BionicDelay

Oh my God, what's wrong with me? I haven't reviewed my #1 favourite delay! Right then, here we go:

I first stumbled upon Bionic Delay when I was frantically searching for a solid tape delay to get a Pink Floyd/Animals-style effect for a song. The interface is tremendously bright, and although I like the big sliders for the feedback and effect level, the controls on the bottom are a serious setback. They're simply too small and it's very hard to dial in just a little bit of modulation or flutter, but with trial and error you can get more subtle effects (I guess the developer wasn't shooting for that!)

Now I understand the main purpose behind Bionic Delay is to get that dub sound, and that it does extraordinarily well. But I've found this to be a superior day-to-day delay, with a thick sound that manages to "stick" to your material better than most VST delays, most of which I find too soft or downright nutty to use. There's something about Bionic Deay; it just works like some cherished vintage outboard gear, and I find myself reaching for Bionic time and time again, over high-end payware delays quite often!

It is very simple to use, and it isn't really necessary to consult a manual for this one. It is very limited in the times it can do, though, restricted to tempo-synced notes and percentages in between. That's generally fine by me - I usually use tempo-synced delays anyway, but it would be nice to have more control over the times. I find this puppy has a sweet spot between 30% and 60% feedback, where it sounds best and doesn't overload. Then, if you want the dub feedback, it does this very well after 60%, and really has a nice degradation of the delay line. WARNING: it gets out of hand quick, and some solid limiting is required if you want an infinite repeat without squealing at -0db.

The presets included are excellent, very useful, give a good idea of its capabilities and come in "insert" and "send" flavours.

Another helpful element is the include low and high pass filters. As you may know, as secret to getting a delay to sit well in a mix is cutting some frequencies so it doesn't bunch up in the mix, and Bionic Delay starts up with a (unknown) percentage of EQ knocked off the bottom and top, and I find this setting is usually just right already, but you have full control here and you don't need to insert an EQ after this puppy.

The CPU could be a bit better. This is an old Synth Edit plugin, and it shows. A few of these in your project, and the CPU meter will be significantly raised, and I find Cubase gets a little choppy when I'm running many of them. But it's not bad enough to worry about, it's worth it.

Because of its great sound, and despite any shortcomings, this delay is literally on every song on my album and will be used into the future, unless I find something very similar, with better modulation, controls and lighter CPU. Until then, I urge everyone to check out Bionic Delay. Truly a classic VST effect.Read Review