Ripple Delay allows for up to 32 delay elements, each with its own amplitude, pan, delay time, filter, and distortion settings. This typically means hundreds of controls, but Ripple Delay lets you control all of them with convenient envelopes. These envelopes let you draw curves that define each setting for each delay element. Several additional controls have been added for adjusting the intensity of this curve and its impact on the main control value. While this isn’t a “free-drawing” option, which would display all touches as individual sliders, the MSEG-style curve still looks nice.
The Ripple tab for each control is truly interesting. It provides modulation with each touch, allowing you to add movement to delays. Using it to manipulate time can create a nice chorus effect. You can freeze the ripple and apply it to time to create some sync distortion, but the results are quite subtle. Adding this ripple modulation to the filter parameters will make the display sway like waves.
Taps has a cool set of switches similar to a sequencer, which makes sense since you’re essentially controlling the delay echo using a sequencer. It’s nice that there’s additional nesting in dual time zones. On the Distortion page, you can add one of nine distortion types to the delays. Here you’ll also find the Envelope and Pulse tabs. Finally, the Mix tab features a compressor and volume control, as well as a variety of visual elements displaying input and output levels.
Ripple Delay is very impressive. It offers convenient methods for manipulating large numbers of bars with minimal editing. In some ways, this delay is reminiscent of the control scheme in Sine Machine, which allows you to tweak hundreds of partials with simple sliders and XY pads. Obviously, that’s where the similarities end, as one is a multi-tap delay, while the other is an additive synthesizer. This example serves to demonstrate how important the user interface is when developing such plugins. This effect “could” be replicated with Snapheap, but it would require several levels of nesting, a lot of remapping, and the end result would be too tedious to be worth creating and editing.
Installation:
After installation, there will be two versions in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 folder: stable (1.0.3) and beta (1.1b3). Delete the one you don’t need, as there’s a chance that both versions may not work correctly if you have both.
You can load the factory preset bank by clicking the “Update Factory Presets” button in the menu. This will add the “Factory Presets” bank.
Note for Ripple Delay 1.1 beta: Some factory presets are designed for version 1.0 and should load correctly. However, they may work slightly differently in this version of the software as the beta is improved.
