Let’s shed some light on what makes MagicDelay so magic and different from other delay effects. You should follow this Quickstart Guide with the plugin open and fed with some sample input so you can try it yourself.
On iOS the first time you created an instance of MagicDelay you will be presented with a choice of maximum delay length. On devices with relatively low memory a delay length will be recommended. Because all delay effects need a significant amount of memory it's often best to have a single instance of MagicDelay on a send effect channel. If you want to have multiple instances then you may need to choose shorter maximum delay lengths depending on the memory available on your device and how many other plugins you have going at the same time.
Now open the preset QuickGuide / 01 Basic 8th.
The curve (or in this case the horizontal line) in the Curve Editor shows the delay time as a function of frequency. Since it is a horizontal line all frequencies share the same delay time. Give it a listen and play a bit with it by moving the line and trying different amounts of feedback and dry/wet. In this example we are using a grid so we snap to delay times that are synced to your DAW.
If you need help with the Curve Editor you should check out our Quickstart Guide - The Curve Editor .
So far so good, it sounds like a regular delay with feedback. Maybe you noticed one thing though: Because the feedback type is set to relative, changing the delay time doesn’t change the time it takes for the feedback to die off. On the contrary if you set the feedback type to relative it works like a conventional feedback control where longer delay times would result in a longer tail.
It’s easier to understand by ear, so open the preset QuickGuide / 02 FeedbackType where we modulated the delay time so you can focus on the feedback switch and listen to the result.
If you want to know more about modulation you should also check out our Quickstart Guide - The Modulation System .
Now that we understand how feedback works, let’s see what happens if we start to change the curve defining the delay times.
Load the preset QuickGuide / 03 Two Bands and you should see that we are now using two horizontal lines. The left horizontal line in the curve defines the delay time for frequencies up to 1 kHz and the right line defines the delay time for frequencies from 1 kHz up to 20 kHz. Remember, the x-axis represents frequency and the y-axis represents delay time. Play around with different delay times by dragging the lines up and down. You can also drag the vertical line in the centre of the curve horizontally in order to change the crossover frequency between the two bands. Insert more bands by adding more steps.
You can insert many many steps/bands, but that’s not everything MagicDelay can do. So far we’ve been using stepped curves, so there are always regions where many frequencies share the same delay time. Load the preset QuickGuide / 04 Steps vs Curves and play around with the XY Pad to morph between steps and curves. Notice that in this preset the grid is turned off and the editor is not in step mode, so we are able to freely assign any delay time to any frequency. The output depends a bit on the sample you are processing, percussive samples can turn into “Laser Sweeps” when used with sloped lines. That’s because they usually distribute energy over a wide frequency range which then gets delayed individually per frequency. The situation can be very different if you are using a piano sample where it can sound almost like a reverb.
Enjoy exploring and creating new sounds with the near endless possibilities MagicDelay has to offer!