Pre Delay - how to calculate pre-delay - Creating Tracks
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Pre Delay is the first rhythmic element of reverb that you have the chance to adjust in your projects and it can make all the difference.
Pre delay is probably the most commonly misunderstood, under-utilized, overlooked and mis-used parameter of reverb in general. It's really too bad because people are really missing out on a very simple way to make everything in their music sound more natural in the groove. This quick little math formula will help you calculate the perfect amount of pre delay every time, regardless of the genre of music you produce!
Most pre delay is measured in milliseconds, as it is a measurement of the amount of time between the original dry signal of a sound and the first audible onset of the reverberation applied. The human ear is a fine tuned instrument and it is constantly relaying information to the brain, where many, many different calculations are taking place to help us interpret, perceive and engage with the the world around us. A big part of music feeling natural is having every part of the arrangement and environment being in sync with the other elements surrounding it. The slightest deviations from this sync can be noticed by even untrained ears. So something as small as pre delay timing can make all the difference.
Of course, not all sounds are created equal and there are reasons you may want to apply a seemingly random and large amount of pre delay to a sound in your music. And there may be times when the right choice is to apply no pre delay at all. But generally speaking, this is a quick and easy way to calculate pre delay that will be in sync with your project at large. It's just one more pro tip to help you get that truly professional sound so many people strive for in their music.
9 years later, someone helped an internet stranger. Thank you
If you divide 7500 by the BPM you get the same answer and it is two less steps. A little trick I learned from Bobby Owsinki!
well that gives 62 not 31 so its not the same
@@tmussOfficial Than use 3750 ...
Thank you! it's really working for me.
Finally somebody explaining this so simple thank you sir
Thanks so much for this, a video that I had used that explained this slightly had been deleted so I'm very happy that I've stumbled upon this gem.
thanks for this clear and important technique that I was really striving for in my mixing. THANKS A LOT !!
Very informative. Im really looking at taking my mixes to a new level and its tips like these that will hopefully do it.
Brilliant Video! Thanks for the information 🙌
I did not forget to click the like button. Thanks for reminding.
Great video, man! Thanks for the formula!!!
Most useful video, thanks!
I would LOVE it if you did a series on how to make the Rf Nexus 2 synths sound like they do,i asked them if they would do a series of ''how tos'' but they were not interested,for example how to stutter the synths like in their product videos.
Typically, the stutter effect commonly used in demo tracks is done through a gating effect. Try adding a Noise Gate plugin to your synth track. Now select the audio from your drum track (for instance) as a side chain trigger for the noise gate. The side chain trigger signal MUST be audio, not MIDI. Adjust the attack, hold, release and threshold to your liking. This will not give you the perfectly metered stutter you are after, but it should help you understand how to go about setting up the effect you do want. Typically, this would be accomplished through the use of a ghost track...Using Ghost Tracks as Side Chain Triggers
If this does not provide the desired effect, then it's probably a matter of chopping/glitching. And there are a few ways to go about do that. Just know that these techniques are not exclusive to Nexus and can be used with any synth. Either way, you will want to bounce your MIDI to audio to get started.
We'd need an example of what you are speaking of specifically to help more.
Great video. I've been doing this pretty much since I worked with my first DAW and reverb plug ins, years ago, LOL - I think it was Pro Tools 1.
But this is still great info for those who are just starting out, learning, and honing their mixing chops. Thanks for sharing the knowledge, EDM. :)
MrDonnyAir Thanks for stopping by. :)
this is very helpful. thank you
Great video, thank you !
Merci beaucoup !!!
Thanks for the help!!...
You're welcome, glad you found it useful :-)
thank you! if I'm producing in double time does that effect the number?
Thumbs up to you. Is this pre delay calculation for add reverb on vocals?
But... here you are ignoring completely the type of sound being used! Is not the same a reverb on the claves or on a gong. If you use 32ms on a claves, the sound is gone before reverb comes in. If you put 32ms predelay on a gong, it scarecly starts sounding and you already have the reverb on!
Predelay is related to the attack time of the sound, not so much to the tempo of the song!
Thanks!
Would you do 60,000 / 120 / 3 if it were in 3/4 time signature or still go with 4? And how about the second break down, would it be 60,000 / 120 / 3 / 4 ?
a 3/4 time signature of course is 3 beats per bar. I assume you already know what the top and bottom number of a time signature is but I'm stating it in case somebody who reads this doesn't. I also see this is 6 years old but I figure why not answer the question. So we can assume that 60,000/120 would still give us a beat. Now because our time signature is a 3/4 our beat is still a quarter note due to the fact that the bottom number of our time signature designates what our beat actually is. if it was 3/8 it would be an 8th note for example. Now the cool thing about this is that even though we're in 3/4 if we are at 120bpm the only timing difference between a 3/4 and a 4/4 is the emphasis on the one. because they both have the same amount of beats in a minute due to the bpm. Doesnt matter how many beats per bar are designated by our 3/4 time signature. So really we dont have to compensate for our 3/4. We can just go with the original equation and we will still be on time and well off. If you count your 3/4 you are still counting 1 and 2 and 3 and 1 and 2 and 3 and. So the human will still default to the timings you are used to hearing in the 4/4.
