Delay

Name: Delay
Price: 50 USD
Author: Valhalla DSP

by Valhalla DSP · Delay · Multi-mode

vst3s Score 9.2/10 · rated #2 of 10 delays

Tape, bucket-brigade, digital, pitch-shifting, reverse and ghost modes in one delay, with built-in modulation, diffusion and filtering.

At $50 it is one of the best values in any plugin category.

Best for: Vocals, Guitars, Keys & Synths, Sound Design. Genres: all genres.

Keywords: tape, reverse, BBD, pitch-shifting, ambience, ducking, analog delay, beginner-friendly, classic, creative, digital delay, enhancement, huge, minimal controls, mixing, modern, phaser, simple, single knob, sound design, tempo-synced, vocals, wet.

What it does

ValhallaDelay is Valhalla DSP's digital delay: "echoes of the past, present and future." It models classic and modern delay and echo units, including tape, bucket-brigade (BBD) and digital, and adds its own ideas such as Ghost mode with frequency shifting and a diffusion section.

18 modes: Tape, HiFi, BBD, Digital, Ghost, Pitch, Reverse Pitch, BBD Duck, Clarity, DuckTape, LoFi, Quartz, Phaser DDL, RichPitch, Chrome Tape, Analog, PitchDuck and PitchMix.
Five styles: Single, Dual, Ratio, Ping Pong and Quad, with delay times from under 1 ms to 20 seconds and beat sync in straight, dotted and triplet values.
Diffusion: smears the repeats into a soft, blurred delay or "a massive reverb."
Character: Age adds noise and artifacts, Era switches between different character types, and some modes have one-knob ducking.
New in 3.0: the Chrome Tape and Analog modes.

The current version is 3.0.5 (May 2025).

Source: Valhalla DSP product page

When to use it

ValhallaDelay is the best-value delay among the rated ones: it matches EchoBoy on vintage tones for a quarter of the price and adds pitch, reverse and diffusion effects that EchoBoy doesn't have. FabFilter Timeless 3 has deeper modulation and mid/side, and EchoBoy has the groove controls. It goes much further than Valhalla's own FreqEcho, which is free but much simpler, and it sits with UltraTap and Replika XT among the creative multi-mode picks.

Best for: everyday tape and analog echoes, pitch-shifted and reverse delays, ambient washes, and blurred delay-into-reverb textures.
Genres: ambient, electronic, pop, indie, lo-fi, cinematic, post-rock and experimental.
Look elsewhere if: you need deep modulation routing or mid/side control (Timeless 3), or swing and multi-tap rhythms (EchoBoy).
Tip: turn up Diffusion on a long delay to get a reverb-like tail from the same plugin.

What producers say

Reviewers called it a do-everything delay at a remarkable price; the only real complaint is that modulation could go deeper.

Sound On Sound (Sam Inglis, 2019) called it "the complete delay plug-in" and "ridiculously good value for money", praising Ghost mode and a diffusion section that can make a convincing reverb or even a flanging sound.
MusicRadar (Si Truss, 2019) rated it a must-have, "potentially the only delay you need", with convincing tape emulation and great pitch and frequency-shifting effects.
Gripe: MusicRadar felt the internal modulation "could go a little deeper" and missed features like mid/side that some rivals have.

Where to buy

Valhalla DSP: $50

Tutorials and reviews

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