Delay section

FabFilter Twin 2 comes with an very useful delay section with two filters. The delay section makes all kinds of flanging and chorus effects possible, as well as typical delay effects, to give your sounds more stereo depth and rhythmical subtleties. Delay can be a very important aspect of sound design and the ability to modulate all the parameters will generate innovative and new sounds. The delay section consists of two separate delay lines and two multimode filters.

The following delay parameters are available:

• Delay Time/Offset
  The Delay Time parameter sets the delay time given to a signal passing through. The time display just above/below the Delay Time knob shows the current delay time in milliseconds.

  If Delay Sync is set a different value than Free or Ultra Short, this knob changes into the Delay Offset parameter, which sets a time offset relative to the synchronized delay time. More on this below.

• Delay Sync
  There are different ways to set the delay time. These different modes are set by the Delay Sync parameter next to the time display.

  The delay time can be locked/synchronized to the tempo of your sequencer host. When this is activated the delay time knob controls the sub-multiples of this tempo. The small dots that appear around the knob make it easier to get precise and quick access to those values that are related to your sequencer tempo like triplets and dotted notes.

  Or you can use the delay in a 'free mode'. Now the delay time is not synchronized to the host tempo and you can use the knob to set the delay time at any desired time. In this mode it is possible to 'tap' the tempo of the delay by clicking on the number-display next to the delay time knob. The display will turn into a purple TAP button. The next time you click here the time between the clicks is calculated and used as delay time. Just tap it a few times to get some values you want to work with.

  The 'Ultra Short' mode is designed to get the typical flanging, chorus and comb-filter effects. Now delay time can be precisely set between 0.1 and 50 milliseconds and feedback controls are disabled. Read the tips for more details on this.

• Feedback, Cross Feedback
  You can vary the feedback to produce more than one repeat from a single sound. All the feedback control does is send some of the delayed output (after passing through the filters) back to the input so it gets delayed again: the more feedback, the more repeats. There are separate knobs for the left and right filter output for both delay lines.

  When a signal coming out of a delay line is routed back into the other delay line this is called 'cross-feedback' hence the knob on the interface. Cross-feedback is used to mix different delay times and can create beautiful stereo effects.

  The amount of total feedback determines the number of audible repeats. Higher levels will have more repeats and above a certain level feedback will cause higher volumes at every cycle and thus create sonic mayhem! Be careful with your ears and speakers, and don't use too high feedback levels.

• Link
  When the little lock button between the two delays is activated, the controls for the first delay will also control all parameters of the second delay. Therefore the controls of the second delay are disabled.

• Dry, Wet
  The large dry and wet level/pan knobs let you control the amount of dry (undelayed) and wet (delayed) signal that comes out of the plug-in. They are both modulation targets, but you must be aware that these are global volume settings, applied after all voices have been mixed together. Modulating this with source that is voice-dependent, such as MIDI velocity or an envelope generator, will not give good results. Instead, modulate the output level found in the bottom bar of the interface, because this level is applied for each voice separately, before they are mixed together.

• Enabled
  Each delay has a separate on/off switch. But we made another option available:
  the whole delay section can be turned on and off using the general buttons in the right bottom corner. 'I' means the delay is working and audible. 'O' means delay is turned off. Then there is one more option that always turns the delay section off regardless what the preset dictates. This setting cannot be saved in a preset and therefore will not be altered when browsing presets. This makes it possible to browse presets with the delay section permanently turned off.
  Don't forget to listen to the delay settings used in those presets. It sometimes is an important part of the sound design and can give great depth and groove to a sound.

Tips

• While holding down the Alt key you can adjust both delay parameters simultaneously. This works for all three knobs. This way it is easier to set up both delay lines with the same settings. For this to work with Delay time though, both delays must be set to work in the same sync mode.
• When holding the Alt key while dragging either the dry or wet level knob, both knobs will turn, but in the opposite direction. This is an easy way to control the mix of the wet and dry output while maintaining the same overall output level.
• By setting a delay time of between 30 and 100ms and adding a little gentle modulation with no feedback, you get the classic chorus effect.
• At very short delay times, (10 to 50ms in Ultra Short mode) increasing feedback will give a resonant cardboard tube or tunnel echo sound, the pitch of the resonance being set by the delay time. This effect is useful in creating new sounds or modifying existing ones beyond recognition it can create the illusion of ring modulation or phase sync.
• Short delays of between 30 and 100ms are used to create slap-back echo effects.
• Delay times in excess of 100ms, will give you the familiar tape echo type of sound, and this creates more rhythmical effects.
• If you are interested you can read more about delay technology on Wikipedia .
• The section presets button next to the delay filter routing button lets you store and retrieve all delay and delay filter parameters as a section preset, which is very useful for accessing often-used combinations of parameters.

Delay component buttons

Each filter is visually represented as a component button. By clicking on the component button and dragging, you can directly alter the most important filter parameters:

• Time/Offset: drag horizontally
• Feedback: drag vertically
• Sync: drag horizontally while holding down the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (OS X) key
• Cross Feedback : drag vertically while holding down the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (OS X) key

Click on a button to open the full filter interface (shown in the screen shot above) that provides access to all parameters. For other component shortcuts, see Component buttons.

Filters

Two filters are put after the delay lines in the signal path. The two filters are the same multimode filters as the main filters used after the oscillators. See Filters.

Next: Modulation

See Also
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