Recording · glossary
Delay
Also called echo, delay effect, ping-pong delay
Delay is an effect that plays back what you just played a moment later, once or many times, so you hear it echo. Time sets the gap between repeats, feedback sets how many repeats you get, and mix sets how loud they are.
The time control does most of the work. Set it to a note value and the echoes lock to the beat. For a quarter note in milliseconds, divide 60,000 by the BPM; many delays also have a sync switch that does the math for you. At 120 BPM:
| Setting | Time | What you hear |
|---|---|---|
| Slapback | about 100 ms, one repeat | One quick echo, the 1950s rockabilly vocal sound |
| Eighth note | 250 ms | Busy, rhythmic echoes |
| Dotted eighth | 375 ms | Echoes that land between the beats |
| Quarter note | 500 ms | Clear, spacious repeats |
Slapback stays at about 100 ms at any tempo; the other three change with the BPM. Feedback sends each echo back into the delay. At zero you get one repeat. Around 30 to 50 percent you get a few that fade away, and near the top of the range the repeats pile up and can build into a howl. Mix sets how loud the echoes sit against the dry sound; 15 to 25 percent keeps them behind the note.
A ping-pong delay bounces the repeats between the left and right speakers, which you notice right away on headphones. Delay times under about 30 ms stop sounding like echoes and fuse with the note into one thicker sound. A short delay that slowly moves is how chorus works, and reverb is thousands of tiny reflections blurred together.
Delay works best on parts with gaps between the notes. A short pluck with a dotted-eighth echo fills those gaps, while a busy lead can turn to clutter.
In Gelato Synth, delay is called Echo: the Space page has Echo and Echo Time sliders. In Gelato Chord, the delay repeats on an eighth note at your tempo. Making a pluck synth puts an echo to work, and making a synth sound bigger covers stereo delay for width.
Updated . All terms · Try the online chord pads