Golden Ratio, anyone?

[Douglas Baldwin <coyotelk@optonline.net>]

After a couple of hours of further tinkering, I have some more to report
about my Golden Ratio delay settings. I've been using the delays built into
the Boss GT-8 guitar multi-FX processor. The total delay time (a wimpy
1800ms) can be split into two delays of 900ms each. The delays can then be
set to various configurations, including series and parallel.

When I first posted on this, I believe I mistakenly said I used the delays
in parallel. Not. Series is the most fun.

Here's what I found to work the best:
Set Delay 1 to whatever length you like. I'll use 500ms as an example. Set
the feedback fairly high, like  90% to 100%. Consider this your primary
delay.
Set Delay 2 to "phi," a.k.a. the inverse of the Golden Ratio, in this case
500 x .618 or 309ms. Set the feedback fairly high. I like to set this
delay's level moderately low and roll off some high end - it can get pretty
metallic as it approaches oscillation.

Play one or two notes. Delay 1 will retain a pulse-like even rhythm, but
Delay 2 will begin to "fill in" around the pulse of Delay 1 like a cloud. I
am calling my patches with this delay ratio the "phiGhost."

I played around with a few other ratios at random, and nothing sounds like
this. All the other ratios I tried tend to sound like either lopsided
rhythms or wobbly rhythms. Once Delay 1 establishes its pulse, you play any
kind of sub-pulse over it (eighths, sixteenths, slightly swung sixteenths,
triplets, whatever) and the phiGhost will seem to support it, tending to
emphasize the rhythm NO MATTER WHAT YOU PLAY, all the while continuing to
generate this groovy note-cloud to fill in the spaces.

By the way, if you use two delays in parallel instead of series, the delay
set to phi will just kind of flicker around the pulse of the primary delay
in a kind of cool-annoying, never-in-a-groove way.

Next on my list of experiments:
Using the third delay in the GT-8 along with my phiGhost delays.
Setting my heftier Boss DD-20s up in phiGhost mode. Looooonnnnnnggggg
phiGhost! BIG phiGhost!

Yours in the center of the nautilus shell...

Douglas Baldwin, coyote-at-large
www.thecoyote.org
coyotelk@optonline.net

"The volume knob on your telepathy is your morality."
- Stephen Gaskin, The Farm