> Step by step

1. Getting started with PSP Audioware cmDelay

1 To install cmDelay, simply run the supplied installer for your PC or Mac. To follow this tutorial, set up a 90bpm project in your DAW, and import the files beginning “Demo…” onto audio tracks. Mute the Organ track for now, and loop the clips. Add a D16 Group Frontier – also yours free with this magazine – on the master bus. Load cmDelay on the Skank track and we’re ready to rock! 2 cmDelay’s hint bar displays the function of any control you hold the mouse over. The rest of the lower bar area offers preset loading and management – use the left/right arrows or “menu” button to select one. The presets cover everything from everyday echoes to chorus, flanging, stereo widening, and special effects. Select Default when you’re done trying them. 3 The LED-style display shows the delay time in milliseconds, unless the LFO Rate is adjusted, in which case it turns blue. To set delay time, you can turn the Delay Time knob; drag in the display while it’s showing delay time; adjust the central slider; or hit Tap at the desired rate. Tempo-synced times, in fractions of a bar, are available when Sync is On. For now, set Sync to Off and Delay Time to 250ms. 4 For more repeats, turn FB (Feedback) up, or click the dots around its edge to set it to one of seven preset amounts. When cranked above 100%, you can create echoes that grow in volume. If things get out of control, click and hold the FB label to erase the virtual tape. Now set FB to 150% – the delay builds in level until it hits cmDelay’s internal feedback limiter. The echoes still get too loud for our mix, though… 5 We can’t adjust the limiter’s threshold, but we can set levels to compensate. Wet is the level of the delayed (and limited) signal, so reduce it until the echoes are as loud as needed. -24dB works. Now set Dry to this level too, and Input to the inverse (ie, +24dB). You can mute the Dry and Wet signals by clicking their labels. Note that delay is only applied when Feed is on – automate this to apply delay selectively, eg, to only certain hits. 6 cmDelay is a tape-style delay, so adjusting delay time changes the speed of the virtual tape reel, altering the pitch of echoes. Glide determines how long the tape takes to settle down to the new speed: Fast, medium ( Smooth), and Slow. Try each and hear what happens when you make drastic delay time changes using the central slider, Altclicking to jump straight to a value. 7 The Filters section offers high- and low-pass filters for progressively thinning or dulling the repeats. Give these and the delay time controls a good twist to create seriously deranged dub delay mayhem! Click the small icon above each filter to toggle it on/off, or click the Filters header to toggle both. Now set Sync to On, Delay Time to 1:8, and FB to 75 so we can check out the stereo delay options. 8 Ping-Pong offers three stereo delay styles. Left offsets the left and right channels so echoes bounce in left/right/ left/right fashion, known as ping-pong delay. Right does vice versa. Center is a normal delay, with both channels echoing together. Image has three settings: Mono pans the left/right delays centrally; Stereo pans them normally; and -Stereo swaps them, so left becomes right and vice versa. 9 Finally, the LFO modulates delay time and pitch. Mute Skank, and unmute Organ, placing a cmDelay on it with the supplied preset LFODemo.fxp. Increase Depth for stronger modulation: 77 will do. LFO Rate sets the speed, so set it to 1:4, a quarter-note. Spread offsets modulation between the left and right channels. There are three LFO Wave shapes: Triangle, Square and Spike.