The Best Delay Plugins Of All Time: The Favorite Tools Of Pro Producers For Echos, Rythmns, And More

Using delay in music production is essential for creating space in your music. However, that’s not the only reason to use delay. Delay plugins can also add texture, rhythm, momentum, movement, and other dynamic effects to make your music come to life.

But not all delays are created equal. Analog emulation delays are excellent for adding texture and coloration as the input signal is driven into them. In contrast, digital delays offer precise timing and control over syncopation, tempo, and other parameters. The choice depends on how you want to use them in your track, as each type serves a specific purpose. It’s important to know a variety of delays in your plugin toolkit and know them well, giving you a range of options depending on the situation.

But that doesn’t mean all delay plugins deserve a spot in your arsenal or your DAW. With that in mind, I’ll share some of the best delay plugins I’ve used in my most popular songs and other community favorites from professional producers we’ve interviewed. Whenever possible, I’ll share tips, methods, and workflows that these producers use to maximize the value and creativity of these plugins so you can learn from them and achieve similar results in your music.

EchoBoy

Sound Toys’ Echoboy is an exceptional delay plugin that opens up many opportunities for music producers working with any genre. Its great emulation of vintage echo effects, such as the Space Echo, TelRay, DM2, Echoplex, and Memory Man truly sets it apart, presenting users with a rich array of controls to tweak and modify sounds. With its intuitive layout split into three sections, users have immediate access to essential parameters such as Echo Time, Feedback, and Mix knobs, making it effortless to alter sounds to their liking.

Echoboy excels in flexibility, providing options for inputting Echo Time in milliseconds or beat divisions and syncing to the session’s tempo manually or automatically. Furthermore, its Saturation knob and High Cut features allow fine-tuning of the effect’s tone, while the Prime Numbers switch ingeniously shifts echoes to reduce resonant feedback.

The ‘Echoboy’ plugin is multifaceted. It offers additional modes, including a Rhythmic mode, which transforms it into a multitap delay with up to 16 steps, capable of storing and recalling preset rhythm patterns. This versatility, combined with the ability to generate stereo effects from mono inputs and controls for stereo width, balance, and more, makes it a remarkable tool in a producer’s arsenal. It offers fine timing adjustments, enabling users to introduce degrees of shuffle or swing to the echoes and even shift echoes earlier or later relative to the input. 

This delay plugin can be heard all across my single ‘At Least We’re Safe’ and is most apparent on the lead synth, turning a dry and straightforward waveform played by my Korg MS20 into a soaring and rhythmic lead synth that carries the track.

Echoboy’s X-Factors Are:

• Control: With a wide range of features and modes, Echoboy gives producers exceptional control over their sound. This plugin is multifaceted, from the ability to tweak echo time and feedback to implementing different ways for varied effects.
• Exceptional Emulation and Sound Shaping: Echoboy stands out with its great emulation of classic echo effects and an expansive range of sound-shaping tools. Its ability to offer vintage sound profiles and tonal shaping options, like saturation, EQ decay, and pitch modulation, truly sets it apart from its peers.

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FabFilter Timeless 3

Finding a software plugin that pushes the boundaries as resoundingly as FabFilter’s Timeless 3 is rare. A bold evolution in delay technology, Timeless 3 has an intuitive interface and many features that allow for unique delay tail customization. The standout feature is its versatile modulation engine and enhanced filters, which turn this plugin into a sound designer’s wonderland.

Edapollo and Mild Minds recently mentioned in a “How It Was Made” interview that they used Timeless 3 in his latest track, “In Your Eyes,” released on Foreign Family Collective, Odessa’s label. If Odessa is backing these artists, it likely has something to do with the cool plugins they’re using. With Timeless 3 being one of them, that’s all the convincing I need to believe it’s one of the best plugins out there.

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Cluster Delay

Minimal Audio has been on a roll lately, releasing some of the most forward-thinking and practical plugins. Their multifunctionality sets their plugins apart; they often perform several tasks simultaneously, making the core feature a Swiss army knife of multi-effects. Cluster Delay exemplifies this in delay form by including numerous other spatial and modulation effects all baked into the plugin.

When you crank up the dry-wet amount, you can achieve multiple modulation points that transform a dry signal into one full of movement. I often use this delay when transitioning from a drop section to a breakdown, wanting layers to wash out in unique ways beyond the typical fade-to-gray effects most reverb delay plugins offer. It excels at creating heavily modulated delay effects, making it one of my favorite delay plugins this year.

