Delay (audio effect)

The first delay effects were achieved using tape loops improvised on reel-to-reel audio tape recording systems. By shortening or lengthening the loop of tape and adjusting the read and write heads, the nature of the delayed echo could be controlled. This technique was most common among early composers of Musique concrète (Pierre Schaeffer), and composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, who had sometimes devised elaborate systems involving long tapes and multiple recorders and playback systems, collectively processing the input of a live performer or ensemble.[3] Audio engineers working in popular music quickly adapted similar techniques, to augment their use of reverberation and other studio technologies designed to simulate natural echo. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, several sound engineers began making devices for use in recording studios and later more compact machines for live purposes. Guitarist and instrument designer Les Paul was an early pioneer in delay devices. A landmark device was the EchoSonic made by American Ray Butts. It is a portable guitar amplifier with a built-in tape echo, which became used widely in country music (Chet Atkins) and especially in rock and roll (Scotty Moore).[4]

Tape echoes became commercially available in the 1950s.[5] An echo machine is the early name for a sound processing device used with electronic instruments to repeat the sound and produce a simulated echo. One example is the Echoplex which used a tape loop. The length of delay was adjusted by changing the distance between the tape record and playback heads. Another example is the Roland Space Echo with a record and multiple playback tape heads and a variable tape speed. The time between echo repeats was adjusted by varying the tape speed. The length or intensity of the echo effect was adjusted by changing the amount of echo signal was fed back into the pre-echo signal. Different effects could be created by combining the different playback heads.

Echoplex EP-2

Before the invention of audio delay technology, music employing a delayed echo had to be recorded in a naturally reverberant space, often an inconvenience for musicians and engineers. The popularity of an easy-to-implement real-time echo effect led to the production of systems offering an all-in-one effects unit that could be adjusted to produce echoes of any interval or amplitude. The presence of multiple taps (playback heads) made it possible to have delays at varying rhythmic intervals; this allowed musicians an additional means of expression over natural periodic echoes.

Solid state

Early battery guitar delay design, 1976

Solid-state delay units using analog bucket-brigade devices became available in the 1970s and were briefly a mainstream alternative to tape echo. The earliest known design, was prototyped at a Boston-based sound reinforcement company in 1976. The core technology used a Reticon SAD1024 IC. In the 1980s, this design was used by Boss Corporation for their mass-production products and the Rockman amplifier.

Though solid-state analog delays are less flexible than digital delays and generally have shorter delay times, several classic models such as the discontinued Boss DM-2 are still sought after for their "warmer", more natural echo quality and progressively decaying echos.

An Ibanez DE-7 delay pedal

A Boss Corporation digital delay pedal

Digital delay systems function by sampling the input signal through an analog-to-digital converter, after which the signal is passed through a digital signal processor that records it into a storage buffer, and then plays back the stored audio based on parameters set by the user. The delayed ("wet") output may be mixed with the unmodified ("dry") signal after, or before, it is sent to a digital-to-analog converter for output.

The availability of inexpensive digital signal processing electronics in the late 1970s and 1980s led to the development of the first digital delay effects. Initially, digital delay effects were only available in expensive rack-mounted units, such as the AMS DMX 15-80 of 1978.[8] As digital memory became cheaper in the 1980s, units like Lexicon PCM42, Roland SDE-3000, TC Electronic 2290 offered more than three seconds of delay time, enough to create background loops, rhythms and phrases. The 2290 was upgradeable to 32 seconds and Electro-Harmonix offered a 16-second delay and looping machine. Eventually, as costs came down further and the electronics grew smaller, they became available in the form of foot pedals. The first digital delay offered in a pedal was the Boss DD-2 in 1984. Rack-mounted delay units evolved into digital reverb units and on to digital multi-effects units capable of more sophisticated effects than pure delay, such as reverb and audio time stretching and pitch scaling effects.

Digital delays present an extensive array of options, including a control over the time before playback of the delayed signal. Most also allow the user to select the overall level of the processed signal in relation to the unmodified one, or the level at which the delayed signal is fed back into the buffer, to be repeated again. Some systems allow more exotic controls, such as the ability to add an audio filter, or to play back the buffer's contents in reverse.

Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro

While the early delay units with a long delay capacity could be used to record a riff or chord progression and then play over it, they were challenging to work with. The Paradis LOOP Delay,[9] created in 1992, was the first unit with dedicated looping functions such as Record, Overdub, Multiply, Insert, and Replace, which made it more intuitive and user-friendly. Gibson manufactured a slightly improved version as Echoplex Digital Pro[10] until 2006. Its software Aurisis LOOP is also the last loop tool based on a continuous memory structure as used by tape and digital delays. Most following loopers repeat samples and thus have little in common with a digital delay, the exceptions being Maneco's early looper devices, the Boss DD-20 in digital delay mode and the Pigtronix Echolution.

Steve Harris' Delayorama software

A natural development from digital delay-processing hardware was the appearance of software-based delay systems. In large part, this coincided with the popularity of audio editing software. Software delays, in many cases, offer much greater flexibility than even the most recent digital hardware delays. Software implementations may offer shifting or random delay times, or the insertion of other audio effects during the feedback process. Many software plugins have added functionality to emulate the sounds of the earlier analog units. Abundant main memory on modern personal computers offers practically limitless audio buffer.

In popular and electronic music, electric guitarists use delay to produce densely overlaid textures of notes with rhythms complementary to the music. U2 guitarist The Edge uses delay while he plays arpeggios on electric guitar, thus creating a sustained, synth-pad-like background. Vocalists and instrumentalists use delay to add a dense or ethereal quality to their singing or playing. Extremely long delays of 10 seconds or more are often used to create loops of a whole musical phrase. Robert Fripp used two Revox reel-to-reel tape recorders to achieve very long delay times for solo guitar performance. He dubbed this technology "Frippertronics", and used it in a number of recordings.

John Martyn was a pioneer of the echoplex. Perhaps the earliest indication of his use can be heard on the songs "Would You Believe Me" and "The Ocean" on the album Stormbringer! released in February 1970. "Glistening Glyndebourne" on the album Bless The Weather (1971) showcased his developing technique of playing acoustic guitar through the echoplex. He later went on to experiment with a fuzz box, a volume/wah wah pedal, and the echoplex on Inside Out (1973) and One World (1977). Martyn is cited as an inspiration by many musicians including U2's The Edge.

• Broadcast delay — other analog and digital implementations of delay for radio and television broadcasting

• R.G. Keen: The Technology of Oil Can Delays