Thanks for your interest in Stomp Box Delay ! We hope you have as much fun using it as we had making it. Stomp Box Delay is a real time digital delay for your MacOS computer. Now you can use your Mac as an effects processor with your favorite musical instrument!
2) What is Stomp Box Delay ?
Stomp Box Delay is a real time delay effect for use with musical instruments. You can use it to add echo and reverb-like effects to your instruments for recordings or during a performance. You can even use it with your favorite MIDI sequencer.
The basic functionality of a delay is to record a sound and play it back a short time later. If the time is very short (like 50 milliseconds), it can sound similar to a slap-back reverb (kind of like talking into a fan). If it's longer (like 1/2 a second) it can produce a rhythmic effect that changes the whole feel of whatever your playing.
3) Registering
Stomp Box Delay is shareware. It is not free. You may use it for evaluation purposes for 30 days. If you wish to use it after that, you must purchase a registration code as described in this section.
Pricing
Single user licenses $15
A Site License costs $300 (this is the same price as buying 20 single user licenses) and covers all locations for your organization within a 160 kilometer (100 mile) radius of your site. One big advantage of the site license is that you do not need to keep track of how many people at your site are using the software.
AWorld-Wide License costs $1600 and it covers all locations for your organization on the planet earth.
The Register program
Paying for Stomp Box Delay is easy! Open the Register program that accompanies it. Enter your name, your email address, and the number of single user licenses you wish to purchase (or Site or Word-Wide licenses). Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi.
If paying with Credit Card or First Virtual, you can email or fax the data to Kagi. Their email address is sales@kagi.com and their fax number is +1 510 652-6589. You can either Copy the data from Register and Paste into the body of an email message or you can Save the data to a file and you can attach that file to an email message. There is no need to compress the data file, it's already pretty small. If you have a fax modem, just Print the data to the Kagi fax number.
Payments sent via email are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgement when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days and if you provide a correct internet email address you will receive an email acknowledgement.
If you are paying with Cash or USD Check you should print the data using the Register application and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi
1442-A Walnut Street #392-VB
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
You can pay with a wide variety of cash from different countries but at present if you pay via check, it must be a check drawn in US Dollars. Kagi cannot accept checks in other currencies, the conversion rate for non-USD checks is around USD 15 per check and that is just not practical.
Payments sent via postal mail take time to reach Kagi and then up to 10 days for processing. Again, if you include a correct email address, you will hear from Kagi when the form is processed.
Registration Code
Stomp Box Delay requires a registration code that you get when have paid the registration fee. If you do not have an email address, please enter your complete postal address and please remember, we do not know what country you live in so please enter that into the postal address also.
If you do not have an email address you should consider selecting the Postcard Receipt so that Kagi can inform you of your registration code. Kagi transmits the registration codes via email and paid postcard receipt only.
4) Getting Started
Getting started with Stomp Box Delay is easy. You need to connect your musical instrument or microphone to the sound input of your computer. Next, run the program. You should see what looks like a foot pedal effects box (see figure 1). To start hearing the delay, click on the foot pedal's big button and start playing.
figure. 1
There are 3 controls that determine how the sound will be effected. The delay controls the length of the delay. Turn the knob to the right (by clicking on it and dragging to the right) to increase the length of time. Or you can choose "Change Delay…" from the "Effect" menu if you want to enter a precise time.
The "Volume" knob (and "Change Volume…" item in the "Effect" menu) controls the volume of the delayed sound. You can make it louder or softer. It is used in conjunction with the "Playthru" control.
The "Playthru" knob controls the volume of the original signal (as does the "Change Playthru…" item in the "Effect" menu). You can make the original sound louder than the delayed sound for an echo effect, or you can make it softer for other effects (like a reverse echo).
That's the basics! Play around with longer and shorter delays to see the different types of effects you can get.
5) Preferences
You can also set the quality of the sound by using the "Preferences…" from the "File" menu. When you open the preferences, you'll see the preferences dialog box (see Figure 2).
figure 2
You can set the delay to mono or stereo. You will only hear stereo sound if the incoming sound is in stereo.
You can set the sample size to 8 bit or 16 bit. 16 bit sound will be clearer.
You can change the sample rate to any rate available on your computer.
