How to stop delays

[liveman]

I was expecting any on going delay to be killed if I turn off/on the delay effect in question.  However this is not the case.  The only way I can kill it is zero the feedback for and arbitrary amount of time then restore it.

 

Any better way of doing this?

 

Note: this happens with trails on or off.

[phil_m]

Hmmm.... If you have the Trail parameter set to off, the repeats this should stop as soon as the effect is bypassed. Which delay are you using that it’s not working? Do you have any other effects after the delay block?

[Verne-Bunsen]

Is the problem that the repeats don’t go away when the effect is bypassed, or is it that they are still going when you turn it back on?

[liveman]

Still going when I turn it back on.

[njglover]

I don't know that there is anything you can do about that, then. I believe that's the way most real delay pedals work, too, so naturally the models will have the same behavior. Consider that a delay is basically a recording device that can record a short length of audio and then play it back at a later time. When you bypass it, you are just stopping audio from going in and out of it. You are not actually stopping it from operating, so any audio that has already been recorded and is queued to play back is still going to play back, you just won't hear it unless you turn the effect back on. This will eventually go away because there is no audio coming in to be recorded, but the brains of the pedal are always operating as long as the pedal has power. If you need to be able to turn it off and then back on again so quickly (though I am not sure what the musical reason for this would be), you will probably need to use two separate delay blocks and toggle between them.

[phil_m]

40 minutes ago, liveman said:

Still going when I turn it back on.

 

Ah, yes... This is the expected behavior currently. The repeats remain in the buffer when you bypass the block. Really, it's typically only an issue with high feedback values, but, yeah, I see what you mean before. I remember talking about this with Igor (one of the DSP guys at Line 6), and I think it was something that was potentially on their list to change.

[Kilrahi]

I ran into this the other day and it surprised me too. Usually, I want trails but in this instance I wanted a hard kill switch and then when I switched it back on again it was still blaring out. Quite an unfortunate surprise.  

 

This is something I haven't tried yet, but doesn't the delay change in real time if you mess with the feedback and/or mix factors while the delay is still going?  If so, what would happen if you not only assigned the bypass switch to the delay, but also assigned the feedback parameter to it as well so that when the foot switch was hit it both bypassed it and dialed the feedback to 0%?

 

Maybe nothing. I'll have to test that out tonight though. 

[Verne-Bunsen]

This behaviour isn't specific to Line 6 or the Helix, I have had other delay and reverb pedals do the same. My Earthquaker Afterneath comes to mind: if it is oscillating out of control when you bypass it, then the madness will still be waiting for you when you switch it back on.... Not saying that it is a good thing, only that it goes beyond Line 6 and Helix. I suspect that what Kilrahi proposes would work, but it would impact your ability to utilize tails. You might be able to use the same idea of assigning feedback to the bypass switch, but instead of zeroing it adjust it just enough to allow the oscillation to die off but without totally killing off your tails?

[Thurston9]

5 hours ago, Kilrahi said:

I ran into this the other day and it surprised me too. Usually, I want trails but in this instance I wanted a hard kill switch and then when I switched it back on again it was still blaring out. Quite an unfortunate surprise.  

 

This is something I haven't tried yet, but doesn't the delay change in real time if you mess with the feedback and/or mix factors while the delay is still going?  If so, what would happen if you not only assigned the bypass switch to the delay, but also assigned the feedback parameter to it as well so that when the foot switch was hit it both bypassed it and dialed the feedback to 0%?

 

Maybe nothing. I'll have to test that out tonight though. 

Pretty good idea.  But can it restore the feedback to the right value when you turn it back on?

[Kilrahi]

2 minutes ago, Thurston9 said:

Pretty good idea.  But can it restore the feedback to the right value when you turn it back on?

 

Yes. Assuming the first part works, that second part is pretty easy. When you set the controller, you assign a off value  and an on value so that when it's on it immediately jumps to the parameter you want, and when it's off, it drops to the one that (hopefully) kills the delay while it's off. 

[Kilrahi]

16 hours ago, liveman said:

I was expecting any on going delay to be killed if I turn off/on the delay effect in question.  However this is not the case.  The only way I can kill it is zero the feedback for and arbitrary amount of time then restore it.

 

Any better way of doing this?

 

Note: this happens with trails on or off.

 

10 hours ago, Verne-Bunsen said:

This behaviour isn't specific to Line 6 or the Helix, I have had other delay and reverb pedals do the same. My Earthquaker Afterneath comes to mind: if it is oscillating out of control when you bypass it, then the madness will still be waiting for you when you switch it back on.... Not saying that it is a good thing, only that it goes beyond Line 6 and Helix. I suspect that what Kilrahi proposes would work, but it would impact your ability to utilize tails. You might be able to use the same idea of assigning feedback to the bypass switch, but instead of zeroing it adjust it just enough to allow the oscillation to die off but without totally killing off your tails?

 

I tested this idea tonight and in my opinion it worked extremely well (i.e. I assigned the delay to FS2 and then also assigned the feedback setting to FS2 with a minimum setting at anywhere between 0% and X%).

 

The only caveat has to do with trails.  If you want trails to work, then just as Verne-Bunsen suggested rather than set the feedback to 0% you should set it to a far reduced amount (I used 25%) so that you still have some degree of natural decay, but the permanent cascade is put to rest.

 

Cool! Learned a new idea today.  Thanks for getting us all thinking. 

[liveman]

Thanks for all the help.  I didn't realise that's how real pedals worked, I can understand it not being a priority for Line 6 if that's the case. 

 

I have a song where there is a quiet bit with a gradual distorted feedback effect (100%) that goes insane to a drop point where the band comes back in.  The problem is when we play the song twice in rehearsal .  The feedback dial assignment should suffice.