The Massey TD5 tape delay have been known for quite some time now, and it’s existence was in fact first mentioned here at ProTooler. Massey have since then had a checklist on his website so everyone could follow the progress of the plug-in, and let me tell you that I’m not the only one who’s been waiting for it to come out. Finally it’s released, and of course we’re quick with the review.

My good ol’ alarm clock…

So going through the plug-in, what do we found? Of course input and output knobs (duh!), complete with meters for both signals and a big display showing the current tempo. The display shows the tempo in BPM by default, but by clicking on the slider icon below it can be set in milliseconds by dragging the slider. It goes from 5 ms up to 2 seconds.

There is a tap button, if you want to tap the tempo, a session button if you want to sync the delay to tempo, as well as buttons for 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1 which corresponds to note values. You can also choose to have dotted or triplets applied to these values. If you don’t want to use any of these methods you can just type the tempo in the display. No matter which way you change the values, if you do it in real-time with the audio playing back you’ll experience the typical slowed-down or speeded-up tape effect.

The display looks and behaves like my olds radio alarm clock (complete with blinking numbers when they’re highlighted) and strangely enough looks really good. In fact the entire plug-in looks pretty good, and it of course has that typical Massey-look. The display also has a key icon showing when it’s synced to tempo, and two icons for showing whether it’s displaying in BPM or in ms.

I found some strange behavior with the plug-in. It might not be accidental but it didn’t make much sense to me. When the slider icon is selected you can’t type directly in the display, and when it displays in BPM you can type in the display but not use the slider. I don’t get why you can’t do both regardless of what the display is showing at the moment. Oh well, no biggie.

Action

The mode switch lets you choose between vintage and modern, which should make perfect sense to you. It seems to me that the vintage setting applies some cutting in the higher frequencies compared to the modern setting. It also appears to add some hiss. I especially like the vintage sound, a very round beautiful delay.

If you have been using the Massey Tape-head, then you should recognize the tone switch. This time it has three positions, normal, dark and bright. It works as you’d expect, and together with the mode switch of course makes the delay a whole lot more flexible than it would be without them. It also has a blend knob, that is, a mix knob. All plug-ins should have one. It also has a feedback knob like delays should have.

So what about the sound? I of course had to compare it to the Digidesign Reel Tape Delay. I have used the Reel Tape Delay quite a lot since it was released, especially on vocals for a nice rockabilly-type of effect, because of that I know what to expect from it for that. So I switch it out in one of my sessions and slam on the TD5 instead. Wow… Gritty. What else to expect from Massey? Gritty and dark, kind of like the Tape-head but as a delay. It’s impossible to set the two to the same values since they don’t contain the same parameters, but TD5 is much grittier and darker than the Reel Tape Delay, almost more lo-fi. That really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, though, since the Reel Tape Delay is rather bright sounding. Actually I think I like it better on vocals for the current album I’m working on (which is raw and gritty), so these two will have an all-out brawl for the coming weeks.

Guitars then? I try it on a heavily distorted guitar track (Ohmicide baby!) and turn the blender all the way up to really hear what’s going on. Sounds wicked! Really, really dark and raw, much more apparent than on the vocals. For second I’m actually thinking about using only the delayed signal. It has a sound reminiscent to the Tape-head, but it sounds different, especially with the dark setting, very fat and cool sound. I also try it on clean guitars, and again I prefer the sound of the TD5 to the competition (which have expanded to a couple of other delays as well). Amazing.

So if you haven’t gotten it yet. The TD5 is raw, gritty and dark. It’s also fat and wicked. It certainly has a sound of it’s own, which I really dig. It does lack a lot of features many other delays have though. Both FabFilter Timeless and Reel Tape Delay include a whole lot more, but if you’re going for just a simple delay with great sound you don’t have to think twice. Furthermore, don’t expect your other delays being able to come up with the same sound as the TD5, well, you shouldn’t expect the TD5 to come up with the same sounds as your other delays either, this is a one of a kind.

Conclusion

The TD5 lacks many features that other delay has, but in it’s defense it includes some of the grittiest, coolest sounds you’ll ever hear from a delay, and a price tag that is way below most of the serious competition. It has that “Massey sound” that I like very much, and if you do to, then you can’t afford to miss out on this. I’m a delay-junkie, and this is perhaps my favorite sounding delay at the moment, with that said, the TD5 has some heavy work in front of it in my house. Digidesign should be happy that Massey develops for their software exclusively because his plug-ins alone are heavy arguments for mixing in Pro Tools, and the TD5 is no exception.

Massey plug-ins