Looking for input on a Vai type delay with harmonizer I think

jethro

Inspired
At the 3:20 mark in the song “”The boy from Seattle” off of Alien love secrets. Seems like it’s a very long duel delay with harmonizing on the right side. i’m just curious if anyone has a patch like this or an opinion from another set of ears.
 
I agree that it's a long dual delay, I assume of a minim and semibreve/half-note and whole-note, but I think the harmonising just comes from the interaction of the notes. The tempo's 86bpm so I think that should mean that the left side is 1396ms and the right side is 2792ms, like no feedback, equal mix/dryness but maybe some slight filtering.
 
Do you think its panned left and right? I'm going to try to make a preset tonight. The right side sounds different than the left to me. Like the pitch but it could just be my ears. I'll use headphones and see if I hear a difference. Thanks!
 
Lurker is correct. Headphones should make it more clear. Putting your headphones on backwards can be really helpful in deciphering ping pong delay.
 
It's quarter note left, half note right (calling tempo q = 86) for the loud delays. (698 ms, 1396 ms)

The quieter ambient delay (quarter note left, eighth note right) from the rest of the track is also there, fed by a mono sum of dry & louder delays.

To get this exact you'd need to use a stereo or dual type for both delays, and have a volume or filter block sum dry & loud delays to mono before the second (ambient) delay. Set that second delay to 100% mix and add a parallel shunt path to hear dry & panned loud delays.
 
It's quarter note left, half note right (calling tempo q = 86) for the loud delays. (698 ms, 1396 ms)

The quieter ambient delay (quarter note left, eighth note right) from the rest of the track is also there, fed by a mono sum of dry & louder delays.

To get this exact you'd need to use a stereo or dual type for both delays, and have a volume or filter block sum dry & loud delays to mono before the second (ambient) delay. Set that second delay to 100% mix and add a parallel shunt path to hear dry & panned loud delays.
Can you elaborate on this? I can't even get close to this delay.
 
I remember Vai talking about this in the May 95’ Guitar Player mag. It’s the one with him painted silver, like the ALS vid/album pics.

He didn’t go into detail but he did say he used the delay specifically so he could harmonize with the notes as they repeated. I think he did the same thing in “Touching Tongues” on Sex And Religion.

I’ll play around with it tonight when I get in the studio,
 
I remember Vai talking about this in the May 95’ Guitar Player mag. It’s the one with him painted silver, like the ALS vid/album pics.

He didn’t go into detail but he did say he used the delay specifically so he could harmonize with the notes as they repeated. I think he did the same thing in “Touching Tongues” on Sex And Religion.

I’ll play around with it tonight when I get in the studio,
Awesome! I appreciate that!
 
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Too funny; I opened YouTube and saw a new vid from Michael Neilson....and it just happens to be about Vai and delay.

I haven’t watched it yet, but Michael does a great job with his vids and there’s no doubt some great info in here. Anxious to see if he covers “The Boy From Seattle”.

 
A while back I said I was going to make a Vai preset and since I said I was going to play with the delay thing for this thread, I figured I'd get two birds stoned at once. I kind of 'cheated' with the delay thing and used 2 digital mono delays to pull it off. I'm sure there's a way to program the Dual Delay, but after a minute or two of dicking around with it, i just decided to make it easy on myself. Playing with the tempo should get it there. Also need to find a way to stick the normal delay in there. Haven't figured out where to put it in the chain yet so it's not effecting the other delays.

I'm going to keep building on this preset. I'm a bigger fan of his '95-96' tones than any other period, so that's more of the direction the preset is starting. Eventually I'll drop in a Passion And Warfare scene. Listening to isolated tracks from Passion and Warfare then to something from Alien Love Secrets, there's a big difference in tones. He was using several amps at once on ALS/Fire Garden and you can really hear it in the isolated track of "Juice", there's a midrangy amp doing the main work but what sounds like a really buzzy Marshall very slightly in there, it almost sounds like a head without a cabinet going direct in the board. You can hear it much better with headphones.



You'll also need to select a new cab unless you have York's Friedman cab pack, which is what I used for it.

Little preview. (Note, I have Out/In 3 for my FreQout pedal, which is how I'm getting those higher pitches/feedback kind of things)
 

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A while back I said I was going to make a Vai preset and since I said I was going to play with the delay thing for this thread, I figured I'd get two birds stoned at once. I kind of 'cheated' with the delay thing and used 2 digital mono delays to pull it off. I'm sure there's a way to program the Dual Delay, but after a minute or two of dicking around with it, i just decided to make it easy on myself. Playing with the tempo should get it there. Also need to find a way to stick the normal delay in there. Haven't figured out where to put it in the chain yet so it's not effecting the other delays.

I'm going to keep building on this preset. I'm a bigger fan of his '95-96' tones than any other period, so that's more of the direction the preset is starting. Eventually I'll drop in a Passion And Warfare scene. Listening to isolated tracks from Passion and Warfare then to something from Alien Love Secrets, there's a big difference in tones. He was using several amps at once on ALS/Fire Garden and you can really hear it in the isolated track of "Juice", there's a midrangy amp doing the main work but what sounds like a really buzzy Marshall very slightly in there, it almost sounds like a head without a cabinet going direct in the board. You can hear it much better with headphones.



You'll also need to select a new cab unless you have York's Friedman cab pack, which is what I used for it.

Little preview. (Note, I have Out/In 3 for my FreQout pedal, which is how I'm getting those higher pitches/feedback kind of things)

I cant seem to import this syx file. It sounds amazing! Thanks for taking the time to make it!!!
 
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