Ableton VDB Delay 5.0 | Smooth Time Manipulation Without Pitch Shifts

Max for Live Device (.amxd file) 

Changing the delay time should let you reach another moment in the rhythm without pulling the entire signal upward or downward in pitch. VDB Delay is a Max for Live stereo delay built to make delay time a playable position control while reducing the sustained tape style pitch movement associated with a moving read head.

Built for the session

Use VDB Delay to call back different moments from a drum loop, minimal rhythm, sparse percussion part, or short chord pattern while the track is playing.

Assign Time to a MIDI controller and move through the recent past as part of the performance. A simple beat can be redirected into new accents, displaced echoes, and changing rhythmic shadows without turning the device into a sequencer or beat slicer.

With Feedback at zero and Dry/Wet fully open, the movement between past positions can be heard clearly. Adding Feedback extends those fragments into repeating phrases. Lowering Damp allows each return to become darker, while Ping Pong sends the repetitions across the stereo field.

VDB Delay is designed for freely moving through time rather than selecting synchronized note values. Its focus is the musical result of jumping between delay positions while preserving the playback speed within each position.

Shape the result

Time selects how far into the recent past the device reads.

Transition controls the handoff between the previous position and the new position. Short settings produce a faster and more defined change. Longer settings can soften the connection, while allowing the two moments to overlap more noticeably.

Feedback determines how long the recalled material remains in circulation. Damp removes high frequencies from each return, allowing repeated sounds to recede into a darker space. Ping Pong changes the feedback path from straight stereo repetition to alternating left and right movement.

Dry/Wet places the recalled material behind the original signal or brings it forward as the main sound. These controls move from clean rhythmic redirection to dense, dark, stereo memory without obscuring the central Time performance.

Technical confidence where it matters

VDB Delay is designed as a Max for Live audio effect for Ableton Live 12 and Max 9.

Its delay engine uses three fixed reading positions. When Time changes, a silent reading head is assigned to the new position and the output is transferred to it through a short complementary crossfade. Each active head continues reading at normal speed instead of moving continuously through the delay memory.

When control data arrives rapidly, the newest Time value takes priority instead of entering a queue. This allows the device to remain responsive during dense MIDI controller movement without replaying older control positions afterward.

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v.5.0 ... Updated totally. (2026/8/1)

Ver.3.0 ... UI Updated (2020/11/7)
Ver.4.0 ... UI Updated (2022/7/9)

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