Mixitecture

View Original

How to get vintage tape-echo sound using Ableton delay plugins

Did you know that the standard Ableton delay plugins have different operating modes?  

Did you know you can get the beautiful sound of an analog tape delay from a stock Ableton delay plugin? 

The trick is really simple and it's even in the manual but if you don't look for it you might never know.

All you do is select "RePitch" on the right side of the main Delay device.

For Echo, go to the “Character” tab and click the “RePitch” box.

This rearranged the furniture in my mind when I first heard it, especially when doing those sweeps that go from shortest to longest delay time -- the repetitions really capture that SLURPPPP sound and echo it in long one-bar loops.

It's almost like having a sampler that automatically makes a one-bar loop with whatever you put into it.  I remember the Korg electribe ER-1 had a delay like this too... it was awesome.

So if you're familiar with this stuff then the RePitch tip is all you need to take off.

Here's a playlist of audio examples that show you the difference between the three delay modes (RePitch, Fade and Jump) using both sync'd delay time and manual milliseconds time.  

See this content in the original post

WANT SOME ABLETON RACKS?

I love sharing the Ableton Racks that I make, so you can play with them too.

Check them out on GumRoad, you’ll find some freebies and some really useful Collections.