Ping-Pong Delay

GarageBand’s delay and echo effects are somewhat limited. Even the more complex AUDelay is far more stripped down than some of the delay effects found in more full-featured digital audio software. One of the missing elements is the capability to create what’s known as “ping-pong” delay—called by that name because the echoes bounce back and forth across the stereo field.

That doesn’t mean we can’t achieve the effect, however. Perform the following steps to create an extremely simple, faux ping-pong delay:

1. Create a track containing the loop or recording you want to delay. You don’t want a part that’s too complicated—the effect adds several more layers of complexity, and if the part is too intricate it may end up as mush.
2. Name this track “Original.”
3. Set the pan for this track somewhere in the middle of the stereo spectrum.
4. Duplicate the track by choosing Track > Duplicate Track (or press Command-D). Make sure Control > Snap to Grid is toggled on. Option-drag the region from the original track into the new track so the two regions line up. Rename the track “Delay Left.”
5. Open the Track Info dialog and add AUDelay in one of the effects pop-up menus.
6. Click the Effect Edit button (marked with a pencil) and set the sliders as follows:- Dry/Wet Mix at 100%

   – Delay Time wherever sounds appropriate
   (see the note following this tutorial to synchronize the delay with your song)

   – Feedback at 50%
   –
   Lowpass Cutoff at 15000 Hz

7. Pan this track all the way to the left and turn the track level down about 20%.
8. Duplicate the track you just created and copy the region into this track as well, again making sure all three regions line up. Rename this new track “Delay Right.”
9. Open the Track Info dialog for Delay Right. AUDelay should already be enabled.
10. Click the Effect Edit button and change the Delay Time to twice the setting you used for Delay Left. Increase the Feedback by a few percentage points and turn the Lowpass Cutoff down to about 7500 Hz.
11. Pan this track all the way to the right and turn the track level down a hair lower than Delay Left (see Figure 2)

Figure 2: The three tracks in place for the ping-pong delay.

Listen to your handiwork. You should hear the original signal, followed closely by the two echoes, one on each side of the stereo field. The panning is much more noticeable through headphones.

Note: For certain effects, you may want to synchronize the delay with the song. There’s a simple formula for converting beats per minute (bpm) into seconds:

60 seconds / bpm = delay time for one beat (or one quarter note)

So, for 154 bpm: 60 / 154 = 0.3896 seconds

If you want to use a smaller note value than a quarter note, divide accordingly. For an eighth note, divide the result by two. For a 32nd note, divide by 8.