Minireview: Massey Plug-Ins TD5

Oct 10, 2007 12:08 PM Jason_Scott Alexander (Writer)

Formerly employed at Digidesign and Trillium Lane Labs, Steven Massey has broken away to produce his own elite-quality plug-ins, only now at ridiculously low prices. TD5 is his latest, which sounds and acts like a real-life vintage tape delay. The plug opens to a funky panel that’s visually as retro as the deep, familiarly organic, 3-D sound that emanates from within. Available as RTAS and TDM (Audio Units, VST and DirectX are not anticipated, so don’t ask), it supports sampling rates as high as 192 kHz natively, 48 kHz on TDM HD and 96 kHz on TDM HD Accel systems.

 

A numeric LED shows delay time in milliseconds or tempo value in bpm mode; radio buttons let you select 32nd-, 16th-, eighth, quarter-, half- or whole-note values, as well as dotted or triplet notes. The Delay Time slider lets you smoothly “stretch” the tape length to produce delays from 5 ms to 2 seconds. Cranking the Input knob increases the amount of harmonic distortion quite tastily, while the Blend knob adjusts the wet/dry balance. A simple switch toggles between Vintage and Modern tape-delay simulation; the former induces more subtle distortion, while the latter has an overall cleaner sound. A three-position Tone switch selects between Normal, Dark or Bright EQ curves to suit the source material. Delays can sync to a Pro Tools tempo map, be tapped in manually or run freely based on typed-in values or automation changes. My favorite aspect is the authentic-sounding feedback, from subtle, almost ghostly images to continuously cascading loops of ringing texture.

 

Get it for $79 at www.masseyplugins.com.

 

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