Converting delay spread into other delay mechanism
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I am using the Surge synthesizer. Its delay effect seems really different than Primer.
This page documents it --- https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/manual/#delay
Primer has a single "spread" option from 0 to 1. I've seen this in other synths too, like the Jun-6 V that I've also played with. (Aside, I haven't been able to find any explanation of what this [0,1] value actually means at the level of the DSP math.)
But Surge has more options... a separate time for the left and right and a crossfeed mechanism. I've read some articles about these. By having different left & right times, then the echo will cycle more quickly in one. And by having a crossfeed (but no normal feedback), then you can create a "ping-pong effect" which seems to be similar to a spread, because the signal will go back and forth between the two sides.
Is there a straight-forward to translate the [0,1] "spread" knob into what a synth like Surge offers? [Feel free to link me if it is annoying to re-type an explanation from an article somewhere.]
Jay McCarthy
2 days ago
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A stereo delay is always playing an echo in the left channel and an echo in the right channel. The reason you hear a single center echo is simply because those left and right echos are identical. And anytime we hear something identical in the left and right, our brain tells us it's in the center.
So, to make it sound wide, you simply have to change one or both echos so that they're no longer identical. Then you'll hear the separation and therefore width.
In Primer's case, as you turn up the Spread knob, one of the echos is being played every so slightly later. And the more it's pushed ahead the more we hear a separation and the wider it gets.
Surge uses a different technique.
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