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.