Digital Delay

If you need a clean, full-bandwidth digital delay — just a transparent repeat of what you play — the Boss DD-3 is the classic. The closest LV2 match is the one whose signal path is uncoloured by default.

Our pick: ZamDelay

ZamDelay is mono in/out with a max delay of 8000 ms. Its delay line is integer-sample and the feedback path is a transparent scalar. The one catch: an RBJ low-pass filter on the wet output defaults to 6000 Hz, which colours the repeats. Set LPF to 20000 to make it transparent.

It also has BPM sync and an invert toggle — extras the DD-3 lacks, but useful for tempo-locked delays.

Place it in the MOD-UI chain after your drive pedals and before reverb.

New to loading plugins? See Plugins & Effects for how to browse and add them in MOD-UI.

Also great: TAP Stereo Echo

TAP Stereo Echo is the same idea in stereo — separate L/R delay, feedback, and strength controls, with a pure integer-sample delay line and a transparent feedback path. Max delay is 2000 ms. For a mono pedalboard you feed both channels the same signal and link L/R.

What you give up: No BPM sync. The stereo controls add complexity if you only need mono.

Also considered

DIE Delay (distrho-a-delay) is architecturally near-identical to ZamDelay — mono, integer-sample, same RBJ LPF defaulting to 6000 Hz. Open LPF to 20000 and it's equally clean. Pick whichever UI you prefer.

Gx_digital_delay_ has a feedback path that always runs through high-pass and low-pass filters (defaults HP=120 Hz, LP=12 kHz). You can widen these, but the filters are never bypassable. It also has tape modes one click away that add allpass chains for wow/flutter. Treat it as a delay Swiss-army knife, not a DD-3 stand-in.

MDA Delay maxes out at roughly 330 ms — well short of the DD-3's 800 ms mode — and its feedback path always passes through a one-pole filter with no flat setting. Wrong tool for pristine repeats.

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