Cluster Delay’s X-Factors Are:

• Exceptional Multi-effects Suite: Cluster Delay has a beautifully constructed multi-effects section, including wobble time modulation, diffusion blurring, chorus, phaser, flanger, and frequency shift. All these effects are instrumental in building rich soundscapes, each with a routing option—input, output, or feedback. The ducker with depth and time controls is especially useful for applying extreme effects without compromising your rhythms and mix.
• Visual Interface and Modulation Options: Cluster Delay stands apart with its visually appealing interface, which helps illustrate what you’re doing, even with complex settings. This feature provides an edge over its counterparts, like Replika XT. Instead of a generic LFO, it provides pre-constructed modulation patches, encouraging precise and creative sound design. The package also contains animated visualizations, making it clear and intuitive to use.

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Modley

Modley, advertised as a “delay playground with endless capabilities,” is a unique and multifaceted plugin that offers musicians and producers many creative options. This multi-effects plugin operates within and around a feedback delay loop, offering three rows of four cells representing a series of effect inserts. Its arrangement allows for distinct input signal processing before it enters the delay line after it exits the delay line and directly within the feedback loop. 

Modley’s menu of 16 effects modules, the same for all three Racks, can be utilized for each cell. Depending on the feedback amount, the effects build up with each repeat, yielding an array of sound possibilities from classic distorted dub delay to progressive and continuous pitch shifts.

Modley’s X-Factors Are:

• Advanced Loop Manipulation: Modley takes the traditional feedback circuit filtering concept to the next level. With its range of distortion, reverb, pitch-shifting, and modulation effects, Modley allows a radical transformation of any instrumental or electronic source, making it a potent tool for detailed, independent tailoring and processing of the three stages of the signal path, most notably the feedback loop.
• Delay Time Modulation and Freeze Feature: Modley offers LFO modulation of the delay time for automated pitch wobbling and a Freeze button that freezes and loops the delay buffer. These features, coupled with the ability to manipulate the Delay Time while Freeze is active, open doors to unpredictable stretching and shifting noises and enable the users to create complex and textured sounds.

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Crystallizer

What’s funny about Crystallizer is that I’ve been using it for years, but I rarely venture beyond its default preset. The default loadout preset is one of the coolest-sounding delay presets I’ve ever used. It’s heavy on the reverse delay but still manageable, clean, transparent, ambient, and detailed. Applying this preset to your track instantly adds a detailed, ethereal quality. I use it a lot for this reason. When you combine the default preset with other effects like reverb or another delay, you get reverse echoes that wash out beautifully, creating magic with just a few clicks.

We recently had the chance to sit down with Robbie East, a rising star on the Colorize label and a growing name in the melodic house scene. In a “How It Was Made” interview, he discussed creating a track for Lane 8’s label, where he extensively used Crystallizer to produce artifact-heavy reverse delays that add a lot of ear candy to the track. If it’s good enough for tracks picked up by Lane8 and similar artists, Robbie is doing something right and using the right tools—Crystallizer being one of them.

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Outer Space

Outer Space is a software plugin that pays homage to the iconic Roland RE-201 Space Echo, skillfully emulating its tape echo and spring reverb characteristics to provide a rich sound experience for users. The plugin takes the unique, vintage warmth of the original unit and blends it with a modern, user-friendly interface to create an experience that is both familiar and innovative. 

The tape echo feature has three modes —original, modern, and old—allowing users to customize the sound. At the same time, the spring reverb, with its short or long decay options, gives the mix a nice touch of ambiance. Outer Space’s intuitive mode selector further enhances user experience, offering a variety of echo and reverb settings, while the tape heads feature brings additional customization possibilities.

Outer Space’s X-Factors Are:

• Authentic Emulation: The plugin accurately emulates the vintage warmth of the classic Roland RE-201 Space Echo, bringing its beloved tape echo and spring reverb effects into the digital age. This impeccable emulation allows users to infuse their tracks with an authentic, nostalgic sound that is difficult to reproduce with other plugins.
• Versatility & Customization: Outer Space offers a high level of versatility and customization with its three different tape echo modes and spring reverb feature. Additionally, unique features like a mode selector, EQ section, echo volume, and noise knob allow users to tailor the effects to their needs, making it a perfect tool for producers and musicians across all genres.

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Delay ETERNITY

The Memory Brigade delay plugin by Arturia is a testament to the original Memory Man pedal’s richly vintage vibe, elevated with an impressive array of advanced features that make it a versatile tool for contemporary music producers. 

Its all-analog circuitry and a treasure trove of effects empower artists to create unique delay effects for any project. A panel of foundational controls such as Width, Chorus, and Feedback serves as the starting point for sound shaping, while advanced modules like EQ, Envelope Follower, and LFO help fine-tune the effects. The Memory Brigade’s three delay modes offer a wealth of panning results and different delay operations for a personalized sound experience, whether for guitar tracks, vocals, or keyboards.

