tesselode

I wanted to like this synth because it looks absolutely fantastic, but the sticking point for me was the modulation section. It didn't feel particularly intuitive and I couldn't get a satisfactory filter sweep sound.

Looks fantastic, as you'd expect from a tesselode plugin. Has everything you'd expect from a standard delay VST (e.g. tempo sync, modulation, panning). However, the drive section has too many controls for how subtle it is (don't see why it couldn't just be Drive/Output//Mix). The LFO also gets far too ridiculous far too fast - there's very little usable range for nice modulated delays.

tesselode plugins always look fantastic. No ugly gradients or whatever, which is welcome for free plugins. There's a LOT of control in this VST, and I think producers who use a lot of pitch and volume modulation will find creative ways to use it. I tend to stick with simpler modulation VSTs though.

Excellent, well-designed, intuitive plugin capable of all kinds of detunes, warbles, and flutters, Especially great are the long, slowly evolving pitch bends that can get complex when you start combining waveforms. My top choice in the 2018 KVR developer challenge, outstanding - thank you!.

This plug-in is awesome. I have tried dozens and dozens of delays, both free and paid, and after just a few minutes of using this, I can tell this is going to get a lot of use.

Pros.

*FREE.

*The stereo offset is awesome. Just to be clear, in case anyone is confused by what stereo means, this dial offsets the left and right channels, so you hear the delay slightly earlier in one channel compared to the other. In very small amounts it very subtly widens the stereo image. Very cool. In larger amounts it creates a much more chaotic feel. Especially when combined with the ping-pong option.

*the ducking option is superb. The only other delay that I know of that does this is the also excellent (and free) GVST GDuckDly. It ducks down the wet signal underneath the dry signal, making it easier to control your peak levels. Excellent feature, I still don't understand why this isn't a standard feature on all delays.

*Separate dials for wet and dry signal. I really dislike delays that control the wet to dry ratio with a single dial. Boo.

*Drift. So awesome, especially for melodic and harmonic material (not quite as useful for percussive material or anything with a sharp attack - unless you're going for a really wonky off-kilter feel, of course).

Cons / room for improvement.

*Please please please in a future version allow the user to key in an exact millisecond value for a delay time. The standard options (eighth note, dotted quarter note, quarter triplet etc) are all there, but I'm a big fan of doing weird stuff like 5/16, 7/8 etc.

*Why is it limited to a delay time of two seconds? I'm sure there is some technical reason for this, but I would really like to see that expanded greatly.

*I would really like to see a stereo width control in a future version. The stereo offset is great, but would just be so much better if you could have the option of tightening the left / right width. I can do this with another plug-in downstream, of course, but it would be nice to see it incorporated into this plug-in.

*The CPU usage is a little bit high. Not terrible, but could be better.

*The LFO is great, but it would be nice to have the option to set it to host tempo values, such as eighth note, quarter note etc. It would also be really cool if you could apply the LFO to other parameters, such as feedback, pan, stereo offset etc. And while you're at it, why not include one or two additional LFOs and also be able to assign those to different parameters? The capacity for chaos would be enormous.

*If this had more than one delay line, it would be insane. And then if you could control parameters both individually and globally, this thing would be a beast.

*****.

Overall, this is a great great plug-in. Huge props to the dev(s). We are so blessed as Music Makers to have free plug-ins like this available to us. If a future version incorporated even half of my suggestions for improvement, I would easily pay money for this, and I'm a cheap b@stard. My main reason for giving this 4 stars instead of 5 is the inability to key in an exact millisecond value.

Mika Mikro has quickly become one of my favorite synths for anything FM or bread and butter sound. Its light on the CPU and very stable. 10 out of 10 rating from me.