How to use Ping Pong delay to give a sense of depth to a sound

 

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we're going to talk about an interesting, creative use of delay (click here for a dedicated article): the ping pong effect, in a particular way used by some producer to add a nice sense of depth to a tone, especially vocals, but it can also be used on guitars (for example a clean arpeggio or a solo).

Let's start with the definition: a Ping Pong delay is a type of delay that sends the repetitions of a signal on the right and left side alternatively, like it's a ping pong ball.

In order to do this we are going to need a stereo delay plugin (often there is one also bundled directly in our DAW), and usually the interface of this type of plugin features controls to dial specific settings for each channel. 

Instead of using it as a normal stereo delay with ping pong effect (the same type of delay that bounces from left to right), we can add a more 3d effect by using a different time signature between the left and right channel, so that the sound does not bounce back and forth evenly (this is a technique used for example by The Edge, the guitarist of U2):

- we can try to set the repetitions of our vocal track in triplets on one side and in quadruplets on the other, using the same tempo.

- we can try to offset the repetitions by setting for example the time signature in 3/16th of note on one side and 1/8th of note on the other.

- we can try (but this is slightly more risky in terms of result) to detach the sync with the project tempo and set the 2 sides at 2 different bpm.

Any solution we choose, since the result can be easily messy/overwhelming, it's a good practice to filter out some low end, maybe to effect only the tone from 800hz/1khz up, and to not overdo with the mix knob: just a little amount goes a long way, we want to add a 3d effect, not to overshadow the main vocal track.

I hope this was helpful!

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