A Study of The Edge's Guitar Delay (U2) -- In God's Country (The Joshua Tree)

The Edge's Delay Settings > In God's Country (127 bpm)

Here's the sample clip I studied for this song (it's slowed down 2x maintaining the same pitch)

In the intro riff (the harmonics), there are 2 delays. This delay is not used on the acoustic guitar underneath in the intro (it may have its own delay).

This is the most likely signal path:

   Guitar -> Signal split to A/B:

        A  -> 230ms (2 repeats)  ==  1/8 @ 127 bpm
                with modulation, about 75% of the inital signal -> amp

        B  -> 360ms (2 repeats)  ==  3/16 @ 127 bpm
                with modulation, about 75% of the inital signal -> amp

Note the 1/8 and 3/16 delays combine like this:

    **         **   **   **        **
 (initial     1/8   3/16 1/8    1/8 + 3/16
 attack)       #1    #1   #2    #3    #2

You can hear the  do ----- do do do ----   delay in the clip of the intro notes slowed down 2x.

Further, there are always at least 2 different guitar mixes throughout, one panned left, the other panned right. There's a 5ms mic bleed (see main page) and a 20ms room echo (meaning the amps were about 20 feet from a wall). This 20ms echo could also be a pickup from another microphone about 20 feet away.

Here's the sample clip of the solo I studied for this song (it's slowed down 2x maintaining the same pitch)

For the 'one-string solo', there's 1 delay:
```
   Guitar -> 360ms (4-5 repeats)  ==  3/16 @ 127 bpm
                with heavy modulation, about 75% of the inital signal -> amp
```
You can hear the heavy modulation in the repears in the clip. Note how the one repeating note changes in pitch mid-note. This is the SDD-3000 modulation turned up to the highest level possible until it starts to sound out of tune to the naked ear. It sounds almost sounds like a bagpipe when slowed down.

You can hear that the delay is 3/16 time in the clip slowed to 2x. Edge is playing 1/16th notes. Note how after the first 3 notes, the sound starts to sound 'fuller': that's because the delay of the first note kicks in while he's playing the 4th note of the solo. From then on, there's always both the note he's hitting and the delay from a note hit 3 notes earlier.

Also note the backing vocal under the solo, the "Ah...", a B note one octave down from the high B note he's playing; both help to color the underlying D chord with a Bm feel.

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