Soundtoys EchoBoy - Manual (Page 50)

• The Gain knob defines how the initial delay repeat will sound and the Decay knob
defines what will happen with each subsequent repeat. So for instance, it is possible to
set the High EQ Gain negative so the first repeat will sound dull and at the same time
set the Decay control positive. This will cause each successive repeat to get brighter.
You can also do the opposite which would be to set the High EQ Gain positive so it is
brighter on the first repeat and set the Decay negative so each subsequent repeat will
get duller. The same holds true for each of the other bands and the total effect is a
combination of the Frequency, Gain and Decay for all three EQ bands.
• The higher you set the Decay the greater the increase/decrease in the EQ with each
successive delay repeat. You can set it low with a lot of feedback so each repeat will
just get a little brighter, or, you could have medium Feedback and set the decay value
higher (either direction) which will cause more significant and pronounced jumps in the
EQ with each repeat.
Hopefully this gives you some idea of how the Decay, and the EQ section in general can be used
to dynamically change the character of the echoes. These controls are invaluable when trying
to mimic the frequency response change that occurs in various types of delay devices be they
analog, tape, digital etc. The changes can be very subtle or highly radical depending on how the
various controls are set. These are an incredibly powerful set of tonal shaping tools that allow
you to really sculpt the tonal structure of the delays.
EQ Res
The EQ Res control allows you to adjust the resonance of the Mid EQ. It provides control over
the bandwidth and the “peakiness” of the parametric filter. As you increase the Res control the
bandwidth decreases and the height or depth of the filter increases. This accentuates and
highlights the frequencies in the delay signal that fall above and below the Mid EQ’s filters
center frequency. The audible effect is akin to turning up the resonance on an analog synth and
accentuates the effect of the Mid EQ making it much more pronounced. Increasing the
Resonance allows you to highlight a specific area of the delay signal. At higher Resonance
settings the Mid EQ can sound a bit unnatural but this too can be musically interesting
depending on the effect you are after.
As you decrease the Res control it widens the bandwidth of the Mid filter and smoothes out the
overall frequency response. The filter will now affect a broad section of the frequencies above
and below the Mid Freq setting and the overall shaping is less pronounced allowing for much
more subtle tweaks to the Mid frequency section.