Tritik TK Delay

• Plugin: TK Delay


• Developer: Tritik


• Formats: VST, AU, AAX (Win/Mac, 32/64-bit)


• Price: $29 euro


• Website: Tritik | TkDelay

Foreword



There is no shortage of good delays out there. To be very honest most of our DAW’s stock delays are very good, and even are in fact quite spectacular like Logic’s Delay Designer. Among the crowd some names emerge, such as Soundtoys Echoboy, the Eventide offerings and some welcome newcomers such as Valhalla and Exponential Audio (even though the later is brought by the industry veteran Michael Carnes). It is very hard (if possible) not to have a good delay these days, but when a well-featured delay arrives with a Reaper-esque licensing policy we have to take a look at it, and that’s what the one-man company Tritik is bringing to the table with it’s debut in the plugin universe.



Enter the TK Delay



TK Delay is a very well-rounded plugin. Besides what you expect from a decent stereo delay like separate L-R timings, feedback and so on, TK offers a flexible LP/HP/BPM filter with two routing options and LFO-based modulation, a one-knob distortion and a dual-mono frequency shifter, a reverse knob for injecting reversed-sounding feedback and linked/unlinked parameters on anything that asks for it. TK also offers a knob that allows for ping-pong and direct delays and anything in between those. Last but not least, TK has a fully-resizable interface...with two (light/dark grey) colors! That's not all: one features that stands is the lock parameter window, which allows users to lock certain parameters through their preset browsing. Very useful when you're already set for certain things such as timings and filters but will resort to presets for further inspiration.



When it comes to sound quality, Tritik managed to bring a clean and very neutral delay, or at least until the filter, overdrive and frequency shifter are brought into play. Then it get very interesting and cover a good chunk ground with a sonic range that can get very dirty and nasty if required. We're not talking Echoboy levels of flexibility and character possibilities, but TK can do quite a lot of tricks, especially if some mangling is required and the combo of filter, overdrive and shifter can deliver a lot in that regard.



TK Delay is by no means this is a "sound designer" delay, and even though it can be useful on such tasks it might lack the depth of some other offerings. Overall this is a remarkable plugin with very interest possibilities that will be very useful for musicians, producers and mixers looking for a straightforward delay that sounds great without requiring a bunch of tweaking.



In terms of performance this is a plugin hits the CPU very gently and was very stable throughout my tests. The provided documentation is good and support is quite responsive as far as one-man companies goes.



The verdict



TK Delay gets a resounding recommendation from this reviewer. When you have a demo that is uncrippled and fully-functional to the point of saving your settings you have to at least give it a try! There’s absolutely no excuse not to try this plugin and actually very few not to have it in folder, even if you’re on a non-existent budget.



Detailed scores

• Sound Quality - 4/5 because 5/5 is Echoboy and its huge sonic palette. TK Delay sounds very good even though it can do a bit less than some other offerings.
  


• Ease of use - 5/5 which could actually be 6/5! Very clean and resizable interface with zero clutter and intuitive controls.
  


• Features - 4/5 because again, Echoboy just trumps nearly everything in this department. I'd also add the Eventide H3000 plugin to this 5/5 category.
  


• Bang for buck - 5/5 which again, could easily be more. You can get it for free but you can hand Charles (the developer) 29 euros if the nag screen annoys you enough or if you just feel like rewarding his great efforts!

Tritik TK Delay