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From: Mike Curtis
Date: Sat, 5 Oct 1996 12:47:57 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Digital Delay

On Fri, 4 Oct 1996 User3434~ol.com wrote:

> Fellow harp-lers:
> Does "digital delay" effect tone and how much can
> tone be improved by its use. Do alot of harpists use one. Some pedals have
> wider"band width" of 12.5 to 800 m.s. Does this matter? Others have "Digital
> Reverb/Delay" or "Digital Pitch Shifting/Delay. Is this difference
> significant?

Delay produces distinct "echoes", e.g. "HEY!!! (Hey!!, hey..... etc).

Reverb makes you sound like you're playing in a large room with hard
surfaces, such as a cathedral, etc. The echoes are indistinct.

Pitch shifting will take your C note and make it into something else, i.e.
D, E, etc.

Digital delay is great. I actually use two of them, one set for a slight
slapback delay, and another set with a very long delay, which I use very
sparingly. I also like a LITTLE reverb on my harp - but just a LITTLE. I
don't want it to muddy up my sound - just give it the slightest little bit
of "warmth". Some like a lot; others don't like any. It's a personal
choice. Use what YOU like.

Longer delays require either more memory or less information. The usual
way to do this is to slow the sampling rate, resulting in less bandwidth,
according to Nyquist theorum. Shorter delays can use faster sampling
rates, resulting in a higher frequency response. The lesser bandwidth
will make the echo sound a little more "muffled". The wider
bandwidth will give a better sound on the higher frequencies,
and (more importantly) tends to give less "aliasing", a wierd digital
distortion that makes very unpleasant sound totally unrelated to the
music. Your unit may have no problem with this. Try both out and see
what you like best.

A unit with more memory will have a higher frequency response at a given
delay time. Basically, the higher the better. But listen to each unit
and choose the one that SOUNDS the best. A unit with more memory might
also have a lousy anti-aliasing filter, or just be a piece of cheap
junk, etc.

A lot of harp player prefer analog delays. There are two types - BBD and
tape. BBD uses a "bucket brigade device" that places an instantaneous
voltage level into a storage "bucket". this is clocked and passed along
to the next, while another is stored in the first. After passing 1024
(or???) of these, the voltage comes out the other end. This delays the
sound, according to the clock speed divided by the number of "buckets".
Tape echo records on to a loop of tape, then plays it back through a
separate playback head located an inch or two down the tape. Both of
these devices have a generally "warmer" sound than digital delays, and a
lot of harp players prefer these.


-- IronMan Mike Curtis
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