Fab Filter introduced a new totally revised version of the already available Timeless a few months ago. We are talking about the Timeless 3, defined by the same manufacturer as “a versatile tape delay with a vintage sound, which will fully satisfy your daily delay needs”. Never was the definition more reductive!
In fact we are, yes, in front of an excellent one tape echo, but perhaps this is the least characteristic part of this software, which instead contains within it the possibility of infinite customization, through filters and modulations, easily passing from being used in slapback mode to bring a voice a little more “in the face”, to creating really pleasant shimmer effects for the guitar.
INTERFACE and USE
The interface of the Timeless 3 has been completely redesigned, in the upper part we find in the first half of the screen the delay tap, while on the right side we find the feedback filter. The depiction of the tap delay is equipped with animation that allows us to visualize the effective progress of the tap, so much so that by moving the bar back and forth within the various divisions, we change the offset of the delay, while vertically we're going to act on the feedback. We also have a second tap display mode, which is the classic one of many other plugins. For each tap it is possible to adjust feedback, panning, levels, but for more immediate management there are factory patterns that are already very useful in themselves. As far as the filter part of the feedback is totally manageable, we are well 6 equalization points (!) and is equipped with spectrum analyzer, moreover this section guarantees the navigation in the manual in order to become more familiar with the program, which obviously goes far beyond the simple imitation of those that were the old belt machines.
In bottom of the screen we find the various controls for the time of delay, feedback, dry\wet, mix and to follow the various effects of modulation e smart filters that you can add or delete as you wish from the screen as well.
MAIN CONTROLS
The three main controls, namely Delay, Feedback e Wet are clearly visible on the screen and like many other Fab Filter plugins have this concentric circle that allows you to have, therefore, a double function. The inside adjusts the Delay Offset, for the delay control, the feedback percentage for the feedback control and the level of the Wet signal as regards the last parameter, while the external controls manage respectively the panning of the delay, the panning as regards the feedback and the panning for wet control.
As you change these parameters, the tap lines at the top of the interface change position and length to reflect the effect of the changes. Personally I found this much more intuitive than following the percentages on the various controls.
Around the Delay knob, we find four icons that will manage the Delay Freeze, ping-pong, time and the last button that goes to manage the mode ReadMode, that is, it allows you to choose, as the tempo changes, a change of intonation in tape style, or choose the classic “digital” mode, where the pitch remains constant. Likewise, the Feedback and Wet controls are flanked by additional parameters, cross mix and phase rotation of the L / R channel for the former and amplitude and stereo mix for the latter.
MODULATION SECTION
As far as the modulation section is concerned, a lifetime will probably not be enough to exploit it in all its characteristics, in fact you can set up to 50 (50!!!) different types of modulation starting from LFO, sliders and XY controls, envelope, envelope generator and MIDI. These can be manually wired to their destination(s) and their effect range set. They can also modulate each other or, in the case of the slider and XY controls, act as overall manual controls for various effects, such as the amount of ducking the wet signal receives in relation to the input, fully customizable wow and flutter effect adjustments ( and removable so we forget we're using a tape delay simulation!)
Finally, there is an influence on the feedback signal path two distortions, Drive e Lo-Fi, wash and pitch effect. The Dynamics effect can either compress or “close” the input signal through a preset gate and, although only a single knob, it works well without the need to alter the dry signal.
PROJECTED IMPACT
In short, we could go on for hours talking about this new Timeless 3. The graphical interface, despite the thousands of functions available, is not chaotic at all and the green color on a black base allows you not to get tired at all. It is clear that we are faced with a plug-in on which we can bang our heads for days to find the most appropriate sound for us, we can go from the faithful reproduction of a tape delay, to that of a very normal digital delay, up to recreating the most disparate effects, but in any case this thing should not mislead less expert users, in fact Fab Filter provides a long series of really well-made and recallable Presets for every need, usable both on the fly and as starting point to obtain the desired result. In short, it can easily become your only delay plugin without going crazy choosing the right one.
