Boy (1980) / October (1981) Edge used a 225ms delay (1-2 repeats, slightly audible)

for all songs on the ‘Boy’ tour. During this time, he used

an EH Memory Man Deluxe, which has a range of 5ms-550ms. The Memory Man units vary by model and year, but for what it’s worth, here is a rough outline of its settings:



225ms (used most of the time) is at the 3rd ‘mark’ out of 8 total on the delay knob, clockwise from the bottom (40% of the knob’s full turn). 140ms (used for the album version of An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart) is at the 2nd mark (25%). 280ms (used for the album version of The Electric Co.) is at the 4th mark (50%). 360ms (used for Stranger in a Strange Land) is at the 5th mark (65%).

for all songs on the ‘Boy’ tour. During this time, he used an EH Memory Man Deluxe, which has a range of 5ms-550ms. The Memory Man units vary by model and year, but for what it’s worth, here is a rough outline of its settings: War (1983) Edge’s delay wasn’t used much on this album (see the above quote) The Unforgettable Fire (1984) Pride

Wire

Bad The Joshua Tree (1987) Where the Streets Have No Name

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

With Or Without You

In God’s Country Rattle And Hum (1989) Silver and Gold

Heartland

All I Want Is You Achtung Baby (1991) One

Until the End of the World Zooropa (1993) Zooropa Pop (1997) Discotheque All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000) Walk On Songs that use 3/16 delay *:



What type of songs work well with this setting?

3/16th delay adds depth and rhythm to a guitar part, especially when you play in even time: straight 1/8th or 1/16th notes. Looking at the key riffs for the songs in this group, they are almost all played in even time (from ‘Electric Co’ to ‘Walk On’). Arpeggios are effective. String bends don’t usually work well. If you use the delay heavily (as in ‘Bad’ or ‘Streets’), keep your playing very simple: for example, ‘Bad’ is 2 sets of 3 notes repeated over and over. ‘Streets’ is a 4-note arpeggio. Use left-hand string mutes to add breathing room. You’ll almost never use more than 1-2 repeats and it is usually present throughout the song. This delay setting has a strong influence on the character and sound of a song!



Electric Co (275ms)

Stranger in a Strange Land main riff (360ms)

Surrender slide solo (400 ms)

A Sort of Homecoming (375ms)

Pride (418ms - panned right)

Wire (317ms) -

Bad (467ms) See the '2 delay' section below

Streets (350ms) See the '2 delay' section below

Still Haven’t Found (450ms) See the '2 delay' section below

With or Without You (410ms) -

In God’s Country intro and solo (360ms)

One Tree Hill (360ms)

Spanish Eyes (310ms)

Heartland (420ms) See the '2 delay' section below

Silver and Gold (360ms)

Even Better TTRT (345ms - louder during slide solo)

One solo/outro (500ms)

Until the End of the World (420ms, softly)

The Fly intro/solo (415ms)

Mysterious Ways (450ms, very softly)

Ultraviolet (Light My Way) (400ms, panned right)

Discotheque - main riff and bridge (372ms)

Please outro 4:01-end (440ms, 6-7 repeats) (there's 2 guitars, only one has delay)

Walk On (420ms) See the '2 delay' section below

Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own (475ms)

City of Blinding Lights rhythm guitar (320ms)





Songs that use 4/16 (1/4) delay:



What type of songs work well with this setting?

4/16th delay works well with simple, sparse riffs, such as the 1 chord going into the ‘New Year’s Day’ chorus, or a couple of notes played slowly, as in the ‘Miracle Drug’ intro. Typically used sparingly in certain sections of a song. Works well with 2 or more repeats.



A Day Without Me intro/outro (380ms - 155 bpm)

Stranger in a Strange Land fills (480ms - panned left - 125 bpm)

New Year’s Day chorus (450ms - 4-5 repeats)

Promenade (580ms - panned right / song is in 6/8 @ 97 bpm)

Acrobat (450ms)

Do You Feel Loved? (520ms)

Gone Whammy-outro 3:52-end (660ms)

Beautiful Day guitar (440ms) (intro is on piano; see below)

Miracle Drug intro (480ms) - New! (5/06)





Songs that use 2/16 (1/8) delay: + Tap 1/8th notes



What type of songs work well with this setting?

1/8th delay adds a slight urgency to a guitar track. It works well with multiple repeats. While audible as a delay, it fades into the background and does not affect the character of a song - this is a ‘boring’ delay. Edge uses it rarely, probably when a song is already becoming too busy and a delay with more character (like the 3/16th) would clutter it up too much. ‘I Will Follow’ is a good example. When he does use it, it's often only during a guitar solo, background fills, or a bridge.



I Will Follow (200ms)

This is louder during the harmonic bridge, but you can also hear that

he’s using this delay during the verse at 41.5s.

