December 2024 – ManMade Music

Software Review

Echoes of a time gone by

Softube already has an excellent tape-echo on its program, but the developers behind the Swedish software are capable of so much more. That’s why we weren’t particularly surprised when late in November they made a sneak release of yet another delay (Echoes), this time only to the subscribers of their newsletter. Of course we jumped at the offer, and ever since then the echoes have just been bouncing around our little music studio. Now it’s available to anyone interested.

Echoes also offers an excellent algorithm-based reverb.

Softube Echoes

Now, of course, we have to step up and try to tell the world about this formidable software. Echoes offers no less than six different delay variants with quite different basic characteristics: Filter, Reverb, BBD, Tape, Pan and Lo-fi.

Filter is a normal delay with a slightly filtered feedback part. A perfect echo effect for vocal overdubs.
Reverb works great for synths and guitar overdubs, and this algorithmic reverb has been created using the different echo taps.
BBD, or Bucket Brigade Device, as it is pronounced, is an analog delay technology that appeared in various delay pedals for us guitarists back in the 70s. Here, that effect has been recreated in digital form, complete with various aliasing effects.
Tape is based on the echo devices we’ve heard on countless records – especially on vocals – and here we’ve been given the opportunity to adjust a number of previously unwanted side effects such as distortion (drive), dirt and wobble.
Pan widens the stereo image even on mono sources, and can also create a certain movement with static sound sources, such as keyboards with sustain (-pedals).
Last, but certainly not least, we have Lo-fi. It is excellent for recreating the effect of generally “crappy” echo effects from, for example, low-budget devices from the past. Here they use bit-crushing in combination with modeled synth 4-pole filtering.

Each delay variant has its own set of adjustable variables. Here we see the BBD delay.

A formidable user interface

Softube has managed to create a user interface that is unlike anything we’ve seen before, but despite this, you have no problem understanding how everything works. Good job there, gentlemen (and ladies) developers!

Here you will find controls for the mix between dry and affected signal, for the delay time – in milliseconds or bars (if you sync to your DAW) – and for feedback. And there we also have a feedback limiter that should protect us against rampant feedback.

There is also a ducking function that allows the delay effect to be kept in check, so that it does not drown out vocals or other solo elements, but only blooms in the silence between solo phrases. The only thing I miss is the ability to lock the wet/dry mix when browsing between different presets.

In the output section, you can widen the stereo image, focus low-frequency tones into a mono image, or filter your echo effect to your liking.

Each individual delay variant has also been endowed with a variety of different setting options for that particular type of delay effect. For example, for Lo-fi we have settings for sampling frequency, bit depth, envelope follower and filter cutoff. For the reverb effect, modulation, diffusion, modulation balance and tone are offered, and for the BBD delay we find settings for waveform, modulation speed and amount, plus filter cutoff. Not bad!

You can also click in the window wherever you want and decide that you want another echo right there. Then you can move it by dragging it to the exact position in the stereo image that you like. Yum!

Extended Features…

Softube Echoes also supports what the developers call “Extended Features”. If you click on three different symbols at the top of the Echoes window, a good set of meters for the input signal and side-chain ditto will appear on the left. On the right we find the corresponding ones for the output side and a gain-matching function. Below we find meters for head-room, a high-pass filter and a phase inverter. Thank you very much!

These are functions that you can pull out when you need them, and otherwise just put them away to save space on the screen. Really clever indeed! This feature is now available in a variety of Softube plugins, and it certainly feels useful.

Here’s how to bring up “Extended Features”:

*Open Extended Features by clicking on any of the three icons in the menu bar.*

Sound images

But what good would all these features be if Echoes didn’t also sound really good? Well, it really does! Here you can play around with the most entertaining, astonishing, or just simply divinely beautiful delay effects imaginable! Before I opened the plug-in, I was a little worried about whether I would be able to appreciate the reverb in Echoes – it rarely sounds very good if you just put in reverb as an after-thought because you think you might need one. But all my doubts were put to shame. The reverb effect in Echoes is a really good and good-sounding algorithm reverb. Clearly useful in a variety of different sound situations.

And the rest of the delay effects sound just as good as you’ve gotten used to when it comes to plug-in effects from Softube. A top rating is gladly awarded there! Here you can actually find most of what you could possibly need in the way of delay. And the adjustment options are simply brilliant. It’s really as easy as looking for a preset that you think might work, and then tweaking it so it fits exactly where you want it.

