Multi-Tap Delays
Multi-tap delays are quite an interesting concept, you take several delay lines, and space them apart temporally to add extra extra repeats between each echo. Now what you just read may or may not make any sense, and that’s what this article is here to help you out with. Multi-tap delays can seem a bit confusing at first, but once you understand them they will actually seem incredibly simple. You also may be wondering why you should even bother using them, on the surface they kinda don’t sound a whole lot different from a typical delay, audio goes in, and echoes come out. Well I’d like to also provide some special use cases for Multi-tap delays to provide you with some new mixing ideas next time you break out one of these powerful effects.
I’ll also be providing a bit of a shootout between five different multi-tap delay plugins, but it won’t be particularly in depth, just enough to show how they are all similar, yet offer their own novel ways of approaching this effect.
Now, I’m going to have to assume you already understand a regular simple delay, this includes tempo synced delay times, feedback, and mix controls.
Here’s the simplest way to think of a multi tap delay, break out a regular delay and copy it, give each delay their own delay time, and you’ve made yourself a rudimentary multi-tap delay. Now, that is a bit of an over simplification, for one you will be delaying the first delays repeats with the second, also the mix settings will be stacked and various other details that make an actual multi-tap delay a fair bit more useful.
The easiest place to start from here is the “taps” control, this sets the number of delay taps being used. You can think of each “tap” as its own delay effect, like in the example above. There is however a pretty major distinction here, each tap will have it’s initial repeat offset relative to the every other tap. Leaving out feedback for the time being, each tap essentially behaves as if it were a single echo. SO with one tap, you get your source audio and a repeat, with two taps, you get two echoes, and so on. Unlike a regular delay with feedback, you’ll notice each tap repeats at the same volume. You’ll normally be able to set this control anywhere from 2-16 taps. This can be perfect for when you want an exact amount of echoes, giving you more control over exact repetitions without having to manage the decay of long feedback times.
The next most common parameter is the amplitude contour, this goes by various names from plugin to plugin. Sometimes called “ramp” or “fade”, this control adjusts the level of each tap relative to its index. For example, with a downwarp slope, the first tap will be played at full volume, the next might be 1/2 the volume, the third tap would be 1/3 and so on. This mimics the natural decay of a delay, where each repeat is quieter than the last. Again at this point you may be wondering what the point of this is when we’ve so far only replicated a delay plugin. Well first of all, you get a bit more control over the exact number of echoes and how they fall off. But also we can usually set negative ramps as well, which inverts the order, so the first repeat is quietest, and the last is the loudest. This creates a fun effect where the echo fades in with each repeat.
Now for the fun stuff, as our third most common control is over the spacing of these taps. Sometimes called warp, or skew, or spacing, this control changes the timing of each tap relative to one another. Unlike the main time control, which changes each tap linearly with matching offsets, this control spreads the taps relative to its index. So with negative skew or spacing, the first two taps repeat very fast, then the next is a bit slower, and so on til the last tap wil the longest delay time. With positive spacing you get the longest delay time between the first two taps with the time between each tap decreasing until the last tap, giving you a sort of “bouncing ball” effect. It’s worth mentioning that some multi-taps treat “negative” and “positive” opposite to how I’ve described here, there’s not really a standard for which direction is which.
I hope it is pretty clear to see how this spacing control really shakes things up and takes a multi-tap delay into territory that a typical delay just ins’t capable of. Different combinations of timing skew and amplitude fading will produce accelerating and decelerating qualities. Sometimes you will find filter controls, that behave just like the volume ramp, but with filters, or pingpong controls which reduce the volume of every other tap left to right and some various other tools to adjust the timings.
Some more advanced multi-tap delays will actually give you an array of sliders almost like a step sequencer. This gives you control over the exact parameter quality per tap, rather than just setting each relative to its index. Here you can draw out various patterns and create rhythmic echoes with dancing filters, panning or sometimes other effects. The trade off here is that you have to draw in each tap instead of just being able to play with the whole set of taps as you would based on their index.
We’ve gone over a few uses for multi-tap delays already:
When you want an exact number of echoes.
Echoes that fade in getting louder and louder.
“bouncing ball” repeat pattern
Complex rhythmic patterns
Multi tap delays can also do some fun stuff with feedback. Typically feedback will simply act as it normally would, but now you have each tap within the loop, so you get whatever pattern repeating.
I find this is often a bit too much when it comes to longer delay times as whatever effect we’ve created before feedback likely already lasts up to an entire measure. Things get fun when we start getting into short delays. If you have any time skew present, you get several short delays in one, playing with the skew control will detune each short delay and can be used for a wide variety of effects.
At this point, things start diverging quite a bit from one delay to the next. Already how each tap is handled relative to the main delay time is not the same on each plugin. As well the timing skew ranges and curves can be quite different. So I think it’s time to take a look at five different multi-tap delay plugins and what makes each unique. Some of these plugins are also “multi-mode” delays, which means they offer other modes beyond multi-tap, but I will be focussing on and comparing JUST the multi-tap mode in this “shoot out”. Multi-tap delays can get quite intricate, so it seems that the ones dedicated exclusively to this delay type tend to offer more multi-tap options than the ones that are just a multi-tap mode within a larger plugin.
