Sometimes the best effect is the one you don’t hear. I know it’s true with vocal delays. As much as you want to hear them ring out when a vocal phrase ends, they get in the way when they swirl all over the vocalist as he is singing a line. You turn it down to avoid this problem, but then you don’t hear enough delay at all.
Time For The Smart Delay
The smart delay is really a dynamic delay. One that knows when to turn itself down (getting out of the way of the vocal) and when to turn itself back up to echo out the awesomeness. You can set this up with a regular old delay plugin in your DAW, with just a little help from a compressor with a sidechain.
Comments
Pro Tools 8 and above have a built in dynamic delay: AIR Dynamic Delay. Just FYI.
Eric, I’m fully aware of the included dynamic delay plugin. As I mention in the video, if you DON’T have one (i.e. a different DAW) or if you want more control over how it sounds, this is a simple option.
Graham, the FYI was more for your readers/viewers.
thanks Graham, I watch all of your videos even though I know most of the concepts. Sometimes though, you show me another way of using basic plugins to achieve an effect. To me, this gives me more power because as you stated, I can have more control and also can recreate an effect at ANY studio using stock plugins if they don’t have all the “FANCY” plugs. I also feel that I gain a deeper understanding of how individual plug ins work on a signal. Once I know how to drive a stick-shift I can drive anything from a VW Jetta to a Porsche. THUMBS UP from me.
Great analogy!
Good tip, Graham. Side chaining is something that confuses a lot of newbies. This is a great technique for a quick rough mix. Personally, if I’m going to spend hours on a real mix I would automate and ride the delay returns. I’d even automate the delay send.
Keep up the good work.
Great video Graham! I have a question though about sends, you seem to always set it to pre-fader, and I understand why you’re doing it, but my question is what circumstance would you not have set to pre-fader?
Thanks again for all of the great videos, and articles!
Bob, typically I actually DON’T use sends in Pre fader. Especially if I’m sending them to effects like reverbs or delays. In these sidechain examples I’m using PRE fader because I want a full copy of the audio sent somewhere no matter what I do to the original track.