From the course: Audio Foundations: Delay and Modulation

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Setting the delay time by ear

Setting the delay time by ear

From the course: Audio Foundations: Delay and Modulation

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Setting the delay time by ear

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If the tempo of the song you're working on is unknown, or if you're working on music that was not recorded to a click track, try using the snare to tune a delay, to set a delay time that makes musical sense. Even if the plan is to add delay to the vocal, piano, or guitar, it's usually easiest to use the snare for finding the appropriate delay time, both because it's a rhythm instrument and also because it hits so often. So much of pop music has a backbeat. The snare following regularly on beat 2 and beat 4. Send the snare to the delay and listen to the echo. Starting with a long delay of about 500 milliseconds and with some feedback to make it repeat, adjust the time until echoing snare hits fall on a musically relevant beat. If the delay falls at a nonmusical time interval, it can be pretty jarring, but when it's adjusted into the time of the music, you'll instantly feel it. It's perhaps easiest to find a quarter note delay, and with practice and concentration, finding triplet and…

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