Delays With Repeat Settings

[brandondrury]

I know I've used a delay in the past that didn't have conventional feedback. Instead, you just selected how many repeats it would do. I'm finding that I sometimes like delays with a fairly high number of repeats but when cranking up the feedback, the delay keeps on going even when it's mostly below the audible floor. Then it's just muddying everything up. That's no good. Anyone know of a delay where I can just enter in "5" repeats or whatever?

Brandon

[IMF OnSite Recording]

I cant find any.. and you're right about the feedback. For now you could automate it so the level was down all the way after the desired amount of delays played back.. but that kinda sucks... or you could manually create a track and edit that many.. that sucks even more. Looks like I should stop typing because as I make more suggestions, they get worse and worse!

[willj]

Gotta love them noise gates.

[bozmillar]

I don't know of any that are designe specifically to do this, but all you need is a multitap delay with no feedback and set the number of taps to the number of delays you want. It's kind of a lot of work though. It would be easy enough to write a plugin that did this. The code would take about 10 minutes to do unless you want to start adding distortion and stuff to each delay.

[garageband]

unless you want to start adding distortion and stuff to each delay.

Now that you've said that, he's going to want that too. Way to go.

[bozmillar]

What I would like to see is a delay plugin that is also a VST host that lets you add whatever vst plugins in your feedback path. That would be the ultimate delay plugin.

[bozmillar]

Here you go. It's super bare bones. The GUI is a modge podge of randomly placed faders. If you give it a stereo source it will only process the left input and spit it out in both channels.

The first fader is the number of taps. Second fader is the dry mix. Third fader is the delay (in samples).

It's an interesting concept that I'll probably work on more, but this gets at least the dirty job done.

http://www.bozrecords.com/mp3s/vst/FiniteDelay.dll

[the evil]

im pretty sure you can do that with echoboy.

[m24p]

I was going to suggest a multitap delay or a noise gate, but I see both suggestions have already been made.

And as for the "ultimate delay" suggested by Boz, Reaper allows you to route your tracks in a loop, so you can actually do that in Reaper and assemble your own delay.

[brandondrury]

Here you go. It's super bare bones. The GUI is a modge podge of randomly placed faders. If you give it a stereo source it will only process the left input and spit it out in both channels.

The first fader is the number of taps. Second fader is the dry mix. Third fader is the delay (in samples).

It's an interesting concept that I'll probably work on more, but this gets at least the dirty job done.

http://www.bozrecords.com/mp3s/vst/FiniteDelay.dll

Well that's bad ass! Thanks!! I just installed it and will be testing it soon.

How much learning curve are we looking at to write these kinds of plugins? I'm fluent in php, mysql, html, css, etc. I don't know jack crap about C++ and things like that. I could see myself getting into this plugin creation thing if it wasn't a huge undertaking.

im pretty sure you can do that with echoboy.

Echoboy has that last mode where you can draw in the repeats like a sequencer. I never really deal with that one much. Hell, it may do exactly what I need. With that said, I'm biased to try Boz's plugin.

Brandon

[Dahla]

What I would like to see is a delay plugin that is also a VST host that lets you add whatever vst plugins in your feedback path. That would be the ultimate delay plugin.

That would be a kick ass delay! I'd buy that.

[bozmillar]

How much learning curve are we looking at to write these kinds of plugins? I'm fluent in php, mysql, html, css, etc. I don't know jack crap about C++ and things like that. I could see myself getting into this plugin creation thing if it wasn't a huge undertaking.

I guess it depends. Programming plugins isn't that much of a different concept than programming scripts. It took a long time for me to get fluent in VST plugins. I don't think I would have been able to figure it out had I not been able to learn at work. The learning curve for me was pretty steep, but I didn't have very much c++ behind me when I dove in. For someone who has more of a background in C++, it would probably be easier. Actually, thinking back, it's really the GUI programming that was the biggest learning curve for me. The actual algorithm part is far more straight forward.

I think an easier way to do it is to learn how to program jesusonic plugins. It's more of a basic scripting language and the faders and whatnot are taken care of for you so long as you don't need an elaborate GUI. I'm pretty sure that there is a js->vst wrapper out there if you are using a daw that doesn't support js plugins. As far as I know, reaper is the only daw that supports them.

If you wanted to start messing with plugins, I'd highly suggest trying out JS stuff before vst. Much easier learning curve, and since js plugins are just scripts, you can open up any plugin and see the code. I use js plugins all the time for making quick stuff that I can't find in a plugin.

REAPER | JS Programming

[bozmillar]

That would be a kick ass delay! I'd buy that.

yeah, me too. It's far bigger an undertaking than I'm willing to do though. I know it's possible though because revalver has a FX unit that allows you to load other vst plugins into it. Maybe it's not that hard and the code is already out there.

[m24p]

I'm pretty sure that there is a js->vst wrapper out there if you are using a daw that doesn't support js plugins. As far as I know, reaper is the only daw that supports them.

They distribute ReaJS freely with their ReaPlugs package. REAPER | ReaPlugs

[richiebee]

Can't you do this just by using a send instead of an insert and using your delay as the last effect and ensuring all the effects in that chain have a 100% wet mix?

What I would like to see is a delay plugin that is also a VST host that lets you add whatever vst plugins in your feedback path. That would be the ultimate delay plugin.

[m24p]

Can't you do this just by using a send instead of an insert and using your delay as the last effect and ensuring all the effects in that chain have a 100% wet mix?

No. If it's in the feedback path, it goes through the effect each iteration. For example, let's say I put an octave up in the path. The first repeat would be one octave up, the second would be TWO octaves up.

You can do it fairly easily in Reaper since you can route Track A to track B and track B to track A, creating a feedback loop. (Careful!)

[the evil]

i just used soundtoys echoboy. You can go into the rythmic patterns and select the amount of echos, how many per bar, where to pan it, it has just about anything i could think of that i would want to do with a delay. oh and you can add distortion, saturation, etc...
so there you go.

[bozmillar]

No. If it's in the feedback path, it goes through the effect each iteration. For example, let's say I put an octave up in the path. The first repeat would be one octave up, the second would be TWO octaves up.

You can do it fairly easily in Reaper since you can route Track A to track B and track B to track A, creating a feedback loop. (Careful!)

I was just messing with this setup to see what kind of stuff you can do with it. Very cool. I've done it before but only to see if it worked. If you automate the feedback volume, you can get some great feedback FX, especially if you go above 0dB feedback gain. It's like making a whole new instrument. If you stick a limiter on your feedback track you can at least prevent it from getting too out of control. holy crap, it's a lot of fun. Any changes in filter, limiter, distortion etc can result in completely different sounds.

Here's a quick test I made by saying the word check and just messing with the feedback filter.

[brandondrury]

http://www.bozrecords.com/mp3s/vst/FiniteDelay.dll

Well damn. It looks like Mr. FiniteDelay.dll crashes Cubase 6. Bummer. (I'm not bitching. I just figured Boz would want to know. )

ere's a quick test I made by saying the word check and just messing with the feedback filter.

In some ways (at least at the end) it reminds me of what can be done with a self-oscillating filter on a synth when the feedback is cranked all the way up. Cool!

Brandon

[bozmillar]

Well damn. It looks like Mr. FiniteDelay.dll crashes Cubase 6. Bummer. (I'm not bitching. I just figured Boz would want to know. )

Crap. yes, I would like to know. thanks. That's why I end up just using my plugins for my own use. Getting it to work for me is only 20% of the battle. The rest of the battle is making sure it works on everything else.