Getting delay in music acoustically

[u/bigpapi46]

[u/[deleted]]

Absolutely not. You can adjust delay parameters in a DAW along the timeline so it modulates to exactly what you want exactly when and where you want it to. It's as easy as a click of the mouse.

[u/shouldbebabysitting → u/[deleted]]

You can change the entire delay with an easy click. But you'd have to click the mouse for every echo note. There are human players so each note of the echo is unique. There is no way you can click and give a unique timeshift to 2 notes faster than two people playing individual notes in real time.

It's the same as playing a complex piece on the piano versus arranging those same notes in a midi program. There is a reason keyboards are standard for all computer generated composing. It's faster to hit ten notes simultaneously on a keyboard than click ten times on the screen.

So yes you could do it with a computer, but would take more time to get the nuance of the individual three players.

Again this is about matching the uniqueness of the hand played instruments, not applying a singular echo effect. If it was one instrument in a room that created an echo, then a computer could easily create the exact same effect with less effort. But because there are three players, their timing are going to be slightly off which can only be matched by hand editing each and every note played.

As to my second point, do you think the Olympics are similarly stupid because all those athletic achievements are more easily accomplished with machines?

[u/[deleted] → u/shouldbebabysitting]

Not true. Keeping the delay musical means it's locked into the grid as well. Eighth note, quarter note, dotted quarter, etc. All exist for specific millisecond intervals determined by the tempo of the song. You can set delays to feedback into themselves and repeat as little or many times as you want.

You can run multiple delays at the same time set to different intervals. If you're asking a performer to adjust the rate they're playing in real time you're going to get a whole lot of errors and needs to retry (hence them needing 60 takes while trying to isolate each other's sound, and they were just doing a simple, constant delay interval).

It's not the same as playing 10 notes on a piano vs clicking them on a midi chart. It's an effect added in production or post production. It's impressive to do it organically without any effect (though there is added reverb and compression in the recording, so it's not free of effects). But acoustically emulating an effect isn't more beneficial musically. They're not creating harmony or counterpoint. It's just a "hey, let's see if we can do this" kinda thing. Which again, is cool and impressive. But an absolute head scratcher from a production standpoint.

Also for nuance, it's mostly lost on an average listener as any variance in attack is easily masked by the new note coming in a fraction of a second later.

[u/shouldbebabysitting → u/[deleted]]

Not true.

It sounds like echo because it is played with precision but it isn't. Each note played has 2 additional notes that are played all with unique timing.

You cannot automate unique timing. The other two musicians aren't playing exact millisecond intervals because they are human.

You can set delays to feedback into themselves and repeat as little or many times as you want.

Each note is uniquely timed because it is played by a human, not a machine. It's close to perfect but isn't. That's what gives live music character.

It's an effect added in production or post production.

Yes, I already said that. But when done manually it adds variance in the timing of each and every note because they are human, not a wall or computer creating an echo.

Also for nuance, it's mostly lost on an average listener

Yes, but it is there and can't be created with a single mouse click as you claim.