Fabfilter announce TIMELESS 3 !!!!!!!

[FapFilter]

indeed. I was surprised that despite having multi taps, how similar it is still to standard dual tap delays as most stuff is globally and not per tap anyway, except for tap volume and panning. No individual HP/LP filtering, no individual pitch or other effects, etc.
Of course you can kind of get in the ballpark of that by modulating the global effects, but still the results are different.
But of course sometimes the workaround which is inferior from the technical side can actually yield “better“ results.

I'm not sure about it yet. It has some nice things like the diffuse effect and of course the EQ/filter is way more powerful now, but on the other hand it often feels unnessessarily cumbersome to use compared to it's predecessor for basic delay stuff because you now often need more clicks + the keyboard for what went smoothly with just the mouse before.

So for general digital clean delay i might still prefer Timeless 2 (except for the way improved EQ in this one)
The included effects can get some nice results, but in the end are imo merely just ok-ish and i think you can get “better“ results most of the time with dedicated plugs on the sends, plus you can get way more precise multitap workflow this way too if you use multiple instances / sends.
On the expense of course though that it's not inside a single plugin and thus not as fast and immediate to use anymore.
Can't speak for Relayer, but Late Replies is way more powerful for multitap (even the ancient PSP 608 is aswell). Both are lacking modulation for most things though.
And should Ohmboyz Infinite surface in a final form, it will most likely be the king of highly usable multi tap delays just by looking on it's GUI and features

[bmanic]

Yeah the taps in Timeless are just basic taps with no other features than volume, time and pan (all of which can be modulated).

You can however get some pretty interesting esoteric stuff going with these alone when combined with the XLFO or envelope/EVF, especially considering how different the two main time stretching modes sound (tape vs stretch).

I also highly suggest exploring the "range" of the Lo-Fi knob. It isn't just a samplerate and bitcrushing thing. It does a slew of things in different ranges of the knob. From about 0% to 10% it does very subtle thickening. After that it gives a bit of added pitch wobble.. and past about 30% you start getting some clear samplerate and bit reduction while still being rather "clean" (there is some kind of a built in AD/DA aliasing filter modeled) and past 50% you get into very obvious lo-fi territory and of course past 80% you go into "broken" territory.

Once you've explored the ranges, these different sweet spots get interesting as you can sort of "tap" into the ranges at specific moments using an XLFO as a sort of mod sequencer.


Timeless 3 also reminded me once again, as Saturn 2 did, how awesome that single knob Dynamics processor is. Please please for the love of god everybody, SPAM FabFilter and ask for that single knob dynamics thing as a free little fun plugin (or a cheap mini plugin!)!! I love that thing and have asked them for years to release it as a single little plugin! Currently I use Saturn to get hold of the dynamics knob but I'd rather have it as a single clean plugin without any added saturation (it is impossible to run Saturn 100% clean).

[Sampleconstruct]

Processing an alto flute phrase from one of my chamber music works with a custom preset in Timeless 3 which uses long diffused delay (reverb), occasional pitch shifting/drive/LowFi and filtering, tweaking things on the fly.

https://youtu.be/gFxQuTyhyZI

[Harry_HH]

Yeah the taps in Timeless are just basic taps with no other features than volume, time and pan (all of which can be modulated).

You can however get some pretty interesting esoteric stuff going with these alone when combined with the XLFO or envelope/EVF, especially considering how different the two main time stretching modes sound (tape vs stretch).

Yeah - Upgraded the Timeless to 3, it’s OK but not fantastic. Effects are disappointing.
I need my Relayer, Replica Xt and a couple of other dealys besides this one.

[E_Anderson]

It's actually very easy to adjust the "taps cycle" for level/timing/panning, possibly easier than Relayer.



On the other hand, Timeless seems to support up to 16 taps, whereas Relayer goes up to 32 and seems better suited/organized to manage higher tap counts, like above 10, at least in my opinion...

I'ts also not so easy (or maybe even possible, I haven't tried) to set an effect amount to the individual taps, as it's easily done in Relayer, which also comes with some effects not available in Timeless.

I already have/love Relayer and I downloaded the Timeless demo just out of boredom and pretty much zero expectations, but it only took me a few minutes with an initialized preset to get very impressed by how nice it is to tweak for experimental stuff.
The way you can set filter in the feedback loop (in Pro-Q style) in all kinds of shapes is a literal joy to use.
At this point I'm sure I'll buy it but I'm really not in a hurry.

