From: stefan@ntg.com (Stefan Biskup)
Subject: Re: Aint it dead yet vocals
Organization: New Technologies Group, Inc.  Palo Alto CA
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 21:38:34 GMT

>gingeric9178@iscsvax.uni.edu writes: 
>>  What the hell is the vocal effects processor Ogre is using in 
>>  Skinny Puppy's  Aint it Dead yet?
>>  I saw the Butthole Surfers awhile ago and the singer (Gibbyy) was using
>>  what acted like the samething. 
>>  This thing seems to grab the vocals virtually instantaneously and 
>>  loop\echo them at speeds varying from regular echoing to lightining fast


    I'm not familiar with the Skinny Puppy song you refer to but, what Gibby is
useing is a digital delay with a feature called Infinite Repeat. What it does
is lock the standard echo repeats into a loop that does not decay into silence
like a naturalistic effect would. This feature can be found on many digital 
delays but not all of them so make sure to ask when you go shopping. Most of
the Digitech units I've seen have it and the are really good quality units I
own a couple and love them.
         
   These are some units that I know have the feature
         DOD 1900 digital delay
              1900 means 1900mili-seconds of delay time or almost 2 seconds
              from input to initial repeat they make delays up to 8 sec.!
         GSP21Pro
              This is a multi-effects guitar processor that has this feature 
              and alot more. I've seen a couple of less expensive versions of 
              this for sale the net.  
        Digitech 2 second sample delay. It's  a large stomp box   
        Boss makes a stomp box stlye digital delay that holds the sound while
              keep you foot on the pedal

        I think Gibby uses DOD but those smoke machines make it hard to tell.
Any way they are way cool because the delay time adjustment is a
rotary knob *very Important*!!! The boss and smaller digitech have this too. 
You may need to find an older unit to get one with this.
     
     For example: if you dial up a medium delay time of time around 700ms 
          and give it some sort of input and hit the infinite repeat you
          will hear the last 700ms worth of input you gave in a loop.
          Cool in and of itself. This will keep going  unchanged until you 
          hit the I.R. again in which case the singnal while keep repeating
          and fade out like a natural echo. But (here's the fun!)if you change
          the delay time while the loop is still locked it will stretch or
          squeeze the sound to the new length of time without deleteing 
          any of the loop resulting in massive pitch change.

       Gibby is famous for this and well so. Also check out Perry Farrels 
use of this on alot of Jane's Addiction stuff. *The real important thing here
is the dial adjustment on the delay time which gives you the smooth warping 
effect capable of providing endless sonic play. Some units have push buttons 
time adjustments that send clicks if changed while repeating and will mess up
the new loop. Gibby actually chains a couple delays together which means twice
the fun!

         There are alot of things you can do that are similar to tape loop
effects for textural backgrounds, percussion and whatever. Many delays will
loop in stereo panning modes. You can loop something then add a little more
and get some very cool layering effects esspecially if you run the delay on an
effects loop of a mixer allowing multiple inputs easily!!
    
                                      have fun,
          
                                       Stefan Biskup
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers