There are plenty of different ways to play the guitar. You can either play it in the traditional way or provide audio effects, as the effects help to manipulate audio in different ways. So how do guitarists manipulate audio and offer amazing music? Let's find out!
There are two main types of audio effects; reverb and delay. Reverb is the reflection of sound waves from a solid surface to our ears. On the other hand, the delay is the most versatile effects that you can add to your pedal board. Its effect records an input signal and then plays it back after a audio cassette to digital pre-decided span of time. There are many different types of delays and among them the three basic types of delays are Digital Delay, Tape Delay, and Analog Delay.
- Digital: Since 1970, digital delay has grown in popularity among guitarists. Earlier, there was only one type of digital delay available in the markets, and they were the expensive rack-mounted units. Later on, there were many new types of delays that were manufactured like the foot pedal, which was easily affordable by all. Moreover, these numerous types of units offer different digital signal processing options. They are considered to be the most powerful and flexible units and are commonly used by many guitarists.
- Tape: In this kind of delay, you are required to record to a tape and then play it back. It is a fuss-free operation, so most guitarists prefer using tape delay. It yields an amazing echo sound, which cannot be found in any other type of delay. However, a negative aspect of these delays is that the units are bulky and they do not have a tap tempo feature.
- Analog: Considered to be one of the oldest type of delay employed in the audio engineering field, an analog delay is warm-sounding and vintage-vibed. Its unit uses magnetic tape as the playback and recording medium. The tape is then passed through an appliance and thus the effects can be personalized. However, the tape keeps breaking down occasionally, so you will have to change the tape to audio cassette to digital maintain the fidelity of the audio. This is a time-consuming process, so guitarists use different types of analog delays with spinning magnetic discs or magnetic drums as a storage medium instead of the tape. These thereby enhance the durability of the storage medium, and thus are popular in the market.