I feel like neither replaces the other one. They have different functions and fundamentally different workflows which are naturally going to inspire and provide significantly different results.
And to me it's pretty much all that matters (aside from meeting certain sound quality standards).

Thanks for this! Also, apparently I missed an entire page of discussion here. I agree they’re not a replacement for each other; I forgot about the amount-of-effects-per-tap aspect of Relayer and the capacity to set up something as complex as ERs in Relayer is probably better (the diffusion in Timeless sounds great though!). I’ll just demo them both, I guess. I just can’t afford both so I’ll have to see what sits better with me with some trials. I’m not so much worried about any of these being able to do basic delay functions easily - for that I have my stock delay.

Thankfully testing Late Replies alongside the others will be easy since it’s a permanent demo. It probably does the “dedicated effects plugins in the feedback loop” workflow better than any other plugins, besides running Bitwig as a plugin, or something. That is, assuming I’ll even find it necessary.

[Fleer]

Processing an alto flute phrase from one of my chamber music works with a custom preset in Timeless 3 which uses long diffused delay (reverb), occasional pitch shifting/drive/LowFi and filtering, tweaking things on the fly.

https://youtu.be/gFxQuTyhyZI

Simply magical.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Timeless 3 also reminded me once again, as Saturn 2 did, how awesome that single knob Dynamics processor is. Please please for the love of god everybody, SPAM FabFilter and ask for that single knob dynamics thing as a free little fun plugin (or a cheap mini plugin!)!! I love that thing and have asked them for years to release it as a single little plugin! Currently I use Saturn to get hold of the dynamics knob but I'd rather have it as a single clean plugin without any added saturation (it is impossible to run Saturn 100% clean).

I'm waiting for the inevitable bmanic preset where you hook up an envelope follower or two to a few unexpected knobs and use it to create 3D depth to the sound.

[PieBerger]

that single knob Dynamics processor

This is the one weird trick doctors don't want you to know about My favourite and most common use-case, is to place an instance of Saturn after a delay or reverb (in a send-return configuration, project or rack/container in Live/Bitwig), crank the Dynamics to +0.5, remove some of the low end with the onboard EQ and and a touch of drive using the Clean Tube or Tape algo.

It brings up the tails so that they are full and present, even at low feedback and short decay settings. It's perfect for busy music, where you want loud repeats or a nice big reverb oneshot to fill up the space but not ring out for too long and interfere with later parts of the arrangement.

I also like to use it along with the Heavy Saturation algo, whenever I need to smash the living daylights out of something.

[E_Anderson]

Processing an alto flute phrase from one of my chamber music works with a custom preset in Timeless 3 which uses long diffused delay (reverb), occasional pitch shifting/drive/LowFi and filtering, tweaking things on the fly.

https://youtu.be/gFxQuTyhyZI

Oh my golly goshenheimer schmidt that is actually awesome. Vintage scary cinematic atmosphere adventure music, all in one package of on-the-fly tweaking. It’s not as simple as just buying the plugin but these are some greeeaat sales pitches

[Sampleconstruct]

T3 can be an instant minimal music maker...

Processing a simple mallet sequence (Pianoteq 7) with a custom multi-tap preset in Timeless 3 which uses the time stretch delay mode, delay speed automation via step sequence, filter modulation via envelope follower (transient mode), tweaking things on the fly - things gets slightly wild towards the end.

https://youtu.be/CyvQkx601FA

[leviy19]

One of the best delays. Now with my Pulsar Echorec it will be ultimate.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Anyone also own Blue Cat Late Replies? Does Timeless 3 do stuff that Late Replies cannot?

Thank for mentioning our plug-in. Since Late Replies can host third party plug-ins anywhere in the chain, there is nothing it cannot do... Even loading this one into its feedback loop .

[Ploki]

Anyone also own Blue Cat Late Replies? Does Timeless 3 do stuff that Late Replies cannot?

Thank for mentioning our plug-in. Since Late Replies can host third party plug-ins anywhere in the chain, there is nothing it cannot do... Even loading this one into its feedback loop .

i don't see such deep modulation options in Late Replies tho (which is great on its own right, don't get me wrong)

[Blue Cat Audio]

i don't see such deep modulation options in Late Replies tho (which is great on its own right, don't get me wrong)

Indeed. But it includes a couple of modulation effects that let you usually achieve similar results (you can modulate time, amplitude, filters etc. using plug-ins). It's a different (plug-in based) approach.

[Double Tap]

Dan's done a delay dudorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjpKyLGqe6A&t=1s