Delay Design

Echo: the whole device, section by section

Echo is a dual delay with a filter, a reverb, a modulator and a "Character" page, and once you know the sections you rarely need another delay. The Echo tab: Left and Right delay time (Sync or ms, with a Link switch so Right follows Left), a Mode chooser (Stereo, Ping Pong, Mid/Side), Feedback, Input gain, and a HP/LP filter inside the loop with a visual display. The Reverb section adds a reverb that can sit Pre, Post or inside the Feedback loop. The Modulation section is an LFO (plus envelope follower) that can modulate delay time and filter frequency. The Character section has Gate, Duck, Noise, Wobble and a Repitch switch for how time changes behave.

Dub throws: the send-and-ride method

A throw is one hit sent into a high-feedback delay for a moment, then the send is closed and the repeats carry on by themselves. The gesture is the send fader (or a clip envelope on it), not the delay.

1. Return with Echo at 100% wet (Dry/Wet full). Feedback 65–80%: enough to run six or eight repeats.
2. Map the send from the snare/chord track to a Push encoder. Keep it at −inf.
3. On the throw: open the send for one hit (a quarter note), close it. The repeats decay on their own.
4. While they decay, ride the Auto Filter cutoff or Echo's own LP: sweeping the filter during feedback is the classic dub move.
5. For a printed version, automate the send with a clip envelope (Mixer → Send A) drawn as a spike.

The Delay device: clean, pinging, modulated

Delay (the Live 11+ merger of Simple Delay and Ping Pong Delay) is the transparent one: Left/Right times with Link, a Ping Pong switch, Feedback, a Filter (frequency and width, bandpass-style, in the loop), Modulation (Rate, Filter mod, Time mod), a Freeze button, Jump/Fade/Repitch time-change modes, and Dry/Wet. No reverb, no tape, no character — which makes it the right delay when the dry sound is the point.

Grain Delay: texture, pitch clouds, metallic sprays

Grain Delay chops the input into grains and delays each one with randomizable time (Spray), pitch (Pitch, Random Pitch) and grain rate (Frequency). With feedback it piles pitch-shifted grains on top of each other; with low Frequency and high Spray it is a granular cloud rather than a delay.

Filtered delays and tape darkening

The filter inside the loop is the difference between a digital delay and a tape echo. Echo has it built in; for other delays, or for an external hardware delay via External Audio Effect, build the loop yourself.

1. Echo filter: HP 250–350 Hz, LP 2.5–4 kHz. Each repeat loses more top; by the fourth repeat only the mids are left — exactly what a tape loop does.
2. Wobble 20–30% with Morph pushed toward the slower, deeper side for old-tape pitch drift. Noise 15–25% for hiss that only rides on the repeats.
3. Reverb in the Feedback location at 15%: every repeat gets slightly more smeared.
4. Optional: Redux after Echo for bit-reduced repeats; or Saturator with Soft Sine, Drive 4–6 dB, so louder repeats clip a bit.

Tempo-synced vs milliseconds, and the offset trick

Synced delays lock to the grid and read as part of the groove; ms delays float and read as space. The useful middle ground: sync but offset by a few percent so repeats land slightly late (lazy, dub) or early (urgent, garage). Echo's sync mode has a percentage offset for exactly this; in ms mode, use the table and shift by ±5–15 ms.

1. Start synced. Pick 3/16 for anything that should push against the kick; 1/8 for anything that should sit inside it.
2. Add +5 to +10% offset (Echo sync offset, or +15–25 ms in ms mode) for a laid-back feel; −5% for tension.
3. For ambience, switch to ms and pick a non-musical time (e.g. 387 ms) so repeats never line up with hats.

Haas and stereo delays: width without chorus

A single short delay (5–30 ms) panned opposite the dry sound widens it via the precedence effect: the ear localizes to the first arrival but hears the width. It collapses to a comb filter in mono — always check.

1. Align Delay is the precise tool: set one channel to 0 and the other to 10–20 ms (or in samples). Or use Delay with L 0 ms, R 15 ms, Feedback 0, Dry/Wet 100%.
2. Lower the delayed side by 2–4 dB. Equal level maximizes comb filtering in mono.
3. Check with Utility Mono. If the sound hollows out, shorten the time or reduce the delayed side.
4. Never Haas the sub or kick. Lead, pad top layer, vocal doubles only.

Stereo delays proper: for a wide rhythmic delay, use Echo Stereo mode with L 1/8, R 3/16 unlinked and Stereo width 130%. The timing difference, not phase, makes the width — mono safe.

Delay as rhythm generator

One hit plus two delay times at different note values is a pattern. Set L and R to values that interlock (1/8 and 3/16, or 1/4 and 1/8T), feedback for 3–4 repeats, and a filter so the later repeats are quieter and darker — the ear reads accents.

1. Program one hit per bar (or per two bars). Keep the MIDI empty otherwise.
2. Echo L 3/16, R 1/4, Ping Pong. Feedback 45–55% so the pattern dies before the next hit.
3. Echo's Gate at −30 to −40 dB cuts the quietest tail repeats, tightening the pattern into a definite end.
4. Change the time values per section for variation without touching the MIDI. Repitch mode on so the changes glide.
5. Resample the result (Bounce to New Track) to lock the pattern and slice it.

Note Echo: delay in MIDI

Note Echo repeats notes, not audio: each repeat is a new note-on with reduced (or increased) velocity and optional transposition. Repeats trigger the synth's envelope fresh, so they stay punchy, and the synth's velocity mapping shapes them. Pair it with Velocity and Scale MIDI effects for arpeggio-like cascades that remain in key.

Delay on sends vs inserts

Send delays are shared, ridable, and processable (filter, sidechain, saturation on the return) — the dub setup. Insert delays are part of a sound and get resampled with it — the sound-design setup. A good template has one dub Echo return and one clean Delay return; everything else is an insert.

1. Returns at 100% wet. Inserts at 20–40% Dry/Wet.
2. On a send delay, sidechain-duck the return from the dry track's bus (Compressor sidechain) or use Echo's Duck so repeats stay out of the way of the hits.
3. On an insert delay, enable Clip Dry (Echo) or keep the time mode Repitch so you can automate it as part of the patch and then Bounce in Place.
4. Chaining returns: send the delay return into the reverb return (enable sends on returns via the mixer's Sends section) so echoes sit in the same room as everything else.

Feedback safety: self-oscillation without blowing anything up

Echo allows feedback over 100%. That is a feature — the loop grows into a drone you can filter — and a hazard on a PA. Three rules: limiter last on the chain, a kill switch you can reach, and know how the time-change mode behaves at high feedback.

1. Limiter at the end of every return that can self-oscillate. Ceiling −3 dB. Saturator Soft Clip before it so the limiter is not doing all the work.
2. Map Echo Feedback to an encoder with a range of 0–110% and Utility Gain to a pad for instant mute. Push: use a macro with Macro Variations so a snapshot "Safe" (feedback 50%) is one tap away.
3. Repitch mode at 110% feedback: shortening the time pitches the loop up and makes it louder faster. Fade mode is safer for live feedback play; Jump glitches.
4. Echo's filter is your throttle: pulling the LP down to 500 Hz drains the loop's energy as fast as lowering feedback, and sounds better.
5. On stage, meter the return, not just the master. The master limiter hides a return that is 20 dB too hot until it suddenly isn't.