Softube Echoes offers a variety of useful presets to start with for your music creation.

Summary

With Echoes, Softube has presented an extremely powerful and good-sounding delay effect. It offers six different delay variants: Filter, Reverb, BBD, Tape, Pan and Lo-FI and a number of extremely useful preset settings to start from. In addition, each individual delay effect has a good set of fine-tuning options. And on top of all this, you have both a ducking function, an output section where you can change the stereo image and, as the icing on the cake, the extra functions under Extended Features.

The sterling interface makes Echoes very easy to work with, it’s easy to set individual delayers/taps so that they sync with your music, and also place them exactly where you want them in the stereo image. You just get that genuinely happy feeling! Thank you Softube for an absolutely wonderful delay plugin!

Link: Watch a walkthrough.

System Requirements

Monterey 12, Ventura 13, Sonoma 14
Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows 11
Softube account
iLok account
Computer with AU, VST, VST3 and/or AAX compatible DAW software
Internet access (to download installations and manage licenses)

PRICE Normally: 1,570 SEK; currently 1,039 SEK

INFO www.softube.com/echoes

PLUS

Sounds absolutely great
Excellent interface
Six different delay variants
Lots of great presets/settings
Lots of great features

MINUS

I would have liked to be able to lock the wet/dry mix

Software Review

In the iZotope Catalyst Series, the developers now present a third program, the delay app Cascadia. We check this up a little extra…

After the success of Aurora and Plasma, iZotope continues on the beaten path and presents Cascadia, an intelligent tape-delay app with what the developers call “adaptive unmasking”, a function that automatically ensures that you experience the sound as both clear and focused.

Cascadia is a very versatile delay. For us users, this is a most welcome addition to our other delay apps. We should perhaps also mention that several of the competitors have developed apps with a similar concept; Swedish Softube just launched their Echoes and from German Hofa Plugins we have now seen Color Delay. We hope to return to both of these, but today it is iZotope Cascadia that is placed on the test bench.

Ducking and Adaptive Unmasking

There is an inherent problem with most reverb and delay apps. The problem is that reverb tails and delays have a tendency to mush the sound, if it is placed on top of fairly dense tracks. You want the effect to come into its own between different vocal or instrumental phrases; not lie as a constant blanket over the entire track. In the past, sound engineers could solve this by sending the signal via a side-chain where they used a gate or a compressor to keep the effect under control when the sound was at its most intense. This is called “ducking”, and the result was that the reverb or delay was kept somewhat at bay during the important phrases and then allowed to bloom, when the vocal phrases temporarily fell silent.

Other delays and reverbs have had similar ducking features, but iZotope has refined the whole process and takes this a few steps further. Not only does it adjust the level of the effect, but it also dynamically filters the effect signal, giving you a very useful effect that is always there without taking attention away from the original signal.

iZotope Cascadia is using iLok for its authorization.

Masking

What is called “masking” occurs when two different signal sources are too close to each other in volume and frequency content. Typical phenomena of this kind occur when a pianist is to accompany a solo singer. If neither the instrumentalist nor the sound engineer are experienced enough, it can be a really boring experience – I have heard this countless times on live TV. The pianist is hammering away in the same frequency range as the singer, and perhaps also trying to drown out the vocals. An experienced producer can control the whole thing by partly arranging the piano accompaniment so that it is not exactly in the spectrum where we find the vocals. Of course, you can also demand that the pianist adopt a slightly more restrained playing style, which could leave room for the important vocals.

This problem also tends to rear its ugly head when adding a delay or reverb signal to an original signal. iZotope has previously introduced several plug-ins – Neutron, Nektar and Neoverb – that offer tools to deal with the masking problem. Neutron 5, for example, offers both Dynamic EQ and an Unmask function, but when it comes to the problem of the delay mucking up the input signal, Cascadia may be the perfect solution.

iZotope Cascadia

In Cascadia you don’t have to fiddle with complicated side chains and other things; all settings are accessible directly from within the app. Here you can easily create nicely bouncing delays, tight slapback echoes or other useful effects, without taking the focus off the vocal or instrument that should be in the driver’s seat for a single moment. Muddy mixes are a thing of the past.

