MAGIC DELAY Review

I forget how I came across GS-DSP, I remember their UI being striking, somewhat childish, but in a very cool way, it’s nice to see oranges, pinks, and purples done in this way on software effects. GS-DSP has worked with Tonstrum in the past to create [SPCTRL_EQ(attach link)], a really cool spectral filter. So I had yet another reason to be intrigued by Magic Delay, the first effect from GS-DSP. Magic Delay is a spectral delay that allows you to draw, morph, and warp a custom spectral delay curve.

The X axis of this curve represents frequency, and the Y axis is delay time. this allows you to assign different delay times to various frequency ranges, and you can even create curves that subtle shift delay time per frequency bin. This allows you to create some mesmerizing effects unlike any other delay out there. Ramps create bizarre frequency sweeps as each bin delays slightly after the previous. Steps create banded delays, where different echos have completely unique frequency responses. You have to play with it and hear it for yourself to truly appreciate what is going on.

There are two main areas for manipulating the curve after you have drawn it. There is a four corner grid that lets you morph smoothly between 4 shapes, and a set of controls for inverting, shifting, and skewing the curve. These controls, along with the feedback, mix, and tone controls can all be modulated from up to 8 modulation sources.

Modulation includes your typical LFOs, randomizers, macros, and envelope followers. But Magic Delay gets quite creative with things as well, you can follow the pitch of the incoming signal, various spectral qualities, and strangest of all you can use the brightness of a webcam as a modulation source.

This variety of creative ideas is found in GS-DSP’s other spectral effects as well and just goes to show how many unique ideas are still left to be explored in the software realm of sound design. Magic delay has three different spectral algorithms to pick from, each giving a slightly different tone, optimized for different input sources. Specialized spectral effects like this can be incredibly powerful sound design tools, Magic delay is just endlessly fun to explore and play around with. It sometimes feels like you’re playing with audio as if it were jello.

You can find MAGIC DELAY on GS-DSP’s website: https://gs-dsp.com/