Reverb & Echo & Delay! Oh My!

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Discuss the differences / similarities, when to use which etc...
 

ChrisGSP

Blues Journeyman
Gee, 3 days and no takers on this assignment; I'm surprised. So,

Reverb reverberererererererererates.
Echo ech--ech--ech--echos
Delay..........hesitates

I'm proposing a collective noun for a group of effects - call it a board (no, not like "all aboard" ;);), but a pedal-board).
 

dwparker

Bluesologist
So what is the difference between echo and delay? I thought tape echo was just another flavor of delay, and not a separate effect.
 

BraylonJennings

It's all blues
If I have this right:

Reverb are the echoes that accompany a sound and are caused by the various reflections of the room its in. The size of the room, the reflectivity of the surfaces of the room, and the population of the room are the major factors in the sound of the reverb. Because most of us don't have beautiful sounding rooms, we tend to record dryly and add artificial reverb to the signal. Guitar amps use springs, tanks, or digital reverb to get the sound directly out of the amp. The first reverb units were often big rooms or spaces with a speaker at on end and a mic placed in the other to capture authentic reverb. Sounds can be sent through springs, tanks, and plates to achieve different flavors of reverb. Impulse Responses (IR's) are digital recreations created by capturing the reflections in a good sounding room and reproducing it digitally, but don't ask me how its done.

Delay is basically echo added to your signal. A slapback is a quick single repeat that sort of simulates a sound source recorded near a wall. Delays can repeat from once to indefinitely and can be tweaked in speed, pitch, and just about any way imaginable to produce a wide variety of effects. Chorus and phasers are different flavors of delay, but again, don't ask me to explain. Tape delay is an analog style of delay where the tiny vagaries of tape speed provide a sweet delay that many can't live without.

This is my totally uneducated understanding, anyway. Please correct me where I'm wrong or expand on areas where I'm a little blurry.

A little reverb on your mix can make digitally recorded tracks sound like they were all recorded together in the same room. Most vocals won't sound right without at least some delay or reverb. A little bit can go a long way. I put just a touch of Softube tape delay on almost everything to try and make my recordings sound less digitally sterile.
 

david moon

Attempting the Blues
I think you mostly have it. In a high school gym there will be a reverb character. But depending where you are sitting also a slapback echo.

Chorus/phasers introduce a variable phase shift that that will cancel or accentuate certain frequencies. And generally the rate of those fluctuations is variable.

How about flange?

Or rotating speaker effect (Leslie)?
 

Yvonne01

KeenBluesWoman
I think you mostly have it. In a high school gym there will be a reverb character. But depending where you are sitting also a slapback echo.

Chorus/phasers introduce a variable phase shift that that will cancel or accentuate certain frequencies. And generally the rate of those fluctuations is variable.

How about flange?

Or rotating speaker effect (Leslie)?
I am just getting into all the gear and it's a steep learning curve but I am slowly getting there!
 

Elwood

Blues
If I have this right:

Reverb are the echoes that accompany a sound and are caused by the various reflections of the room its in. The size of the room, the reflectivity of the surfaces of the room, and the population of the room are the major factors in the sound of the reverb. Because most of us don't have beautiful sounding rooms, we tend to record dryly and add artificial reverb to the signal. Guitar amps use springs, tanks, or digital reverb to get the sound directly out of the amp. The first reverb units were often big rooms or spaces with a speaker at on end and a mic placed in the other to capture authentic reverb. Sounds can be sent through springs, tanks, and plates to achieve different flavors of reverb. Impulse Responses (IR's) are digital recreations created by capturing the reflections in a good sounding room and reproducing it digitally, but don't ask me how its done.

Delay is basically echo added to your signal. A slapback is a quick single repeat that sort of simulates a sound source recorded near a wall. Delays can repeat from once to indefinitely and can be tweaked in speed, pitch, and just about any way imaginable to produce a wide variety of effects. Chorus and phasers are different flavors of delay, but again, don't ask me to explain. Tape delay is an analog style of delay where the tiny vagaries of tape speed provide a sweet delay that many can't live without.

This is my totally uneducated understanding, anyway. Please correct me where I'm wrong or expand on areas where I'm a little blurry.
That is really helpful Braylon! :Beer:@CaptainMoto also once explained to me (I can't find the post, forgive me if I lose your meaning here Moto, just correct me :thumbup:) that the reverb can be used to kinda push an instrument back in the mix whereas a delay can help to bring it to the foreground in the mix. I sure hope I have that right.....:)

I have wondered about any negative effect from using reverb and delay setting on one instrument in the mix that is different from another instrument, especially reverb. Like do the two different reverb settings (on different tracks) somehow create some strange audio artifact (better know as hoo doo) in the final mix. I believe Moto told me I had other things to concern myself with (in a very nice way) and I have never heard anything to confirm my suspicion. Hmmm.....

Reverb, and compression, delay - the onset of my effect confusion. :confused:
 

blackcoffeeblues

Student Of The Blues
Are we talking vocal or guitar?---Both work great with every thing Guitar and vocals and all the others-- if you mix some reverb with ANALOG delay----- there is a huge difference between them (I can not stand DIGIAL delay on anything)..you can do some amazing things to your singing or playing. JM2CW
 

dwparker

Bluesologist
That is really helpful Braylon! :Beer:@CaptainMoto also once explained to me (I can't find the post, forgive me if I lose your meaning here Moto, just correct me :thumbup:) that the reverb can be used to kinda push an instrument back in the mix whereas a delay can help to bring it to the foreground in the mix. I sure hope I have that right.....:)

I have wondered about any negative effect from using reverb and delay setting on one instrument in the mix that is different from another instrument, especially reverb. Like do the two different reverb settings (on different tracks) somehow create some strange audio artifact (better know as hoo doo) in the final mix. I believe Moto told me I had other things to concern myself with (in a very nice way) and I have never heard anything to confirm my suspicion. Hmmm.....

Reverb, and compression, delay - the onset of my effect confusion. :confused:

Dual reverbs are used by the ambient and shoegazer crowd. Honestly, to understand these pedals, buy one and play around with it. There is no other way to figure out how a pedal works with your rig and musical sensibilities.

And honestly, you don't need pedals, especially if one is a beginner. I'm not saying this as the beginning of an anti-pedal rant. I have them, like them and use them. But I think that a lot of guitarists end up really just playing their pedals rather than playing guitar. I personally think pedals are best used sparingly or low in the mix to support the music, and not be the centerpeice. YMMV.
 
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