Delay Designer is a multitap delay. Unlike traditional delay units that offer only one or two delays (or taps), that may or may not be fed back into the circuit, Delay Designer provides up to 26 individual taps. These taps are all fed from the source signal and can be freely edited to create delay effects that have never been heard before.
Delay Designer provides control over the following aspects of each tap:
Level and pan position
Highpass and lowpass filtering
Pitch transposition (up or down)
Further effect-wide parameters include synchronization, quantization, and feedback.
As the name implies, Delay Designer offers significant sound design potential. You can use it for everything from a basic echo effect to an audio pattern sequencer. You can create complex, evolving, moving rhythms by synchronizing the placement of taps. This leads to further musical possibilities when coupled with judicious use of transposition and filtering. Alternatively, you can set up numerous taps as repeats of other taps, much as you would use the feedback control of a simple delay, but with individual control over each repeat.
You can use Delay Designer on channel strips with mono or stereo inputs and/or outputs.
The Delay Designer interface consists of five main sections:
Delay Designer’s main display is used to view and edit tap parameters. You can freely determine the parameter shown, and quickly zoom or navigate through all taps.
The view buttons determine which parameter is represented in Delay Designer’s Tap display.
You can use Delay Designer’s Overview display to zoom and to navigate the Tap display area.
Tip: If the Overview display is hidden behind a tap, you can move it to the foreground by holding down Shift.
Vertically drag the highlighted section (the bright rectangle) of the Overview display.
Horizontally drag the highlighted bars—to the left or right of the bright rectangle—in the Overview display.
Note: The Autozoom button needs to be disabled when manually zooming with the Overview display. When you zoom in on a small group of taps, the Overview display continues to show all taps. The area shown in the Tap display is indicated by the bright rectangle in the Overview display.
Horizontally drag the (middle of the) bright rectangle in the Overview display.
The zoomed view in the Tap display updates as you drag.
You can create new delay taps in three different ways: by using the Tap pads, by creating them in the Identification bar, or by copying existing taps.
Click the upper pad (Start).
Note: Whenever you click the Start pad, it automatically erases all existing taps. Given this behavior, after you have created your initial taps, you will want to create subsequent taps by clicking in the Identification bar.
The upper pad label changes to Tap, and a red tap recording bar appears in the strip below the view buttons.
Click the Tap button to begin recording new taps.
Click the Tap button to create new taps. These are created at the exact moments in time of each click, adopting the rhythm of your click pattern.
To finish creating taps, click the Last Tap button.
This adds the final tap, ending tap recording, and assigning the last tap as the feedback tap (for an explanation of the feedback tap, see Using Delay Designer’s Master Section).
Note: If you do not click the Last Tap button, tap recording automatically stops after 10 seconds or when the 26th tap is created, whichever comes first.
Click at the appropriate position.
Option-drag a selection of one or more taps to the appropriate position.
The delay time of copied taps is set to the drag position.
The fastest way to create multiple taps is to use the Tap pads. If you have a specific rhythm in mind, you might find it easier to tap out your rhythm on dedicated hardware controller buttons, instead of using mouse clicks. If you have a MIDI controller, you can assign the Tap pads to buttons on your device. For information about assigning controllers, see the Control Surfaces Support manual.
Note: Whenever you click the Start Tap pad, it automatically erases all existing taps. Given this behavior, after you create your initial taps you will want to create subsequent taps by clicking in the Identification bar.
After a tap has been created, you can freely adjust its position, or you can remove it if it was created accidentally. For details, see Moving and Deleting Taps in Delay Designer.
Taps are assigned letters, based on their order of creation. The first tap to be created is assigned as Tap A, the second tap is assigned as Tap B, and so on. Once assigned, each tap is always identified by the same letter, even when moved in time, and therefore reordered. For example, if you initially create three taps they will be named Tap A, Tap B, and Tap C. If you then change the delay time of Tap B so that it precedes Tap A, it will still be called Tap B.
The Identification bar shows the letter of each visible tap. The Tap Delay field of the Tap parameter bar displays the letter of the currently selected tap, or the letter of the tap being edited when multiple taps are selected (for details, see Selecting Taps in Delay Designer).
There will always be at least one selected tap. You can easily distinguish selected taps by color—the toggle bar icons and the Identification bar letters of selected taps are white.
Click a tap in the Tap display.
Click the appropriate tap letter in the Identification bar.
