Eventide UltraTap

[mcbpete]

How long does the intro price at JRR last?

I imagine it'll be related to Eventide's pricing of it so: 5th September 2017

[Sampleconstruct]

I'm underwhelmed by this, I expected something more radical in the realms of Black Hole as the GUIs look so similar, but no feedback parameter, no self-resonating feedbacks, no extreme pitch modulations, nada. It sounds alright but nothing to call home about...we all have enough delays anyway.

[lnikj]

I agree. After trialling it it comes down to a question of how much I value taps 33-64, because for taps 1-32 Relayer blows it out of the water. I am trying to like it, and I love so many other Eventide plugins, but it hasn't sold itself to me yet.

[ghettosynth]

I'm underwhelmed by this, I expected something more radical in the realms of Black Hole as the GUIs look so similar, but no feedback parameter, no self-resonating feedbacks, no extreme pitch modulations, nada. It sounds alright but nothing to call home about...we all have enough delays anyway.

That's the thing though, I don't have many multi-tap delays with high numbers of taps. I don't have Relayer, so I can't really compare, but the smooth transition through high numbers is somewhat unique.

Do you know of other delays that do something similar?

At any rate, while feedback would be cool, I think that this is a cool delay if not a bit more subtle than people might have been expecting.

[Sampleconstruct]

I'm underwhelmed by this, I expected something more radical in the realms of Black Hole as the GUIs look so similar, but no feedback parameter, no self-resonating feedbacks, no extreme pitch modulations, nada. It sounds alright but nothing to call home about...we all have enough delays anyway.

That's the thing though, I don't have many multi-tap delays with high numbers of taps. I don't have Relayer, so I can't really compare, but the smooth transition through high numbers is somewhat unique.

Do you know of other delays that do something similar?

At any rate, while feedback would be cool, I think that this is a cool delay if not a bit more subtle than people might have been expecting.

Logic's Delay Designer has plenty of taps, and each one can be filtered, transposed, panned (also in stereo width), feedback can be set on a dedicated tap (like in Relayer). In In Melda's MXXX you can easily build complex multi-tap delays yourself, even with other effects inserted in the FX chain and one delay for each of the maximum six frequency bands if you like.

[PAK]

I'm underwhelmed by this, I expected something more radical in the realms of Black Hole as the GUIs look so similar, but no feedback parameter, no self-resonating feedbacks, no extreme pitch modulations, nada. It sounds alright but nothing to call home about...we all have enough delays anyway.

Unfortunately this is a bit too close to my opinion too.

It was an auto-buy, based partly on the similar GUI to Blackhole. But I don't think it is to delays as Blackhole is to reverbs. It's more "niche" than that, and I doubt it'll see much use here.

There's better alternatives for standard delays, and things like the H3000 are more interesting for experimental. So it's kind of caught in the middle of those as a bit of a one trick pony (lots of taps with a nice and easy GUI).

I suspect the best use case would be to use it like the hardware (assign a hardware button to tap tempo for live usage etc)

Will be a bit less buy-button trigger happy with their next release.

[Sampleconstruct]

I'm underwhelmed by this, I expected something more radical in the realms of Black Hole as the GUIs look so similar, but no feedback parameter, no self-resonating feedbacks, no extreme pitch modulations, nada. It sounds alright but nothing to call home about...we all have enough delays anyway.

Unfortunately this is a bit too close to my opinion too.

It was an auto-buy, based partly on the similar GUI to Blackhole. But I don't think it is to delays as Blackhole is to reverbs. It's more "niche" than that, and I doubt it'll see much use here.

There's better alternatives for standard delays, and things like the H3000 are more interesting for experimental. So it's kind of caught in the middle of those as a bit of a one trick pony (lots of taps with a nice and easy GUI).

I suspect the best use case would be to use it like the hardware (assign a hardware button to tap tempo for live usage etc)

Will be a bit less buy-button trigger happy with their next release.

It was similar with their Fission plug-in, nice idea but pretty average overall, I passed on that one too.

[ghettosynth]

I'm underwhelmed by this, I expected something more radical in the realms of Black Hole as the GUIs look so similar, but no feedback parameter, no self-resonating feedbacks, no extreme pitch modulations, nada. It sounds alright but nothing to call home about...we all have enough delays anyway.

Unfortunately this is a bit too close to my opinion too.

It was an auto-buy, based partly on the similar GUI to Blackhole. But I don't think it is to delays as Blackhole is to reverbs. It's more "niche" than that, and I doubt it'll see much use here.

There's better alternatives for standard delays, and things like the H3000 are more interesting for experimental. So it's kind of caught in the middle of those as a bit of a one trick pony (lots of taps with a nice and easy GUI).

I suspect the best use case would be to use it like the hardware (assign a hardware button to tap tempo for live usage etc)

Will be a bit less buy-button trigger happy with their next release.

It was similar with their Fission plug-in, nice idea but pretty average overall, I passed on that one too.

I passed on Fission as well, but I'm not convinced that you guys are seeing it here. This is not a do everything delay. I don't have logic so I can't compare it to that, but, I do have H3000 which cannot come close in terms of what UltraTap does well.

I do agree that it could be more versatile, but the thing that really stands out is how well it does the few things that it does. I don't think it's about setting up each individual tap separately. That's not really the point. The point is about how musical the shaping of the tap timing is. Of the tools that I have, only GRM Delays is similar in this regard. I don't have Relayer or Delay Designer which indeed seem more powerful for creating a particular delay, but from first glance, I can't see the same degree of manipulation of the tap structure from a few controls.

