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So I was thinking about delays the other day, and wondered if this was possible or already existed (at least I haven't heard of it).
Basically you set the tempo for the delay, either by tapping or manually by the knob, and then the feedback. Say you have the feedback set so that it will repeat three times. What this delay mode will do is at "random" intervals, delay your note three times. Not entirely random though. Say the delay was set for 1000ms (1 second). This "random" delay would only delay at 1/2 (.5 seconds) 1/4 (.25 seconds), etc...so that it would still fit with the music, but would provide an element of surprise so to speak. Sort of like an arpeggiator, but there are notes added exactly.
Does something like this exist? Would it be feasible to build? Would it eve be useful?
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So you're saying that this delay would basically "randomly" turn on at 1/2, 1/4, etc. intervals, right? I don't think the time between the "random" enabling of the delay would matter seeing as the tempo was set with the music already. I'm not aware of something random like that, but the Line 6 delay modeler might do something similar.
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maybe you could shoot an email to musictoyz.com or pedalgeek.com
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The Echo Park delay has a slightly similar function - the two 'multi' pattern delays. It basically does what you described, but in a set pattern that you cannot change, not randomly.
I think it's a very interesting idea, Fly. I'd buy one.
-Nick
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Originally Posted by Brent So you're saying that this delay would basically "randomly" turn on at 1/2, 1/4, etc. intervals, right? I don't think the time between the "random" enabling of the delay would matter seeing as the tempo was set with the music already. I'm not aware of something random like that, but the Line 6 delay modeler might do something similar. i think the idea is that the tempo is set by tapping, but the beat would be random...it would sometimes do 1/2 notes or 1/4 notes...or be in a 3/4...hmm...it could be interesting i think.
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It seems like it might get chaotic sometimes, and sometimes go to hardly any delayed notes at all, and all outside of your control. Interesting idea...
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Moog Moogerfooger Analog delay + Moogerfooger Control Processor. Use the sample and hold CV out to the delay's delay time CV in...and you're getting close.
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Or some guy kneeling and messing with your knobs while you're playing.
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Haha, if only I had a Moogerfooger endorsement.
It was just one of those ideas I had...I don't think I really have the electronics know-how to pull it off, although I am learning.
thesteve - Yeah, that's the idea that you described.
I was thinking that you could also put (either internally or externally) two pots that would set the "range" of randomness for the delay. So you could have a huge range of random "in sync" delay, or you could just have it between 250 and 500 ms for example.
I wonder if a Boss DD-5 or something could be modified in this way or if it would be impractical. I know that IndyGuitarist did some sort of "star wars" mod that really altered the tone...maybe if he's reading this he has some input, or I may try and e-mail him about it.
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i would definitely email brian about it...he's generally really helpful and knowledgeable on things of the pedal sort.
or wait until tht00 reads the thread...i think he works for a pedal company.
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Useful, yes. Does it exist, maybe. Feasible to build ... not for the casual DIYer if it doesn't exist.
Basically most delays work like so:
They have a fixed amount of memory and data is input at one end of the memory and output/played back at the other end. The two factors that control the delay time are the amount of delay time & the sampling rate (how many times per second new data is recorded and played back). The high the rate, the shorter the delay. More memory = longer delay.
Repeats come from mixing the output signal back into input of the recorder/sampling part of the delay.
To acheive multiple repeats the way you're talking about, you would need to read the memory from multiple places without loosing this data. This would be pretty easy to do with a tape delay, where you just record over a continous loop of tape, but tap temp is out of the question. Doing it digitally I'm sure is possible, but complicated. With analog, probably not.
Another complication that I haven't mentioned is that delays typically compress the signal before recording it then expand it afterwards to improve signal-to-noise ratio and a few other reasons.
You could do it with mutiple delay pedals if you had the proper controls and I/O on those pedals, but I'd imagine you would have to set the tempo of each seperately.
To do it as a post recording (non realtime) computer effect effect would be extremely simple, but i doubt that's what you're going for.
I think your best bet would be to investigate existing units (look into rack stuff too if you think you'd use is that much).
Modifying the TONE of a delay pedal is fairly simple (comparitively speaking) because all you do is frequency filtering like a tone knob(s) or fixed treble cut (low pass) filter. Modifying this kind of thing would require SERIOUS modifications to the internal workings of the record/playback/clock sections of the pedal and is not really feasible.
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Originally Posted by thesteve or wait until tht00 reads the thread...i think he works for a pedal company.

Just an aspiring builder (and future electrical engineer). jbm222 has much more knowledge/experience.
Originally Posted by jbm222 To acheive multiple repeats the way you're talking about, you would need to read the memory from multiple places without loosing this data. This would be pretty easy to do with a tape delay, where you just record over a continous loop of tape, but tap temp is out of the question. Doing it digitally I'm sure is possible, but complicated. With analog, probably not.
Would it be possible/feasible to actually cascade 3 delay circuits to accomidate this?
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Originally Posted by tht00
Just an aspiring builder (and future electrical engineer). jbm222 has much more knowledge/experience. i think in my head i was thinking of jbm22 as far as pedals go, but i always think of you on amp tech questions so it was my automatic response.
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I'm feeling lazy so I dont know if anyone has mentioned this...
but what if you had multiple delays chained together? it wouldnt be as random as what you want, but you could set them to different tempos.
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Originally Posted by tht00 Just an aspiring builder (and future electrical engineer). jbm222 has much more knowledge/experience.
I wouldn't say MUCH more. Just a little more college, several failed projects, and a few successful builds. that's all.
Would it be possible/feasible to actually cascade 3 delay circuits to accomidate this?
That's the only way I know of to do it. I'm sure there's other ways, but I don't know what. When you do this, there's questions of where you want the feedback enter into the equation & how you want the controls setup. I could be done but to do it right would take way more time & effort than it's worth to most people.
I've also thought about what it would take to run two delays at different times in parallel within a single unit. This thought was mostly inspired by know that joe satriani often uses two seperate rack mount delays set at slightly different times to make huge spacey sounds.