H-Delay Overview
H-Delay is my main delay plug nowadays because it has all the features I require without adding other plug-ins as I usually do.
First of all, there is up to 3500 ms of delay time without calling up other delays and it has infinite feedback.
It also has a feature I call “gained up” feedback where, instead of getting softer and softer, the repeats getting louder and louder. Lots of creative possibilities there!
I like when you change the delay time while audio is playing through H-Delay.
The capture audio changes in pitch—just like adjusting the playback head distance on a Maestro Echoplex or when changing the vari-speed setting on a reel-to-reel tape delay machines during delay echoes.
This control, like all the controls on the Hybrid plugs, is automatable!
Other great modern features include: Tap tempo grabs the delay timing from just clicking on the Tap plateau; the LFO section modulates the delay time for making smooth chorus sounds and automatic flanger sweeps; and the delay time will follow session tempo or any musical subdivisions including triplets (delay time T suffix) and dotted notes (D).
The echo repeats from tape machine delay always deteriorated with each subsequent repeat—they dissolved into the existing noise floor. With H-Delay you have a choice anywhere between super clean and clear digital echo repeats and the sound of yesteryear using the restricted frequency response LoFi mode and/or the high pass and low pass filters.
Both filters have identical 20 Hz to 20 kHz ranges and you can link them to produce a bandpass filter.
Like H-Comp, the Analog mode adds the sound we associate with analog signal paths and I found it to take some of the stiff and rough edges off the sound of typical digital delay lines.
Between the Analog mode, LoFi and the LFO modulation you’ve got covered all the sonic vagaries of a good old tape recorder or a hardware analog unit like a Yamaha AD-10 Analog Delay pedal.