I was originally not going to get it until I started playing with it on different kinds of rhythmic parts, particularly chord loops and distinct drum parts. I was thinking that I could knock something up in Reaktor. I still think that's possible, I'll probably start with this as a base as it has the right idea of using polyphony for the number of taps.

https://reaktortips.com/2013/07/ghost-s ... delay.html

The input to UltraTap is a bit gimmicky. The EQ would be easy to improve upon and I'm a bit whatever about the gating, Slurm, however, could be imitated but I think that there's at least something going on there.

What this is good at is creating a family of delay settings for a particular input, say a chord rhythm and then constraining that range using the ribbon into the musically interesting ranges. I think that a lot more power in terms of individual tap control would just get in the way. You don't really want to set up each tap by itself, you just want a function that maps over the taps in time.

Melda's delay may be able to do something similar, I wouldn't, know. What I do know about Melda's tools is that they are anything but immediate.

I'm probably going to pick this up. I'm also probably going to continue copying the ideas into my own Reaktor delay because I can do much more with it there. However, it is unique in how you easily shape the tap timing while keeping the output clean as far as I can tell.

If you do experimental or dub techno or some kinds of tech house,this is probably a must buy.

[dangayle]

I just bought this and played around with it this morning. Reminds me a lot of the old Yamaha UD Stomp delay I used to have (or the Magicstomp that had UD presets in it). On guitar, this effect of multiple randomish taps blossoming out is perfect for Post-rock type volume swells.

I own Relayer, H3000, Replika XT, Tekturon, Replica, Sigmund and used to own Echoboy/JR, each has its own thing. The reverbs that come out of this remind me more of UberMod than anything, at least that's how I'll end up using it. Washes of delicious, bouncing repeats that fade and swirl, turning a meh sound into something tasty.

[pekbro]

Heh, I bought fission. I like it as a guitar effect, that's about all I use it for. I like ultratap as well. I agree that it's more interesting than it appears, also quite subtle.

It makes me wish that sandman pro had 64 taps available in its multi-tap mode.

No doubt ultratap is not going to appeal to everyone. I for one, like it, but it did take me some digging to figure that out.

-cheers

[Russell Grand]

I'm not convinced that you guys are seeing it here. This is not a do everything delay.

If you do experimental or dub techno or some kinds of tech house,this is probably a must buy.

Agreed 150%.
I'm surprised at all the "it doesn't do A and B" type comments. For what it does do, it's awesome and is much more versatile than many of you are making it out to be. I love this thing!

[Russell Grand]

I just bought this and played around with it this morning. Reminds me a lot of the old Yamaha UD Stomp delay I used to have (or the Magicstomp that had UD presets in it). On guitar, this effect of multiple randomish taps blossoming out is perfect for Post-rock type volume swells.

I own Relayer, H3000, Replika XT, Tekturon, Replica, Sigmund and used to own Echoboy/JR, each has its own thing. The reverbs that come out of this remind me more of UberMod than anything, at least that's how I'll end up using it. Washes of delicious, bouncing repeats that fade and swirl, turning a meh sound into something tasty.

Great comment. I agree, it can do some fantastic stuff, one just has to know how to use it.

[PAK]

I do agree that it could be more versatile, but the thing that really stands out is how well it does the few things that it does. I don't think it's about setting up each individual tap separately. That's not really the point. The point is about how musical the shaping of the tap timing is.

Yes, and for some that's enough. The focus is maybe just a bit too limited for some of our tastes and there's more they could've done with the idea.

EG.. shaping the timing.. the hardware style interface looks pretty and simplifies things. But in virtual land it's always a shame when you can't do things like have more nuanced control by drawing the shape instead of going via dials. It could also greatly increase possibilities by allowing things like detailed frequency conditions for when taps get triggered etc. Difficult to do on hardware, but something which could be well represented on a virtual GUI screen with a bit of care.

It's the sort of thing I'd maybe have waited to get in a bundle update rather than buy individually. Though I'm not sure if they plan to add to Anthology X now they offer a rental model..

[audientronic]

Just a quick note if you haven't tried it: if you're on a Mac you can use your magic mouse to throw the ribbon controller on both this and black hole. Kinda cool.

[ghettosynth]

I do agree that it could be more versatile, but the thing that really stands out is how well it does the few things that it does. I don't think it's about setting up each individual tap separately. That's not really the point. The point is about how musical the shaping of the tap timing is.

Yes, and for some that's enough. The focus is maybe just a bit too limited for some of our tastes and there's more they could've done with the idea.

EG.. shaping the timing.. the hardware style interface looks pretty and simplifies things. But in virtual land it's always a shame when you can't do things like have more nuanced control by drawing the shape instead of going via dials. It could also greatly increase possibilities by allowing things like detailed frequency conditions for when taps get triggered etc. Difficult to do on hardware, but something which could be well represented on a virtual GUI screen with a bit of care.

It's the sort of thing I'd maybe have waited to get in a bundle update rather than buy individually. Though I'm not sure if they plan to add to Anthology X now they offer a rental model..

No doubt, I'm not trying to argue that it's perfect. I am arguing that it's well worth the current $41 and change and that it provides features that you can't get with the current leading delay plugins.

All of the things that you describe would be awesome, but probably would not fit into their simple U/I model, and, consequently, would take longer to develop. I could think about other ways to improve this plugin as well, even given the U/I limitations, but, it is what it is.

I'm not sure about their future plans either. I'd like to see an update to anthology that includes their other plugins, but, I have most of them so I'm not sure that I'd get much from it. I'm also not expecting that they'll put everything in it. In any case, I still don't know of any delay that does what this one does so well. I've spent more than $41 for fewer features.