Click one of the arrows to the left of the Tap name to select the next or previous tap.
Open the pop-up menu to the right of the Tap name, and choose the appropriate tap letter.
Drag across the background of the Tap display to select multiple taps.
Shift-click specific taps in the Tap display to select multiple nonadjacent taps.
You can move a tap backward or forward in time, or completely remove it.
Note: When you move a tap, you are actually editing its delay time.
Select the tap in the Identification bar, and drag it to the left to go forward in time, or to the right to go backward in time.
This method also works when more than one tap is selected.
Note: Editing the Delay Time parameter in the Tap Delay field of the Tap parameter bar also moves a tap in time. For more details about the Tap Delay field and editing taps, see Editing Taps in Delay Designer’s Tap Parameter Bar.
Select it and press the Delete or Backspace key.
Select a tap letter in the Identification bar and drag it downward, out of the Tap display.
This method also works when more than one tap is selected.
Control-click (or right-click) a tap, and choose “Delete tap(s)” from the shortcut menu.
Each tap has its own toggle button in the Toggle bar. These buttons offer you a quick way to graphically activate and deactivate parameters. The specific parameter being toggled by the toggle buttons depends on the current view button selection:
Command-Option-click a toggle button, regardless of the current view mode.
When you release the Command and Option keys, the toggle buttons return to their standard functionality in the active View mode.
Note: The first time you edit a filter or pitch transpose parameter, the respective module automatically turns on. This saves you the effort of manually turning on the filter or pitch transposition module before editing. After you manually turn either of these modules off, however, you need to manually switch it back on.
You can graphically edit any tap parameter that is represented as a vertical line in Delay Designer’s Tap display. The Tap display is ideal if you want to edit the parameters of one tap relative to other taps, or when you need to edit multiple taps simultaneously.
Click the view button of the parameter you want to edit.
Vertically drag the bright line of the tap you wish to edit (or one of the selected taps, if multiple taps are selected).
If you have chosen multiple taps, the values of all selected taps will be changed relative to each other.
Note: The method outlined above is slightly different for the Filter Cutoff and Pan parameters. See Editing Filter Cutoff in Delay Designer’s Tap Display and Editing Pan in Delay Designer’s Tap Display.
Command-drag horizontally and vertically across several taps in the Tap display.
Parameter values change to match the mouse position as you drag across the taps. Command-dragging across several taps allows you to draw value curves, much like using a pencil to create a curved line on a piece of paper.
You can use Delay Designer’s Tap display to graphically align tap parameter values that are represented as vertical lines.
Command-click in the Tap display, and move the pointer while holding down the Command key. This will result in a line trailing behind the pointer.
Click the appropriate position to mark the end point of the line.
The values of taps that fall between the start and end points are aligned along the line.
Whereas the steps outlined in Editing Parameters in Delay Designer’s Tap Display apply to most graphically editable parameters, the Cutoff and Pan parameters work in a slightly different fashion.
In Cutoff view, each tap actually shows two parameters: highpass and lowpass filter cutoff frequency. The filter cutoff values can be adjusted independently by dragging the specific cutoff frequency line—the upper line is lowpass and the lower line is highpass—or both cutoff frequencies can be adjusted by dragging between them.
When the highpass filter cutoff frequency value is lower than that of the lowpass cutoff frequency, only one line is shown. This line represents the frequency band that passes through the filters—in other words, the filters act as a bandpass filter. In this configuration, the two filters operate serially, meaning that the tap passes through one filter first, then the other.
If the highpass filter’s cutoff frequency value is above that of the lowpass filter cutoff frequency, the filter switches from serial operation to parallel operation, meaning that the tap passes through both filters simultaneously. In this case, the space between the two cutoff frequencies represents the frequency band being rejected—in other words, the filters act as a band-rejection filter.
The way the Pan parameter is represented in Pan view is entirely dependent on the input channel configuration—mono to stereo or stereo to stereo.
Note: Pan is not available in mono configurations.
In mono input/stereo output configurations, all taps are initially panned to the center. To edit the pan position, drag vertically from the center of the tap in the direction you wish to pan the tap, or taps. A white line extends outward from the center in the direction you have dragged, reflecting the pan position of the tap, or taps.
Lines above the center position indicate pans to the left, and lines below the center position denote pans to the right. Left (blue) and right (green) channels are easily identified.
