I chain the Delay before the reverb. Set the room size and space I want and leave it.

This is not rocket science. Pre-delay is tricky in a LARGE venue and mostly not needed, It is normally a natural effect in Larger venues that cannot be controlled and the tempo has no bearing on that except that the singer is singing within a tempo and the pre delay follows. The space in fact can Lengthen the delay far past the tempo and often does.

That's where the setting in a small room has great advantage, The singer triggers the delay in tempo since there is only one minor slap back and that return is what's reverb affected, the singer controls it in essence with heir vocals which are usually at tempo. That "space" (ie first reflection) can be dialed in easily in a small venue regardless of the tempo. Not tricky at all, in fact far more necessary in a small space than a large theater where natural pre-delay can muddy up things fast. Anyone who has performed vocally in a large venue can attest to that. There is where any reverb application is tricky Using delay for effect with more than one slapback indeed should be in tempo but not too many people use a delay with the feedback turned to numerous decaying repeats except on cheap Karaoke players and those who like that long tunnel sound.

Ideally the delay should subtly double the vocal (even with a touch of shallow Chorus)with only the doubled vocal reverb affected and set to the room space desired.Keeping some amount of separation between the real vocal and affected vocal is the key and will determine the space one wants to put their voice in for a particular song or venue.
As always YMMV the ears are the final the final say,

The whole idea of reverb is to create "space" All natural space has pre delay determined by the nearest FIRST reflective surface. That can be set to be any distance regardless of tempo. Rooms have no idea what tempo the song will be and stay constant. Pre-delay is set for a desired room size, not tempo.

try chining with the delay before the reverb (if there is no pre delay setup in the reverb parameters) and make some adjustments.

BTW Drums are especially important to have a pre delay on when using reverb as the transients are short and so should the pre delay be just enough to separate the hit from the bloom. Much trickier to achieve without hearing a double hit,but important to keep the initial snap of the hit out front. Normal sound in any reflective room contains pre delay. Clap your hands in an empty bedroom. The space between your actual hands and the first reflection is pre delay.


[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 02-18-2009).]