Simulating ducking delay

There are a few ways of doing the ducking delay trick.  I find that it works much better into an amp that is working pretty hard and is already distorting and compressing the signal a little bit ALA a Marshall Plexi on 7 or so.  You can try adding a compressor or overdrive AFTER your delay to get a nice ducking delay.  Here's my lead distorted tone signal chain:

guitar----Vox wah----Tube Driver----Echoplex----AC Booster----Metro/Marshall Plexi

The Tube Driver delivers the lion's share of the overdrive while the amp's volume offers the sustain.  The Echoplex was designed to run in front of an amp and the preamp inparts a natural push to the sound as well.  Then after the Echoplex, the signal hits the AC Booster which has three seperate roles:  to offer more sustain, help "duck" the delay even more, and to shape the overall EQ before it hits the amp.

It's my favorite delay sound because you don't really even notice a whole lot of delay until you play slower passages or stop at the end of a phrase....then the echo kind of swells up underneath the note and blooms into this wonderful sound.  I got a little bored with the predictable cookie-cutter delays of sticking a digital delay in the effects loop of my amp.

So yes, as helrazr84 mentioned the DL-4 has a ducking delay setting (which is modelled off the TC 2290 if I'm not mistaken) and also some decent Echoplex settings.  If you have the $$$$$ and use a rack the TC 2290 is truely the king of that particular delay sound though.

It's worth a try.  A compressor in the loop doesn't give you much leeway.  You have to set it pretty flat.  Too low and you lose volume and too high you get NOISE.  I also have a Carbon Copy.  It's such a dark sounding delay that in front of the amp, with the volume down it's almost nonexistent..  If you use distortion, it seems happier in the loop.  -S

I just caught wind of a new delay pedal from TC Electronics called the "Flashback Delay".  There is a 2290 mode on it that sounds pretty convincing and offers that "ducking" delay in a much smaller package.

I think it's around the price of a new Boss DD-7     These are like the new TC "micro" pedals that are coming out.  There's a lot of neat features in this delay like a smart new "tap tempo" that syncs with your playing after holding the button for 2 secs.  It has the above mentioned 2290 mode, a tape echo mode, analog sim, and a true ducking delay.  Pretty cool for under $200!