The two time-based effects every player eventually asks about. Both add space and depth, but differently: reverb blends a room’s reflections into a smooth wash, while delay repeats your notes as distinct, timed echoes.
| Reverb | Delay | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Blends thousands of tiny reflections into a smooth ambient wash — a room, hall or spring. | Repeats your signal as distinct, spaced-out echoes you can hear as separate notes. |
| Sounds like | Space, size, air — a note "in a room". | Echo — the note repeating, from tight slapback to long rhythmic trails. |
| Controls | Decay/size + mix; usually "set and forget" for ambience. | Time, feedback (repeats) and mix — often tempo-matched to the song. |
| Best for | Depth and glue on almost any tone; ballads, ambient, surf spring. | Rhythmic texture, slapback rockabilly, U2-style dotted-eighth leads. |
| Used together? | Almost every board runs some reverb, usually near the end of the chain. | Delay before reverb is the classic order — echoes first, then space around them. |
Reverb blends thousands of tiny reflections into a smooth ambient wash — it makes a note sound like it is in a room, hall or spring. Delay repeats your signal as distinct, timed echoes you can hear as separate notes, from short slapback to long rhythmic trails. Reverb adds space; delay adds echo. Most players use both, usually delay before reverb in the signal chain.