Delays that sound fabulous with high gain settings

J

jmpatrick

Inspired
I began experimenting a bit with golden ratio delay settings using a dual delay that follows the cab block. It sounds amazing with clean tones, but less amazing with higher gain Plexi amps. I've tweaked the diffusion, EQ and spread and (while it sounds good), it never gets to that heavenly Porcupine Tree, Riverside, Opeth place.

Any tone tips would be most appreciated.
 
One place you could start is download some of Leon Todd’s and Mark Day’s patches to see what they are using, as their delays always sound superb.
 
I believe that Leon ( @2112 ) has a Lead Delays preset up on AxeChange ! I'd definitely start there !

He's put together a Multi-Delay block that has some chorusing in there as well, and depending on what you're looking for it's sublime !
 
you can get any of the delays to sound awesome. Can you be a bit more descriptive of what your issue is and what you are aiming for? Is it to bright? Not enough ambiance? To reverby? Not reverby enough?
 
pretty sure most of the post rock guys run their delays into the front of their amps, might experiment with that
 
Any clips of what you're after?

I run my delays after the amp because running into a high gain amp always screws up the mix/feedback. High gain amplifies and compresses incoming signal so it will make delays sound much louder than they are, until they decay and drop off. What sounds good with a clean amp might not with a dirty amp and vice versa.

Running post amp makes it sound cleaner but it can be bland, so I will make sure to lower the high cut so it doesn't get too "crowded" sounding (it makes the delay more part of the background). I also like to add some modulation to make it interesting. Lastly I tend to like stereo delays around 95% L/R which makes it sound wide or with mono delays add 10-20ms to one side which will do the same thing.
 
Jarick said:
Any clips of what you're after?

I run my delays after the amp because running into a high gain amp always screws up the mix/feedback. High gain amplifies and compresses incoming signal so it will make delays sound much louder than they are, until they decay and drop off. What sounds good with a clean amp might not with a dirty amp and vice versa.

Running post amp makes it sound cleaner but it can be bland, so I will make sure to lower the high cut so it doesn't get too "crowded" sounding (it makes the delay more part of the background). I also like to add some modulation to make it interesting. Lastly I tend to like stereo delays around 95% L/R which makes it sound wide or with mono delays add 10-20ms to one side which will do the same thing.
Click to expand...
You can also add a LFO modifier to the pan on a mono delay.. depending on what type of wave form you use and the speed etc you can get some pretty cool movement of your echos going on. You can also add in a little or a lot of Right post delay, sounds cool with it.
 
jmpatrick said:
I began experimenting a bit with golden ratio delay settings using a dual delay that follows the cab block. It sounds amazing with clean tones, but less amazing with higher gain Plexi amps. I've tweaked the diffusion, EQ and spread and (while it sounds good), it never gets to that heavenly Porcupine Tree, Riverside, Opeth place.

Any tone tips would be most appreciated.
Click to expand...
If you’re looking for a spread, look no further than the 2290 w modulation. Leon Todd has a great video on YouTube for the exact settings, and it’s all high gain.

you can also lessen the spread, with the pan controls, and morph it to suit your needs. The modulation does not create a chorus effect, and that’s the beauty of that delay. Ducking is also great on the 2290. Play with The threshold
 
Those clips have minimal to no delay... I think the Delux Mind Guy delay set with a short (1/16 maybe) and a 61.8% post delay ratio and about 40% feedback and a very low mix. Maybe like 5% mix.
You may have better luck using a reverb.
 
personally I usually decrease the delay volume when I use it in an high gain tone. I cut the bass freq too to avoid the tone to be muddy
 
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