Multi-delay to add "keyboardness" to guitar

D

Demolition Man

Inspired
Hey guys, this weekend I gotta lead our college worship service with no keyboard player. I know the Axe can do what I'm talking about, and I just wanted see if I'm thinking of this right and to get some different takes on how you guys might approach this.

If you wanted to play guitar and have a background kind of pad sound going on with you (I'm talking more of the "illusion" of a keyboard player being there, to where you can't really notice it big time, but if it was gone, you'd notice it wasn't there), how might you accomplish this?

I'm thinking of taking a delay or multi-delay "crystal" kind of sound, set to unisons or octaves (no fifths or such for my purposes), and setting the delay tempo to that of the song itself (dotted eighths or eighths depending). I'd maybe put a reverb after they delay made to sound "in the background" to get it out of the mix a bit. Then, I'd make the delay repeats set to only one or two so they don't muddy up the next chord too much. Would it be a good idea to put these effects all in a row OTHER than the amp row to separate them a bit from the guitar sound?

That's my take on it. Anyone see anything wrong about this or something better?

Thanks bros,
Shane Jr.
 
Hi,

I don't have my Axe-Fx yet (but have it coming). But, search for "shimmer", maybe with "edge" or "U2" or "gilmour" - I'll certainly be using mine for this (I'm in a U2 tribute).

Hope that helps!

Darren
 
I do this quite a lot using either Crystals or Plex Delay in parallel with my Preamp chain. I assign it to an I/A so that i can toggle it in and out as i see fit. It's particularly nice under clean stuff but i do use it occasionally to "pad out" dirty rhythms...
 
Was trying this myself last night on a Patch for "Use Somebody" by The Kings of Leon. The guitar player said in an interview that he has a delay an octave above with a ton of reverb.

I didn't get it sounding quite right but my GF dragged me away.

Will try and get it right and report my findings.
 
twentytwenty said:
Was trying this myself last night on a Patch for "Use Somebody" by The Kings of Leon. The guitar player said in an interview that he has a delay an octave above with a ton of reverb.

I didn't get it sounding quite right but my GF dragged me away.

Will try and get it right and report my findings.
Click to expand...
I have a preset that i created for "use somebody" called Dirt Pad that uses the Plex Shift and Plex Detune into a filter in parallel with my Preamp chain. I've never actually analyzed the original song but it works well for me. I bring it in and out with an I/A switch.

T
 

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teejay said:
twentytwenty said:
Was trying this myself last night on a Patch for "Use Somebody" by The Kings of Leon. The guitar player said in an interview that he has a delay an octave above with a ton of reverb.

I didn't get it sounding quite right but my GF dragged me away.

Will try and get it right and report my findings.
Click to expand...
I have a preset that i created for "use somebody" called Dirt Pad that uses the Plex Shift and Plex Detune into a filter in parallel with my Preamp chain. I've never actually analyzed the original song but it works well for me. I bring it in and out with an I/A switch.

T
Click to expand...

Bless ya!" TeeJay

I will give that a roll tonight.
 
I use the Crystal FX for this purpose quite often, based on the stock "Crystal Echoes" patch. I have it inline in a row, rather than on a separate row and I set it so that my expression pedal controls the input gain. It's a lovely effect, sounds a lot like keyboard string sounds, but it can get too "busy" quickly if you leave it on. This way I can ease it in, and it works great. For example "Dead Or Alive" by Bon Jovi, it will sound like there's a synth pad. When I rock the expression pedal back (input=0), the "strings" trail off naturally on top of what I'm playing. It's terrific with acoustic guitar as well, I use some of the acoustic IR's that have been uploaded here.
 
Not an answer to your question about dealys, but why not enjoy the moment and develop your playing without backing keyboards? I found it both challenging and liberating. I think there's a real art in playing staff that implies backing parts. I found I had to avoid some the abstract stuff I sometimes play, but it really made me focus on what's important. just my 2c worth :)
 
Oh it's not at all about inability to play without keyboard stuff, heh; I just want the sound there. Some of these songs have important keyboard parts in it and I just don't think the straight sound of a guitar will cut it. I'm trying to give the illusion of something else being there.

Thanks for the replies guys! It all helps!
 
For those looking for the Kings of Leon sound, he uses the Live 6 Verbzilla's octo setting. It's essentially an octave up sound that gets fed into a big reverb. It sounds similar to the Plex Shift stuff to my ears, but the Plex Shift is far more powerful. I think you could get the Axe-FX quite close to it, but I haven't tried since I have the M13 for when I want that particular sound.

My main Topboost patch has the Plex Shift block from the Crystals patch in parallel. I use an expression pedal to bring it in and out. I think I've gotten more compliments on that sound than anything else I've done with the Axe-FX.

D
 
dk_ace said:
For those looking for the Kings of Leon sound, he uses the Live 6 Verbzilla's octo setting. It's essentially an octave up sound that gets fed into a big reverb. It sounds similar to the Plex Shift stuff to my ears, but the Plex Shift is far more powerful. I think you could get the Axe-FX quite close to it, but I haven't tried since I have the M13 for when I want that particular sound.

My main Topboost patch has the Plex Shift block from the Crystals patch in parallel. I use an expression pedal to bring it in and out. I think I've gotten more compliments on that sound than anything else I've done with the Axe-FX.

D
Click to expand...
I saw a kid running two delays into a verbzilla on the octo setting live a few weeks ago. One of the delays was set to "auto-swell". It was a huge beautiful sound. Basically where I got the idea to run my three delays. I use a volume block for the auto swell.
 
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