A delay effect records the sound you feed it and plays it back a moment later, so a single note returns as one or more echoes. Set that gap to a beat and the repeats fall in time with the music; add a little feedback and one echo becomes a fading train of them. It is how a dry, close sound gains rhythm, space and depth.
The controls are much the same on almost every delay, hardware or plugin: a delay time, a feedback amount, a wet/dry mix and some filtering on the repeats. None of this is tied to one product.
A delay effect records the incoming sound and plays it back a moment later, creating one or more echoes. Feed it a note and, a set amount of time afterwards, you hear that note again. On its own that is a single repeat, like a shout bouncing back off a distant wall. Let each repeat feed back into the delay and you get a whole series of them, each a little quieter than the last, until they fade into silence.
It is one of the oldest and most flexible effects, built from a single simple idea: hold the sound, then release it late. Because the length of the wait and the number of repeats are yours to set, the same effect can be a tight thickening, a rhythmic pattern locked to the beat, or a long, cavernous wash. What it buys you is rhythm and space. A repeat that lands on a beat adds groove and movement, a short one fattens a sound, and a longer, filtered train pushes a sound backward and lends it depth.
A delay does not change the sound it copies. It stores each incoming moment and hands it back a fixed time later, again and again if you let it. Everything a delay is known for, the rhythm, the thickening and the sense of space, comes from when those copies arrive and how many there are, which you set with the controls below. Turn the effect off and the repeats stop, because there was only ever the one sound going in.
The main controls set how long until the echo, how many times it repeats, and how much of it you hear: delay time, feedback and the wet/dry mix, usually with some filtering on the repeats. The labels vary from one delay to another, but they nearly always come down to those few. Here is what each one does and a sensible place to start.
| Control | What it does | A place to start |
|---|---|---|
| Delay time | The gap between the dry sound and its first echo. Usually synced to a note value such as a quarter or a dotted eighth, or set free in milliseconds. | Synced to the beat, a dotted eighth for a classic bounce |
| Feedback / repeats | How much of each echo is fed back to make the next one, which sets how many times it repeats. Low is one or two, high is a long train, very high can run away. | Low to moderate; a few repeats that fade out |
| Wet/dry mix | The balance of untreated sound to echoes. Keeping it modest keeps the dry part clear and out in front. | Well below fully wet, then add to taste |
| Tone / filter | High-pass and low-pass on the repeats, so the echoes come back darker or thinner than the dry sound and stay out of its way. | Roll off some low end so repeats do not build up |
| Ducking | Drops the level of the repeats while the dry sound plays and lets them rise in the gaps between phrases. | On, when repeats crowd a busy vocal or lead |
Delay time and feedback are the two you will reach for most. Delay time is simply how long the effect waits before the first echo, and syncing it to a note value locks the repeats to the tempo so they land in time rather than fighting the groove. Feedback then decides how many repeats you get, from a single slap at zero to a long, fading train as you turn it up. Push feedback near the top and the echoes stop dying away and start to build on themselves, tipping into runaway self-oscillation, which is a fine effect on purpose but easy to trigger by accident.
The wet/dry mix is the safety valve, since it decides how much of all those repeats actually reaches the output, and it behaves like the blend on any other effect. There is a whole guide on dry versus wet signal if you want the fuller picture on that one control. The filtering shapes the character of the repeats: rolling off their low end keeps the echoes from thickening the bass, and darkening their top makes each repeat sit a little further back than the one before. Many delays also work in stereo, and a ping-pong delay sends each repeat to the opposite side so the echoes bounce between left and right, opening the sound out across the stereo field.
The common types are digital, analog bucket-brigade and tape echo, and they differ mainly in the character each one gives to the repeats. A digital delay copies the sound cleanly, an analog delay darkens and softens each repeat as it fades, and a tape echo adds saturation and a gentle wobble as the sound passes over tape. The names come from the hardware they grew out of, but on a plugin they are really just different flavours of the same idea.
| Type | What it is | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Digital | Stores the sound as numbers and plays it back exactly, so each repeat is a faithful copy unless you filter it. Clean, precise, and able to hold long, clear delay times. | Clear, modern repeats. Good for rhythmic delays that need to stay defined and present. |
| Analog (bucket-brigade) | Passes the sound along a chain of tiny stages, a bucket-brigade chip, losing a little top and clarity each pass, so repeats grow darker and warmer as they fade. | Warm, vintage repeats that sink into the mix on their own. Good on guitars, keys and vocals. |
| Tape echo | Records to a moving loop of tape and reads it back a moment later, adding saturation and the wow and flutter of the tape, so repeats warm and drift as they degrade. | Characterful, moving repeats with a lo-fi warmth. A strong sound in dub, and anywhere you want the hardware over realism. |
Most delay plugins model all three, and you often get one box that switches between them. Digital is the neutral default, faithful and easy to place. Analog and tape earn their keep because they colour and soften the repeats, which happens to be exactly what keeps a delay from cluttering: the echoes get darker and quieter as they go, so they slip under the dry part rather than competing with it. In practice you rarely need to worry about the label. Choose by the character you want, clean and defined or warm and worn, and judge it by ear.
Sync the delay to the tempo, high-pass the repeats and keep the mix modest, so the echoes support the groove instead of filling every gap. Delay is easy to overdo, because every repeat adds another copy of the part, and enough of them turn a mix into a blur. A handful of habits keep the rhythm and space and lose the clutter.
The rhythmic dotted-eighth is synced to a dotted eighth so its repeats fall between the beats, adding a syncopated, driving bounce that is a staple on lead vocals and guitars. The slapback is a single short repeat, roughly 60 to 140 ms with no feedback, which thickens a vocal or guitar and gives it a lively, live feel without an obvious echo. And delay can stand in for space itself: a filtered, quiet delay pushes a sound backward and lends it depth much like reverb does, and it often stays clearer, because it adds a few defined repeats instead of a dense tail. When you want distance without wash, reach for delay as an alternative to reverb.
Delay is a mixing move. It gives a sound rhythm, space and depth, but it cannot invent the sound in the first place, and a flat, lifeless part with a delay on it is still a flat, lifeless part. The interesting work is making a source worth echoing.
We do not make a delay plugin, and this guide is not a pitch for one. But delay is easier when the sound going into it is already clean and rhythmic, so the echoes add space and groove on top rather than smearing a busy part. The Collection is our three instruments together, ARGISH, SILT and REHEAT, with three separate licence keys. Each one makes source material that already moves in time: ARGISH is a self-playing drone synth, SILT is a tape-loop instrument that wears sounds into texture, and REHEAT writes acid lines. Parts like that carry their own pulse and space, so you place a delay on top by choice rather than to rescue a dry, static sound.
Every one ships as AU, VST3, AAX and a standalone app on macOS, signed and notarized, and a VST3 on Windows. You can hear one free in your browser first, no install and no account, then decide.
Everything on this page works by hand with any delay in any DAW, which is rather the point of writing it down.
We write these when there is something worth writing down. One email when a new one lands or a new Tunary instrument ships. No newsletter, no schedule.
Tunary