Mike Stern Delay = 221 ms , 4 feedbacks ....

[Jazz+]

I extracted and looped a single Mike Stern note from his instruction video on YouTube called "All That Jazz w/Mike Stern -Learn to Burn - April 2013". I wanted to match my guitar's delay speed (SDE-3000 Boss Katana sim) to his exact timing, which seems to me to be 221 milliseconds. The note repeated sounding like 4 sixteenths. It's quicker than the usual 400 milliseconds that seems to be many players default setting. Mike uses a ping pong stereo delay that sounds great, I think it's much better sounding than a mono delay effect. I believe he also uses either a little pitch shift or Harmonizer on unison zero to get a bigger note sound. Also, he sometimes adds compression for more intensity, and then overdrive for heavy soloing.

 

[Jazz+]

 

I looped the last note he played at 4:12

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

[d halfnote]

Cool analysis, Jazz !

 

This isn't quite what you describe but may be of interest.

[video:youtube]

 

& then there's this

[video:youtube]

 

[Delta]

Good stuff. I saw Mike with Eric Johnson a few years ago in California. They were both very good, however I preferred Mike's style of playing. I thought Eric was the better technical player however I found him to be quite one dimensional whereas Mike was more dynamic with his tone and variety of textures. His pedalboard was much more complex than Eric's also, not saying that means a hell of a lot.

[skipclone 1]

I saw Mike a few years ago at Blue Note in Tokyo-I also think Eric J. is a monster technically. But I suspect that Mike is a better improviser-I had the impression that he is the kind of player who would invite someone up to jam-and then fry them to a crisp. With Eric J., you know his music or you don`t. Just an impression.

[Winston Psmith]

Slightly OT, but that Toneprint video annoys me. I've seen a handful of other "So-&-So creates their Toneprint sound" videos, and they're all like that. Rather than seeing a Musician sitting down with a device and crafting a sound, we get someone from T.C. turning dials, or otherwise tweaking the sound, and a rather bland, "Yeah, that's nice," assessment from the featured artist?

 

It would be very useful, especially in the case of a device like a Delay, to hear some specifics: "I've set it for 225 ms, and 20 percent Feedback, with the mix about 1/3 Wet." That kind of info would allow you to try and re-create the sound on some other Delay device, but of course, that wouldn't help sell many Toneprint pedals . . .

[Caevan O’Shite]

Slightly OT, but that Toneprint video annoys me. I've seen a handful of other "So-&-So creates their Toneprint sound" videos, and they're all like that. Rather than seeing a Musician sitting down with a device and crafting a sound, we get someone from T.C. turning dials, or otherwise tweaking the sound, and a rather bland, "Yeah, that's nice," assessment from the featured artist?

 

It would be very useful, especially in the case of a device like a Delay, to hear some specifics: "I've set it for 225 ms, and 20 percent Feedback, with the mix about 1/3 Wet." That kind of info would allow you to try and re-create the sound on some other Delay device, but of course, that wouldn't help sell many Toneprint pedals . . .

 

Wurd.

[Jazz+]

I doubt Mike has ever thought in those terms with his delays. His Boss Delay has dials without numbers. He goes by sound and dial position, the TonePrint sets up differently. I would guess their tech did like I did, listened and matched digitally beforehand, and then had him play it, like in the video.

[Winston Psmith]

I doubt Mike has ever thought in those terms with his delays. His Boss Delay has dials without numbers. He goes by sound and dial position, the TonePrint sets up differently. I would guess their tech did like I did, listened and matched digitally beforehand, and then had him play it, like in the video.

 

Setting your Delay time, and its relation to Rhythm, can be critical in Music, much of the reason for Tap-Tempo settings. If you've ever had to use a BPM Chart, you'll see what I mean. Having the right Delay lets the repeats lock into your groove, but having a Delay time that's 'offset' can be much like having a Drummer hitting on the wrong beats.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Having the right Delay lets the repeats lock into your groove, but having a Delay time that's 'offset' can be much like having a Drummer hitting on the wrong beats.

 

And sometimes, having "offset" delay repeats- or tremolo, or other modulation- can be a quirky cool effect in itself. I love those 'just a tad too slow' echo-repeats for a Dub style vibe, especially when the repeats get thinner, crisper, and more degraded and distorted with each pass.

 

But you are correct in your original assessment.

[Winston Psmith]

Having the right Delay lets the repeats lock into your groove, but having a Delay time that's 'offset' can be much like having a Drummer hitting on the wrong beats.

 

And sometimes, having "offset" delay repeats- or tremolo, or other modulation- can be a quirky cool effect in itself. I love those 'just a tad too slow' echo-repeats for a Dub style vibe, especially when the repeats get thinner, crisper, and more degraded and distorted with each pass.

 

But you are correct in your original assessment.

 

That's a Dave Navarro trick - he pretty much leaves his Delay pedal stuck on one setting, and if that fits in with the beat, fine, if not, well, that's how Dave likes it, I guess.

 

You want a fun, if slightly obtuse, method for setting "offset" Delay times, use something like a DD-20, or a rack-mount device that will let you display and set Delay Time by milliseconds, then set your Delay Time to a Prime Number, regardless of the Meter or BPM of the piece of Music in question. (Yes, I'm a crazy bastard, but you knew that.)

[d halfnote]

While delays that fit the tempo are an obvious tool that can be used both to reinforce rhythm or to even serve as intertwining lines, the suggestions from CO'S & WPs can also be used, esp if actively manipulated, in slightly more focused ways, perhaps evoking sound being dispersed in the wind or a sense of disintegration.