Scott Henderson Discussion

[KurtisL]

Hey Scott, I'm curious about your chord swells throughout this song. Primarily about which effects you were using to get this sound, and perhaps you could share some tips for dialing in that kind of swell where you don't hear the distinct delay sounds or get flooded with reverb etc.
Thanks

[Scott Henderson]

That's a sound I've used many times, thanks to it's inventor Allan Holdsworth. He showed me how to do it using 4 stereo digital delays, but now you can do the same thing with computer plug-in delays. Later Allan became a Yamaha endorser and he helped them design the UD Stomp, a pedal which is basically 4 stereo modulation delays in one box. If you use plug-ins, you have to use 4 stereo delays on one bus which lets the delays feed into each other. Allan's exact settings are in the UD Stomp presets manual which you can find online - just copy the settings to your plug-ins. If you're not using plug-ins, you really need a UD Stomp, because the delay has to have 8 separate taps, each with it's own time, panning, modulation, and feedback parameters.

There's an easier way, but you still need two separate stereo delays, one feeding into the other. Set the first delay to around 100ms L and 200ms R with no feedback, into the second delay set to around 350ms L and 450ms R, and adjust the feedback to your liking. Set the 350ms feedback a little higher so both sides die out at the same time. Run that into a stereo chorus pedal and it'll sound great, though it's not quite as thick as using 4 stereo modulation delays. If that sounds too complicated, just buy a UD Stomp. Yamaha later made a pedal called Magic Stomp which can also make this sound, and I'm pretty sure the Strymon TimeLine can do it.

[countandduke]

I’ll add that the UD Stomp was a FANTASTIC sounding pedal and is now worth quite a bit of money. Thankfully, like Scott said, Yamaha made a MAGICSTOMP. There was a guitar version, a bass and I believe an acoustic version but whichever one you have, you can download whatever sounds you need. They can be found used for around $100. Allan used like 6 of these magic stomps for his live tone for several years and sounded great!!!

Best,
Chris

[KurtisL]

Alright, I found the UD stomp settings but I'm yet to acquire a pedal/unit that'll be able to process that...

Thanks for the info Scott!