Audio Damage Ricochet - Manual (Page 9)

3. Feedback
The FEEDBACK knob controls how much of the delayed signal is fed back into Richochet’s input. With no
feedback, each of Ricochet’s five output taps will produce a single delayed copy of the input signal. Feedback
sends some amount of the delayed signal(s) back into Ricochet’s input, producing a decaying series of copies.
Like the FILTER knob, the FEEDBACK knob is bidirectional, and causes different things to happen depending
on the direction that you rotate it. At its center position, no feedback happens and the knob has no effect. If
you rotate the knob clockwise, an increasing amount of the pre-delay’s output is fed back into Ricochet’s
input. None of the signals from the output taps is fed back. If you rotate the knob anti-clockwise, the opposite
happens: an increasing amount of the signals from the output taps (all of them) is fed back into the plug-in’s
input, and none of the pre-delay’s output is fed back directly. As you’ll see when you move the FEEDBACK
knob, these modes of operations are referred to as “Echo” and “Reverb” respectively. Since the Echo mode
produces simple repetitions of the input signal before it passes through the multi-tap delay line, it is useful for
producing discrete echo effects. The Reverb mode recirculates all of the delayed signals that emerge from the
multi-tap delay and hence can produce reverberation-like accumulations of delayed sounds.
If you’ve been paying close attention, a question may now arise in your mind: what happens if the pre-delay
time is zero and the Echo mode is employed? Wouldn’t that create a feedback loop with zero delay time? Good
question and the answer is yes, it would. However, this isn’t terribly useful, so Ricochet has a special trick for
just this situation. If the pre-delay time is zero and you rotate the FEEDBACK knob clockwise to engage the
Echo mode, the pre-delay’s output is not used for the feedback signal. Instead, a hidden, extra tap on the
main delay line is used for the feedback signal. This tap’s delay time is permanently fixed at 1/4
th of the time
set with the GRID SIZE knob. (Much more information about the Grid Size knob and the output taps lies
ahead, so keep reading.)
In both modes, the FEEDBACK knob has a maximum value of unity gain. This permits delayed signals to
repeat many times before fading out. However, if any of the tap output filters have high resonance settings,
the feedback signal can become louder and louder. As always, be careful of your ears when monitoring the
output of your DAW.
4. Tap Dots
The five circles on Ricochet’s grid display, called the tap dots, control the delay time and output level (or
volume) of the five taps on Ricochet’s main delay. In brief, moving the dot left and right changes the tap’s
delay time and moving it up and down changes its output level. Click on the dots and drag them with your
mouse to move them around.