Live Delay Settings

Hey Folks!

I’m currently building my first live presets for an upcoming gig and i wonder which delay settings are suitable for live usage.

TBH i never used delay for solos in my previous bands, now i’m in a whitesnake tribute band and kinda have to use one :smiley:

Although i’m pretty happy with my studio / rehearsal preset (in ears / monitors) i don’t know what delay settings could translate to live usage.

Is there a rule of thumb? How do you manage you delay use live? (for rythm and lead/solo)

I’ll use my mono preset live. (we just have a 20min line check)

Cheers

I’m assuming you’re playing lead guitar in your Whitesnake tribute band… You probably want to keep your delay mix and feedback levels pretty low overall. Just enough to hear the effect, but not overpower your notes.

EDIT: I think some of the delay modes in the QC have low-pass and high-pass filters. It would be good to at least use a high-pass filter so that low bass frequencies aren’t repeated in the delay line. Try a cutoff of 100 Hz and go from there. This will help to keep everything crisp and tight.

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I’ve been dialling in live rigs recently too… what I’ve discovered is, delay before the amp makes the delay very loud it all gets a bit mushy and you have to have the mix in single digits, put delay after the amp (before the cab) and the delays lose clarity and the mix has to be at least 50% any higher and your losing original signal… so… after much experimenting I’ve started running the delay in a parallel path after amp, before the cab this leaves the dry signal intact and let’s me up the delay mix above 50 (I’m liking 60%), without losing the dry signal, it does the classic stadium rock felt thing really well.

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it’s also one of those factors that’s affected by the room and PA if you’re going thru FOH. I don’t think there’s a hard/fast rule for settings that will apply in every situation.
Maybe assign an XP to the delay level so you can easily adjust on the fly, if that’s the setting you’re most concerned with.

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Thank you guys for the input! Really appreciate it.
I try to incorporate all of those tricks.
@Steeevp could you give me a screenshot on your routing?

At the moment i have compressor, overdrive and amp in Row1.
Chorus, Delay and Reverb (used for room) + IR is in row 3.

The IR block comes at last cause i’m splitting the signal before it and sending it to row 4 for sending it to another output (one output goes FOH and another one to the Power amp and a real cab)

Here’s my routing, the A path just reinforces the dry signal allowing you to up the mix on the B path… another way would be to put the delay mix on 100%
and adjust how much you hear with the B level control in the mixer…

My signal then goes to row 3 where it’s tapped off before the Cab via send 2 for a power amp and real cab… then it goes on to the QC cab and out 2.

Row 4 is for vocals.

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Excellent way to show how you route!

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Awesome thank you so much! I try to integrate this for my preset as well! This is gold

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