Gloria solo (205ms)

‘40’ background fills (385ms - 4-5 repeats)

Bullet the Blue Sky - slides parts + solo - live version (400ms - softly, panned right)

Trip Through Your Wires solo (410ms)

Exit - main delay (250ms, panned right)

'- See the ‘chain together 2 delays’ section below

All I Want Is You acoustic/rhythm guitar (325ms)

Unchained Melody (440ms, panned left; capo 4, key: G)

Zoo Station outro solo (G---11--9-7-) (230ms, 6-8 repeats)

Beautiful Day piano (220ms)

Original of the Species piano and guitar (340ms - panned right) Additional delay times and settings: Songs that use a 1/3 of a ‘quarter note triplet’ = 1/6 * delay:



What type of songs work well with this setting?

Edge uses this delay rarely and usually very soft in the mix and panned to the right. It has an unsettling and distressing feel - the ‘delay’ equivalent of a Major 7th chord. I doubt if Edge uses this setting purposely, he probably dials it in for these couple of songs based on feel. This delay feels somewhat ‘off’ and that’s probably what he was looking for. After all, for most of ‘Bullet’, Adam’s playing an ‘E’ in the bass while Edge plays a ‘G’ chord - discordant indeed. For the ‘All I Want Is You’ solo, he also plays a discordant and out-of-key note (a high ‘C’ over a D chord/key of D). This delay setting is between an 1/8th and 3/16th delays (slightly closer to 3/16).



Bullet the Blue Sky - slide parts + solo - album version (533ms - softly, panned right)

Bullet the Blue Sky is at 75bpm. He used about 400ms during the Joshua Tree tour

(Rattle and Hum version) and at the Slane Castle show (including the wah-wah solo section,

where he turned it up), which is a 1/8th delay. Usually 2-3 repeats, mixed softly.

The delay on the album is very soft. You can hear it best in the slight feedback

note at 34.25 seconds if you slow the track down 2x or 4x.)

He turns the delay off during the slide-free rhythmic verse/chorus sections.

All I Want Is You solo (425ms)



(*) There are 2 ‘quarter note triplets’ per bar, both with 3 notes each. So this is delay

time is equivalent to 1/6 of the length of a bar. See the AIWIY page for more info. See the

What Is.. section below for information on calculating this delay time in your own songs.



Songs that use 1/16 delay:

An Cat Dubh / Into the Heart (140ms - panned right) (See note on left side)

J. Swallow lead guitar (150ms - panned left)

Still Haven’t Found (150ms) See the ‘2 delay’ section



Songs that use 5/16 delay:

God Part II- live, during solo (690ms @ 110bpm)



Songs that use a 3/32 delay:

Crumbs From Your Table (260ms @ 86 bpm)

Since ‘Crumbs’ is so slow, Edge chose to use a delay that is twice as fast as his usual 3/16 delay - it has a similar effect. If you use the Line 6 pedal (see below), set it to the above setting and tap 1/8th notes instead of 1/4 notes - in other words, tap twice as fast as usual to set the tempo.



Songs that use a 3/8 delay:

The Unforgettable Fire (666ms @ 135 bpm)

Same as above (for 3/32), but twice as slow as the 3/16. There is very little guitar in the song, and this delay mostly affects occassional fills.



Songs that use 2 separate delays (signal split to 2 amps) :

Bad (note: see this page for more info) :

'- 3/16 (467ms) and 3/32 (221ms)

Indian Summer Sky:

'- 2/16 (215ms - panned right) and 3/16 (320ms - panned left)

Streets:

'- 3/16 (350ms - panned right) and 9/32 (525ms - panned left)

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For:

'- 1/16 (150ms - panned right) and 3/16 (450ms - panned left)

Heartland - Basically the 'Streets' delay 20% slower to match the song tempo:

'- 3/16 (420ms) and 9/32 (630ms)

Walk On (note: see this page for more info) :

'- 2/16 (290ms - panned right) and 3/16 (420ms - panned right)

Walk On - Live from Slane Castle:

'- 3/16 (420ms) and 1/4 (560ms) (~107 bpm)

The live version has the same 3/16 delay, but the 1/4 delay is louder, interestingly..



Songs that chain together 2 delays :

Exit: 1/8 (250ms) with 3-4 repeats panned right is the main delay on all guitars.

However, on the guitar track that you hear during the fade out (and on that

track throughout the song, the track has this delay first and the track is then fed

into another delay at 3/4 (1650 ms = 1.65 secs!) with 1-2 repeats. Both delays are

soft, both are panned right. The 1.65 sec delay was probably added during mixing

to the entire guitar track. (Similar to the ‘End of the World’ solo (see below).

Zooropa: 1/8 (320ms) with 6-7 later repeats at 1/16 (160ms)



Earlier songs with a generic 225ms ‘slapback’ echo :

11 O’Clock Tick Tock

Out of Control

Rejoice

With a Shout

(See note on left side)



Songs with ‘random’ delay times :

The Ocean (10ms, 4-5 repeats, softly)

Fire (260ms, 1-2 repeats, ~146 bpm = 5/32)

4th of July (440ms, 6-7 repeats, ~115 bpm)

Until the End of the World solo (500ms, 1 repeat, 102 bpm)

