Delay plugins

Delay plugins

If you´re anything like me you probably have at least 10+ delay plugins in your plugin folder. A delay is a very simple concept so do we really need more than a few? Today I´m trying a bunch of different delays to try to answer the eternal question. How many delays does a man really need?

How I tested

I took a guitar solo snippet a put it through a bunch of different delays, and then normalized the output volume. The purpose was to see if there´s any real difference, so I used whatever tone shaping features available to subtly tweak the tone without going into a special FX territory.

Check out the audio examples and my findings at the end of this post.

Delay features revisited

I´ll be mentioning these features throughout the test, so I just thought I´d go over these quickly to avoid repetition

Auto ducking

Auto ducking allows you to "duck" the wet delay signal whenever the dry audio is playing, This will clear up your dry signal from av avoid muddying the mix with a wash of delay. This can also be achieved with side chaining and busing, but the auto-ducker provides a much faster workflow.

Glide

Changing the tape speed on a running tape machine would cause a glide between pitches, and this is exactly how a tape plugin would (or should) work as well.  

Modulation

Some of the delay plugins offers modulation controls. This will allow you to create create chorus and flanging type of effects.  

The roundup

BX_delay

BX_delay from Brainworks is packed with processing features. You can play with modulation, distortion, auto-wah, transient design, M/S and so on. Oh, and it has an auto-duck feature. Ironically, the weakest part of this plugin is the delay pattern options, there just isn't much control on offer here.

BX_delay sounds very clean and hi-fi and was by far the widest sounding of the bunch out of the box, almost reverb like. You can probably replicate the effect chain with other plugins, but it arguably invites you to quickly try different things, and I especially like the transient designer effect.

Echoboy

Echoboy from Soundtoys have been around for a long time, and many professional producers stll swear by it. It´s is particularity famous for it´s saturation effects, and some people just use it for that.

The plugin offers a lot of options, and is by far the most configurable with regards to delay patterns, (custom patterns etc). My only criticism is around the GUI which I feel needs an update. I often find myself searching for settings (some are hidden and only appear based on context), and the pattern editor is rather small. That aside it´s still a go to favorite due to the versatility and sound.

Fault

Unfiltered Audio develops the experimental SandMan pro delay, which offers a comprehensive modulation system for wild delay effects. I decided to test Fault, as I happened to have it installed.

Fault is basically a time and pitch manipulation tool, and you can get all types of crazy freeze, stutter and vibrato types of effects from it. I used it as a basic delay here, which is completely overkill for this plugin, but my quest was after all to find out if there´s a notable difference between delay plugins so it fits the description from that perspective.

H-delay

H-delay from Waves is an unsung hero. It´s one of those plugins that just works and gets the job done, and you´ll be surprised how often it appears in mix sessions for top artists.

At the end of the day it´s a basic stereo delay with some vintage tone options. The analog switch provides subtle coloration, but be aware that mode 2 (default) generates audible noise.

Chaining the delay introduces the classic glide effect. All in all a stable work horse plugin.

DDLY

DDLY from Izotope is based on a very unique concept. You can basically add delay to the signal when it´s above/below a threshold. This means you can, for instance, apply delay only to the peaks. This can really help tidy up your mix and provide some interesting effect options, so that is exactly how I set it up for the test. You can also use a grain algorithm to create special FX etc.

J37

J37 from Waves and is actually a tape emulation plugin. It is however also possible to use it as a tape delay effect which is what I did. As it´s based on a tape emulation, you have plenty of control over the tape sound (saturation, tape speed etc).  J37 is perfect if you want to create a very obvious tape effect for your delay, and you can use it either as an insert or as a send effect.  

PrimalTap

PrimalTap is another delay plugin from Soundtoys. This one is based on an early digital delay unit and offers some interesting lo-fi options such as sample frequency reduction. It also has a freeze function which allows you to use the buffer almost like an oscillator. Just try tweaking the delay time and multiply buttons while in freeze mode and you´ll see what I mean. There are also modulation controls for vintage digital chorusing effects.

As with many other Soundtoys plugins it has an interface which invites you to play. It´s possible to create some far out special effects with this plugin.

Stomp

PSP stomp looks very much like a guitar pedal, and I could actually see this plugin being very popular with guitar players based on the modulation features alone. You can create all kinds of chorus, vibrato and phasing effects with it. The delay is fairly straight forward, but it has a ducker and switchable glide feature which is great. Some of the buttons are rather small and somewhat difficult to control with a mouse though. Overall it´s a very good all rounder for delay type effects. 

Note: I engaged the auto-ducker in the test, and you can clearly hear how this carved out space for the dry signal.

Echo

Echo from PSP is based on a vintage tape delay and offers control over things like drive, wow and spread. It has a glide feature and what is possibly the most configurable auto-ducker I´ve seen in a delay. In short, a solid tape delay plugin with saturation and ducking.

Note: I used a the auto-ducking feature in the audio sample, and you can clearly hear how it carved out some space for the dry signal.

Replika

Native instruments Replika is offered as a separate plugin, but most people probably got this with the Komplete bundle. That´s probably also the reason why this plugin doesn't get a lot of buzz on Internet forums. The truth is that this is a very smooth delay, and the tail blends vary naturally with the dry audio. It has a very clean hi-fi sound and it instantly became a new favorite.

I tested the standard version, but there is also an XT-version which provides more delay and modulation option. It has auto-ducking, dual stereo, diffusion, delay groove control etc. Replika XT is a power house and quite possibly the only delay plugin you'll ever need (can´t believe I said that).

Tape

IK Multimedia Tape is part of the most excellent T-racks plugin bundle. What you´ll first notice is the beautiful scalable interface. Other vendors should take note - I which all plugins were re-sizable and looked this good. 

The delay itself is true to the Echoplex original in the sense that it offers very limited control of the delay, which can be both a pro or a con depending on the way you look at it.  It definitely has a very authentic vintage tape sound which after all the whole point with this plugin .

You can further tweak the tape parameters by clicking on the Echoplex logo, which reveals controls for tape wear, saturation, noise  and wow/flutter. This thing can sound like an old beaten up tape machine if that´s what you want.

Stock delay

I finally reached for the standard Cubase 9.5 stock stereo delay to provide a baseline for the audio samples. It´s absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it has very limited tone shaping capabilities. 

You can however add other plugins (saturation, transient designers, reverb etc) after/before it, if you put it on a send. 

Summary

While listning to the sound examples I realize that a lot of these plugins sounds very similar, and the biggest divider was between clean digital delays and vintage tape type of delays with wow, flutter and saturation.  The plugins in each category would potentially be indistinguishable in a mix if you tweaked the parameters to sund similar. 

The biggest difference for me is how quickly I can get to the results I want, and which kind of creative options the plugin offers. I´d settle on a basic stock delay for standard duties, and a powerful digital delay with control over delay patterns and a vintage tape type delay with a lot of vibe and simply delete the rest. So I guess the magic number is three. Ok, maybe something with more modulation options. And maybe a virtual emulation of that classic delay pedal, and ....

Sound examples