeFX delays and see if changing the delay time clears the buffer.
 
GlennO said:
That’s not how delay effects work
Click to expand...

there's different delay architectures, lots of ways to fill and manipulate the storage. if you bring time and feedback down to minimum on an analog pedal and it plays its one repeat, when you bring time back up there is literally no information left in the storage until you feed it again at the input. you can bring time back up and there will be silence, until you put more into the input, or until feedback grabs the noise floor and starts to oscillate again. that's the delay behavior I'm used to

I guess FAS delays are just apparently all built like derivatives of a tape machine, with moving play heads. +1 for a magnet button
 
Could you please fix this problem? @FractalAudio Having a hard time using my new Axe FX III in live situations because of this. It sounds 90% better then the Kemper I had for 8 years but the Kemper didn't have this delay+reverb buffer/spill + noise/glitch/burst problem.
 
Hello,

Same issue here. Tried a lot of different ways with time and feedback modifiers as well as channel switching but nothing work.

+1 for a way to clear the buffer.
 
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