Bitsonic has introduced Violent Delay, a freeware delay effect in VST plugin format. The plugin was developed with SynthMaker, hence it is currently available only for 32-bit VST plugin hosts which run on Windows.
Violent Delay is a ping pong delay effect with a pair of built-in modulation tools which are there to make the processed audio signal sound a bit more interesting than what you’d normally get from a delay plugin. The chorus and phaser modules (both can be turned on or off individually) can do a pretty good job of coloring the feedback signal, however they are not located in the feedback loop itself so you can’t really go too crazy with these two.
Same goes for the pair of resonant filters which are positioned right after the chorus and phaser modules in the signal path, which is basically the same as simply placing a 3rd party filter effect after Violent Delay in your mixer channel. On the other hand, it can be convenient to have several effects rolled into one in certain occasions, so it’s cool that a pair of filters is added to Violent Delay’s feature list. I would just prefer to see them added to the feedback loop.
My last bit of criticism regarding Violent Delay is actually the biggest one. The feedback will stop as soon as you move the time knob and that is a major deal breaker for me. One of my favorite things to do with delay effects is building up huge feedback loops and then automating the delay time parameter throughout the track. This can be used to create some really awesome background textures and weird build-up sequences.
I’m not trying to be the Negative Nancy of the freeware world here, though. Violent Delay definitely has some good things going on – if I didn’t already have over a dozen delay effects in my VST plugins folder (most of them are listed in our freeware delay plugin round-up), I’d probably use it from time to time or at least experiment a bit more with it. The ping pong mode works rather well (although it’s labeled mid/side on the GUI for some reason) and the CPU hit is acceptable. It’s just that it could have been a much more interesting plugin if some of the features were implemented a bit differently.
Earlier this year, Bitsonic has released a transient shaper plugin called Violent Transient. They are currently working on a mid/side processor, according to the info available on their official Facebook page.
Download
Violent Delay is available for free download via Bitsonic (6.0 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit VST plugin format for Windows, made with SynthMaker).