The four main advantages of Cascadia are as follows:

Adaptive Unmasking Dynamically EQs the delay signal to keep the dry signal present.
Flexible Delays You can choose to sync the delay to your DAW, set a custom delay, use ping-pong effects, play the effect backwards, or give it a bit of a vintage pitch shift.
Intuitive Controls A very efficient interface with easy-to-understand controls.
Lots of useful Presets More than 50 professionally designed presets that include both spatial and more textural sounds.

A wonderfully simple and intuitive interface. The ping pong setting is symbolized by a table tennis racket and a ball. Clever enough!

The User Interface

If we start by looking at the interface itself, most of it fits in one and the same window, which of course can be adjusted in size completely according to your wishes. At the top of the window there are buttons for the Reverse function, for “sunning” the Delay, for Bypass, and for selecting a preset.

Along the left edge you will find settings for syncing to DAW programs and in that case which time signature you want to use. There is also a button for selecting pingpong delay (it is illustrated with a table tennis racket plus ball – just such a thing), a large knob for the delay amount, two sliders for Feedback and stereo width, plus two knobs for modulation (depth and rate).

On the right edge of the image we find a slider for the amount of unmasking, plus settings for Attack Release and Sensitivity. There are also two buttons for Bypass and for listening only to the signal that is “masked” away. The rest of the window shows a combined frequency and level image of the signal, and at the bottom you can set the cutoff frequencies of the Hi- and Lopass filters. Everything feels incredibly intuitive. Just keep in mind that Cascadia is primarily designed to be used as an insert effect. If you want it in a tap (send/return), you should press the Solo Delay button and send it a generous signal.

What does it sound like?

Well, it sounds incredibly good. Neat and tidy, without being disturbed by any effects that crowd in. They are just there and lift and amplify the basic sound in a very exquisite way. Nothing in the delay effects crowd in or wants to be in the foreground. And it is incredibly easy to create a balance between the original signal and all possible effects.

As a user, we also have a rich selection of different effects and masterfully programmed presets to choose from.

I suggest that you click on the link below where the developers show what Cascadia sounds like and how it works.

Summary

iZotope’s Catalyst series contains three powerful effect plugins today. Plasma (saturation), Aurora (reverb) and Cascadia, with different delay effects. Unlike Ozone, Neutron and Nectar, the Catalyst series effects have a significantly simpler and more clear interface. However, this does not mean that they are in any way “simple” as effects. Quite the opposite! They are all three incredibly powerful and capable effects. We hope to be able to come back with tests on the other two in the Catalyst series, today it’s about Cascadia.

With Cascadia you can create delay effects that never get in the way of your most important audio tracks. Thanks to iZotope’s Spectral Unmasking technology, they have the ability to always stay just the right amount in the background. An incredibly intelligent delay effect, in other words.

Whether it’s nice, discreet slapback echoes, large, swelling delay cascades, or just a little bit of reverb, it always sounds clean and nice. No long effect tails are there to interfere with your, or others’, solo efforts. And you also have a lot of really useful preset settings to start from.

Your mixes will sound so much better with Cascadia in place among the effects plug-ins, and the soloists you’ve recorded – whether they’re vocal or instrumental – will be forever grateful that they can now shine in all their glory. Please send the developers at iZotope a thank you note when you receive rave reviews for your mixes in the future! I certainly will.

Links

Here we can read a little more about what “frequency masking” means:

https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/what-is-frequency-masking.html

And here the developers show how to work with Cascadia:

https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/cascadia-delay-plugin.html

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

OS Versions

● Mac: macOS Ventura 13.6.x, macOS Sonoma 14.4.x, macOS Sequoia 15.0; Compatible with both Intel and Apple silicon M-series Macs (native & Rosetta)

● Win: Windows 10 (22H2), Windows 11 (23H2)

Plugin Formats

● AAX, AU, VST3. All plugins 64-bit only.

Note: VST2 format is no longer supported.

Plugin Hosts

● Logic Pro 10.8–11, Pro Tools 2024, Ableton Live 12, Cubase 13, Nuendo 13, Studio One 6, REAPER 7, FL Studio 21, Reason 12.5, Maschine 2, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Audition CC 2024, Premiere Pro CC 2024

PRICE

Cascadia plugin for Mac and PC: 55 euros

Catalyst Series Holiday Bundle (From Nov 26–Jan 05)

Bundle with the other Catalyst Series plugins: 139 euros (includes Cascadia, Aurora, Plasma)