Delays and fattening sounds.

[Chris Fallen]

I read in a book that with a digital delay you can fatten sounds by setting the delay to 30ms (which your ear can't hear) and then panning the original signal one way and then the delayed signal the other way (to as wide as you want the track). My question is, what are some good delays and which ones allow for you to pan the delay and the signal different ways?

Christopher

[zekthedeadcow]

. . .actually you can hear 30ms. It's my understanding that 11ms is the smallest the human ear can normally precieve.

easiest way to do it is to copy the track and then push it back 11ms or 3ms or whatever

[Track Rat]

Originally posted by zekthedeadcow

easiest way to do it is to copy the track and then push it back 11ms or 3ms or whatever

You can definately do that but if you do, listen to it very carefully to make sure you're not setting up a comb filter situation.

[Sennheiser]

Track, did you ever get the e-mail I sent?


I heard that it 18ms was the smallest time the ear could discern.

[Track Rat]

Sennheiser, no, I sure didn't. Here's my work e-mail. MGreenup@Chartercom.com

[TexRoadkill]

The 30ms rule is that you can delay a signal up to 30ms without affecting the stereo placement of the original sound. This is the principle that fake surround sound works on.

You can delay the signal up to 30ms in the rear speakers and your brain will still place the original sound as originating from the front. Once the delay is greater than that your brain will interpret it as 2 sounds coming from different locations. This applies only to direct sound and not ambient sound like reverb. Ambient sound makes it difficult for your brain to perceive a location.

What does this mean to mixing in stereo? If you have a sound panned hard right and a <30ms delayed signal panned hard left your brain will still perceive the sound as being on the right side.

In order to have a delay without phase issues and for the source to appear equally in the stereo image you need a greater delay time. I usually use anywhere from 80 - 120ms for guitars and backing vocals.

Just about any stereo delay will let you adjust the volumes of the different channels.