Stacking Delay Pedals | 5 Awesome Tips!

[@theodorsloth2194]

This Video is al little old, but one of the best you have ever made. Maybe you once want to make an update. For example you get great sounds by combining a reverse and a normal delays. Another very nice field of ambient experimentation is stacking delays and reverbs.

[@graydeotto2820]

You should make a video of your favourite ambient/drone/post rock albums that influence your music!

[@ambientmothman]

oh my god, i would die to get a long video on this

[@chordsoforion]

The interesting thing is that very few of them are true ambient albums, and none are post-rock. They are more prog-rock, jazz and classical.

[@Castronioni]

@@chordsoforion I think many viewers would still be very interested in your musical background or, in this case, more the areas your inspiration came and coms from.

[@SrDeMaFp]

I’d definitely like to hear what you dig

[@silvansky]

@@chordsoforion Prog u say... Hmmm. I'd love to hear more good prog! KC is the best thing I heard, but I listened to them tooooo much, need some new things.

[@eugeneslament20]

The splitting mono to stereo signal is genius. Thank you for that!

[@chordsoforion]

You are welcome!

[@LauraSquirrel]

Yeah. That is a brilliant idea. I took a screenshot of the part where he diagramed things out. I plan on using this with what I have at the moment. It should be quite fun. Wanted to throw this in too: THE AVALANCHE RUN IS SO AWESOME!!!!

[@fretlesscountry]

@@chordsoforion yeah thanx man!!!! great vid, sounds amazing!!

[@DisabilityExams]

When your echo is echoing the echo of your echoes - you need more echo!

[@jjrusy7438]

I didn't quite understand what you meant. Could you repeat that please?(1 alligator 2 alligator) ease(1 alligator 2 alligator) ease (1 alligator 2 alligator) ease …..

[@davemaphis5972]

Echo = cowbell! ;-) Interesting stuff nonetheless.

[@LauraSquirrel]

And you need some Pink Floyd.

[@poulwinther]

I echo your thoughts.

[@edd27]

Tip number 6: Add different pedals (such as modulation or octaves ...) in the "loops" created when splitting from stereo to mono.

[@skullkid112]

Can you explain this a bit more? I'm a bit of a newb with pedals

[@perr1983]

Great, even crazier! lol

[@edd27]

Take his setup for example. He's got the El Capistan going in the dig (stereo) then he splits the output of the stereo each in a mono delay pedal, ie in this case one signal in the avalanche and the other in the canyon. You can add pedals of your choice between the dig and the avalanche and between the dig and the canyon. Let's say for example you add a chorus between the dig and avalanche and an octave between the dig and the canyon. So you have multiple delays with a chorus effect on one side and you have multiple delays with an octave on the other. You can go completely crazy with this.

[@skullkid112]

@@edd27 thanks man

[@analogdragon4709]

Cool

[@Steven-u5w]

Excellent point. I was going to point this out but thanks for this wonderful tip for all other guitarists out there! Explore experiment improvise to your hearts content💯🎸🤗

[@iqqmut79]

The horror of playing that ONE wrong note in a long chain of delays...

[@chordsoforion]

indeed!!

[@BillLarkinmusic]

Lol !

[@poulwinther]

Just stick to Death Metal......

[@morten1]

If you do, sometimes you can go along with it and make it a part of the music. Then it becomes more dramatic and less an error. Harder to do in a band setting though

[@forever3797]

Robert Fripp's been doing it for over 30 years! I think the 'professional' term is 'dissonance' - listen to his 1999 album - pretty amazing.

