Pitch-modulated delay

Delay treatments can be much more bespoke than you’d think. By playing with tone and pitch modulation, even subtle taps can be effective Delays can be surprisingly sophisticated. Adding an echo seems like a simple process of instantiating our favourite plugin, picking a delay speed and pressing play. But taking time to refine delay taps always pays dividends and most delays let you go quite far without having to add extra effects afterwards. In this example, we’ve started by adding some tape simulation and then using high and low-pass filters to only add echoes to notes in the mid-range. Then, we’ve increased the pitch footprint of the delays by introducing an LFO targeted at the pitch of each echo, so that this subtly warps in and out of tune. The result is woozy, chorused and more memorable. You can go further still by automating feedback levels so that, within reason, delays build and regenerate. Coupled to pitch modulation, this can be powerful.

We start with a really simple track made from a pad, a simple held bassline and a melody line. The latter is a combination of a Spitfire Audio harp patch and a pluck sound from Omnisphere 2. We group these together so that they can be treated with effects ‘as one’.

Send this combined sound to Waves’ H-Delay, set up on Auxiliary Bus 1. Leave the Analog modeling set at position 2, which gives some nice tape hiss and set a dotted 1/8th note as our delay speed. Select Ping-Pong option to give the delay more stereo width.

Even with the tape simulator, the effect is too predictable. Use the Modulation dials to give a hint of pitch wobble and set a slow Rate so that this feels aptly lazy. Coupled with the Hi and Lo Pass filters – which ensure only middle frequencies are delayed – this feels good.