How weird am I? (Reverb Over Delay)

  • I am just curious, how weird am I? Is this unusual?


    I prefer shredding guitar solos with ONLY reverb!


    I have tried many time to use delays, but I just really don't like delay effects.


    I -ALWAYS- play with some sort of reverb on. I dislike the tone of a guitar without some kind of reverb.


    I have read though that many people prefer to use delays instead of reverbs because they feel like a reverb masks/blurs notes, where as a short delay instead improves clarity and gets out of the players way....


    HOWEVER, I just have never found that to be true. I find that delays are very distracting to the music you are playing. (Keep in mind I am talking about keeping the delay or reverb CONSTANTLY on on everything I play in regards to everything I'm talking about here)


    Whereas with Reverb, I feel like Reverb just becomes an extension of my tone/guitar. But, delays just sound like a novelty, delays sound more like a special effect.


    Delays also seem to me more about being RHYTHMIC in some way, and I absolutely HATE that, I totally LOATHE it.
    I don't want something additional to be rhythmic, I just want something that is simply THERE and at ONE with my guitar tone. It seems that this is impossible for Delay to do, due to it's very nature, but yet it seems as if this is what Reverb is born to do best.


    Sometimes I like small room reverbs, sometimes I like HUGE cathedral reverbs, most often though when I am soloing I like a Large Hall or Large Concert Reverb.


    Reverbs have never seemed to "bury" the notes that I'm playing, so I really don't understand peoples arguments that it's better to use a short delay and not use a reverb.


    I do NOT like every note I play to be followed by a series of rhythmic repeats!


    I think Delay sounds juvenile, childish, amateur, and a novelty at best.
    (I also HATE wah pedals, whammy bars, and all other guitar effects as well)


    The only effects I like is -A LOT- of Distortion/Gain/Overdrive, and quite a bit of Reverb.


    (I also HATE the reverbs in the Kemper, I am trying to decide between getting a PCM92 or a Bricasti M7 to use with it)


    I am just wondering if there's anyone else on this forum that mostly plays/composes music in the styles of Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Richie Kotzen etc, that also depends HEAVILY on Reverb always on everything, but really has never found Delays to be very useful?

  • Don’t keep your feelings all bottled up inside, Bro...
    You must learn to express yourself! ;)
    C’mon, Don’t hold back!
    Ps/// I love delay for soloing, Don’t hate me
    Ps/// Richie Kotzen Is a freak of nature, monster guitar player with a Voicebox made of solid gold! What a voice!

  • I'm not saying that Delay repulses me, I just think Delay is something best added to some solos, not all, and not most, and when added usually done so sparingly and in moderation.


    Where as with Reverb, I feel like some type of Reverb sounds good on a solo ALL the time, EVERY time.


    Yes, I think Richie Kotzen is one of the most under rated guitarists of all time, I think he is even better than Stevie Ray Vaughan was, better tone, better vocals, and more original... even though not as Bluesy as SRV, he's way more Soulful.


    But back to the Delay, I see Delay more like Wah, in that it needs to be something rarely used. Say a 10 song CD, there should be no more than 2 solos with Wah, otherwise it's going to dilute the music of it. I mean take Kirk Hammett for example, he relies on the Wah WAY too much, he over uses it, he's like a amatuer that tries to cover up sloppy mediocre playing with Wah.


    Kind of the same thing with Delay, when you make this huge multi repeating delay that's on all through a instrumental, it kinda becomes like this wall of sound, repeating notes, to where the delays are taking center stage with the actual notes being played and it's kinda like the Wah thing, you put enough delay on anything and it really just has a way to mask poor playing, I mean even if you are a great player I think it detracts from that as well...


    I just think liquidy distorted guitar with reverb sounds good without anything else really.


    Same thing with Chorus, I don't really care for that wobbly, warbly, detuned, thicker, sound that a Chorus effect adds, I think it takes away from the beauty of a naturally clean tone with reverb.


    I mean sure a touch of Chorus on Def Leppards Love Bites is nice as a little extra flavour, or even that Flange effect in Van Halens Unchained intro, but this it what I'm saying, I think that most effects are hardly ever needed, but like the two examples I names, it's nice when they are there, but most songs sound better without them.


    I guess even Distortion is a effect just as reverb is, but I like to play with LOTS of Distortion 97% of the time, and a good amount of reverb 100% of the time, I just can't imagine guitar any way other than that.


    I watched a interview with JOhn Petrucci today and he said he almost never uses Reverb, but almost always uses Delay.


    I'm the opposite, I don't NEED delay, but I NEED reverb.

  • I think reverb on instrumental tracks is great! Doesn't make you weird man, it's what makes us individuals :D


    Tracks containing vocals, however, is a different story, ie: having reverb on the drums, reverb on vocals and reverb on guitar becomes too much. I'd rather hear/use delay for variety. It adds depth and thickens the mix to me. Modulation effects should be used sparingly, I agree, but then there's cats like Johnny Winter who used a chorus on almost everything lol. Killer blues tone.


