Over the Christmas period, each team member is sharing their product of the year. For Eli Krantzberg it is Late Replies from Blue Cat Audio.

Blue Cat Audio plug-ins have always had a slightly “nerdy” quality to them. They sound fantastic and do great things. But don’t really have a sexy interface, and you’ve got to dig a bit to get to the really good bits. They kind of felt like they were for the audio equivalent of mechanics who liked to tinker with cars. This all changed in 2017 with the release of Destructor. It marked a shift in their GUI concept, making all the features and control it contained more accessible and friendly to get at then their earlier plug-ins. I think their user base responded favorably because they have been updating their older plug-ins with this new GUI approach that began with Destructor. But in addition to reworking older plug-ins like Patchwork and MB 7 Mixer, they released a new gem this year, built from the ground up with this new GUI model. Late Replies. 

It is an understatement to say that Late Replies is simply a delay module. It is not. It is a hybrid multi-effects unit and delay module combined and then given steroids. More importantly though, it does things no other plug-in that I know of can do. And it is fun to use. 

We are used to plug-ins that can effect generated repeats with filtering. Maybe add some panning and gain offsets to that if it’s a sophisticated delay plug-in. But Late Relies treats each individually generated tap completely independently. They each have separate mixer style controls. Not only can separate third-party plug-in effects chains be hosted within Late Replies and applied uniquely to the input, output, and each tap. But there is also a host of onboard very useful and intuitive multi-effects available. 

The individually effected multitaps are then routed to two completely separate and configurable feedback loops. The loops can also be processed with independent chains of plug-ins, either external or internal. The plug-in ships with a ton of great presets. But more importantly, it’s really fun to tweak. Add in the built-in ducking either via the internal signal or an external side chain, and you’ve got a really creative effects unit that can do somersaults and cartwheels at the same time! Whenever I’m stuck for ideas, Late Replies is sure to get the creative juices flowing.