Time-based Guitar Effects
Delay/Echo
A Delay or Echo pedal creates a copy of an incoming sound and slightly time-delays it, creating either a "slap" (single repetition) or an echo (multiple repetitions) effect. Delay pedals may use either analog or digital technology. Analog delays often are less flexible and not as "perfect" sounding as digital delays, but some guitarists argue that analog effects produce "warmer" tones. Early delay devices actually used magnetic tape to produce the time delay effect. U2's guitarist, the Edge, is known for his extensive use of delay effects. Some common Delay pedals are:
- Boss DD-6 Digital Delay
- Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeler
- Line 6 Echo Park
- T-Rex Engineering's Replica
- Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
- TC Electronic
Another technology that is used in Delay units is a feedback circuit, consisting of a tracking oscillator circuit to hold a note of the last interval, and after amplifying the signal, send it back to the input side of the delay. While it was first associated with Boss DF-2 Super Feedbacker & Distortion, currently, the signal feedback circuit is employed by Delay pedals, and if used under "hold" mode (As in Boss DD-3) it will provide a sustain effect instead of a simply delay effect.
Looping
Extremely long delay times form a looping pedal, which allows performers to record a phrase or passage and play along with it. This allows a solo performer to record an accompaniment or ostinato passage and then, with the looping pedal playing back this passage, perform solo improvisations over the accompaniment. The guitarist creates the loop either on the spot or it is held in storage for later use (as in playback) when needed. Some examples of loops effects are:
- Boss RC-2 Loop Station
- DigiTech JamMan Looper
- Z.Vex Lo-Fi Loop Junky
Chorus
Chorus uses a short variable cycling delay. The individual repetitions blend together to form a chorus. The effect sounds like several guitarists playing the same thing at the same time resulting in a wide swelling sound. Some common chorus pedals are:
- Boss CH-1 Super Chorus
- Electro-Harmonix Small Clone
- Ibanez CF-7 Chorus/Flanger
- Line 6 Space Chorus
- MXR M-134 Stereo Chorus
- TC Electronic Stereo Chorus /Flanger /Pitch Modulator
Famous songs using the Electro-Harmonix Small Clone pedal:
Reverb
Reverb is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. When sound is produced in a space, a large number of echoes build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air, creating reverberation, or reverb. A plate reverb system uses an electromechanical transducer, similar to the driver in a loudspeaker, to create vibration in a plate of sheet metal. A pickup captures the vibrations as they bounce across the plate, and the result is output as an audio signal. A spring reverb system uses a transducer at one end of a spring and a pickup at the other, similar to those used in plate reverbs, to create and capture vibrations within a metal spring. Guitar amplifiers frequently incorporate spring reverbs due to their compact construction. Spring reverberators were once widely used in semi-professional recording due to their modest cost and small size. Due to quality problems and improved digital reverb units, spring reverberators are declining rapidly in use. Digital reverb units use various signal processing algorithms in order to create the reverb effect. Since reverberation is essentially caused by a very large number of echoes, simple DSPs use multiple feedback delay circuits to create a large, decaying series of echoes that die out over time.
Examples of reverb pedals include:
- DigiTech DigiDelay
- Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail
- Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb
- Line 6 Verbzilla
- Rocktron Cyborg Digital Reverb
Flanger
A Flanger simulates the sound effect originally created by momentarily slowing the tape during recording by holding something against the flange, or edge of the tape reel, and then allowing it to speed up again. This effect was used to simulate passing into "warp speed," in scifi films, and also in psychedelic rock music of the 1960s. Flanging has a sound similar to an auto-wah, but weaker, yet is closely related to the production of chorus.
The first pedal-operated flanger designed for use as a guitar effect was designed by Jim Gamble of Tycobrahe Sound Company in Hermosa Beach, CA, during the mid 1970s. Last made in 1977, the existing "Pedalflangers" appear occasionally on eBay and sell for several hundred dollars. A modern "clone" of the Tycobrahe Pedalflanger is sold by Chicago Iron.Famous users of this Flanger effect include Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen, coincidentally they both used the MXR M-117R flanger and Eddie Van Halen even has his own signature model now.
Examples:
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