1.4×4×(60÷120)
Do you have an article, or more information about this? Anything that could help me better understand what and why that spot is?
thank youuu
Good video, although for future video's, be aware of how many times you say "uh" or "UM", a bad habit I had for a while. Nice to see the formula here though. I"Ts more important than folks think!
Thanks You!!!
If you set the pre delay correctly does it matter what decay time you have on the reverb?
I think it depends what sound its on, but if your using it for single beats, i guess you would use a 32ms pre delay at 120bpm then set the decay to the length of the original sound of a single beat hit which is normally for a tight beat and not slurred 125ms or doubled it depending on what you are looking for, so its 32 ms pre delay and 125 ms decay, giving you a clean attack with the pre delay, and a reverb delayed tail effect etc etc, so you get this clean delayed doubling effect,
sir i have issue delay in 7/8 beat calculation kindly make a tutorial about it how i calculation 7/8 quarter note .......
Neuroxik isnot No, you are still working with quarter notes, so stick with 4!
Thanks!
While I'm at it, what about bpm's that already give an integer such as 125 bpm (30 ms). Would you suggest slightly shifting upwards, say 30.3 or pushing all the way up to 31 ?
neuroxik Yes, push it to the next whole number at least. This is what is traditionally called 'in the pocket' when referring to pre-delay that is just a touch past the actual magic number. ;)
You legend.
Den5ity Thanks :)
Aahm... Aahm😂
Thanks for the video 🤗
Quick question just to make sure I'm thinking in the right direction. The reason you divide by 4 is because you're going by 1/16 instead of 1/4 correct? If you were going by 1/4 you would divide by 2 instead of 4??
60 000 / BPM gives you 1/4
At 8:08 you say "that’s where the human ear is accustomed to hearing reverb”… This is ridiculous.
Is your BPM half time or double?
would this be good for a guitar in logic ?? and MainStage for live
thanks
where to get these 60,000?
1 second = 1000 milliseconds
1 minute = 60 seconds = 60,000 milliseconds.
how do you apply this to compression settings???
District Records This is for reverb not compression. The attack and release settings used in compression are based entirely upon the sound(s) being processed.
Or you could place a delay in front of reverb with dry signal turned all the way down and avoid calculating.
this doesn't seem to work with real guitars and bass???
Where the sample
What would’ve been the Decay timing for the 120bpm. Needs answers!!!🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️ you didn’t even get around to the decay time
PharaohOnTheTrack Pharaoh 60000/120 = 500 ms per 1/4 note. And then for a 1/8 note, divide 500 ms by 2.
Is there an actual reason why they make us have to do this though..? Are they just trying to fuck with us a bit..?
Why is there not just a 'sync' button for the pre-delay, like you would get on an actual delay plugin..?
+kye903 There is a great reason! You certainly don't want the same exact settings for every single sound you process across all your projects. Although a 'sync' function may sound handy at first, it would actually be pretty restrictive and only provide you with one of the many options available to you, mathematically and aesthetically speaking. Also, delay is quite different from reverb, by nature. One deals with a simple delaying of audio signals, while the other emulates environments, space and a sound's behavior in each. Both provide different results, though there are times that you can certainly substitute some subtle delay for reverb to help keep a mix clean, for instance. Hope this helps clear things up a bit for you. Thanks for checking out the video and for leaving your comment/questions! :)
You seem to be saying then, that there are times when we want the pre-delay value to be some random value, instead of a "locked in" or "in the pocket" note value, be it 32nd or 64th or whatever..? Have I understood that correctly?
+kye903 There are certainly times that you want your pre-delay values to be different from each other, as mentioned in the video. The first number you arrive at, after using this formula, is the middle of your ideal target zone. You halve or double that number and still have rather precise results. Conversely, there are many reasons (think cinematic sound design, impacts, foley, special effects, etc) that you may want to dial in a pre-delay value by ear, simply for it's effect. One more thing to take note of, as I mentioned in another comment thread on this post, the term 'in the pocket', when referring to pre-delay, is when you set your pre-delay value to be just a bit beyond your 'ideal' mathematical value.
Many people will use this math formula to arrive at the ideal value and then offset it by a few ms simply to get further away from the 'too perfect' or 'not quite human enough' feeling that haunts a lot of music produced entirely on computers.
Once upon a time normal delays were in ms. In the future all reverb predelays will have a BPM host option 1/4, 1/16 etc. The Virus TI has it. I've requested it with other manufactures but they seem slow to the idea.
+mitchiemasha indeed. The Virus is a slick synth and a half
Plise hindi langwes tutorial or artical convert inglish to hindi
Or you could just zoom in to beat 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc on the ruler and it should tell you what the mil sec are.. oh wait thats right you use LOGIC instead of REAPER.
Next time use a de-sser
bruh
No calculations needed at all: Just put a delay effect before your reverb. Set pre-delay to 0ms in your reverb and adjust the delay time (in beats unit) within the delay effect. :)
The constant lip smacking and teeth sucking is unbearable in this video be warned
TALK TOO MUCH...
thanks for this clear and important technique that I was really striving for in my mixing. THANKS A LOT !!