Delay, Echo, Reverb

Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo. more...

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It is distinct from reverb, which provides "reflected" sound using a different technique.

Early delay systems

The first delay effects were achieved using tape loops improvised on reel-to-reel magnetic 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, 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. Audio engineers working in popular music quickly adapted similar techniques, to augment their use of plate reverb and other studio techologies designed to simulate natural echo.

Analog delay

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.

Many delay processors based on analog recording, such as the Roland Space Echo, used magnetic tape as their recording and playback medium. Electric motors guided a tape loop through a device with a variety of mechanisms allowing modification of the effect's parameters. Thin magnetic tape was not entirely suited for continuous operation, however, so the tape loop had to be replaced from time to time to maintain the audio fidelity of the processed sounds.

The Binson Echorec, another popular unit, used a rotating magnetic drum as its storage medium. This provided an advantage over tape, as the durable drums were able to last for many years with little deterioration in the audio quality. Other devices used spinning magnetic discs, not entirely unlike those used in modern hard disk drives.

Often incorporating vacuum tube-based electronics, surviving analog delay units are sought by modern musicians who wish to employ some of the timbres achievable with this technology.

Digital delay

The availability of inexpensive digital signal processing electronics in the late 1970s and 1980s led to the devlopment of the first digital delay effects. These are most commonly seen in the form of an effects pedal, a small portable unit operated by foot.

Read more at Wikipedia.org