Waves H-Delay Hybrid Delay

This is supposedly Waves all purpose delay unit. Whether you wan analog, digital, or just plain weird sound from you delays this is the unit they have to go to. Traditionally Waves plugins are in the hifi realm of things and I think they realized that most users don't want their delays to sound hifi all the time. With this delay you can theoretically dial in whatever kind you want.

Waves manuals are always pretty useful and this one is no exception, but unless you've never used a delay or an analog delay, you probably don't need it. There's no real surprises on this vst as far as I'm concerned.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Waves plugins are generally stable and not ram hogs. There are a few exceptions but H delay runs smoothly all the time for me. I've been using it for a little over a year now and it seems like I just keep bringing it up more and more. Once you learn how to get the goods it becomes addictive.

OVERALL OPINION

I really like to use delays on my instruments. But historically a lot of the ones I've tried end up sounding too digital. That's understandable because it's hard to emulate warm analog delay sounds with a vst. I've been through my fair share of wannabes. In general I find most of them to lack transparency and warmth. They make then tracks sound worse than they were before. H delay sounds great though. Not only can I get a warm analog delay out of it, I can tweak the heck out of it too. The integration between digital and analog style delays is really unique. You can get super lofi repeats or pristine warm delays, or anywhere in between. The tap feature for me is a must have. I wouldn't do without it. I just love how tweakable it is since I'm very serious about my delays. I'm not really into any of the wacky sounds but they are there if you want. There's some good ambient stuff to be had if you are patient. Overall I would recommend this to anyone who wants a good delay. No matter what you need you can get it from this plugin. So I feel like I can give it top marks.

The Waves H Delay is another part of the Hybrid series. This combines analog and digital delays, along with modulation and filters to create some of the best delays ever heard. The famous PCM42 was especially famous for this kind of sound, and this plugin is modeled after that famous delay. The plugin itself is super simple to use. You have three main sections -- the delay section, modulation section and filter section. By adjusting the knobs in each of these sections, you can create everything from a simple eighth note dotted delay to some crazy modulated delay that would make The Edge proud. The layout is very easy to get accustomed to, so no issues there. I also did not experience any compatibility issues on my Mac Pro. I can't comment on the manual as I never bothered reading it, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what everything does on this.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The biggest issue with this plugin is that it's a 32 bit plugin. While this doesn't really matter on my machine with Logic Pro thanks to its built-in 32 bit bridge, it might matter to those who are forced to work in a 64 bit only environment with no such bridge. Waves plugins are always rock solid. They're well known for being extremely stable and never taking up too much memory inside your DAW. This is especially necessary when you start using multiple instances of plugins. I run a Mac Pro with OS 10.6.x, and I never had any issues when it came to the software acting up. I've had the Mercury bundle for probably half a year or so, and I've always received excellent support from the guys over at Waves.

OVERALL OPINION

This is my most utilized Waves plugin ever. I use it for everything on guitars, am able to create some extra space on the snare with it, can thicken up the bass and even use it for vocals. There's just so much that you can do with it that it's crazy. My main usage, however, is using it for guitar leads. It has saved me tons of frustration when dealing with mixes where the guitars were way too dry.

The Waves Ltd. Hybrid HDelay wasn't hard at all to install and it only took a few minutes to have it up and running.  I didn't have any compatibility issues or other problems as the process was virtually pain free.  The interface of the plug-in isn't too hard to follow even though there are a lot of features and parameters going on here.  The plug-in has parameters for delay level, feedback, delay time, output, dry/wet, analog, and sections for modulation and filters that each have a few of their own parameters.  Everything is clearly labeled and easy to understand so even those with not much experience with delay plug-ins shouldn't have too much of a problem figuring it out.  I don't have the manual for Waves Ltd. Hybrid HDelay so I can't say how helpful it would be or not.


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Waves Ltd. Hybrid HDelay has always run pretty smoothly for me.  I have used the plug-in on a Pro Tools 8 HD system, so I didn't have much trouble running it at all but this really depends on what type of system you are running it on.  I have only had one of these up at a time as I always run my delay and reverbs on an aux channel as this helps to save processing power, but I imagine that if you wanted to run a few at once and you have a good system you should be able to do it.


OVERALL OPINION

I only recently started using the Waves Ltd. Hybrid HDelay as it is a pretty new plug-in in Waves' line of hybrid plug-ins and I'm definitely a fan of it.  It is easy to use but offers a wide array of parameters so the possibilities of different tones are pretty endless and they all sound pretty great.  While it doesn't sound exactly analog as it isn't, it does have a certain quality that most plug-ins don't have, which is pretty cool.  The price of the Waves Ltd. Hybrid HDelay isn't the cheapest, but if you buy it in a bundle you'll be able to save some dough.  All in all, the Waves Ltd. Hybrid HDelay is a really good sounding plug-in that I would definitely recommend.