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Chapter 15: Choosing Your Amp and Effects
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Delaying sound in a cave-like way
A delay effect is sometimes called a digital delay or echo (unless the device
is specifically analog, which is rare these days). The delay has four main
features:
Time: The amount of milliseconds between the straight signal and the
delayed one
Feedback: How many repeats of the effected signal are produced
Level: How loud the delayed signal is compared to the original
Mode: The specific range that the time control affects
The digital delay effect works by digitally recording the incoming signal from
your guitar and outputting that copy along with the straight signal at a specified
time interval after the original (the “delay”), measured in milliseconds
(ms). A short setting (25 to 50 ms) creates a slight thickening effect. At longer
settings (100 ms), you begin to hear the recorded signal as distinct from the
original; it sounds like two guitars playing the same part. At delay times of
200 ms and longer, the effect sounds like the echo, or reverb (see the next
section for more on reverb), in a cavern or mountainside.
Classic blues recordings from the ’50s as produced by Chess Records in
Chicago sometimes featured a degree of echo, but rockabilly players from the
era were particularly fond of the effect. Scotty Moore, who played with Elvis
Presley from 1954 to 1959, had a custom amp with built-in echo.
Adding reverb to make your sound slicker
Reverb is more complex than delay (delay is covered in the previous section)
and is really what you hear when you listen to music in a large room or concert
hall. A reverb uses echo, or delay, but produces a more realistic surrounding
effect than a digital delay can by applying additional processes. While a
digital delay merely copies the original signal and plays it back, reverb combines
repeats in various complex ways to simulate the way sound behaves in
different spaces.
Most amps include one of several ways to attain the reverb effect:
A spring reverb unit: This effect is a metal spring that the signal passes
through. Users vary the intensity by a single control that feeds more or
less signal into the spring. Use a little reverb to keep your sound from
being too dry or sterile; use a lot for an exaggerated cavern effect.
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