Request for indepth delay advice?

[professorlamp]

Was just listening to Feathers by Coheed and cambria and the intro has a pretty massive delay on the guitars set to about 1/8th tap tempo and its noticeable at the start but when the song properly kicks in it sounds as if its gone but it has this huuuuge space now, Was just wondering where to start with delay.

I used to be anti reverb and delay a while ago thinking that they cover mistakes up, fair enough to say they do but they also fatten up the sound and so i've stopped being naive and now just want some decent info to get to grips with...

One of my questions is
Quad tracked guitars, do you set a delay on each one? do you stereo pan the delay (I'd imagine this would get fuckin cluttered with that many guitars going) or just leave it to its happy self in mono?

 

[professorlamp]

I wasn't talking about a song in general for applying the delay just some overall good tips, but i see your opint that it changes per song like most things....

 

[Notuern]

The general rule of having a delay that makes space within a song, but is heard on its own is using a lopass on the delayed signal(Pulled down to where it blends with the mix.).
Another thing i personally tend to do is to put a delay on a send channel, then ad a reverb with a very short decay, that way it kind of smudges out the delay.

Oh, and delay actually makes mistakes worse, because you get to hear them repeated.

 

[Morgan C]

Personally if you've got quad tracked guitars I wouldn't use delay, you'd end up with a huge mess imo. Double-tracked, and if its a lighter style, then maybe. Nickelback has this, you can hear easily on 'Next Go Round'.

There's also the PCM trick that was discussed on another thread.. but I don't totally understand it and it seems that you NEED the hardware and can't replicate it with software.

 

[JeffTD]

On this song, that guitar on the left is the only one with delay on it. The little single-note lead line that's double tracked left/right doesn't have the delay.

 

[Notuern]

Personally if you've got quad tracked guitars I wouldn't use delay, you'd end up with a huge mess imo. Double-tracked, and if its a lighter style, then maybe. Nickelback has this, you can hear easily on 'Next Go Round'.

To me it seems to depend more on what kind of music and tempo the song is, not as much on how many tracks you have.

Now im more of an 80's guy so i love reverbs and delays, but id rather be without them then having them mud up the mix.

Example of a quad-tracked song im working on:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/876568/nylåtide.mp3
(sry for the Swedish chars, dont want to reupload.)

 

[Morgan C]

To me it seems to depend more on what kind of music and tempo the song is, not as much on how many tracks you have.

Now im more of an 80's guy so i love reverbs and delays, but id rather be without them then having them mud up the mix.

Example of a quad-tracked song im working on:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/876568/nylåtide.mp3
(sry for the Swedish chars, dont want to reupload.)

^ Love the 80'sness of that!

I just meant that quadtracking can be pretty messy already if the player isn't REALLY tight, and putting delay on all those guitars is only going to make it even worse, plus its probably not even necessary to 'thicken up' quadtracked guitars if your tone is good.