    There's no doubt in my mind that the Kemper team has something special in store to blow our minds even more. Good things are happening, patience is a virtue :thumbup:


    Cheers

  • When I started playing guitar I hated delay on solos. I just wanted to use reverb. Well that was a long time ago and I have become wiser since then. I hope? For clean sounds I use both reverb and delay but for solos I use 99% of the time only delay. If I use reverb too on solos I use only a tiny bit of reverb. But only so it feels and doesn't hears. Just enough so when I mute reverb I can here something's gone.Too much reverb on guitar, vocal, snare and you ruining the sound. Well on a slow song more reverb on the snare works fine. Synths and strings benefit with more reverb. Well that's another story. Almost all guitar solos you hear on records use only delay or just a tiny bit of reverb too. If using delay would ruin the sound delays wouldn't been used on solos. Most of the time you won't hear the delay on the solos on records. Just like delay is prefered on vocals and most of the time you won't hear the delay either. If you want to push something in the background, use reverb. So no delay doesn't mask poor playing. Neither does reverb do. But using too much gain however, will mask sloppy playing. "I mean even if you are a great player I think it detracts from that as well..." That's completely wrong.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • This is a perfect example of the amount of gain/distortion/overdrive i like to use always...


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    As far as Reverb, I am thinking about getting the Bricasti because it seems like those are designed to blend in with the source, so it seems maybe you could use Bricasti reverb much in the way you are reccommending to use a Delay, without the reverb getting in the way.

  • Effects like reverb and delay don't only affect the tone, but change the "feel" for the listeners. Reverb put the listeners far from the player in a closed space; delay put listeners near the player in a open space. From this poin of view, use of reverb or delay depends from what we would give to listeners and could change from song to song or also more time in the same song.


    P.S. Excuse me for my english ^^

  • There is not right or wrong, weird or not weird. If it sounds good to you and your are happy with your tone then go with it.


    It is often a weakness in us guitarists that means we have to search for a "better" way, when sometimes what we have is just perfect.

  • Delay used creatively can provide an added dimension to a song! For example I would listen to Steve Vai's Touching Tongues, or Nuno Bettencourt playing flight of the wounded bumble bee (every 3rd note is delay!). The latter also uses delay live to do a pretty good account of the drum intro for Hot For Teacher! ;)

  • Delays also seem to me more about being RHYTHMIC in some way, and I absolutely HATE that, I totally LOATHE it.


    I'm not saying that Delay repulses me

    hmm...


    @yngwierhoadsvaivaughan
    while discussion of all things guitar tone related is welcome here, your post seems a bit over he top.
    there's countless use of delay on guitar over decades of very successful music production.


    please dial it back a notch and no more CAPS LOCK.

  • just curious here. I've never been a delay or reverb fan but am willing to change view
    what delay types do you use for leads? do you use delays with répétitions (1/4, 1/8 etc.) or something more ambient and not linked to the tempo to widen the sound?
    cheers

  • hmm...
    @yngwierhoadsvaivaughan
    while discussion of all things guitar tone related is welcome here, your post seems a bit over he top.
    there's countless use of delay on guitar over decades of very successful music production.


    please dial it back a notch and no more CAPS LOCK.


    removed by mod


    1. I am a "over the top" person, everything about ME is over the top, I am one of the most EXTREME people in this world in every context of the word in pretty much any and every situation in this life.
    2. As far as you telling me "no more CAPS LOCK".... I could understand what you are saying if I had written my entire post in CAPS, however only a few of my words were written in CAPS, and that was done to place strong emphasis on those particular words so that my post would convey exactly what I wanted it to.


    As far as your statement about countless uses of delays over decades, well tell me something I don't know, but we are not talking about that, I am just talking about the way I record my music.

  • Delay used creatively can provide an added dimension to a song! For example I would listen to Steve Vai's Touching Tongues, or Nuno Bettencourt playing flight of the wounded bumble bee (every 3rd note is delay!). The latter also uses delay live to do a pretty good account of the drum intro for Hot For Teacher! ;)

    Yeah I know and understand that, But I'm not trying to use Delay to be creative like that.


    I don't even like to use wah or the whammy bar much, because I place most of my focus on composition of the melody and phrasing itself.


    I find that when I start trying to think about ways to incorporate things like a wah, whammy or delay into something, it really just distracts me from composing the actual music.

  • I find reverb is necessary when I'm playing through headphones. I also like it for ambient textures. I don't think it's an either/or situation. Both delay and reverb can complement each other well.


    Curious to know, do you guys use reverb on guitar rhythm tracks, like the video posted above?

    I use reverb on Rhythm and lead, I only Record music though so I'm not talking about live. If I were playing live it wouldn't be nessacery because Reverb would come more natural from the venue.
    But on recordings, I hate DRY guitar.

  • There is not right or wrong, weird or not weird. If it sounds good to you and your are happy with your tone then go with it.


    It is often a weakness in us guitarists that means we have to search for a "better" way, when sometimes what we have is just perfect.

    Maybe so.... It seems like it's rare that someone like Slash uses Delay for example, the only song I know of Slash using a Delay was Welcome to The Jungle, seems like most of his songs are just recorded with a little Reverb. Probably the same thing can be said for most of the ACDC recordings of Angus Young too I think. So maybe there are some of us out there that like a more pure sound of Reverb without Delay.

  • I used to prefer reverb over delay-until I learned how to properly set a delay for the sound I was after.

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    Check out that video above starting about about the 3:35 time mark....
    THAT delay is something that I can live with.... That's very subtle, and I like that.
    I could leave a Delay like that on almost all the time.
    However, I'm thinking since it's so subtle why not just use just Reverb?
    I just don't really see how if you are going to go that subtle with the Delay, why even bother with the Delay, why not just keep a subtle Reverb.

  • If delay doesn't work for you, and you know it doesn't, there really isn't much point in even worrying about it. Use the tools that are best suited for your situation!