I can’t keep track of how many delays I have, I even picked up another one a week ago, yet I don’t have any stereo delays. Stereo signals collapse fine to mono delays especially if the delays are not pristine and ping-pong effects can easily be made with 2 mono delays. But one thing I often do is put a delay (or 2) with zero feedback on a sequence and then ride the levels to create fun, playable rhythmic variations.
This is from many years ago and half of these have been replaced by other things but here is a picture of what my brain looks like on drugs…
How do you split the stereo signal into mono and meld back again to stereo ?
The way I know about is to split a stereo signal without summing L and R is the OBNE, Old Blood Noise Endeavors, Split Meld. After the dual mono effects chain, the OBNE can then bring them together again.
P.S. If stereo summing to mono or mono splitting to stereo is required, then the Stage Bug 6 is a great passive helper for this.
Would you mind to elaborate your point a bit? Not that I’m asking to buy any new equipment at this stage but it’s always great to know what one is missing out on.
If you send your delay back into a mixer channel …
You can use the eq’s as frequency based feedback controls.
You can use the gain to overdrive the feedback path and make it nice and crunchy.
It’s usually much easier to ride the faders and knobs on a mixer, too many delays have silly space saving controls like wet/dry blend.
And that’s not even getting into cross-feedback with another delay or a different effect or sticking other effects in the feedback path.
So many possibilities…
IMHO mono delay and reverb are essential to building a solid mid channel in your mix. I use some form of mono delay/reverb in every production/most sound sources. If you only use stereo delay/reverb and your mix is played back on a mono system - think club system or radio - then all of that nice stereo fx is going to be removed with only a tiny bit of it that overlaps into the mid channel. This will make your sounds within the mix and the mix as a whole sound different, probably not in a good way (it will lose a lot of volume, rhythm, and density)
I run parallel mono fx inside a rack for each sound that needs it. Afterwards, I use a small amount of stereo delay/reverb which causes the sound to bloom and open up. I highly recommend experimenting with mono fx that are lower in volume and blended in nicely to the original mono source, then send it through some stereo fx processing - won’t need much since the stereo field is empty if you are doing this to most sound sources. A little bit of M/S eq before the chain can help make the sound pop.
Example: you have a pluck chord sound and it has a 1/4th delay that is essential to the rhythm/vibe. If this delay is stereo, you will lose a lot of the rhythm and vibe of the sound if played on a mono system. If you bake the 1/4th delay in mono then the foundation of the sound will have that delay rhythm/vibe, and you can add in a stereo 1/4th delay to make the side channel pop but in a controlled and enhancing kind of way. Your sounds should never lose their character/tone/feel when summed to mono. The stereo field should enhance what’s already there.
It’s tempting to use super crazy wide ultra stereo delay and get pseudo emotionally triggered, haha, but, shit, if I want to actually have a mix with an interesting and dynamic stereo image, I aim for mono delays by default. The denser the mix, the more mono I go.
