The team at Laney and Black Country Customs have made it super easy to nail your favourite artist’s delay sounds on guitar. After listening, researching and isolating some of the world’s most famous delay sounds, the team at BCC have successfully captured some of the most iconic guitar sounds ever put to record and packed them into the Difference Engine Delay pedal. In this blog, I’m going to highlight some of the coolest delay presets that’ll get you the sound of U2, The Police, Simple Minds, Rush and many more bands and artists.
With 50 presets available to you and 30 artist-inspired or artist-created delay sounds built in, we can’t go through each and every delay setting, BUT I can certainly highlight some of my favourites and why they’re so good. Here are my top 8 delay sounds and artist presets in the Difference Engine Delay pedal.
This Edge-inspired delay preset will take you to where the streets have no name. You get 380 ms of delay time with 5 delay repeats, which is set exactly to the settings that the Edge used when playing through his Korg SDD-3000 on the Joshua Tree album.
This dotted 8th delay setting will get you the Edge’s sound almost exactly – minus the amps and guitars of course. But if you want to sound like The Edge, the Difference Engine Delay setting will give you the sound you need, when you still haven’t found what you’re looking for.
Let’s face it, ‘Kid Gloves’ has probably one of the best intros to a song ever recorded thanks to Alex Lifeson’s incredible guitar work. For those who don’t know, this track inspired all your favourite Stranger Things synth wave sounds.
With this Alex Lifeson-inspired delay preset you get 400ms of delay which gives you a slightly elongated delay time with plenty of spank once it comes back around, which is ideal for intros and solo sections where you need one guitar to fill out the sound as much as possible.
If you’re a Rush or Alex Lifeson delay fan, you’ll love this Difference Engine Delay preset.
Based on Andy Summers’ ‘Every Breath You Take” delay sound that captured the hearts of music lovers everywhere, the ‘Andys Breath’ delay preset will help you capture that classic “Synchronicity’ sound that cemented Summers as one of the most forward-thinking guitarists of our time. This digital delay uses a 360ms delay time to give you that slightly elongated delay, that provides a somewhat galloping style delay that is not overbearing but fills in the gaps nicely between riffs.
There is one more Andy Summers style delay, notably the ‘Summers Moon” preset which is also extremely well captured, providing a 347ms of delay which captures that Ska-style Police sound perfectly.
Long delay times of 1600ms and single repeats means you;re into the world of Queen “Brighton Rock” solo territory. Of course, the solo in ‘Brighton Rock’ from Queen’s ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ album is instantly recognisable as one of the heaviest, most fist-pumping solos put to record. The call and response delay style has been expertly captured by the Black Country Customs team and Tone Wizard Simon Fraser-Clark when building the delay presets and the result is incredible.
We recommend grabbing a tube amp like a Laney LA-Studio turning up loud and absolutely hammering the ‘Brighton Rock’ solo riff – you’ll feel like you’re at Wembley playing to a packed-out stadium.
After moving away from the Binson Echorec delay/echo unit he used throughout the early days of Pink Floyd, Dave Gilmour would eventually switch to a Digital Delay that was far more reliable. The team at Black Country Customs have captured the exact delay sounds you can hear in ‘The Wall’, including the 380ms delay time. If you want the sound of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour-esque delay sounds, this is the easiest way to get it.
Do you know where you are? You’re in the ‘Jungle’ style delay world. The intro to Guns n’ Roses’ ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ is yet another iconic intro that has a special place in guitarists’ hearts. The Difference Engine Delay perfectly captures this DD style delay complete with 279ms delay, which is on the border of slapback with just enough room to repeat the riffs you’re playing for a doubled effect.
If you want the Slash-style delay featured on the Appetite For Destruction album, this is a great delay pedal for you that won’t colour your sound and will let your amp and humbucker-style guitar really shine through.
