Crank up the feedback in Tape mode, for instance, and you get a gorgeously dirty yet controllable slab of recirculating sound that can be manipulated to your heart's content by changing the delay time and other controls. It's clear that a lot of attention to detail has gone into getting the behaviour of the various algorithms right at extreme settings. Even though the different modes have quite different sonic characteristics, the control layout remains the same, so it quickly becomes second nature to tweak the Age or EQ parameters to fine-tune the character of the delay. That sounds like a lot of control, and it is but it's been very thoughtfully packaged in an interface that makes everything accessible, friendly and intuitive. It also does things you might not expect. There's no doubt in my mind that Valhalla Delay can do all the classic delay sounds, and extends them in useful ways courtesy of the various stereo and Quad options. Naturally, delay times can be set in milliseconds or in musical divisions including dotted and triplet notes.
As the name suggests, Quad mode features four delay taps, configured using a single delay time setting plus a Spread control. The Dual, Ratio and Ping-Pong algorithms provide separate left and right delay lines, but in Ratio mode, the delay time of the second line is set as a percentage of the first. Sensibly, to my mind, Sean hasn't limited the functionality of the delay styles to what would have been available on vintage units, so all modes provide the choice of Single, Dual, Ratio, Ping-Pong and Quad delay algorithms. There are also conventional high and low EQ controls within the feedback loop. As well as the obvious Width and Feedback controls, Age and Drive dials are available in all modes, and allow you to colour the tonality of the repeats to your chosen degree, the shade of coloration being chosen by the Era setting's Past, Present and Future options. In the Tape algorithm, for example, these are labelled Wow and Flutter, while in Pitch mode they become Shift and Detune controls. In all modes, an additional Diffusion section allows you to soften the repeats and even generate full-on reverb at extreme settings, while there are two dials that adjust parameters specific to a given mode. Finally, there's Ghost, an intriguing algorithm that employs frequency-shifting rather than pitch-shifting to achieve interesting and sometimes clangorous effects.
Two further algorithms called Pitch and RevPitch introduce lo-fi pitch-shifting into the delay path, with the latter adding a granular reverse algorithm for 'backwards' delay.
BBD, naturally, replicates the dirty sound of a bucket-brigade chip in action, while Digital seeks to capture the slightly crunchy flavour of old-school digital delay lines. Tape produces the kind of effects you'd associate with units like the Roland Space Echo or Maestro Echoplex HiFi is also a tape-style delay, but with the full-bandwidth sound you'd get from using a studio quarter-inch machine in this role. The first four delay styles on offer are loosely inspired by vintage hardware, though they certainly aren't attempting to recreate particular devices.
Like all Sean's plug-ins, it's available in all the common native formats on Mac OS and Windows, and is authorised using a simple key file.
Valhalla Delay doesn't just mimic one particular type of classic delay unit: it has no fewer than seven different modes, including some that have no counterpart in the vintage world. The latest addition to his stable is also, probably, the most ambitious to date. Oh, and did I mention that they are seriously affordable?
Valhalla DSP plug-ins thus boast refreshingly clean and friendly interfaces that are free from ersatz VU meters and brushed metal and they sound like the real deal if used within the original parameters, but will cheerfully go beyond them if you like. In products such as Valhalla Plate, Room and VintageVerb, he's managed to capture what people love about the sound of different vintage reverbs, without slavishly emulating the look or functionality of any specific hardware unit.
Over the last few years, Sean Costello has quietly built up an enviable reputation for his Valhalla DSP range of plug-ins. With seven different flavours of echo on tap, this is one seriously versatile delay plug-in.