noob question. what does tape delay do?

[jorelpri]

recently downloaded some tape delay vst.how do i use it effectively? sounds like it just distorts the sound?? thanks

[jackrabbit]

Tape delays do add saturation which may be what your hearing as distorted delay sounds. This can give the sound a unique depth. Some units cut off lower & higher frequencies slightly as well as some other non linearities to the sound too. A good tape delay changes the pitch of the delayed sound if the speed is changed unlike digital delays which time stretch the delayed sound. I am sure someone with experience of hardware tape delays can go into this in more detail.

[mescalinebanana]

From my understanding, a tape delay effect is intended to be gritty and messy, since it replicates the old technique of creating delay effects using a tape recorder. This adds noise, timing errors and other imperfections to the delay. It's really good for adding depth and complexity to atmospheric sounds.

If you want a clean-sounding delay, Live's Simple Delay does the trick.

[simonlb]

What's the VST? We can have a look at what controls it has and so on to help you out.

[invol]

Tape Delay effects are based on the classic analog tape-based delay boxes from the 60's and 70's. They do often add a lo-fi character, but the main love of them is how the feedback degenerates, pitch warbles, etc. They also had aggressive filters on them too. The original Dub pioneers got a lot of mileage from these devices.

Here is the most famous of them all - Roland RE-201 Space Echo
http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/re201.php

The King Dubby free VST is inspired by it.
http://www.lowcoders.fr/category/kingdubby

King Tubby - Dub pioneer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Xcjsql5IM

You can see one in this vintage pic of Lee Scratch Perry's studio from the 70's
http://deepartnature.blogspot.com/2011/ ... ing1_l.jpg[/img]