[@brycegoff529]

Ok I know at some point less is more, but just once I’d like to set up four amps in a room in 360 degrees and go stereo delay into two stereo delays so there are four outputs. Wouldn’t be useful for recording but live I wonder how 3D you could get it. I recall Pink Floyd playing Astronomy Domine (?) in concert and the guitar sound seeming to swirl in a circle around the stadium. It may have just been my perception, but it seemed like it was not just panning, it was going around. Gotta try it once anyway. Or 8 outputs? (Insert maniacal laugh here)

[@chordsoforion]

I saw Jean Luc Ponty once in "quadrophonic" sound. It was great, and to your point, they were able to pan the violin all the way around the room. It would be cool to try a surround sound recording some time for sure. Now I just need to get a surround sound system. :-)

[@FREEZER4000]

They had a series of speakers arond the arena's they played each triggered to play a certain amount of time The music actually did swirl around you , crazy right? at least thats what I was told

[@caryheuchert]

Pink Floyd called it “The Azimuth Co-ordinator”.

[@brycegoff529]

@@caryheuchert cool thanks

[@calebproductions5970]

The main thing we can all agree on is this sounds awesome it sounds really good that's what keeps me coming back

[@michaelenglish1030]

There are some good pointers here. This video encouraged me to stack some delays and reverbs. The ideas presented here helped me more of what I have, pedal-wise.

[@ironfossil9963]

I will admit, I thought I needed more reverb. Thank you for showing me it's subtle delay I wanted.

[@JackstandJohnny]

You Sir are a gentleman and a scholar.

[@Steven-u5w]

Wow! Absolutely awesomely wonderful! Thanks again

[@user-vx6bo3cx6m]

I would like to hear how you would play some Pink Floyd solos like High Hopes in some ambient style.

[@BillKeilt]

That was great information, Bill. Especially the tip about splitting the stereo out to two different delays. I'll set that up with my El Cap -> Nemesis -> Dig....thanks!

[@chordsoforion]

Hey Bill - yeah, that combo will sound great for sure!

[@paulstuartbuckby5134]

Bill, tx for an awesome demonstration. Most enjoyable and inspiring.

[@ikesours6558]

I've watched this one a few times and haven't acted on it yet. However, my theory is to replace the 2nd (stereo) delay with stereo flanger. I'm imagining a low speed, medium-low depth and high regeneration/intensity will give a neat metallic flavor to tape delay before splitting to slower delays (tube and lo bit for a little of that grit without the oscillation issue.

[@agerven]

Love your comment: "Lets make the delay time a little longer longer longer ..." I've never, yet, stacked so many and complex delays like that. Usually run in tip nr. 5: avoid making a mess of it (don't overdo it). Master at work here, and an instructional video I'm certain to return to every once and a while. Thanks!

[@carloguarrera8568]

Thank you for all your suggestions!

[@JesseJayAllen]

You are awesome at what you do... 5:54 made my life flash before my eyes

[@jamesf2918]

So happy to see the avalanche run in your channel. It’s a great delay to stack.

[@edwardanderson3506]

Awesome in headphones! Thanks for the tips and your passion!

[@GNeuman]

The dig and el capistan are superb pedals

[@wildfeuer]

Inspiring use of delay pedals!!!!

[@GNeuman]

Fascinating use of multiple echoes!

[@chordsoforion]

The cool thing is that the more you experiment, the more options you find!

[@GNeuman]

@@chordsoforion I'd love your review/opinion of the Dawner Prince Boonar echo pedal....it's a digital emulation of the Binson Echorec....I love mine!

[@daneguitarist1]

god damn i loved everything about this im a huge delay freak, ive got your next whiskey in kansas if you every run around, plussss loads of fun delay pedals and other pedals we could record in the studio

[@dpgoguen]

As usual, another informative and helpful video. I've watched the last several Chords of Orion videos of the Boss GT 1000 with great interest. It certainly seems like a miraculous unit, but watching this makes me appreciate having the physical controls of each unit instead of digging down into a vast Network of virtual controls of a multi-effects unit. I guess it's a matter of preference, but it would be nice to know how others feel about this.

[@Music6982]

David Goguen I prefer analog controls as well but there are benefits to both!

[@marvelherman419]

More delay videos. This was great. Thanks.

[@RicardoDiLago]

i like how you learn us what we are actually hearing.

