Below is a clip illustrating plate reverb from a Free The Tone Ambi Space stereo reverb pedal. What delay pedal does David Gilmour? *While I did a ton of work figuring out many of these delay times, a big thanks goes to Raf and the fine folks at the Gilmour Gear Forum for providing some of the delay times and to Will for compiling a list of the 2015/16 tour delay times seen on David's digital delays! David Gilmour has always made a very precise use of delays, since the early eras, even combining two delays to create his textures. It had a maximum delay time of 320ms, but could be expanded to 1280ms by adding additional memory chips. Delay volume 90%. verse / chorus: 430ms, Us and Them - 2016/15 live version: Great Gig Slide Guitar Breakdown, Here's another, starting with the dry guitar in the left channel, then the right channel with the 440ms delay. 3. 2nd delay 94ms. He would do this for each chord change in the intro to, David did an early version of sound-on-sound way back in October of 1970, in one of the few times Pink Floyd performed Alan's Psychadelic Breakfast live. "Square wave" means the sound wave looks square shaped, rather than wavy. David almost always uses delays in his live rigs, not reverbs. - In general, no - but sometimes, yes. In fact, there was a time when Pink Floyds original road manager, Peter Watts, and I were the only two people who could actually maintain a Binson.They are so noisy, and I guess all the ones weve got now are so old that it is impossible to keep them noise free. It's actually a metallic disc that spins around. outro solo : 550ms -- feedback: 3-4 repeats, Take It Back: 530ms -- feedback: 4-5 repeats, Coming Back To Life: He set the time to 310ms for most everything. - parallel delays, 380ms (both channels) and 507ms (right channel only), going to separate amps, David would play a chord, raise the volume pedal to send the signal into the SDE 3000, then lower the volume back to to zero to kill the input signal. This the dominant delay, but there is also a 300ms delay low in the mix Often what I hear in the recordings is just natural room or hall reverb. delay time for intro and verse slide guitar: There are three different delay times on the repeats and they are slightly offset, Pink Floyd is deemed as one the all-time best bands to ever exist on this planet. It also had had a rich and warm-sounding tube amplifier stage that gave it a beautiful and unique tone. The other is more natural sounding because it is added post amplification, which is more like what real reverb does. The 4/4 delay can barely be heard on the studio recording and is really not necessary, but it is fun to experiment with two delays. first solo: 340ms -- feedback: 3-4 repeats 147ms (2X the delay repeats), or 2 pulses for every delay repeat. Then go to a website with a Delay Time Calculator, like the one on this page. DELAY SETTINGS - Most of the delay times David Gilmour used in the early 1970s with Pink Floyd were around 300ms long, since that was the approximate delay time of head 4 on the Binson Echorecs he was using at the time. He usually had the time set to 440ms. The delay used must have a "kill dry" or "dry defeat" mode, which means ONLY the 100% wet delay signal is sent to the output of the delay, none of the dry signal. NOTE: This website is frequently updated. Let's see some of the units he used over time. third (dry) solo: simulate studio ADT with a 40-50-ms slapback delay -- feedback: 1 repeat A few of David Gilmour's vintage Binson Echorec 2 model T7E delays. There are lots of different ways to use two delays at once for an integrated rhythm like this, so use your ears and experiment. 1st delay 428ms. For David's 2006 rig one output from his Mk 2 Cornish-built pedalboard went to his main Hiwatt amp and 4x12 speaker cabinets. I use the MXR with the read-out on it, so I instantly have the right tempo. Below are some specific Gilmour settings I use. It is around 294ms on the studio recording. Often during the live songs that do have very loud delays, you do hear the repeats clearly. - David has used numerous types of delays in his carreer, both analog and digital. Although it is not often that this roll-off effect was heard in David's use of the Echorec, you can clearly hear it in the echo repeats in the very beginning of the song One of These Days from Pink Floyd's Meddle album in 1971. Below is an excerpt of David's bass guitar part, extracted from the 5.1 surround mix of Meddle. second solo: 640ms -- feedback: 6-7 repeats You could nail his famous sound with a handful of pedals, though, which makes it that much more achievable. tremolo effect for middle section: 294ms delay, 7-8 repeats / tremolo with gated square wave, depth set to maximum, and speed set for April 9, 2022. by Joe Nevin. That second delay should just barely be audible, as too much volume can make a double tapped mess of the main delay. The third delay is probably in 3/4 time, but I can barely hear it. David Gilmour Solo Tone Settings For "Time" . Warm for an anlog delay usually refers to the high end roll-off decay, and warm for a digital delay usually means the repeats are not brighter or harsher than the original guitar signal, but are the same or have slightly less high end. outro arpeggio riff: 310ms, Shine On You Crazy Diamond VI-IX (Binson Echorec): Parallel is better than in series because the one delay does not repeat the other, and the repeats can run longer without going into oscillation. Adjust the tone to suit your amp/speaker tone. I set the vibrato to more or less the same tempo as the delay. Both delays are in series with the delay volume around 75% and about 9 repeats. Bass: 5-6. 