Memory Brigade’s X-Factors Are:

• Vibrant Array of Controls: This plugin stands out with its array of foundational and advanced controls, enabling artists to shape their sound precisely. From delay times and echo levels to EQ and LFO modules, the Memory Brigade offers a comprehensive suite of tools for shaping and personalizing the delay effect, perfectly emulating the vintage Memory Man unit.
• Versatile Applications: The Memory Brigade excels in its versatility, functioning beautifully across various applications such as guitar, vocal, and keyboard tracks. Its three distinct delay modes, coupled with panning options and an assortment of controls, provide an exceptional level of personalization that enhances its utility in multiple music production scenarios.

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Zen Delay

Zen Delay Virtual, a software plugin developed by Erica Synths in collaboration with Ninja Tune, offers a fantastic solution for producing and mixing music across various genres. This plugin emulates the highly acclaimed hardware unit Zen Delay, praised for its performance-based effects and sonic capabilities. While not an exact copy, the software version captures the essence of the hardware, delivering high-quality valve overdrive, a versatile analog filter, and impressive delay options.

Zen Delay Virtual’s standout features include its intuitive interface, which features a large dial for delay time control, a well-calibrated feedback dial for infinite loops, and a dry/wet dial for blending the desired delay. The modeled valve overdrive adds warmth and character to the sound, and the multimode analog filter with low pass, high pass, and band pass modes allows for precise tonal shaping. The feedback routing can be adjusted to insert the filter directly into the delay feedback loop, offering enhanced control over the decay timbre.

Zen Delay Virtual’s X-Factors Are:

• Expanded Sound Design Potential: The plugin’s modulation and options page provides LFOs for modulating the delay time and filter cutoff, offering rhythmic patterns and additional lo-fi crunch. Bit-depth, noise, and sample rate controls enhance the sound design, creating shimmering choruses, synced effect sweeps, and experimental dub effects.
• Preset Systems: Zen Delay Virtual includes 56 artist-designed presets, offering a starting point for exploration. The ability to save and sort presets by name, category, and author streamlines the creative workflow. Additionally, the plugin’s versatility allows it to be used multiple times in a track, making it a flexible tool for adding depth and character to various elements.

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Dynamic Delay

The Dynamic Delay plugin by Initial Audio is a high-quality dynamic delay plugin that offers unique flexibility and sound enrichment, making it an outstanding tool for any music producer. A stereo unit provides independent control of both left and right channels, including their individual timing and feedback amounts. The plugin comes with 19 note rates per channel, feedback controls, and a built-in sidechaining function that allows users to create complex and dynamic mixes. Moreover, the plugin’s inbuilt sidechain control makes it easy to prevent overlapping of wet signal with the incoming dry signal, offering a unique advantage for mixing purposes.

Dynamic Delay’s X-Factors Are:

• Inbuilt Sidechain Control: Dynamic Delay shines with its inbuilt sidechain control. It ducks the loudness of the generated delays when the input audio drops below the threshold, ensuring clarity and saving users precious time. This feature also prevents the overlap of the wet signal with the incoming dry signal, providing a mixing advantage that few other plugins offer.
• High-Quality Built-in Effects: Dynamic Delay goes beyond its name with high-quality built-in effects that apply only to the overall delayed sound. These effects, which include low-cut, high-cut, reverb, detune, and distortion, allow users to customize their sound to a significant extent. The “Wet Solo” button is particularly noteworthy, which lets users isolate the wet delay from the incoming dry signal for fine-tuning.

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Droplet v2

Sinevibes is quickly becoming one of my favorite plugin production companies because they make plugins with a specific, creative purpose. They stand out by offering unique functionalities compared to other plugins on the market. Droplet V2 continues this trend, providing a spatial, ambient, ping-pong delay that makes sounds echo throughout the stereo field. I frequently use it on supporting percussions or ear candy percussions to add a brief, lively texture without cluttering the mix or detracting from the main elements.

It’s especially effective during breakdown sections, where it enhances incidental effects by throwing the signal in complex yet musical ways. This manageability and creativity are why I keep coming back to Droplet V2.

Droplet V2’s X-Factors Are:

• Innovative Delay Modelling Engine: Droplet V2’s standout feature is its delay modeling engine, specifically designed to create a distinctive raindrop delay effect. The engine uses 32 stereo delay lines (up from 24 in the previous version), all connected in series via a proportional feedback system. The randomization of each delay time and stereo pan allows for an authentically natural sound similar to raindrops.
• Improved User Interface and VST3 Support: Sinevibes has significantly improved Droplet V2’s user interface, making it more intuitive and user-friendly. It now features a built-in preset manager, an interface that scales up to 200% for better visual accessibility, and compatibility with VST3 plugin format. The result is a seamless user experience that marries innovation with user-friendliness.

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