Echo, Delay and Reverb: What Are the Differences?

There are many misunderstandings surrounding the terms echo, delay, and reverb when it comes to effect pedals. All these effects make your signal sound bigger, more spacious and ‘longer’. 

But what is the difference between reverb and delay and how can you use these effects musically? We’ll show you the typical characteristics of the two types of effects, explain how to best integrate them into your setup, and recommend a few classics and affordable entry-level models.

Reverberation vs. Echo

Along with certain modulation effects, delay and reverb are part of a category known as ‘time-based’ effects based on two well-known natural phenomena: reverberation and echo. Reverberation occurs in nature when a sound source (e.g. your own voice) is reflected off a hard surface (e.g. a mountain or a wall) that is far enough away and then thrown back to your ear. If the sound waves take long enough (about 20 ms or more) for this to happen, we perceive the reflection as a distinct echo, or delay.  Here’s a modern spin on classic tape echo—the Boss RE-202:

Boss RE-202 Space Echo Delay/Reverb

In rooms or halls, the reflection times are usually much shorter, so that the reflected sound waves are perceived more as reverberation rather than as delay. In addition, sound waves are reflected multiple times in enclosed spaces, overlapping each other and forming a diffuse reverberation tail.

Simply speaking, we can say that we perceive an echo as a delayed repetition and reverberation as an extended decay of a signal.

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The Delay Effect (Echo)

Since the delay effect is based on delaying signals (duh), delay pedals can be thought of as automated recording and playback devices. First-generation electronic delay units were tape echoes (tape delays), which could record and play back signals using magnetic tapes. Here’s an example of a delay pedal with a tap tempo function: Boss DD-8.

Boss DD-8 Digital Delay

Later, this technology was replaced by analogue bucket brigade device (BBD) chips in effect pedals. Today, delay effects can of course also be created using digital technology. The sound characteristics of analogue and digital delays are ultimately a matter of personal preference. Generally speaking, analogue delay pedals are technically limited in terms of signal fidelity, delay time, and number of repeats, while modern digital delays have virtually no such limits.

tc electronic Flashback 2 Delay

When used sparingly, a delay can make your sound ‘bigger’ and ‘warmer’. With more extreme settings (and especially with digital delays), you can also use the repeats as a rhythmic element to create the illusion of several guitars layered on top of each other. And many delays can be easily adjusted to the tempo with a tap function. Just tap the beat with your foot, and it matches.

Harley Benton Digital Delay

In the intro to ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ by Guns N’ Roses, Slash uses a delay in this way. The Edge of U2 is also considered a grandmaster of rhythmic delay effects, as can be heard in the intro to ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ after the first minute. He also frequently uses triplet delays.

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Guns N’ Roses – Welcome To The Jungle

U2 – Where The Streets Have No Name

The Reverb Effect

Technically speaking, the reverb effect is much more complex to create than an echo. In the early days of studio technology during the 60s and 70s, a great deal of effort was put into creating natural reverb tails using echo chambers or mechanical devices such as reverb plates or springs. Of these analogue reverb devices, the only one that is still widely used to this day is the spring reverb. With a few exceptions, reverb pedals use modern digital technology to simulate various rooms (Room, Hall, Church) or the aforementioned analogue devices (Plate, Spring). Many reverb pedals can also create ‘unrealistically’ long reverb tails with additional effects (Ambient, Shimmer), which are particularly suitable for sonic experimentation. The popular TC Electronic Hall Of Fame 2, for example, offers a variety of reverb types, including room, plate, spring, and church reverb:

tc electronic Hall of Fame 2

The reverb effect can help make your guitar sound ‘bigger’, ‘softer’ and more impressive overall, and is particularly suitable for solo playing. A reverb can also create the right atmosphere for practising alone.  For a compact, professional-grade ambient reverb, check out the Strymon Cloudburst:

Strymon Cloudburst Reverb

In the song ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ by Pink Floyd, David Gilmour’s solo guitar from 5:00 uses a good dose of reverb. You can hear the characteristic sound of a spring reverb in the first few bars of John Mayer‘s ‘Slow Dancing In a Burning Room’.

Harley Benton MiniStomp Deep Blue

And let’s not forget surf music, which took the concept of reverb to the extreme with “Surfin’ Guitar“.

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Pink Floyd – Shine On You Crazy Diamond

John Mayer – Slow Dancing In a Burning Room

The middle ground between Delay and Reverb

As you have already noticed, the differences between the natural phenomena of echo and reverberation lie primarily in the temporal dimension. With a few tricks, you can transform both types of effects into the other. For reverb, you need the ‘pre-delay’ parameter, which can be found on the aforementioned Strymon Cloudburst Reverb, for example. The pre-delay refers to the time it takes for the very first reflection to arrive before the sound waves begin to overlap and form a reverb tail. This means that you can use an extra-long pre-delay time to create a delay effect.

Strymon Cloudburst Reverb

On the other hand, a delay effect with extremely short delay times (under 20ms) produces repeats that are perceived as a single sound. This creates the impression of a short room reflection, also known as a slapback echo.

How closely delay and reverb can be intertwined is demonstrated by Neil Young with his “Dead Man.”

Neil Young – Dead Man Theme

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Where to put delay and reverb effects on your pedalboard and in the effects chain

Time-based effects are usually inserted behind the preamp or distortion unit in the signal chain. This is because distortion tends to even out volume differences (similar to a compressor). If this occurs after the delay or reverb, the decay is often perceived as unnatural. After distortion, time-based effects behave in the same way as on a clean signal, because the decay is not subject to any subsequent compression.

That said, it is of course not ‘forbidden’ to run delays or reverbs through a distorted amp, and some guitar legends (think Eddie Van Halen) have used this effect to create their very own signature sounds.

Echo, Delay and Reverb: what do YOU think?

How do you use delay and reverb effects, and what tips and tricks do you know? Let us know in the comments.

Simon's passion for music generated a long time ago, and led him to become a guitarist and self-produce his music with the band Onyria.

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