Minimal Audio's Cluster Delay - Tap Sequence Designer

[morphex]

Minimal Audio has been knocking it out of the park with Rift 2.0 & Morph EQ. I was wondering what kind of effect they would be releasing next, and it looks like a rather tasty multi-tap delay. I've just installed it and am checking it out now and I already love the sound, look and workflow. It sounds excellent!!

There's some obvious overlap with Logic's Delay Designer and Fabfilter's Timeless 3, but I'm picking it up because it's at a great price for only $49 and I can tell that it will be really great for creative uses. Six integrated effects for complex delays and beautiful diffusion soundscapes are all here. Check it out at https://www.minimal.audio/products/cluster-delay

[Dombaeb]

But how is it? Can you, please, share some impressions? How does it sound? Good, beautifully clean, or digitally average?

Looking for a description, I don't see anything particularly interesting. It looks like a good-looking all-around delay with built-in effects. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think we all already have 2-3 delays like that...

[sl1200mk2]

Being the absolute delay junkie that I am, I'll most certainly pick this up. The price is great. Definitely some nice features and absolutely has overlap with other plugins, but I think the real standout is the interface and workflow. I haven't tried it yet, but looking at the YouTube overview video, it looks very quick and easy to use.

I love the sound of Timeless 3, but the complexity of the GUI (at least for me) is one of the downsides. I feel like I have to relearn it every time I come back to it if I've taken a break. Feature wise, this looks to get you much of the same places, but with a much more simplified and straight to the point interface. That's a big win. Hopefully it sounds as good as it looks.

[worldfever]

im tempted to buy this since i love rift 2 and it looks cool. but i have 10 different delay vsts

[Zoopy]

I think it's a really great workflow and sound, doesn't seem that special at first but the combination of features lead to lots of usable results imo. Kinda like their other plugins

plz add your modulation system to this ))

[BONES]

I bought it yesterday and it's definitely a keeper. I went through all the presets last night and it's got a good variety, the sound quality is great and CPU use is, unsurprisingly, minimal. (See what I did there!?!) It is definitely going to be my go-to from here on.

[Funky40]

I think it's a really great workflow, and sound doesn't seem that special at first, but the combination of features lead to lots of usable results imo.

same impression here.

At least for realtime jamms it adds for me another jam-something to the table.

[Trancit]

I picked it up immediately as I really enjoy all Minimal Audio stuff... I think they are doing really a great job thinking about the workflow and finetune the plugin´s behaviour...
...and Cluster Delay is no exception here...
It´s not the most feature rich delay on the market but it has a different approach which makes it for me much easier to come up with very interesting echo patterns than ever before!

For me it´s biggest highlight is how incredible easy it is to offset delay repetitions either off or on the grid with such an ease that it feels actually like a "delay instrument" than just a fx plugin...
The visual representation is done well too and gives you a very good feedback what the settings are doing in realtime!

Creative results I would have never thought of before are dialed in in milliseconds and it sounds really great no matter if you want the sound more clean or saturated with the "Analog" switch above the feedback dial... (use it on something low freq heavy material and turn on the switch... you´ll hear what I mean in a very pleasant way!)

Having different routing options (Input, Feedback, Output) for the insert fx are great and the sound quality of the insert fx (Wobble, Diffusion, Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Pitch Shift) is top notch too...
I immediately fell in love with the chorus routed into the feedback path... sounds really lovely on a wide range of source material...

I would highly recommend everybody being interested to watch this little walkthrough video as most functions it has got are not directly obvious from the parameter names:

.
Nonetheless as always the sun doesn´t shine always so here are some cons, respectively improvements I personally would like to see (no showstoppers for me though):

- Auto clear buffer on Start/Stop of host playback...
While I understand the idea behind that with long feedback settings delays don´t bleed into the playback when starting the sequencer or endless ringing out when stopping playback, this feels very unnatural for me and makes sometimes experimenting a bit hard as there is no way to i.e. shortly triggering the delay by using playback start/stop to then have a listen how the feedback sounds in isolation
I wished, they would have made switch for it and not just a general behaviour...
There is atm still a little bug left which doesn´t clear the buffer entirely but leaves a little high passed crackling delay sound which rings out according to the feedback settings...
Support has confirmed that and the next update will include a fix...

- There are just High and Lowpass filters in the feedback path... you cannot just high pass a source within the plugin for just reducing muddyness as during the feedback loops this filter effect gets stronger and stronger...
I wished they would have at least a seperate highpassfilter for the normal input...

- Whilst the insert fx are great they are limited to have just one at a given time...
I wished they would have i.e. 2 or 3 slots where you could combine them... they are very light on resources so CPU wouldn´t be a problem...

After all this purchase made me very happy nonetheless...
Sounds great, is very versatile, I find it absolutely different to most of other delay plugins in terms of ease to create very unique rhythms and delay patterns and with this price it´s a steal imho...

Even if you´ve got already a bunch of delays... try it... perhaps you´ll feel the same like me and Minimal Audio is a very nice company to deal with...
Great tools, great support, very light on the CPU with no additional bloat, loads up lightning fast...
A big from me!

PS: I am not connected to Minimal Audio in any way!
I paid the normal price for all Plugins I own of them (Cluster Delay, Morph EQ, Rift) so this is my unbiased opinion!

[zeph]

Thanks so much Trancit for taking the time to reflect your opinon. Much appreciated.

[Minimal Audio]

Thanks for the kind words and feedback Trancit!

Some other folks have mentioned that the buffer clearing on playback start/stop is annoying. Our reasoning behind that was that the delay can get super long if you're using a lot of taps (potentially many bars!), so it would need to be cleared to hear what you're doing — unless you're very patient — but I can definitely see how it feels unnatural. I think adding an option for it would make sense.

We're looking into the "click on clear" issue. I saw your support request — thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Other feedback noted as well

[MillerSam]

I made a little sound demo

[Trancit]

Thanks for the kind words and feedback Trancit!

Some other folks have mentioned that the buffer clearing on playback start/stop is annoying. Our reasoning behind that was that the delay can get super long if you're using a lot of taps (potentially many bars!), so it would need to be cleared to hear what you're doing — unless you're very patient — but I can definitely see how it feels unnatural. I think adding an option for it would make sense.

We're looking into the "click on clear" issue. I saw your support request — thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Other feedback noted as well

My pleasure as I find your plugins really outstanding...good job

About changing the current behaviour of the auto clear on Start/Stop, I can totally understand the idea behind the current way of working... it would just be nice to have a button to toggle this off in certain situations...
It would be great if you could manage something like this for the future...

Keep up the good work and I am curious what´s next...

[bluesawsq]

How about allowing manual control of time position, volume and pan of each tap separately?
Also would be great to have delay time control for the feedback, and option to feedback from every tap.

[c_voltage]

+1 about disable binding to transport (optionally). Would be good.

[martiu]

the sound quality is great and CPU use is, unsurprisingly, minimal.

no pun intended i assume