Good Delay for Live Vocals

[jp76]

I'm looking for a decent delay unit to use for live vocal performance. Any recommendations?

[JohnDavisNYC]

TC electronics Dtwo is the shit for a live delay, as a FOH engineer. tap tempo, sounds good. usefull shit. if you mean to apply delay yourself while singing, i would guess that the Line6 DL4 pedal would be good if youi used a preamp before it.

john

[cgarges]

I'll second the D-Two as possibly the coolest stereo delay on the planet.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[kcrusher]

I like the Lexicon MPX-550 - which I think sounds better than the D-Two. Smoother, more analogy sounding delays.

[Paul Fury 161]

Hiya.
There are loads more delays with tap tempo, any of which are absolutely fine for live FOH vocals-i don't care about the analog-ness or whatever, i'm not mixing for posterity, it has to work and translate now.SO;

Lexicon Vortex - great, use mine live AND studio all the time dirt cheap also ;-p unique method for the tap tempo, you set the rhythmic subdivision (can be set different for left and right sides for 3 against 4, 7 against 5 etc etc) then tap once for beat one and again for beat oneof the next bar - does the math no problem, more even tempo mapping due to the longer interval of calculation IMO. Also, the presets are in pairs i.e. 4a and 4b. You can morph with one touch to the B preset , where every single parameter can be different, and set a morph time e.g. 10 secs. Ace.The b-a morph time can be different to the a-b one as well. Bless Lexicon !

Yamaha SPX-990 it's got a tap tempo everything else good verb also no problemo!

Digitech studio Quad V2- cheap, nasty, but can be a stereo verb and stereo delay with tap tempo totally can get the job done.The tap isn't easy to find but it IS there read the manual.

Howzat?

;-p

Take it easy,

Paul Fury 161

[cgarges]

Regarding the tap tempo, I can never get the Lexicon's taps to chase accurately. I don't know what the deal is with them, but everybody else's work just fine and the Lexicons never end up the tempo I'm tapping. From the PCM 90s right on down to the little cheap ones. Anyone else notice this?

The D-Two is super cool because not only can you tap tempo (accurately), but you can also tap rhythms. I don't know of any other delay that does that. It traces multi-taps with different delay times, so your delays can shuffle or follow a rhythmic pattern or whatever, just by tapping it in. Works great.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Max]

I have a TC D2 and I'm really happy with it. It does everything that I can imagine a delay to do.
I've never compared it side by side with a Lexicon or an Ensonique delay. So I can't comment on that.
A friend just returned from a two weeks tour doing sound for a band and the first thing he told me when I asked him about it was:" I want a TC 2290. I now it's just 16bit but I want one. I've used one in Vienna and it sounded amazing." He is quite familiar with the D2 but says that the 2290 sounds better.
I can imagine that a used 2290 is affordable.
Best, Max.

[JohnDavisNYC]

2290's ARE the shit, but they're still quite expensive. they sound amazing.

john

[Verboten]

I'd vote for the D-2... but, also consider the TC M300. It's cheaper and sounds pretty damn good. You can tap in tempos and can get some really effective analog delay sounds. If the smoke and wear and tear get to it - it's only $200.

[psychicoctopus]

I like the Digitech RDS 7.6 Time Machine. Gibby Haynes rips shit up with it.

[AnalogElectric]

I'mthe first to mention DeltaLab Effectron???? (any series, really...truly)

The MOTHER of live engineer rack effects.

--Adam Lazlo

[thunderboy]

Dammit! AnalogElectric beat me to it!
I miss my Effectron so much, I still label my delay returns with a Greek delta.

jt

[cgarges]

I'mthe first to mention DeltaLab Effectron???? (any series, really...truly)

The MOTHER of live engineer rack effects.

I agree. That's why I mentioned that the D-Twp was the coolest STEREO delay. Long live our Effectrons!!!!! I'm up to three now. Whoo-hooo!!!

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[telepathy]

get to know your Effectron(s) well enough and you don't need no tap tempo!

[marcusb]

I'm so glad someone brought up the effectron! My effectron II (adm1024) is still a staple in my personal rack I take to shows when i'm doing FOH. My first introduction to it was from Jonathon Kreniek who was doing FOH for Trans Am in australia many years ago. I was doing supports and got to get my grubby hands on his .. the next day I picked one up dirt cheap on ebay and have used it ever since. As telepathy said, you don't need to tap tempo I can hear a song and pretty much guess where the ratio knob has to be The knobular ness of this box is so damn cool.

It also works great as a vocal distortion, and doing feedback effects by feeding back the send into itself .. having the limiter built in on the front end is awesome.

I also really love the D2, one of the best boxes TC has released in years. Most big FOH racks I see these days at large shows no long carry 2190's but a couple of D2's in the same rackspace for about 1/3rd the cost

Back to the effectron for a minute, have any of you done any repairs on one. Just recently mine seems to be really really noisy on the longer times (256 + 1024) in particular. I don't know that much about electronics but a buddy reckons it could be a bad IC or something. Be nice to tidy it up.

To continue my ramble ... a friend of mine works in an old vintage guitar shop and found for me a morley foot controller for the effectrons. It's a big powered thing that you connect to the CV inputs on the back so you can control the delay ratio and hold and bypass from the footpedal! I used to have my effectron in my bass rack and would essentially get a drone or loop going in the effecton then wind the delay mix back a bit and play over it. Lotsa fun!

Sorry for the ramble I love delay... lay... ay... y..

cheers,
marcus