5 A.M. : delay 1: 90ms Set the 600ms dealy to half the repeats of the main delay, with a MUCH lower delay volume. This is actually not quarter-note triplets. solo: 420ms David Gilmour's delay sounds - YouTube What is interesting about this performance is that it is probably the only time David is known to have used a tape delay. If you want to try the two-delay effect on one amp, it is best to place the second delay after the main 380ms delay in your signal chain, and set the second delay repeat volume MUCH lower, with roughly 1/3 the repeats of the main delay. The Binson Echorec is an analogue echo unit made by Binson in Italy. - Delay Rhythm Guitars Mixed Up Front - both channels. On the extremely rare occasions that David did use mulitple heads it was usually position 7, which was Head 3 + Head 4, 225ms + 300ms. Below is an example of me using an Echorec style delay in a cover of Pink Floyd's 1969 song Dramatic Theme form the More album. You can use two delays in series (one after the other) or in parallel (each in a seprate signal path) to get David's multi-head Echorec style repeats. Below is an example of the Syd's Theme section of Shine on You Crazy Diamond from Pink Floyd's 1994 tour. Multiply that number by 75% to get the triplet time delay. This was most likely a reel-to reel recorder set up for a tape-loop delay. The MXR Digital Delay System II was an upgraded version of the 113 that showed the delay time in milliseconds on the front panel and featured additional fine tuning controls. Each was set to 380ms, 7-8 repeats, with the delay volume almost equal to the signal volume. I am not talking about spring reverb from an amp. When playing alone, I find I often turn the delay volume down, but with a band or backing track I turn it up. 8-10 repeats on each. Delay settings - Tony Samperi The slide parts actually were played on a pedal steel, a Fender 1000, but David just used it as a slide guitar and removed the foot pedals. Below is a song-by-song list of delay times with some settings. Those are not the type of parallel setup we are talking about here. David has used many different types of compressors throughout his career, but a few common ones are the MXR Dynacomp, Boss CS-2, and Demeter Compulator. verse/chorus sections: 310ms -- feedback: 3-4 repeats There are several parallel looper pedals that can be used for the actual "looping" part of the setup. That's another one of the personal esthetic judgments that you use in trying to get something to sound nice to yourself. Mids: 6-7. This is also one of the few Gilmour solos that features a heavy reverb effect, so it does not sound the same with delay only. RUN LIKE HELL - This is one of the standout tracks from Pink Floyd's The Wall double album, with music written by David Gilmour. I the clips below I play the 470ms delay first, then the 94ms delay, then both in series together. Dave likes it because even though it's a digital unit, it still sounds a little dirty, like a tape unit. The Echorec 2 had six knobs - INPUT CONTROL (volume), LENGTH OF SWELL (number of repeats), VOLUME OF SWELL (volume of repeats), BASS/TREBLE (tone knob for the repeats), a three position SELECTOR knob, and a SWITCH knob that selected various combinations of the four playback heads. 650ms: feedback: 7-8 repeats - delay level: 25% -- delay type: clear digital, Sorrow Intro / Outro - Pulse version (TC 2290 Digital Delay): David could play a chord while the delay rhythm repeated, and jump back to the delay rhythm before the repeats stopped, almost as if there were two guitars playing. When using both the mono and stereo outputs together (each running to a separate amp) the DD-2 produces a very defined stereo field, with one channel being the dry signal only, and one being the delayed signal only. David Gilmour was the guitarist for English rock band Pink Floyd. It also had delay width and frequency knobs in the Sweep section to add some chorus, vibratto, and flange effects, but I think David rarely used those, if ever. If you have different subdivision settings on your delay, you can then try some of those as they will also be in time with the song tempo. Gilmour used the same 294ms delay from the Echorec plus the built in vibrato from an HH IC-100 amplifier, which was a very choppy tremolo effect. In this clip I'm using Coming Back to Life as a reference with 700ms. David usually sets his delays in time with the song tempo, which helps hide the echo repeats. A) All those pictures out there of David Gilmour's tours have the settings knobs shown, but you can not go by that and insist it is bible. To sound like David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, start with the following amp settings: Gain: 3-4. My sound has everything to do with what sounds good to me. Below is a link to a song-by-song list of Gilmour's delay settings, compiled from measuring the echo repeats in official releases and bootlegs of live recordings, and from delay times visible on the LCDs of his digital delays. 440ms -- feedback: 4-5 repeats, No More Lonely Nights: Example: You determine the 4/4 beat/song tempo is 600ms. 350ms, Breathe - studio version (several duplicated multi track recordings offset to create the long delay repeats): That ADT slapback sound can also be heard on other Run Like Hell concert recordings, like Delicate Sound of Thunder, Pulse, and David Gilmour Live at Pompeii, but to a lesser effect. A little later he switched to the MXR Digital Delay. Record yourself playing alone verses playing along with a backing track to see what I mean. intro slide guitar: 1023ms He would do this for each chord change in the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond, effectively doing both the keyboard and guitar parts all by himself. Run Like Hell with 380ms and 507ms delay in series. David Gilmour used the MXR Digital M-113 Delay, the Binson Echorec, and the TC Electronic 2290 in his recordings. The fill patterns played in the verse section sound dry, with almost no delay. It was usually set for single head and a fixed time at about 310ms. David Gilmour is known for using his delay creatively, mostly by sort of using it as a reverb instead of it being purely an echo. The type of multi-head repeats varied depending on which of the four playback heads were selected. On Reverb, the average Echorec sells for between 3500$ to 5000$. As the chord rang on, David could then play the melody lines through his main Hiwatt. Time intro - Torino, Italy, Sept 13, 1994. You could get some wonderful delay effects that aren't attainable on anything that's been made since. Note that some people confuse mixing delays in parallel with "stacking" multiple delays or running a stereo setup with one delay going to one amp and another delay going to different amp. For Run Like Hell, David's using what he refers to as "triplets".. Set the value to quarter notes, enter the BPM, and you have a delay time in milliseconds the same tempo as the song. I am talking about the natural reverb sound of the room or hall the amplifier or speaker cabinet was recorded in, or studio reverb added to simulate it.