Reverb gets a lot of credit for creating a sense of space, depth, and width for your
vocals, but delay can do the same thing.
Delay is a very versatile effect; it can be used subtly to add a three-dimensional quality,
or it can be pushed to the limit to create wild, distorted feedback.
I’ll be showing you some of my favorite delay plugins for vocal mixing.
Make sure you watch this video till the end because you’ll be getting some vital details
about the plugins I’ll be talking about.
The Soundtoys Echoboy not only works on almost everything you throw at it, but it's also
a history lesson in delay.
The various styles give a good idea of how delay units behaved and sounded over time.
On vocals, you can use Echoboy for everything: vintage tape slapback, telephone-sounding
quarter-note delay, smooth ping-pong, and pretty much any other type of delay you could
want.
In addition, Echoboy has a lot of depth; you’ll keep getting interesting new sounds out of
it on every mix.
It’s a fantastic delay plugin with a vintage feel.
SoundToys researched and modeled some of the most popular hardware delays of all time for
EchoBoy.
The EchoPlex, Space Echo, Memory Man, DM-2, and TelRay oil can delay are all classic sounds
found in this amazing plugin.
Tube Delay by Softube is a marriage between analog and digital, combining the warmth and
natural compression from tubes with the features and versatility of a digital delay.
The effect is perfect for widening vocal tracks, adding slapback echo to drums, getting a gritty
delay for guitars or using it just as a dirty tube preamp.
With a vintage style passive EQ and several independent tube stages, Tube Delay sounds
great even without the delay effect and is the perfect default plug-in each time you
need to give a lifeless track some color.
It’s is by far the most user-friendly Delay plugin on this list.
The graphical user interface is adorable, and the controls are straightforward.
It has the feel of a small piece of hardware, which is always interesting when you need
to be inspired.
You can use Tube Delay to create a really overdriven, almost-out-of-control vocal delay
sound.
It's also quick and easy to dial in a nice, crunchy single-repeat slap sound.
H-Delay is one of the most widely used plugins.
Its interface is extremely user-friendly, making it simple to dive in and start tweaking.
"From old school PCM42-style effects like filtering, flanging, and phasing to slap-back
echo and ping-pong delay," this plugin is a must-have.
Apart from its ease of use and sound quality, one of the best things about H-Delay is that
it doesn't add any latency.
This means it's ideal for tracking when your artist needs a little boost from their cue
mix.
Give your client a quarter-note delay in their headphones to give them an extra push to capture
the perfect performance.
The built-in filters are also very useful, so you don't need to add an EQ after H-Delay
to achieve the Abbey Road effect.
Roland released the RE-201 Space Echo* in 1973, which was a tape delay/spring reverb
system that produced warm, warped, unrelentingly analog echo effects.
This iconic contraption can be heard on classic Pink Floyd and David Bowie, as well as seminal
dub sides from King Tubby, Scientist, and Lee "Scratch" Perry, ranging from subtle tape
textures to mindbending chaos.
The Galaxy Tape Echo plug-in for UAD-2 hardware and Apollo interfaces is a meticulous emulation
of the iconic, legendary '70s unit, expertly capturing the physical behavior of the inspiring
hardware, down to its distortion, musical wow and flutter, sci-fi pitch shifting, and
real-time tweakability.
When mixing vocals, this plugin can be used on a lot of vocal tracks.
It's a bit lo-fi, cloudy, and harsh sounding, but for a colorful, ethereal, dramatic vocal
sound — no plugin can do what the Galaxy Tape Echo does.
This is due in part to the built-in reverb, but the delay itself is one-of-a-kind.
It also has a lovely user interface that feels very much like the hardware, so dialing in
the exact sound you're looking for can take some time, but it's completely worth it when
you do.
PrimalTap is an emulation and re-imagining of the Prime Time delay's unique sound and
features, a classic digital delay with some powerful performance and sound design capabilities.
PrimalTap, like the original hardware, is a hybrid of digital and analog sound—it
has an unexpected amount of grit, vibe, and character for a digital delay.
A lot of people were initially perplexed as to why Soundtoys would bother developing another
delay plugin alongside Echoboy, but this emulation of the Lexicon Prime Time 93 Digital Delay
unit has a completely different vibe.
The controls are unusual when compared to those found on most delay plugins, but that's
part of what makes PrimalTap so enjoyable.
It has the feel of a digital delay unit, so it's ideal for vocal slap backs that require
a more expensive 80's sheen.
Waves is known for creating high-quality, user-friendly plugins, and the Manny Marroquin
Delay is no exception.
One thing that great mixers do all the time to spice up their delays is to add extra effects
to them.
Sending the delay through a reverb, adding some saturation, or modulating it with a phaser
or flanger are all possibilities.
Manny Marroquin Delay includes built-in reverb, distortion, a doubler, and a phaser.
It's a one-stop shop for really cool sounding delays without the need for a ton of additional
plugins.
With the incredibly popular Pro-Q equalizer, FabFilter established a reputation as one
of the highest quality plugin developers.
Timeless appears to be a perfectly modeled tape delay, but it's actually the "ultimate
sound-mangling machine," capable of creating echo, chorus, flanger, phaser, scratch effects,
and more.
It's perfectly normal if it appears intimidating.
As always, getting your hands dirty is the best way to figure something out!
Alternatively, you can load one of the over 300 included presets to get the delays going
quickly.
Valhalla is perhaps best known for their incredible reverb collection.
The interface is cool, the sound is great, and the price is very reasonable.
You’ve got to love everything about this plugin.
Valhalla's digital delay plugin is extremely versatile and can handle everything: tape
delay, '80s digital, BBD, hi-fi, lo-fi...
Simply select one of 14 modes to get the desired delay flavor.
Sounds range from standard and predictable delay to wild pitch shifting and one-of-a-kind
effects.