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Looper's Delight
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After a couple of hours of further tinkering, I have some more to report about my Golden Ratio delay settings. I've been using the delays built into the Boss GT-8 guitar multi-FX processor. The total delay time (a wimpy 1800ms) can be split into two delays of 900ms each. The delays can then be set to various configurations, including series and parallel. When I first posted on this, I believe I mistakenly said I used the delays in parallel. Not. Series is the most fun. Here's what I found to work the best: Set Delay 1 to whatever length you like. I'll use 500ms as an example. Set the feedback fairly high, like 90% to 100%. Consider this your primary delay. Set Delay 2 to "phi," a.k.a. the inverse of the Golden Ratio, in this case 500 x .618 or 309ms. Set the feedback fairly high. I like to set this delay's level moderately low and roll off some high end - it can get pretty metallic as it approaches oscillation. Play one or two notes. Delay 1 will retain a pulse-like even rhythm, but Delay 2 will begin to "fill in" around the pulse of Delay 1 like a cloud. I am calling my patches with this delay ratio the "phiGhost." I played around with a few other ratios at random, and nothing sounds like this. All the other ratios I tried tend to sound like either lopsided rhythms or wobbly rhythms. Once Delay 1 establishes its pulse, you play any kind of sub-pulse over it (eighths, sixteenths, slightly swung sixteenths, triplets, whatever) and the phiGhost will seem to support it, tending to emphasize the rhythm NO MATTER WHAT YOU PLAY, all the while continuing to generate this groovy note-cloud to fill in the spaces. By the way, if you use two delays in parallel instead of series, the delay set to phi will just kind of flicker around the pulse of the primary delay in a kind of cool-annoying, never-in-a-groove way. Next on my list of experiments: Using the third delay in the GT-8 along with my phiGhost delays. Setting my heftier Boss DD-20s up in phiGhost mode. Looooonnnnnnggggg phiGhost! BIG phiGhost! Yours in the center of the nautilus shell... Douglas Baldwin, coyote-at-large www.thecoyote.org coyotelk@optonline.net "The volume knob on your telepathy is your morality." - Stephen Gaskin, The Farm