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Question about using delay to overcome dexterity

LilRay

LilRay

Commercial User
Dec 27, 2007
4,166
39
Between my Roscoe and Leather
Disclosures
Owner: Cockeyed Cow Custom Leathercraft
#1
I would like to find a delay or repeater that I can play the one and it would respond with the other three notes of 4/4 time.

In other words I have a dexterity issue that limits my ability to stay on a "driving" 8th/16th note line, and I wonder if there's something I can use to help?

Ideas?

God bless, Ray
 
#2
Hey Ray.
As i gather, you're looking for a pedal that faithfully reproduces your playing. As such you should try a digital delay such as Boss and adjust the repeats. You should be able to achieve what you're aiming for.
May I suggests alternative?
Why don't you try to use a hard chopping tremolo that will turn long sustained notes into a steady rythm?
Maybe it's far fetched but could you enjoy playing a bass synth? After all, it's playing that matters.
 
#4
I would think that unless you and those you'd play with use a click track or MIDI clock it would be very difficult to keep such a delay in sync with other players, you'd drift out of the pocket and the result would not be a tight groove.

I would rather look for ways to either somehow work around the dexterity problem, maybe try alternate techniques, or simplify the bass lines to where you can play them. Develop your own style based on what you can actually play.
 
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#5
Not directly related, but still: A nice gal called Ariane Cap had just started giving bass "lessons" on notreble.com a few weeks ago. I haven't been watching her very intently, but I've seen enough to know that part of her method is using a delay pedal to make the exercises more interesting. IIRC what she does is set it to 1 repeat after 3 16th, so that the melody that you're playing sort of "intertwines" with itself (or something like that). You may want to take a look.

Regarding the actual question: Yes, a good digital delay should do this. I've never seriously used any of them so can't really comment, but I'm pretty sure you're going to need a good tap-temp implementation plus the ability to set the actual delay to divisions of the tempo (like you tap 4th and the delay is for 16th., etc.)
 
#6
I know of two digitech pedals that have their "live adapt" technology to sync delays to the current tempo. They are both vocal pedals, but they use an onboard mic to listen for tempo, as well as key, but that doesn't apply here. Look at the vocalist live fx, and the vocalist live harmony. Maybe they could do what you need.
 
#10
Something with tap tempo seems like it would be key, for easy fine-tuning of the timing. And then a note division setting, to specify if you want quarter, 8th, or dotted 8th notes. Lastly, if your drum machine supports it, MIDI clock sync would help a ton. (This kinda replaces the need for the tap tempo, I guess.) And if your drum machine doesn't support MIDI clock sync, then maybe get one that does. :) Anyway, off the top of my head, TC Electronic Flashback X4 seems like an ideal candidate. It has all 3 options, plus Idea 2 (below). I believe the Boss DD 500 also has all of these features.

Idea 2 - instead of a delay, get an actual looper. With infinite overdubs, play what you're comfortable with the first time, then fill in the holes on subsequent play-throughs. Build it up over a few iterations. Both the Flashback X4 and DD 500 act as full loopers, I believe.
 

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