SPD

Description

SPD - Spectral Pre-Delay

SPD is a Max for Live audio effect that reimagines one of the most overlooked controls in audio production: reverb pre-delay.

Instead of delaying an entire signal by a fixed amount, SPD splits audio into 22 spectral bands, allowing each frequency region to have its own independent delay time and gain. Place it before your favourite reverb and create spectral blooms, sweeps, and evolving spaces that simply aren't possible with traditional pre-delay controls.

What began as a spectral pre-delay experiment evolved into a tool much more powerful.

SPD's spectral processing architecture can be used before distortions, delays, compressors, modulation effects, granular processors, and virtually any other effect. By independently manipulating the timing and level of different frequency regions, SPD can dramatically alter how downstream processors respond to a signal.

At its core, SPD combines a 22-band spectral graphic EQ with a 22-band spectral delay, providing:

- ±12 dB of gain per band

- Up to 750 ms of delay per band

- Adjustable spectral smoothing

- Instant shape generation using built-in preset patterns

- Dynamic modulation via a built in envelope follower

- External sidechain support

- Spectral and temporal envelope detection modes

The integrated Envelope Follower allows both gain and delay to respond dynamically to incoming audio. Modulation can be driven by the overall signal level or by the amplitude of individual spectral bands, enabling dynamic EQ, adaptive spectral delays, vocoder-style effects, and entirely new forms of spectral animation.

Whether you're creating evolving reverbs, reshaping distortion behaviour, designing game audio, generating experimental textures, building dynamic spectral effects, or simply using it as an expressive 22-band EQ, SPD provides a unique way to manipulate sound in both the frequency and time domains.