Note that some settings are not available on some computers. If your computer does not support 16 bit sound, for example, that option will not be available.
If you are using Stomp Box Delay with a sequencer, you should check the "Using a Sequencer" check box. This will improve the performance of Stomp Box Delay and keep the sound from breaking up when Stomp Box Delay is the background application.
You can also change Stomp Box Delay from a foot pedal to a rackmount effects processor by selecting the "Rackmount" style. It will look like figure 3.
figure 3
The controls are the same as for the foot pedal.
6) Tricks
Adding Feedback
Be careful when adding feedback! Be sure you set all your volumes to off before doing this or you could cause a feed back loop and damage your equipment!
You can add feedback if you have a mixer with an effects send. Start by turning down the volume on all channels and setting the effects send amout all the way off. To add feedback, send the effects output to the computer. Send the computer's output to one or two unused channels on the mixer. Slowly turn up the volume and effect amount to achieve the right amount of feedback from the delay.
Stereo Ping Pong Delay
If you have a mixer, you can make the signal bounce from the left channel to the right, and vice versa. Send the effects send of the mixer to the computer. Send the output of the computer to the effects return on your mixer, but plug the left channel into the right return and the right channel into the left return. To get an effect that bounces from left to right, only plug the right return in. (Only plug in the left return to make the sound bounce in the other direction.)
Multitap Delay
If you have another delay, or two computers, you can create even more intricate delays be using both at the same time. Send the output of 1 delay to the input of the second one. For starters, try setting the first delay to 375 msec and the second one to 500 msec.
7) Trouble Shooting
If you are having trouble getting the sounds you want, this section may help you.
Problem: The sound clicks or breaks up.
Solution: Some sound settings may be too much for your computer to proccess. There are several possible ways to fix the problem. You can lower the sound quality by switching to Mono, 8-bit and/or a lower sampling rate. If the problem persists, you may have to settle for a longer delay time. If you are running a sequencer or some other program at the same time, be sure to check the "Using a Sequencer" box in the Preferences.
Problem: The delay isn't keeping proper time.
Solution: If you are running a sequencer or some other program at the same time, be sure to check the "Using a Sequencer" box in the Preferences. If that doesn't help, you may need to switch the quality settings to a higher quality in the preferences. Because of the way the MacOS handles sound, the actual delay time may be rounded to slightly greater or lesser value. Usually changing some of the quality settings (like from 11kHz to 22kHz sampling rate) can help the situation.
Problem: Stomp Box Delay tells me it can't run on my hardware.
Solution: To run, you need a computer that can both play back and record sound at the same time. Some models (called half-duplex) cannot do this (notably older models). Your options are to install a sound card that can play back and record at the same time (a full-duplex sound card) or to upgrade your computer. If your computer can record and playback at the same time, you also need a sound input device. A microphone or CDRom drive can be used. Select the proper device using the Sound Control Panel.
Problem: No sound is coming out.
Solution: Be sure that you have selected the proper sound input device in the Sound Control Panel. If you were playing an audio CD, you may need to manually switch it back to the microphone or external input. You should also check to make sure that you have not muted the sound output using the Sound Control Panel. Also, be sure that the playthru and volume settings are set above 0. If you have checked all these things, make sure that your music equipment is outputting a sound.
Problem: My computer seems slow to respond when using Stomp Box Delay .
Solution: If you have the "Using a Sequencer" box checked in the Preferences, Stomp Box Delay will use more processor time and give less time to other programs. You can uncheck the box to allow things to run normally, but you will notice degraded performance if you are running other programs (such as a sequencer).
Problem: I get an error about "Can't get playthru volume" and I only hear the delay without the original sound.
Solution: Some models cannot pass the sound they record through to the output (this is different than not being full duplex). They can still record and playback. You can either use the delay with the effect send of a mixer, use a different computer, or upgrade your sound hardware.
If you find any bugs, please report them to us by sending email to buena@kagi.com.
8) Other Products from Buena
Please visit our web site at http://www.buena.com/software.html to see our other products, like these:
Stomp Box Tremelo - a real time effect that turns your Mac into a Tremelo
Mirage File Transfer - a free MIDI utility that allows you to transfer files between your Mac and an Ensoniq Mirage.