Sandman Pro
Taps: 2-16
Sandman Pro comes with a simple multi-tap mode. It has controls for spacing, amplitude ramping, and 2-16 taps total.
There’s also a nifty little “cluster feedback” toggle which changes the feedback behaviour, when deactivated only one tap will be in the feedback loop.
Sandman Pro has many other delay modes, but I’m just comparing the multi-tap mode for this shootout
You can read my full review of Sandman Pro here: https://www.databroth.com/blog/sandman-pro-review
Other Desert Cities
Taps: 1-16
Other Desert Cities is another multi-mode delay. It’s “thermal” engine is a multi-tap delay with 1-16 taps per left and right channels.
Other Desert Cities divides the tap spacing inside of the delay time making it capable polyrhythmic delay timings.
What makes this one special is the tap levels per left and right channels, allowing you to draw any contour or pattern you want for each side of the echo.
You can read my full review of Other Desert Cities her: https://www.databroth.com/blog/other-desert-cities-review
Cluster Delay
Taps:1-8
Cluster Delay is another one on the simpler side, you get the amplitude ramp and spacing. There’s also a “scatter” which pans every other tap left and right.
The “snap” toggle is actually pretty cool, as it forces the spacing into musical time divisions so that repeats sync to the music better.
You can read my full review of Cluster Delay here: https://www.databroth.com/blog/cluster-delay-review
Taps
Taps: 1-8
The aptly named “Taps” is where things start to get quite a bit more advanced. Again you get the timing skew and amplitude fade controls that we find in all the others, but there’s also a nifty “swing” control which nudges the timing of every other tap for a wider range of patterns. Taps also lets you switch between the two different styles of tap spacing by either dividing the taps into the delay time, or multiplying the timing of each tap by the delay time.
Also there’s a cool “drop” control that randomly removes taps for more sporadic patterns.
Finally the “pitch” page gives you access to various tonal effects per tap. You can select from various filters and resonators and have sliders for the pitch/tone of this effect per tap.
I cover Taps in this Beam update review here: https://www.databroth.com/blog/portals-and-taps-new-nodes-for-lunacy-audio-beam
Relayer
Taps: 1-32
Relayer is the most advanced of the bunch, but ends up being a bit more tedious to use in exchange. With the most taps by far, Relayer has a maximum of 32 repeats. Time and gain are adjusted per tap with slider arrays. Luckily Relayer does offer some preset for these arrays as well as a swing and warp control for the timing. Relayer also allows you to select any tap to be used as the “feedback tap”.
The biggest advantage with Relayer is the two FX slots where you can place one of seven different effects. These effects include filters, bit reduction, a wave shaper and phaser. Each effect has a single control that can be adjusted per tap.
I should do a full review of Relayer soon
Ripple Delay
Taps: 1-32
This one was kind of a last minute addition to the shootout. Ripple delay gives you left and right per tap activation similar to a step sequencer, but it takes things a bit further by allowing you to draw curves that apply different values across the taps. This can be done for amplitude, filtering, and even distortion. However, the major difference with ripply delay is that the timing is not a static skew like with the others. Instead the time values are constantly being modulated per tap.
Ripple Delay allows you to apply motion to the settings of each tap which creates evolving delay patterns.
I will say, this one is missing a bit of the clustered time skew effect that the others have, it “can” be done, but with less intensity and control.
You can read my full review of RIpple Delay here: https://www.databroth.com/blog/dlay-review
DLAY
Taps: 1-64
The newest multi-tap delay plugin in this lineup, DLAY actually delayed the publication of this article as I just had to include it. DLAY gives you a lot more customization over each individual tap and has some nice shortcut tools that allow you to highlight and edit multiple taps at once. One of the shortcomings of this one is that it doesn’t work nearly as well as a resonator, especially since the feedback doesn’t get too extreme.
The variety of delay tone options gives this one a lot of subtle character, especially when you combine this with the various wobble, smear, and humanization controls.
Probably the coolest feature is that DLAY has pitch shifting per tap which can be a great creative effect in its own right, allowing you to create melodies out of the various taps.
Add in the filtering and formant shifting and there’s a lot of detail to adjust within a pattern.
You can read my full review of DLAY here: https://www.databroth.com/blog/dlay-review
Hopefully now you can see how each multi-tap delay option offers its own take on the effect. Keep in mind that some of these are also a single mode within a larger multi-mode delay plugin. There’s a lot of fun uses for multi-tap delays, and in my opinion they are much more of a creative experimental effect than a purpose driven one. They really take advantage of space, so even a single note can be transformed into a complex musical pattern with a deep enough multi-tap. I’d avoid using these on already dense musical phrases as they can clutter things up quite a bit. Given the complexity of this effect type, there are likely plenty more uses and secret recipes that I haven’t covered. Be sure to explore these fun options and leave a comment if you find anything interesting.