Fractal delay discovery

[dk_ace]

I’ve been getting the bug to buy an analog delay like the dm-101. Don’t really need it and likely wouldn’t incorporate it into my live rig, so I was trying to figure out why I wanted the thing in the first place. It came down to me missing the option of that darker, murkier delay that stays more out of the way.

In short, I had an idea that I got around to trying today that cured my gas for a bit. I run all of my delays and verbs in parallel already. I added a filter block before the delays set to be a high cut around 3500hz at 24db/octave. That gave me what I was missing. This sounds and feels quite different than setting the high cut in the delay block eq to the same settings as the filter, probably because that eq is not at the beginning of the delay block “circuit.”

I’ll put this filter block on a switch so that I can go between my normal voicing and this one.

Fun to try if you like that kinda sound.

D

 

[yek]

"Lo-fi Tape" is my go-to delay type for this reason.

 

[deadpool_25]

Fractal is amazing at giving you the control to come up with creative ways to get to sounds in your head.

 

[Whizzinby]

I’ll give this a go

 

[dk_ace]

"Lo-fi Tape" is my go-to delay type for this reason.

I’ll revisit that one to confirm, but I don’t think it will give you the same thing that I’m describing here. As I understand the delay algo in Fractal, the eq shaping happens too late in the chain to give you the full experience of these types of delays.

I might be wrong, maybe certain delay types do actually move that bit around. But the ones I tried last night were markedly different with my filter block before the delay versus using the filter settings in the delay.

If you like this type of delay sound, try what I described in the OP and see what you think both with lo-fi tape and with other types.

D

 

[OrganicZed]

I am also a fan of the lo-fi delay sounds. They are much less obtrusive than the full frequency types.

I suggest that everyone play around with the EQ section of the delay block. Cutting the lows really cleans up the sound of delays IMO.

 

[dk_ace]

I am also a fan of the lo-fi delay sounds. They are much less obtrusive than the full frequency types.

I suggest that everyone play around with the EQ section of the delay block. Cutting the lows really cleans up the sound of delays IMO.

I don’t find the eq section of the delay block really gets you there though. It’s a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t have the same effect as what I’m describing in this thread which is more aligned to the sounds of classic analog or lo-fi delay pedals. Try it, you might like it.

D

 

[iaresee]

I’ll revisit that one to confirm, but I don’t think it will give you the same thing that I’m describing here. As I understand the delay algo in Fractal, the eq shaping happens too late in the chain to give you the full experience of these types of delays.

I might be wrong, maybe certain delay types do actually move that bit around. But the ones I tried last night were markedly different with my filter block before the delay versus using the filter settings in the delay.

If you like this type of delay sound, try what I described in the OP and see what you think both with lo-fi tape and with other types.

D

It doesn't move where the user-controlled EQ is applied, but there is more done at the front of the block to degrade and darken the first echo akin to degraded tape in this model.

This kind of variance is true for all the delay models. The first repeat, on every model, is not the same.

 

[dk_ace]

It doesn't move where the user-controlled EQ is applied, but there is more done at the front of the block to degrade and darken the first echo akin to degraded tape in this model.

This kind of variance is true for all the delay models. The first repeat, on every model, is not the same.

That’s how I hear it. The first repeat varies across the types but isn’t editable. For whatever reason I was still not hearing the thing I was looking for in the types I was using.

If I wanted to start all over on delay sounds, perhaps I could have tried a bunch of types again and found one closer to what I wanted to see if I could get it all the way there. I was happy with the other elements of my delay sounds though and didn’t want to start over.

Using a filter block got me where I wanted to go. The thing I like most about where I landed is that I can put that filter on a switch so that I have all of the delay sounds I created across my channels that are more pristine in nature, and then have a dark version for each as well by engaging that filter block.

D

 

[OrganicZed]

I don’t find the eq section of the delay block really gets you there though. It’s a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t have the same effect as what I’m describing in this thread which is more aligned to the sounds of classic analog or lo-fi delay pedals. Try it, you might like it.

D

I believe you and was not suggesting that the EQ section does the same thing as EQing the input signal. I was simply offering another tweaking tip for Fractal delay users.

 

[Orvillain]

JFYI - the EQ in the delay block is inside the feedback path, or the feedback loop, whatever you want to call it. That's why the EQ is applied again and again and again, giving you some interesting possibilities.

EQ'ing on the front end or on the output, give you different results.

 

[Antipodes]

JFYI - the EQ in the delay block is inside the feedback path, or the feedback loop, whatever you want to call it. That's why the EQ is applied again and again and again, giving you some interesting possibilities.

EQ'ing on the front end or on the output, give you different results.

It is worth noting perhaps that applying the same filter multiple times changes the steepness of the rolloff but not the rolloff frequency.

This is similar in a way to the situation you have in a tube preamp with a series of coupling caps and gain control pots - together each cap and pot pair make a high pass RC filter with 6db per octave (1 pole) slope. If you have three in series between stages in your preamp you get a bass rolloff of 18dB per octave (3 pole) but the high pass frequency remains the same. Of course the amount of a frequency below that rolloff still present drops off substantially more with each successive application of the filter.

For a low pass filter (high cut) the same general idea applies - the rolloff F stays the same but the amount of any frequency above the rolloff F still present in the signal is cut more and more by each application of the filter.

 

[Frodebro]

I’ve been getting the bug to buy an analog delay like the dm-101. Don’t really need it and likely wouldn’t incorporate it into my live rig, so I was trying to figure out why I wanted the thing in the first place. It came down to me missing the option of that darker, murkier delay that stays more out of the way.

In short, I had an idea that I got around to trying today that cured my gas for a bit. I run all of my delays and verbs in parallel already. I added a filter block before the delays set to be a high cut around 3500hz at 24db/octave. That gave me what I was missing. This sounds and feels quite different than setting the high cut in the delay block eq to the same settings as the filter, probably because that eq is not at the beginning of the delay block “circuit.”

I’ll put this filter block on a switch so that I can go between my normal voicing and this one.

Fun to try if you like that kinda sound.

D

I didn't need it either, but I'm a delay junky and bought one anyway.