Has anyone had any breakthroughs creating dub delay fx on the analog four?
Whats a dub delay? a one hit delay?
I think the delay itself is good enough for dubbyness, but the A4 just doesn’t sound very dubby, it has a sharp modern tone to it. I HAVE made lots of dub techno with the A4 though, but it wasn’t ideal. I had much more success with the OT, by sampling chords from polysynths and using the filter and the delay of the OT. Some lovely techno chord action if you set it right!
Though of course, if you want authentic dub delays you really need an analog mixer. Almost any delay will do actually, you don’t need expensive tape delays or anything, it’s more about the mixer having the right kind of tone when the signal is fed back through the mixer channel several times.
Yeah - you probably need some outboard for that.
Dub delays normally rely on each repeat being progressively more mangled (filters, distortion, bit-crushing etc.) in some way.
Maybe you could automate the delay’s filters with an LFO? Not actually tried that on Elektron boxes, but it might be possible.
The A4 delay works pretty well for Dub style delay if you’re referring to those filtered delay sounds. With feedback distortion etc. For Dub and Dub techno style delays IMO you need at least 2 or more different delays in the signal path.
Apologies ahead for this n00bish question (still learning everything) but what addittional delays and kind of signal path (as in how do I set it up) would you recommend with an A4 + AR setup?
my experience is getting great dubby sound chords out of the A4 … just mess around with the noise osc and attack of the envelope. But to my ears the delay sounds to much digital to get a great dubby vibe out of it. Just missing the modulation / wow & flutter and the saturation of the feedback loop … and ofcourse a great chorus like Roland Dimension D (from the UAD).
But there are a lot of good options for external tape / analog delays out there: Behringer EM600 (39 EUR), Echopark Line6 (150 EUR), Moog Delays (around 500 EUR).
But there are also absolutly great delay plugins available: U-He Satin, Soundtoys Echo Boy, NI Guitar Rig Tape Delay … sometimes I use 2, 3 of them in one track.
https://soundcloud.com/jamesorvis/sundaydubjam
Cheers guys just seen these replies will try some more ideas. Above is what i made that sunday, not too bad, towards the end of the track you can hear more dubby panned filtered delays. I figured i can get a nice base delay from the A4 and then use a dub delay return that I have in ableton along with a washed out reverb for more dubbyness. The kind of dub sound I’m after is that dub techno vibe, but more along the lines of Trentemoller - Nightwalker
I also tried to go down this route i think it falls short on the fact theres no resonance for the HP and LP delay filters. I did use an LFO to slightly wobble the delay time to wobble the pitch slowly for a warmer vibe. At the moment I have the Analog Four but would love to eventually trade in for a Keys just for the separate outs then I have more control separating tracks and creating extra FX loops with other gear
Apologies ahead for this n00bish question (still learning everything) but what addittional delays and kind of signal path (as in how do I set it up) would you recommend with an A4 + AR setup?[/quote]
Hey Merino I think he means in the style of a mixer sending the signal two returns, so a couple of different returns with different delays, delay times etc. Or a series of delay pedals or units. Im kind of doing this at the moment as Ableton is my master mixer for all my Rytm inputs and A4 master outs to allow me to have more FX instead of just the onboard FX.
set time to 24 and open Feedback to almost 50%
Yep was just referring to using 2 delays with different delay times. Probably sounds just as good in series or parallel.
Feedback and overdrive should get some nice results? along with longer feedback times. Don’t think the filters need reso unless you’re trying to achieve something specific, but technically the A4 delay has everything you would expect without getting too complicated.
nope … missing a damping of the delays in the feedback path. That´s mostly the difference between digital and anolog delays.
That’s very easy to replicate with an external digital delay box and an analog mixer though. Just use a mixer channel as an FX return, then use the AUX send to send the signal back to the delay box and use the EQ of the mixer channel to control the damping.
That’s how I’ve always done it anyway, when I’ve wanted some dubby delays. Any cheap delay unit will do, it’s not relevant as the sound of the mixer is what matters the most.
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Talking about a cheap FX, I use to play through a Line 6 DL-4 delay stompbox when I was playing guitar in a dub band.
It’s stereo and got some very nice sounds for the price.
They even programmed their delay to behave like the analog ones, with furious feedbacks and damaged reel effects.
If you have more money, Strymon El Cap seems interesting 
But A4 delay is very fine to me.
You have a low-pass filter that affects the feedback, isn’t it all you need ?
okay, but I prefere the tape delay style where every feedback loop gets a bit more damped, saturated, filterd, resonated … would be great if the A4 delay could do this … in the meantime I working with the plugins or the Behringer Echo Machine.
I like the delay of the Rytm more then the A4’s for some reason (but i guess it´s technically the same). With the routing into the saturation in combination with increasing the feedback and modulating the delay time via performance buttons you can achieve very great fx sounding delays.
Both the Strymon El Cap as wel as the Timeline are great for tape-style delays.
That’s very easy to replicate with an external digital delay box and an analog mixer though. Just use a mixer channel as an FX return, then use the AUX send to send the signal back to the delay box and use the EQ of the mixer channel to control the damping.
That’s how I’ve always done it anyway, when I’ve wanted some dubby delays. Any cheap delay unit will do, it’s not relevant as the sound of the mixer is what matters the most.[/quote]
