October 2024: Fractal Audio's VP4 Virtual Pedalboard has been added to the wiki.
Megatap Delay block
Contents
Available on which products
- Axe-Fx III, FM9: 2 blocks
- FM3: 1 block
- VP4: 4 blocks
- Axe-Fx II and FX8: 1 block
- AX8: not supported
Channels or X/Y
- Axe-Fx III, FM9, FM3: 2 channels
- VP4: 4 channels
- Axe-Fx II, FX8: no
About the Megatap Delay block
The Megatap Delay is a 4 second, 128-tap delay line (64 taps on the FM3 and FM9), with parametric control of time, amplitude, and panning. It can be used to create interesting sonic patterns/textures or to increase density before other effects.
The block on the Axe-Fx III, FM9 and VP4 provides many pre-configured types (FM3: n/a).
FRACTAL AUDIO QUOTES
FM3:
[1] The changes to the Megatap block have not been ported to the FM3 at this time. They may or may not be ported at some future date.
Megatap Delay block diagram
Megatap Delay types
Megatap Delay types: (not available on the FM3):
- Bounce
- Bounce Reverb
- Brute Force Reverb
- Creaky
- Deceptions
- Diffused Ping-Pong Echo
- Diffusion Swirl
- Echo Room
- Gated Reverb
- Late Bloomer
- Lazer Zaps
- Megaverb
- Motion Echoes
- Ping-Pong Echo Verb
- Reverb Pre-Swell
- Reverse Reverb Echo
- Serpentine Swells
- Staccato Spread
- Tank Taps
- Tap Verb Grit
- Tap Verb Plush
- Take Five
Spillover
The block supports Spillover between presets.
Parameters
Envelope Follower
The Multitap Delay has its own Envelope Follower, allowing volume swells.
The Owners Manuals recommend these settings:
- Threshold: -70
- Attack: 400
- Release: 15
Diffusion
Diffusion has its own LFO modulation parameters.
Time Shape
The EXP/LOG setting is the default and behaves as before allowing time shapes between exponential and logarithmic (including linear). The SIGMOID setting is a four-quadrant shape that allows time shapes between sigmoid and inverse sigmoid. The COSINE and SINE settings select sine wave shapes with the Time Alpha parameter controlling the number of periods from 1 to 8.
Tips, tricks and troubleshooting
Factory presets
The Megatap Delay block is showcased in some factory presets. Search the Factory presets page for megatap
.
No Global blocks
The Megatap Delay block doesn't support Global blocks.
Megatap Delay as a reverb
The large number of taps allows the block to create reverb effects. The block provides some pre-configured types, but, again they're not available on the FM3.
FRACTAL AUDIO QUOTES
[2] Put a Megatap block in front of the Reverb block. Set the type to Reverb Pre-Swell. Run the two blocks in parallel to the main signal chain.
[3] One of the popular methods for swelling (or blooming) reverbs is to feed the reverb with a multitapped delay with lots of taps. Reverb Pre-Swell is expressly designed for just this purpose. The many taps cause the envelope to grow over time due to the signal addition.
Videos
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