The Interruptor

This tape delay is the reason i refuse to fully switch over to mac, i absolutely love it, it has a perfect lofi sound i have found nowhere else. it does the bare minimum better then any plugin i have ever used.

FANTASTIC in every way- as is his other free EchoMania. Better than most paid echo VSTs. Unbelievable for free- everyone should have this.

I loved this plugin, unfortunately I can't use the 32-bit version. Would love it if someone would develop a 64-bit version.

It's 2018, and I still find myself reaching for this plugin (or its successor, Bionic Supa Delay) whenever I want something a bit more interesting that a bog-standard delay. I think it's safe to say this is my favourite free delay plugin by miles, and one of my favourite delays in general.

I don't use it much for standard delays - it's a bit wasted on that. What I love about Bionic Delay is its sound (it's a flavour delay for sure) and its interface. The interface is really well laid out, and dialling in your delay settings is child's play. There's the usual stereo tape delay settings you'd expect, with different (note-based) delay times to choose from, a ping pong mode, flutter etc. There are also handy low and high cut filters to help shape the sound of your delay.

While the delay settings are note-based, i.e. eighths etc., you can actually set the delay to other times as well using the groove knobs at the top. But really, IMO this thing shines when you want the tempo-synced delay effect. If anything, I use these options to create triplets/dotted delays, or very minor adjustments for the R and L channels so they aren't quite in sync. If I want a time based (rather than tempo-based) delay, I'll probably look elsewhere.

I recently made a dub tune, and Bionic Delay is all over that track. It's absolutely made for this kind of music, and the updated Supa Delay was developed together with dub producer Russ D. In the context of dub, it works great on anything and everything. Drums, sax, sirens etc. The key is obviously to automate the feedback.

And automating the feedback brings me to my other favourite use of Bionic Delay: it's brilliant for transitional effects. Great if you want one word of the vocal to ring out into the next section, for example. Automating the other parameters (e.g. play with the speed) also gives you nice effects that may or may not suit your track. It's worth experimenting. While I generally use this on vocals, it also works very well on impact sounds or anything else you want to sound big and filling up the room and with a lot of movement.

Downsides? Yes, there is at least one bigger issue. I don't know if it's my host (FL Studio), but Bionic Delay doesn't clear its buffers when you stop playing the track. It keeps the delay buffer stored and then plays it the next time you start the track, irrespective of where you are in the song. This is a particular problem when rendering tracks. There's often a burst of delayed sound at the start of every render. I generally leave a few empty bars at the start to deal with this. But if the feedback settings are high, the delay can actually continue to get louder and play over the entire render. Can be a bit of a bummer...

It's also a SynthEdit plugin, which may mean you'll furl your nose and say no thanks. That also means 32-bit only, but bridging seems to work fine for me.

All in all it's a great plugin, albeit best used for particular applications rather than a bread and butter delay. I was very happy to make a donation for Supa Delay.

I was introduced to Night Flight by a friend of mine, who is a real synthesizer enthusiast with a lot of knowledge about synthesizers. At first I was a little sceptical to this low priced string machine. But I couldn't be more wrong. Don't let the price mislead you. Night Flight is a very, very good synth.

My first reaction when I tested this synth was that it really sounded like it came right out of Jean Michel Jarre's famous record Oxygene. Jarre actually used an Eminent 3100 a lot on this and other records.

If you want the sounds of an Eminent 3100 this synth is an obvious choice. There are sampled string machines out there. But compared to Night Flight they sound very static. Night Flight is really an instrument that feels and sounds alive.

With Night Flight it's very easy to tweak the sounds. There's also a MIDI learn function for easy assignment. Apart from the main panel, that looks pretty familiar, there are another six sections (ensemble panel, VCO, LFO, phaser,delay etc...) for in depth tweaking.

The sounds are amazing. I just dreamed away for hours just playing around with the presets.

UI: Ugly, like a synthedit plugin with "wood" paneling. That said, there are no menus, and everything is accessible and easy to see/read/use. Even the calibration controls are on the front panel, and the mirrored layout makes a lot of sense! An extra feature that shows how much effort was put into it is that controls will go transparent if they aren't influencing the sound, which is REALLY USEFUL.

Sound: Surprising. There are a lot of "FSU" and "LOFI" synthedit plugins out there. This one really stands out as a gem. From a simple subtle tape flutter on a piano bus to full out warbling brian eno-esque synth pads, there is nothing else that can achieve quit the same effects.

Features: Everything to do with pitchbend, wobble, wow, and flutter, this has it. You can have multiple variations going at different speeds, with multiple time modifiers per, as well as operate it in a L/R configuration, or use it as tape style flange!!! It goes from authentic vibes to crazy layers just by moving some sliders.

Documentation: Not needed. Turn it on, pull the sliders, and enjoy!
Presets: There are a few presets, which give you an OK idea of what this plugin can do, but I've never used any of them. The best sounds are made by starting from scratch and tweaking for each song!
Customer Support: It's freeware, so don't expect a call center. On the flip side, I can't think of any reason you'd need it.

Stability: Use it regularly in ableton live with various buffer sizes. It never causes issues, and has a very low CPU hit.

If you like the sound of old electronic albums, with warbling loops and bending pads, or just want a little bit of vintage widening on a guitar track, snatch this thing. It's a freeware gem.