William Orbit reveals signature synth and delay technique: “We did it in milliseconds. I think in milliseconds now. Milliseconds are very important.”

Grammy award winner, Madonna, Queen and Blur collaborator William Orbit has revealed the synthesizer and delay technique combination behind his signature sound.

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The technique, as used “all over everything”, says Orbit, was revealed to the hosts of the My Forever Studio podcast Chris Barker and Will Betts during last week’s episode. The podcast invites guests to explain the contents of their dream studio.

It involves a legendary synthesizer keyboard, an old-school compressor, a tape machine, a Korg SDD delay with the delay time setting set in milliseconds as opposed to the more contemporary format of pre-sync delays.

“It’s a [Roland] Juno 106,” he begins, “smashed into that [Drawmer] compressor… with a dotted quarter note.

“It’s a note x1.5 basically. So, you know, if you’re running at 120 BPM, a beat is 500 milliseconds, isn’t it? 250 is a quarter note. So, you know, 375.”

“If I want to quote a track, just look at Water From A Vine Leaf, for instance. It’s best illustrated in the introduction of that one track because it’s just naked there.

“That is a Juno 106 going through the Drawmer [compressor], going into an analogue desk – a Trident 80B – and on to tape with a three quarter or dotted quarter note delay, through a Korg SDD – all delay, no mix. I’ll probably compress the delay as well. That’s the sound.”

The My Forever Studio podcast in partnership with EVO by Audient sees artists, producers and engineers create their dream fantasy Forever Studio, wherever they want in the universe. However, there are strict rules in the Forever Studio. The guests are permitted a limited number of items in their creative space, so they must choose carefully.

Listen to episode 47 of the My Forever Studio Podcast or check out all episodes.