looking for good hardware delay unit or plugin

[versuviusx]

so i'm trying to find a great delay for tracking vocals.
and i'm not sure if i should go with a plugin or go with a hardware unit such as the tc D-two.
any suggestions would be great. i have seen a lot of yamaha d5000s go on ebay but they are very old and could die at any moment. looking for something new and amazing!

[Nick Sevilla]

Waves' H Delay is good.

Also a Lexicon unit such as the Lexi MX300 or MX400 is good too.

Cheers

[A.David.MacKinnon]

My go-to delays for vocals are an Effectron, and a Tascam 122MKII 3 head cassette deck. Neither are new but both are pretty great at what they do. The Effectron is more versatile and will do longer delays but the cassette does the slap back thing way better. If I'm mixing in the box my go to is the Massey tape delay plug in.

[wren]

The GS-201 is pretty fantastic on vocals, and it's hard to beat the price.

[sir hills]

As far as plugins go, I've found the "Bionic Delay" quite useful & easy to use...scroll down the page:

http://www.interruptor.ch/vst_overview.shtml

Here's others you might try:

http://www.sadglad.com/delay.html

[{}]

+1 on the Effectron. I've also had good luck with some of the older Ibanez rackmount delays.

Other than that, I bet there's a delay plug in your DAW that will work fine.

[Recycled_Brains]

whoops! double post. *see post below*

[calaverasgrandes]

eefectrons are great. I found out the hard way they dont road well. I've sent 3 to the hereafter so far. Too cheap used to fix those suckers. And who can fix one?

[KennyLusk]

I like my Lexicon box but a free vst plug I really have fun with and respect is Bionic Delay http://www.interruptor.ch/vst_overview.shtml

[route-electrique]

For the plugin; Sound Toys Echo Boy, best hands down.

[Recycled_Brains]

Plug in? Massey TD5, for sure. Sounds really good, and does a convincing tape echo. Very convincing.

For tracking through hardware, I use a Deluxe Memory Man, or Fulltone Tube Tape Echo. I run the vocal mic into a splitter... dry vocal on one channel, 100% wet echo on another. Separate faders in PT, so I can blend them however I want when mixing. Especially nice since clients like a bit less in their cans when tracking, than what I end up putting in the mix.

Both are totally sick for this purpose, and clients have been very happy. Especially fun when you take control of the feedback and delay times while tracking.

[calaverasgrandes]

for plug in delay I like the positively ancient Waldorf d-pole. It is supposed to be a filter plug in but also has a modultated delay and ring mod. Add a touch of filter and ring mod to a modulated delay and you are almost in echoplex-ville.
Honestly though most of the time I'd rather "build a delay" by copying and pasting the words or notes I want repeating. Then automating the clip/track volume.

[ott0bot]

Love the Effectron's. I recently picked up a Deltalab Super Timeline, and I love in on vocals. It's similar to an effectron, but has different delay time settings and controls. It's really awesome for that Springsteen Dark Sun(or whateva the heck that song is called) sorta slap back delay, and absolutely kills when feeding a verb with a delay or great after the delay unit as well.

They are affordable too, but as calaveras stated, not super durable. Fine if used in a studio though.

[Sean Sullivan]

How about a Roland SDE-3000? I'm not sure how much they sell for used these days, but I always thought they and the Lexicon PCM-42 were really great on vocals. Or a cheap 1/4" tape machine for slap back.

[Brett Siler]

Another option is the Boss-DD20 which can have +4dbu outputs. It does the murky analog delay sound very well.