Newfangled Audio’s Recirculate, which is sold through Eventide’s online store, is a feedback delay/echo that can process the feedback signals in various ways to make the repeats change character, with the change becoming more pronounced each time the signal passes around the feedback loop. While old‑school echo plug‑ins might do something similar with saturation and EQ in the feedback loop to emulate tape echo, and maybe with some pitch variations to emulate worn mechanics, Recirculate is designed to go well beyond that and offers something genuinely different. That said, it can still do a pretty mean tape echo emulation if that’s what you want. The delay times can be set independently for the left and right channels and there’s also a crossfeed option.
Supporting all the common plug‑in formats, including AAX, Recirculate is authorised using an iLok account, though you don’t need a physical iLok dongle. It has a resizable window and a choice of light or dark colour schemes amongst other user settings. There are global level adjustments for the input and output as well as an internal auto‑gain function that compensates for any level changes resulting from the Drive control.
Stem Display
Occupying the top half of the GUI is the Stem Display, which shows the delay taps and allows you to set the delay time and feedback. Delay times can be sync’ed to tempo or steps, and you can set separate delay times for the first echo and for the repeats, again independently for the two channels. Above the Stems display are four settings sections. Grid is where you choose to work in Notes, Steps or milliseconds. Tempo selects host sync or free adjustment, while Snap allows the Stem display to snap to note divisions, dotted note divisions, triplet divisions or to turn snap off to facilitate manual adjustment, with delay times from 10ms to one second available. Behaviour selects from Standard, Pitch Warp, Granular or Ping Pong.
In Standard mode you’ll find all the familiar clean delay treatments. The Soundstage section, at the bottom right of the GUI, allows you to add further processing in the form of Spread, Chorus and Reverb, all of which may be used simultaneously if you wish, and each has an adjustable depth and parameter setting. In Pitch Warp Mode, changing the delay time causes pitch changes, as with a tape echo, while the Soundstage section changes to offer Spread, Modulation and Reverb. Switch to Granular and the Soundstage section offers Spread, Spray and Reverb. Spread offsets the left and right delay times slightly, to produce a wider‑sounding effect. Spray and its associated Size parameter set the grain size and randomisation. Finally there’s a Ping Pong mode. This bounces the repeats from side to side, has a Chorus effect in the centre Soundstage slot, and replaces the Xfeed parameter (below Spread) with Pingpan, which sets how the first repeat is placed in the stereo field.
In the main display, stems can be dragged to set the time of the first delay, the repeat delays and, by dragging up and down on one of the repeat stems, the feedback amount. Alternatively these can be adjusted in the Delay Beats section. The delay settings can be independently adjusted left and right, or linked if you prefer. In the mixer section below, the left and right feedback can be adjusted as one or separately, and further faders set the wet and dry levels. Any effects used can also be added to the dry signal. Below the mixer is a dynamics section offering compression, ducking and transient shaping, the last of these attenuating the decay portion of the sound so that the transient dominates.
There’s a choice of filter types too: resonant, notch, scoop, combo and slope. These can be selected independently for the high‑ and low‑pass sections, and a small display shows the shape of the filter response. They work inside the delay’s feedback loop so that subsequent repeats receive more filtering. A section called Character allows you to dial in some distortion and noise, again with a short menu of different types from which to choose.
...you can go from conventional delay, via tape and analogue emulations and well into the world of sound design.
Musically Useful?
Recirculate is an incredibly versatile delay plug-in, and while its granular facilities might not rival those of a dedicated granular delay, they make it possible to create delay treatments that range from gritty lo‑fi to endearingly silky. It lacks the traditional sort of multi‑tap facility that would allow you to emulate a tape echo with three or four heads, but setting different left and right delay times will get you close to that anyway. Having such a comprehensive filter section along with modulation, reverb, various flavours of saturation and a choice of ‘dirt’ means that you can go from conventional delay, via tape and analogue emulations and well into the world of sound design. As long as you don’t go overboard with the settings, most of what you can dial in seems to be musically useful too, so in all this is a very flexible delay that could slot into just about any musical genre. It’s good value, sounds good and has a very user‑friendly interface. What’s not to like?