Continued here for video listing purposes:
Some players use just one mono delay stomp box so that (for example) when they move from a rhythm part to a solo part, they can stomp on the pedal and then step up front into the limelight and sound fucking awesome because now their signal is twice as fat when used to sustain the notes being played. Or they can sound really fucking dumb - it depends on whose playing it really.
For drums, the original master of delay use is of course Stewart Copeland. You know exactly what it (the method) is too just by recalling the classic 'Walking On The Moon' groove, a pop hit single with some of the first use of delays in the genre. Listen with your ear-goggles on and try to remain aware of left and right as two separate parts. the first thing you'll note is that the delays are present
on every part of the kit for the intro and then the delay unit is stomped off by foot at the beginning of the verse. As the song progresses, he can select (with his feet) which delay he's using (he has more than one) so that when he plays the hi-hats in simple fours or eights, the delay gives him back eights and sixteenths. If he shuffles/swings it, the delay flows across the flourish repeating in a more musical than rhythmic way, kind of like dub-style reggae.
Listen to how the whole drum-set seems to move and shift from ear-goggle left and ear-goggle right:
During some parts of the song he adds the delay to only the snare drum for cross-sticking (
when you lay the stick flat on the drum and click it off the metal rim) and at other times for the hi-hats only. There's always some spill from one mic or the other (Stewart's a bit punk like that) and it can get messy at times. The master player knows this and will use the messy aspect for exactly that purpose if required. It's really an infinite range of options. Delays can be singular, doubled, or even tripled. It's when you're playing triplets it can be tricky for the beginner, but for the more experienced player it's time for some chaotic fun. If it gets too far out of hand, then you can simply stomp it off with your foot and keep playing.
But managing to use a delay seamlessly is the goal: for example, hitting a high note on your guitar and sending it to the delay will make it sound like one long continuous note (think the hook-line on 'Heroes' by David Bowie as played by Robert Fripp) which you can bend and twist to make it screech and blend like cream in your coffee.
I had mine set up in the lounge at home. I'd turn on the news and send the sound signal through the various outboard units I had set up: reverb made the newsreader sound like they were broadcasting from the heavens, echo made it turn into tripped out chaos, and a delay made it all Lee Scratch Perry where you could take a sentence of conversation and 'hold' it in the pedal, flipping it back onto the live voice like it was two of the same person yapping. Sometimes I might have a lady in the house and I'd use it to see if she had ears for these things. Some reacted straight away, others just looked confused and said nothing.
Delays are great fun, go to a music store and try one out, use a microphone - send it into the pedal and from there into an amp.
After five minutes of playing around, you'll have it nailed and know exactly how to use it for best expression of what you're doing.
I also use one of these, which is a classic old multi-effect rack module unit (for stage/studio) called the Yamaha SPX90 MkII from the 1980s. It has a variety of delays, echoes, reverb, vibrato, auto-pan (
automatic left/right repeats) distortion, chorus, flange, overdrive, and several more. One hundred self-designed patches are available and you can pre-set them to exact settings and recall any of them either by hand or by a foot switch according to their assigned name/number:
They're neither rare nor expensive, but they are rather sturdy and well built: mine's been on the road and in the studio for over three or four decades and still works like new. The delays in the SPX are sweet, they take further processing well and they hold up in any situation. Some players use them only for tempo at the beginning of a song: hit a mic connected to the module and it'll repeat a delay tempo you preset earlier. Now you have the exact tempo to count the other players in with. Some, like me - leave it on and fuck around with things until the singer steps up. Others turn it off immediately in case they start hearing beats/repeats that aren't part of the song arrangement. It can get very confusing very fast and if you lose your balance you're going to fall from a great height and have to stop the song or find a way to get back into place with the other players. Make that same mistake twice and you're fired.
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