Delay
Delay repeats the sound after a set gap — a distinct echo rather than the continuous wash of a Reverb. A single short repeat can thicken a sound; several longer ones create an obvious, rhythmic echo effect.
Reach for it when:
- you want a clear, distinct echo rather than a room-like tail;
- you're after a rhythmic or creative effect — a delay timed to the beat of your content, for instance;
- a touch of very short delay can thicken a thin-sounding source without it registering as an obvious "echo".
FX inserts can be added and set up on Free, but they only affect the sound with Premium.
Adding it
On a channel's FX tab, click + Node ▾ → Time/Space → Delay. It drops into the chain just after the selected node. To edit it, pin one of the dock's two panels to it with ⇅, or set a panel to ⟳ Follow FX tab selection and click the node.
In Simple mode, add it from the Effects block's ⚙ instead — see Simple mode.
Where it sits in the chain matters: like Reverb, put it near the end, after tone-shaping and dynamics have already finished with the dry sound.
Reading the panel
The graph shows each repeat as its own distinct mark — a genuinely discrete echo, not a continuous tail like Reverb's. Every repeat is quieter than the one before it by the same fraction, set by FEEDBACK: the first echo plays at your WET level, the second at that level times FEEDBACK, the third at that times FEEDBACK again, and so on, fading out.
This panel is compact enough that it has no ⛶ maximize button; it always shares the dock.
Controls
| Knob | Range | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| WET | 0…100 % | 30 | How loud the echoes are against the original, untouched sound. |
| TIME | 1…2,000 ms | 250 | The gap between repeats. Short (well under 100 ms) thickens the sound rather than sounding like a distinct echo; longer creates a clearly audible, separate repeat. |
| FEEDBACK | 0…95 % | 30 | How many times it repeats. 0 % = a single echo; higher values create a longer trail of progressively quieter repeats — near 95 % it can go on for many, many repeats. |
A good starting point
- Add it near the end of the chain and start with FEEDBACK low (10–20%) — one or two repeats is far easier to judge than a long trail.
- Set TIME for the effect you want: under ~80 ms for thickening (the repeats blur into the original rather than sounding separate), longer for a clear, distinct echo.
- Raise WET until the echo is audible at the level you want, then adjust FEEDBACK for how many repeats you want trailing off.
Above roughly 80%, the trail can run on for a very long time — great for a deliberate, washy effect, but easy to accidentally leave smearing over everything that comes after it if you're not paying attention.
Presets, bypass and reset
- PRESET ▾ in the panel header applies a saved setup, or saves the current one under a name. Once one is applied the header shows Preset: name — see Knowing what preset is applied. Ready-made delay setups can be found in the Workshop — Workshop ▸ Browse, filter chip FX Delay.
- ON / OFF bypasses just this node — the quickest way to hear whether it's helping.
- RESET returns every knob to its default.
Related
- Reverb — a continuous room-like tail instead of distinct repeats; the two often work well stacked together.
- Output bus Delay — a completely different tool with the same name: that one holds back an entire bus for lip-sync or speaker alignment, with no wet/dry blend or repeats at all.
- Effects Rack — adding, ordering and rewiring nodes.