Delay (audio effect)

A Boss digital delay pedal

Delay is an audio signal processing technique that records an input signal to a storage medium and then plays it back after a period of time. When the delayed playback is mixed with the live audio, it creates an echo-like effect, whereby the original audio is heard followed by the delayed audio. The delayed signal may be played back multiple times, or fed back into the recording, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.[1]

Delay effects range from a subtle echo effect to a pronounced blending of previous sounds with new sounds. Delay effects can be created using tape loops, an approach developed throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

Analog effects units were introduced in the 1970s; digital effects pedals in 1984; and audio plug-in software in the 2000s.

  1. ^ Lehman, Scott (1996). "Effects Explained: Delay". Archived from the original on 2003-04-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)