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Buyer's Guides

The Best Delay Plugins: Vintage and Modern Effects For All Budgets

Few music and audio effects are as pleasing to the ear as delay, and it’s up there with reverb as one of the most commonly applied effects since the advent of studio recording. Delay can range from almost imperceptibly subtle, all the way to seemingly infinite, like an auditory black hole.

And you don’t necessarily have to splash out on delay hardware units or guitar pedals — you can toy with delay plugins in the comfort of your DAW in your comfiest office chair. Headliner is here to help you whittle down the endless options, from the best free delay plugins, the ones that expertly emulate the aforementioned hardware and old tape machines, to digital delays that bring the effect into the modern age with endless options.

Valhalla FreqEcho

People often say the best things in life are free, and when effects plugin maestros Valhalla offers up a delay plugin for free, the saying gains extra credence. The company already priced all their offerings at some of the most affordable pricing in the plugin market, but Valhalla’s free options including Supermassive and FreqEcho are superior to many paid-for plugins. Valhalla says this one is “perfect for dub, Dr. Who, and all of your psychedelic needs.” So, with no price barrier, get in there and try out the frequency shifter and analogue echo emulation, and get wild and weird!

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Logic Pro Tape Delay

Producer Rick Rubin once said, “Always try out the free plugins in your DAW before getting your wallet out.” He actually didn’t, but it’s still pertinent advice. Apple’s Logic has a few decent effects that will save you from paying for plugins and using up disk space with downloads, and the Tape Delay is one of those. Sure, it won’t have all the brilliant presets that the more expensive names will, although the dub delay preset is a lot of fun. If you’re a Logic user already, take the Tape Delay for a spin before spending your time and money elsewhere.

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Valhalla Delay

We return to the gates of Valhalla! And while the Valhalla Delay plugin isn’t a freebie, it keeps to the company’s tradition of offering some of the best plugins out there at a fraction of the price. This is one of the best delay plugins when it comes to versatility — you can serve up vintage sounds or modern delay effects with ease. There are a whopping 14 delay modes, so have a riotous time with HiFi, Bucket Brigade, Ghost, Reverse Pitch, LoFi, and more. If you’ve ever enjoyed Valhalla’s famous reverb sounds, this one won’t disappoint either.

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Waves H-Delay

H-Delay from Waves is much more than a drop in the ocean of the many, many delay plugins to choose from. Instead, it’s a bestseller that innumerable producers and engineers regularly call on. Drawing inspiration from several classic hardware delay units, the interface couldn’t be easier to get to grips with, although the seemingly simple plugin has an enormous range of customisation options if you want to get under the hood. A big shout out to the pitch-shifting echo sound H-Delay can produce, some of the best vintage analogue emulations you’ll find.

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Arturia Delay TAPE-201

Et voilà, Arturia enter the best delay plugin conversation! Another example of a fantastic tape delay plugin emulating vintage hardware, that you can get brilliant sounds out of with a few clicks. It pays loving homage to hardware units such as EchoSonic by Ray Butts, Mike Battle’s Echoplex, and Ikutaro Kakehashi’s Echo Chamber series. Arturia describes it as having a “fluttering golden tone”, which is a wonderful way to put it. However, Arturia has gone out of its way to combine the lovey wobbliness of analogue sounds with the ability to get modern digital effects also, depending on what it is you seek!

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Native Instruments Replika XT

And with that, the best delay plugins compendium goes native. A name like Replika XT might sound a little Blade Runner, however, this delay plugin from Native Instruments isn’t just for dystopian sounds (although it can do those too!). Whether you’re after simple or advanced sound design, the Replika interface is intuitive and easy to pick up, with smooth adjusting, and plenty of EQ control. There are tape and analogue modes for the hardware heads and some fun features such as timing offset and ducking.

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Soundtoys EchoBoy

There are innumerable reasons why so many musicians and producers have Soundtoys as their first port of call for digital effects, the least of which is because EchoBoy is one of the best delay plugins known to man. EchoPlex, Space Echo, Memory Man, DM-2, and the TelRay are some of the classic delay units that inspire the incredible sounds on show. A stonkingly good feature is the included chorus which emulates the CE-1 chorus, one of the best guitar chorus pedals out there. Soundtoys pride themselves on the fact that this plugin can be pushed really hard, so you can go as subtle or extreme as your heart desires.

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Soundtoys Crystallizer

We’re not quite done with you yet, Soundtoys. As the plugin wizards can claim not just offering one, but two of the best delay plugins on the interwebs. If you liked the weird and whacky results EchoBoy can produce, then it’s time to kick that up a notch with the Crystallizer. This is no mere delay plugin, but a sound-transforming effect unit, based on the Eventide H3000 (more on them shortly) and its reverse shift algorithm. In other words, Crystallizer delivers old-school pitch shifting and granular echo slicing. The 200 presets should have you covered, as you take mere melodies and chords and turn them into layered, textural, shimmering soundscapes.

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Eventide Ultratap

Next up is a huge event in the world of delay plugins. We teased Eventide’s appearance in this best delay plugin rundown in the last entry, and it’s the Ultratap that gains entry. ‘Ultra’ is a very valid name, as this delay can be used to generate some huge and wild sounds. The titular ‘taps’ replace the usual feedback control, instead you tap, e.g. tap in the number of rounds of delay you’re after. You can edit multi-voiced detuning, modulation, and reverb, meaning you can create some truly delicious delay results.

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FabFilter Timeless 3

Let’s finish this delay plugin buyer’s guide in timeless and fabulous fashion — it could be none other than FabFilter’s Timeless 3. It’s a very apt title; even though it covers vintage tape delay effects brilliantly, you can also create delay sounds that belong to no particular time era and that you can make your own. This is in part thanks to a faintly ludicrous 50 modulators, which allow you to get as infinite and psychedelic sounding as you can imagine. You can also control panning, rate, feedback, and mix, and will likely lose hours doing so (in a good way).

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What does a delay plugin do, anyway?

In layman’s terms, a delay plugin is an audio effect that records a sound and plays it back after a short time, creating an echo or repeating effect. It can be used to add depth, space, and rhythm to a mix.

For example, a subtle slapback delay can give vocals a sense of presence, while a longer delay with feedback can create atmospheric, ambient textures. Delay plugins often come with controls for time, feedback, and filtering, allowing producers to shape the effect to fit anything from tight rhythmic patterns to expansive, dreamy soundscapes.

So, don’t delay (buh-dhm-tsh). Now that you’re armed with the knowledge, all that remains is to choose the best delay plugin that suits your music and sound goals. Just be careful not to fall into a black hole of delay and echo sounds — they can be tricky to get out of.


Further reading:

Best reverb plugins at any budget