What is delay?

Delay is a an time based effect, which means it creates its effect by manipulating the way the sound behaves over time. What delay actually does is take the audio signal that's fed into it and repeats it over time. The resulting sound is like an echo of the original sound, just like if you shouted into a big cave your voice echo's back at you.

Usual suspects

The Kjaerhus audio classic delay works in the same way every other delay plugin. The usual time, feedback and mix controls are present but classic delay has some extra functions. There's a pan control for the input and a mono button which can be useful when dealing with mono audio and a tight mix. Other functions include a sync to host tempo button which is a must have now and a ping pong button which makes the delay ping from left to right.

Tape delay

Many plugin delays work and sound very similar so i won't dwell on the usual time and feedback controls present. The thing i really like about the Classic delay plugin is its ability to emulate old tape and early 70's analog delays. This is done via a combination of the tape, analog & digital selector, the quality parameter and lastly the low and high pass filters. The tape, analog, digital selector changes the way the delay reacts and is very realistic emulation, especially when tape is selected

The quality parameter, when set low, increases the amount of wow and flutter you would get from an old tape delay. This makes the sound of the delay deteriate as it repeats and the pitch wobble slightly. I have used tape delays and this is exactly what they sound like, especially when the machine is old and the tape heads dirty. Combined with the tape setting selected, its a very good tape delay emulation. Check out the audio example to the right.

Conclusion

Overall i think Kjaerhus audio's classic delay is a cracking delay plugin which could give any of the leaders a run for there money. I'm especially pleased with its extremely realistic emulation of a tape and analog delay which many delay plugins i've tried fail at and if your looking for a great lo-fi delay sound then the Kjaerhus audio classic delay is the one for you. It's also worth noting that the plugin doesn't eat up CPU like some other ones do so it's perfect for live work. Anyway the bottom line is its a great plugin and it's free. You can't go wrong.

Zander

Akai MPK25 review

Published: 15. 05. 2008     10 comments

We take a look at the Akai MPK25 midi controller, the smallest of the Akai MPK series of midi controller/keyboard/MPC drum pad/trigger. This is a feature packed controller and promises a lot but does it live up to it's creators repretation?