Delay vs. Reverb

[jjjimi84]

I voted delay because I can emulate a nice reverb type thing with delays. What I cannot do with reverbs is create the choir of angels behind every note when I stack two memory mans together. That is the sound that is melting my brain right now and no reverb has ever come close.

 

[HamishR]

Purple

This! Absolutely!

I used to use delay a lot. I was a real delay junkie, having grown up in the Robert Smith/Simple Minds/U2 era. As reverbs have become better I have gradually swung over to reverb a little bit more but I still like to to use it as an effect, not just background noise. I like to keep things simple until I need to mess with them.

Over the past ten years (probably more!) my main use of delay has been as a slapback delay because (a) Gretsches sound awesomest with slapback delay, and (b) I was playing a lot of rockabilly and rockabilly influenced music. I'm slowly weaning myself off slapback delay and want to go back to using delay how I used to - not so much the dotted-8ths thing, but monstrous obnoxious sounds. I bought a Source Audio Collider earlier this year and it does all things reverb and delay I could ever need!

More and more I like totally reverbless and delayless sounds, and I play with low gain through old-fashioned amps. The raw tones are so strong and powerful that adding delay or reverb kinda washes the power away. That's why when I do use either it's very in your face and a definite "effect".

I'm not very good at subtle!