In stereo input/stereo output configurations, the Pan parameter adjusts the stereo balance, not the position of the tap in the stereo field. The Pan parameter appears as a dot on the tap, which represents stereo balance. Drag the dot up or down the tap to adjust the stereo balance.
By default, stereo spread is set to 100%. To adjust this, drag either side of the dot. As you do so, the width of the line extending outwards from the dot changes. Keep an eye on the Spread parameter in the Tap parameter bar while you are adjusting.
The Tap parameter bar provides instant access to all parameters of the chosen tap. The Tap parameter bar also provides access to several parameters that are not available in the Tap display, such as Transpose and Flip.
Editing in the Tap parameter bar is fast and precise when you want to edit the parameters of a single tap. All parameters of the selected tap are available, with no need to switch display views or estimate values with vertical lines. If you choose multiple taps in the Tap display, the values of all selected taps are changed relative to each other.
Option-click a parameter value to reset it to the default setting. If multiple taps are selected, Option-clicking a parameter of any tap resets all selected taps to the default value for that parameter.
Control-click (or right-click) a tap in Delay Designer’s Tap display to open a shortcut menu containing the following commands:
You can use Delay Designer’s Tap display and Tap parameter bar to reset tap parameters to their default values.
In the Tap display, Option-click a tap to reset the chosen parameter to its default setting.
If multiple taps are selected, Option-clicking any tap will reset the chosen parameter to its default value for all selected taps.
In the Tap parameter bar, Option-click a parameter value to reset it to the default setting.
If multiple taps are selected, Option-clicking a parameter of any tap resets all selected taps to the default value for that parameter.
Delay Designer can either synchronize to the project tempo or run independently. When you are in synchronized mode (Sync mode), taps snap to a grid of musically relevant positions, based on note durations. You can also set a Swing value in Sync mode, which varies the precise timing of the grid, resulting in a more laid-back, less robotic feel for each tap. When you are not in Sync mode, taps don’t snap to a grid, nor can you apply the Swing value.
When Sync mode is on, a grid that matches the chosen Grid parameter value is shown in the Identification bar. All taps are moved towards the closest delay time value on the grid. Subsequently created or moved taps are snapped to positions on the grid.
When you save a Delay Designer setting, the Sync mode status, Grid, and Swing values are all saved. When you save a setting with Sync mode on, the grid position of each tap is also stored. This ensures that a setting loaded into a project with a different tempo to that of the project the setting was created in will retain the relative positions, and rhythm, of all taps—at the new tempo.
Note: Delay Designer offers a maximum delay time of 10 seconds. This means that if you load a setting into a project with a slower tempo than the tempo at which it was created, some taps may fall outside the 10-second limit. In such cases, these taps will not be played but will be retained as part of the setting.
As an example, imagine a project with the current tempo set to 120 beats per minute. The Grid pop-up menu value is set to 1/16 notes. At this tempo and grid resolution, each grid increment is 125 milliseconds (ms) apart. If Tap A is currently set to 380 ms, turning on Sync mode would immediately shift Tap A to 375 ms. If you subsequently moved Tap A forward in time, it would snap to 500 ms, 625 ms, 750 ms, and so on. At a resolution of 1/8 notes, the steps are 250 milliseconds apart, so Tap A would automatically snap to the nearest division (500 ms), and could be moved to 750 ms, 1000 ms, 1250 ms, and so on.
Use subtle variations of the grid position of every second increment (values between 45% and 55%) to create a less rigid rhythmic feel. This can deliver very human timing variations. Use of extremely high Swing values are unsubtle as they place every second increment directly beside the subsequent increment. Make use of higher values to create interesting and intricate double rhythms with some taps, while retaining the grid to lock other taps into more rigid synchronization with the project tempo.
The Master section incorporates two global functions: delay feedback and dry/wet mix.
In simple delays, the only way for the delay to repeat is to use feedback. Because Delay Designer offers 26 taps, you can use these taps to create repeats, rather than requiring discreet feedback controls for each tap.
Delay Designer’s global Feedback parameter does, however, allow you to send the output of one user-defined tap back through the effect input, to create a self-sustaining rhythm or pattern. This tap is known as the feedback tap.
A value of 0% equals no feedback.
A value of 100% sends the feedback tap back into Delay Designer’s input at full volume.
Note: If Feedback is enabled and you begin creating taps with the Tap pads, Feedback is automatically turned off. When you stop creating taps with the Tap pads, Feedback is automatically re-enabled.