Intelligent Devices Marshall Time Modulator

The Intelligent Devices Marshall Time Modulator is a software version of the extremely rare and highly sought after Marshall Time Modulator, which is a unique effect that offers synthetic doubling, flanging, and other similar effects. The original Time Modulator was used on countless classic recordings, but you're definitely not going to find too many of them still and working. That's where this plug-in comes in, as it's actually licensed by Marshall and is the only software version of the Time Modulator that I'm aware of. I didn't install this plug-in as I don't own it and have only used it in the past at one of the studios that I used to work at. The plug-in gives you a lot of the same control that you'd get with the original, as the interface in general is great as you can easily route your signal anyway you'd like to give you all sorts of different time based modulating effects. I don't find using it to be extremely difficult, but there's a whole lot that can be done with it and it will definitely take a little bit of time to learn all the ins and outs of it. A manual would be a good idea if you've just bought this plug-in, but I never had an opportunity to look at one.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The studio that I used to work at had the Intelligent Devices Marshall Time Modulator running in their Pro Tools HD based system. The studio is no longer there, but when it was it had an Apple G5 computer, Pro Tools HD, Apogee converts, and a Neve 8108 console. I don't remember the exact specs on the computer, but it was definitely a powerful one. Since the system was HD, this plug-in didn't tax it much and we didn't encounter any performance issues with it. Having said this, in an LE system I can see it slowing your system down a bit if you were running a bunch of instances of it at once, but it's hard to say for sure since I've only used in on an HD system...

OVERALL OPINION

Since the chances are that you won't be getting your hands on a hardware Marshall Time Modulator any time soon, the Intelligent Devices Marshall Time Modulator is a great plug-in to be aware of. Even if you don't know about the Marshall Time Modulator, if you're looking to get some super thick doubling effects and beyond, this plug-in will do the trick. Of course this will be especially cool for those who have used the original Time Modulator, which probably won't be many people however. The price of this plug-in is very reasonable as plug-ins go, and even more reasonable when you consider how many of these plug-ins you'd have to buy to get the original Marshall Time Modulator. While probably not a dead on accurate version of the Time Modulator, this is as close as most of us are going to get...