Le Masque: Delay Plugin Receives Major Update from XILS-Lab
All effects and dynamics have their place, but for creative processing there’s nothing as inspiring as a great delay.
The crafty French developer XILS-Lab has significantly increased the musicality and functionality of its specialty plugin with the launch of Le Masque: Delay 1.5. What distinguishes Le Masque: Delay is the grid aspect of its GUI, which allows users to specify in a highly accurate way which part or parts of the dry signal will be processed by the Delay unit and its components and modulators.
Le Masque Delay 1.5 brings more goodies to its innovative grid.
The result is a delay that’s a fountain of new ideas for working with loops, mixing tracks, and even composing when applied to live guitars, keyboards, or even drums. The new update adds a wealth of new workflow features – visual and sonic improvements – that should really ramp up the experimental possibilities of the effect.
Masque: Delay 1.5 is available now for Mac/PC, in VST, AU, and RTAS formats. There’s a special 25%-off intro price until February 20th – buy it now for $58, or $77 later on.
Here’s more info on the update, direct from XILS:
FREEZE/DUB
The all-new FREEZE/DUB button repeatedly reads the delay ‘loop’ until disengaged — perfect for creating dub-type delays, as well as generating all kinds of interesting loops and textures, while users can continue performing or improvising over the loop itself.
WET/DRY LOCK
The lockable WET/DRY button enables preset browsing while preserving whatever wet/dry ratio has been set — handy for
experimenting with the varied 120-plus presets now readily available in the latest Le Masque: Delay 1.5 factory library.
16 MASKS
Le Masque: Delay 1.5 increases the number of masks (or grid zones that are processed by the delay) from the original plug-in release’s eight to 16 — meaning more possibilities for flexible delay creation, especially when combined with the new MultiSelect and MultiEdit features of the masks themselves.
MULTI-MASKS
Several masks can now be simultaneously selected to move their locations or change their locators with a single mouse drag using a combination of different techniques — namely, dedicated ALL MASKS, ODD MASKS, and EVEN MASKS buttons, or a CTRL + CLICK keyboard combination to select continuous or discontinuous masks, with background colour and shape changes reflecting the (selected, unselected) status of each mask.
INCOMING AUDIO SIGNAL DISPLAY
The incoming audio signal is now displayed within the grid area of Le Masque: Delay 1.5, drastically improving workflow and both speed and ease of use since its instant visual feedback greatly helps positioning masks while playing a musical part. And it looks great, too!
IMPROVED MASK LOCATOR MANAGEMENT
When approaching the right locator of a mask it now gradually turns red so it can be safely moved without changing its length (as could occasionally prove problematic in the original version of Le Masque: Delay); to further avoid any confusion, the right locator is now colour coded green.
MASK LEVEL TOGGLE
Engaging the new level toggle switch for the mask’s LEVEL parameter acts as a threshold level, resulting in the delay signal only being audible if the incoming signal level is above the mask level — helpful for finding the best mask configurations while moving them on the grid.
ZOOM FUNCTION
The 4x zoom function makes accurate editing of mask positioning and length easier than ever — time to throw away those ‘rose-tinted glasses’!
Le Masque: Delay offers:
• True stereo path with independent Right and Left Delays
• Midi Sync and Stereo Link Delay Modes
• Sync grid zone with up to 8 custom Masks
• All Masks have independent length and level
• One Multimode Filter (With Drive, Self Oscillating, 0-delay Feedback Design)
• Two independent envelopes (Loopable ADSR and AR) with 3 trigger modes
• One Syncable Multiwaveform LFO with 3 reset options
• Snap to Grid function to quantize Mask Locators on musical values
• Swap Masked/Unmasked function (Real Time)
• 4 Clock Modes (DAW, In, Tap Tempo, Fixed)
• Modulation Matrix for real time control of parameters
• Real time tempo analysis function for Live playing
• All parameters are MIDI controllable
Please note: When you buy products through links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.