[@markhammer643]

I recommend to those owning stereo pedals to explore "reprocessing". That is, the output of one channel is used as the input signal of the other channel. Many interesting effects and textures can be obtained, in those pedals that permit it. Even better, insert something else between output A and input B such that the second processing is on a transformation of the first. My favorite is doing this with reverse delay, or delay that imposes swell on the repeats.

[@LeifPalmin]

Sounds fantastic.

[@arvingarrison1410]

Really invaluable tips for delay-aficionados. The only thing I'm afraid of is that I'll end up buying even more delay pedals (got three already). Anyway, thanks for these and other vid's. Very well done and inspirational.

[@alaskaonpause]

Great vid. I'm using synths so was watching for that, but it's a delight to hear your beautiful guitar playing!

[@sethmmendez]

Awesome video! Thanks for the tips!

[@JimmyDormire]

Awesome ideas of new frontiers to explore...Many thanks!!!

[@chordsoforion]

You are welcome!

[@Steven-u5w]

It's definitely worth guitarist exploring other kinds of delay pedals explore experiment improvise to your hearts cotent💯🎸🤗

[@orp1006]

Great tips, but from my experience, #5, "Don't overdo it" seems to be the most impoartant one. I've tried stacking delays numerous times, but found that more often than not, the result can very quickly become messy - unless you play very, very few notes, and even then the delay repeats can make a track sound repetitive. I personally prefer working with parallel delays, but unfortunately splitting and reuniting the signal path is also not unproblematic. In my main setup, the signal goes from a Danelectro PB&J Digital delay into an ABY switch, where one signal goes into a TC Electronic Flashback Triple Delay and the other into a Danelectro Reel Echo. I'm generally happy with this setup, but I'd sometimes like a bit more flexibility or something a tad more outlandish.

[@MrThom52]

O'R.P q

[@perr1983]

Amazing! That tip number 4 never occurred to me!!! Really mind blowing!

[@jankevinbautista]

My goodness. What great tips!

[@chordsoforion]

Glad they were useful!

[@StefanvanderKlooster]

Great lesson! I am going to try some of these tips tonight!

[@dethsyndrome]

your the savior of the noise in my head!

[@EddieSlowhands]

Hi Bill - Eddie in the UK here. I enjoyed this video as with all your others ! Would you be willing to share the actual settings used in this configuration please Bill as I am new to Ambient Guitar and find it a little difficult to create the sounds you are demonstrating. Thanks again for another great video Bill. Best regards - Eddie.

[@chordsoforion]

Hi Eddie - unfortunately, I did not write down the settings for the pedals, and they've all been used with different settings over the years. The good news is that all the knobs are visible in the inset picture (just upside down). Do you have the same pedals?

[@EddieSlowhands]

@@chordsoforion Hi Bill. Thanks for replying so quickly ! I don’t the same pedals as I have a Zoom G3XN Pedal which allows me to customise each effect and the order is I put in the chain

[@EddieSlowhands]

Oops ! Sorry Bill - I hit send in error 😱😂. The Zoom allows me to customise the effects and the order I want them in the chain. I’ve watched your beginner’s tutorials and made a note of the control positions to try to emulate your tones. Thanks again Bill - I thought my question might also help other Ambient Newbies like me. Best regards - Eddie

[@timbaugh1944]

Great tip on routing mono delays - never occurred to me. Great advice Bill ..

[@tonihullzer1611]

very informative, super structured!!! thank you

[@monthofthemagnetic972]

Thank you for all your great videos they are brilliant your a wonderful artist and teacher

[@lightnintrucker]

Now this is totally rad! I'm completely inspired to try this myself. You do seem to offer me a lot of cool ideas and inspiration to implement into my ambient guitar playin'. Keep up the good work!

[@chordsoforion]

Glad you got some ideas!!

[@garaughty]

The new math... delay + delay + delay = rich, complex atmospheres ! ;-)

[@chordsoforion]

That all adds up to me! ;-)

[@criddycriddy]

Amazing brilliant tips thanks sir ...

[@giantessmaria]

wonderful demo, thanks my friend!

