iZotope’s has announced that their brand new DDLY Dynamic Delay effect for Windows and Mac OS is available for free download until March 10th 2016 ($49 standard price).

After releasing an updated version of the legendary Vinyl freeware lo-fi effect, iZotope has launched another excellent freebie, although this one is free for a limited time only. DDLY Dynamic Delay will be priced at $49 after March 10th this year, but until then everyone can download and register this plugin completely free of charge. If you add the plugin to your iZotope user account prior to March 10th, it’s basically yours to keep (meaning that you can activate it on your computer at any point in the future).

So, how does DDLY work? It is a dynamic dual delay effect with adjustable threshold. The plugin analyzes the audio signal on the input and sends it to two separate delay lines based on the signal’s volume. All audio below the user defined threshold value goes to the bottom delay module and everything above it goes to the top delay. This way, it’s possible to create all sorts of complex delay effects that work especially well on audio material with a high dynamic range. iZotope currently has several DDLY audio demos on their website (linked in the download section below) which show how the plugin performs when applied to guitars, synths and drums.

Both delay lines (top and bottom) can work in two different modes: analog and grain. Apart from the difference in sound, the two modes offer slightly different parameters. In addition to the common time, feedback and mix amount parameters, analog delay features the Trash knob which controls the amount of signal degradation over time, whereas the grain delay module features pitch and grain size parameters. The latter two make DDLY capable of achieving some very interesting harmonizer-style effects which sound particularly interesting on vocals and guitars, but they can also do all sorts of crazy stuff on drums and other percussive instruments.

Both delay modules feature HP and LP filters, along with the intensity parameter which determines how much the signal is split between the two delay modules. DDLY can sync to the host application’s tempo, or work in free tempo mode in which the range goes from the insanely short setting of 1ms all the way to 3.5s. The user interface looks very nice (although the slightly washed out color scheme might make it a bit harder to use on lower quality monitors) and the built-in spectrum analyzer makes it much easier to adjust the threshold setting to the optimal value.

The registration and activation procedure is quite simply. Add the product to your shopping cart and proceed to free checkout (a free iZotope user account is required). You will receive the download link and your personal serial number via email. Download and install the plugin on your computer and enter the serial number to activate DDLY when you run it for the first time. Many thanks to our reader Jason and our mate Ronnie (@Rekkerd) for letting us know about this release!

Download

DDLY Dynamic Delay is available for free download via iZotope (59.6 MB download size, EXE installer, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/VST3/AU/AAX/RTAS plugin formats for Windows & Mac OS).