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Lesson 6 of 8

Ambient and Worship

The goal: a wide, shimmering wash where notes bloom, repeat in time with the band and fade into a big room.

Tweak it

  • Tap the tempo. A dotted-eighth delay only works when it locks to the song. Tap it on the delay's footswitch or a separate tap switch at the start of each song, and check the count-in.
  • Pick less. With a dotted-eighth delay, play steady eighth notes and let the repeats fill the gaps in between.
  • Mud check. If the mix turns to soup, lower reverb Mix first, then delay Feedback. Cutting some low end on the delays (if they have a Tone or filter knob) also helps.
  • Presets and MIDI. Many modern delays and reverbs store presets, and a MIDI controller can switch several pedals at once with one stomp. Useful later; start with manual switching until you know what each sound needs.

Signal chain

Guitar to amp, left to right. Settings are starting points to get you close: trust your ears.

  1. 1. Tuner

    Tuner

    Clean signal, silent tuning between songs.

  2. 2. Compressor

    Light compressor

    Evens out your volume so repeats and swells sit at a steady level. Sustain 9-10 o'clock, Level unity.

  3. 3. Overdrive

    Low-gain drive 1

    Gain
    9:00
    Tone
    12:00
    Level
    1:00

    A gentle edge on rhythm parts. Low gain keeps the delays clear instead of mushy.

  4. 4. Overdrive

    Low-gain drive 2

    Tone
    1:00
    Level
    12:00

    Stacked on top of drive 1 for leads. Gain 10-11 o'clock.

  5. 5. Volume pedalOptional

    Volume pedal

    Roll it up after you pick a note to fade in like a violin. Here, before the time effects, the delay and reverb tails ring out when you pull the volume back.

  6. 6. Chorus

    Slow chorus or vibrato

    Rate
    9:00
    Depth
    10:00

    Modulation that adds movement and width.

  7. 7. Delay

    Dotted-eighth delay

    Mix
    11:00

    The main delay, synced to the song with tap tempo. Feedback 10-11 o'clock.

  8. 8. Delay

    Second, longer delay

    Feedback
    12:00

    Adds depth behind the main delay. Quarter note or longer, Mix 9-10 o'clock.

  9. 9. Reverb

    Big reverb or shimmer

    Last, so it washes over everything. Shimmer adds an octave-up halo to the tail. Decay 2-3 o'clock, Mix 10-11 o'clock.

  10. 10. Amp

    Amp or PA, mono or stereo

    Stereo is optional: if your last pedals have stereo outputs, two amps or two PA channels make the sound much wider. Mono works fine to start.

Checkpoint

Move on when you can do all of these.

  • Explain why the drives in this chain stay low-gain
  • Tap a dotted-eighth delay to a song and keep steady eighth notes against it
  • Do a volume swell into a chord and let the delay and reverb tails ring out
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