[@BarryGrueter]

Awesome tips thanks so much for sharing 🙏

[@miguelpanta]

stellar sound at 4:25

[@Kkidzz]

Nice that the two Strymons together create a reverb. @ 4:15 you're nicely in Vini Reilly/ Durutti Column territory. Good thing you did'nt pull out the TC Triple Delay. 😉😬

[@davidrussell8918]

Very cool advice.as always amazing sound. Baritones for ambient guitar is magic. Love my dano !

[@HomeGroup-ly9uf]

Very cool idea. Thanks

[@gabsinthsky]

So inspiring ❤ Thank you

[@iblamesummers]

Bless You Chords of Orion ! 🙏🙏🙏

[@leapsplashafrog]

Enjoyed this. If your looking for suggestions Bill A beginners guide to ambient baritone would be good - like you did with your Alan holdsworth guitar but using a baritone

[@thebmxband1t]

SUPERB!!!! Lots of ideas now!!

[@christopherebeyrol4553]

thanks for this great tone demo! I'm gonna try now using my DD3 along with my new Nux tape echo.

[@SpartanLaserCanon]

I actually like some tones with delay chorus, even some double tracked distortions sound like they have a bit of a chorus if they are not played exactly the same but still similar. Your playing is so relaxing a lot of the time, thanks for your wonderful ambient music man.

[@jasonlee8497]

I use a short slap back single echo into a stereo ping pong set to eighths or quarters. Doesn’t work on everything. But you can play with how much the mono signal is feeding into the stereo. Lots of fun.

[@matteogazzolo1]

Beautiful results, beautiful music to imagine. Thank you!

[@jameskrys5286]

I have an old Zoom 508. There is a setting on it where it never stops repeating. You play a line, add a line and it keeps going and going. Good for driving people nuts. I saw an electric violinist do something like this once.

[@Deeplycloseted435]

Most excellent video and tips. Thanks!

[@danandkiko]

Love your 'splaining and demonstrating! (and of course playing).

[@paulangelo1974]

This is gr-r-reat . Thank you for this.

[@JohnnyDollar720]

Excellent video

[@erkohara]

Amazing as always, thank you! 🤩

[@gospelpopmusic]

Awesome video. Im building my recording studio. Also my guitar rig and pedal board. Thanks

[@WordlessFlight]

I can’t wait to take some of these ideas and build out a session for my piano in Logic. Thanks for the tips!

[@christopherecatalano]

Lovely, thank you. Your primary tone is also quite extraordinary. I really like that stereo trick, and have messed with similar approaches. One thing I am finding (and I probably wrongly pride myself on my good timing!) is that all of my delays seem to respond to tap tempo in ways I cannot seem to get right, which often forces me to turn the repeats down much more than I would like to especially if metronomes are involved. Any tips there? I usually manage, and yeah, first world problem for sure!

[@lauriecartermusic]

This is fantastic and really useful information. Thank you for sharing.

[@alienechomill]

Wow- great sounds, great tips!

[@OLDGUYSK8R]

I use a carbon copy and and cheap donner yellow fall to get really nice sounding swells. Carbon copy with the mod switch in makes it sounds amazing.

[@chordsoforion]

Excellent!!

[@eduardoandreux3445]

Bastante asequibles los pedales que usas jejeje!! Hermoso sonido que logras!!

[@avpostbox]

Very inspiring! Very informative! Brilliant! Thank you!

[@Margilio5150]

I don’t have two amps to run stereo but the katana 100 head has 2 units via USB, one unit has all the amp sounds and the other acts as a direct audio interface... I’ll try to pan them differently and run a set of delays in front (on both amps) and use its own delays on the loop of just one track...

[@chrisbose]

wow, nice riffs man, and a great clear explanation of the pedals and timing! Aces!

[@forever3797]

Hi Bill - love your work, highly informative and your compositions are beautiful. On a side note about visuals I like the look of your recent videos - have you thought about a more neutral guitar strap? Sometimes I find the visuals and music very meditative but the red strap stands out from your muted tones (pun intended). Also, absolutely nothing against your shoes or socks, but have you ever thought about attempting to get a quiet shoe sponsorship - not stating the sponsor in the video, but maybe putting the link in the description for any of your discerning viewers - just thinking creatively and it seems appropriate given we regularly see your footwork - worth a try!