Let’s Dance! Possibly one of the most iconic delay sounds thanks to its’ delayed repeats and call and response style guitar work, this Nile Rodgers inspired delay preset will take you back to the sound of David Bowie’s 80s classic album ‘Lets Dance’ where Nile Rodgers was firmly in the driving seat when it came to guitar sounds. And thank goodness he was as these classic delay sounds are now heralded as some of the most recognisable sounds ever put to record.
The cool thing you’ll notice about this delay is preset is its stereo design. On the left you have 263ms of delay, and on the right hand side you have 526ms of delay, which gives you that incredibly spacey delay sound that feels like it’s bouncing around your head. Put on your red shoes and dance the blues to the song the Difference Engine Delay is playing.
If you want a classic Nile Rogers delay sound that is unmistakably 80s and so much fun to use, try this out.
Although these presets are inspired by iconic guitarists, they are more aimed towards singular tracks, allowing people to recreate the sound of some of their favourite songs and signature guitar sounds because we all know that certain songs may have a particular sound we’re trying to chase down. I spoke with Tone Wizard and Laney Amplification designer Simon Fraser-Clark about the process of designing presets.
“When I was designing the patches, it wasn’t necessarily an artist that inspires the sound – but a song. So some of these presets are inspired by classic songs with notable delay sounds on them rather than an artist’s style.” -Simon Fraser-Clark
The presets within the Difference Engine Delay pedal are a major factor in why it’s had such a big success with professional musicians. But as always, Laney and Black Country Customs products are there to inspire you and act as a jumping-off point – giving you the building blocks to create your own sound.
“Presets are good place to start, but ultimately there’s a lot of control there. Start diving into the menu and start writing patches and you’ll find a world of awesome delay at your feet.
I want people to take a tool that’s available to everyone and make it work for themselves. This is why you can sculpt these inspired-by presets – you can make it work for you.” -Simon Fraser-Clark
Part of the reason why the Difference Engine Delay pedal is so good comes down to its inspirational delays, but the sheer number of hours that have gone into creating vintage-style delays with modern functionality. Almost any delay feature you could ever want is at your fingertips. Tone Wizard at Laney Amplification and the man behind the design of the Difference Engine Delay pedal, Simon Fraser-Clark highlights his favourite features he’s most proud of.
One awesome way to use the Difference Engine Delay is to use it as a true stereo device.
“If you’re running a stereo rig or dry wet rig, there is a clever little trick where you can change the phase of the Dynamic or Digital delay’s left or right repeat. An interesting ‘ wrap-around ‘ effect is created when you adjust the phase to be slightly less than 90 degrees out of phase. This effect manipulates the sound so that it seems to move from the front to the back of your head.”
This particular sound effect was previously exclusive to the TC2290 delay module and in a stereo environment it sounds incredible, particularly on headphones or in a recording.
“Another cool feature of the Difference Engine Delay is it’s ability to add modulation on the repeats of a tape delay. This kind of feature didn’t appear on original tape delays, but happened as a result of the degradation of tape. But with the Difference engine Delay, you can add a subtle character to the Echo’s of the cho, then an additional chorus warbling on the repeats.”
This cool setting adds some seriously interesting warble and chorus effects which simply can’t be found on other delay pedals.
The huge benefit of the Difference Engine Delay, especially for fans of different types of delay is the tape delay era RE501 style settings. This particular setting is something that a lot of people have tried to copy but never got right – until now.
“We spent thousands of hours sitting there tweaking all variables trying to get this right and I’m happy to say we nailed it. You have a whole range of 501 style tape delays where we’ve been able to add modern-day aspects and functionality to it. You get the 80s sounds you want, but with midi-assigned parameters, making it a much more useable tool for modern-day musicians.”
And best of all, the tape doesn’t wear out!
There are countless benefits to the Difference Engine Delay pedal but the major reason guitarists will love it, is down to the fact you have a world of delay effects to play with that are easy to access, easy to manipulate and extremely pleasing to play with. What sounds will you make?
Check out the full Laney Amplifier Range and view more of our Black Country Customs pedals.