[@Theweeze100]

Really love your videos, I am a subscriber and big fan of what you do. Extremely well done, quality product that you turn out. Thank you so much for your channel, your videos!

[@ripplebear]

Why have I never thought to do that split trick?? Thanks!

[@robb4340]

Awesome tones and tips! Tnx, Great Video!

[@joemorrow8411]

Honesty you would not think this was a guitar,,so cool,,nice job🎄🎄🍺🍺👍🇺🇸

[@narutoshippuden2ulti]

Really cool tips!

[@paulsimmons5726]

David Gilmour is diggin' this channel!

[@ripplebear]

Id say anyone diggin delay is diggin this channel! DG prob digs on some cooking channels these days 😁 or maybe some gardening? Ya dig? :)

[@KneedleKnees]

You have to do a video of all your delays stacked together

[@zenartist]

I would like to see this stacked delays done with only plugins

[@Robert_Babicz]

super cool, i love it

[@digitalsea9147]

I thought about getting the earth Quaker d. But I have the caverns and etherial wompler. And the fender Marine reverb. N dl4 Anyway 2 questions are you playing with like the b-c3 or some kind of sustain compression???in this video? And others and my other question was do u really think the avalanche is that great? I was not that impressed but I get it bill you got to have the most expensive everything lol lol I'd do the same if I could.

[@jimbuck2996]

I just started using my second delay. The possibilities seem to be unlimited.

[@JH-qg5ho]

Hi Bill, I really like your work both creative and very inspiring. Back to your video, I currently own 2 digital delays Nova Delay & Headrush 2 > which analog delay could you recommend to nicely complement them ?

[@walterbanfi6861]

Great Great Job, a lot to learn from you. I'm starting at this, so I would like to ask you in what order do you think would be best to do the stack? Right now I have an analog Delay BOSS DM2 and a digital delay. Which one would you put first? Thank you very very much

[@evanward4303]

Coool thumbnail pic.

[@alltherestmusic714]

Amazing!

[@varde6965]

I really like this, i love to compose ambient music, just suck that i don't know how to play the guitar. This is really inspiring and makes me wanna start to practise !!. got any tips for investing in a ambient guitar for a beginner?.

[@chordsoforion]

Glad you found the video of value! As far as selecting a guitar goes, any guitar you like to play can be used for ambient music. The one caveat is that super high gain pickups for heavier styles of playing don't work as well for more nuanced tones. But really, it's all about what you like to play and the tone that you prefer.

[@varde6965]

I normally like slower styles, so anything with just a few notes/chords here and there mixed in with other sounds is what i have in mind. Thank you for the feadback :)

[@arvedbohn6133]

What an awesome video! Thanks Bill! I tried it some times, but it all ended in some spooky goo... ^^

[@michaeldouglas2634]

What is your setup for capturing the sound in your videos? Are you plugin directly into the interface or are do you have a mic on the cabinet. Very clean. Nice tones.

[@billyscrapper]

i have been using an A/B switch running into Zoom CDR, Canyon, DD20 and triple delay... i end up with 2 distinct stereo outs {channel 1&2 stereo and channel 3&4 stero in} going to my yamaha mixer... even just switching between A and B, single or combined can create a myriad of dynamics. i create a drone on preset 4 of the DD20, and it continues when i go to manual which i have set to Looper....... lot of options........

[@chordsoforion]

Sounds like a great setup!

[@SoundCityEstudioPedais]

Hi Bill ! Your videos are always amazing! Congrats, buddy! I would like to ask you: in stereo delay / reveb pedal, have you ever tried to connect the second output into the other input in other to create some sort of feedback ? Did it work in any case for you? Tks in advance .

[@chordsoforion]

Sorry for the delay in replying. No - I have not tried this, but could be interesting!

[@SetordeGestaoDocumental-SGD]

dude's voice is so smooth that should be a delay preset itself