OtherDesertCities

Other Desert Cities is a multi-mode delay plugin built for sound designers, producers, and anyone who thinks regular delays are getting a little boring.

Named after the famous sign on the I-10 leaving Los Angeles, Other Desert Cities takes you down less-traveled roads. Six algorithms, each with its own distinct personality. A full suite of modulation. A diffuser that smears feedback toward reverb. And gain-structure controls deep enough to duck, pan, and route almost anything.

ALGORITHMS

Desert Shores — a clean dual stereo delay with saturation, filtering, spread, and crossfeed.

Mecca — a reverse delay with smooth crossfading and an optional Reflect mode that alternates playback direction on each repeat.

Cactus — a dual-delta delay. Each side runs as a variable-speed looper, playing forward or backward at any speed from zero to 2x, with pitch quantized to octaves, fifths, or semitones.

Thermal — a multi-tap delay with up to sixteen equally-spaced taps per side, each with its own level.

Mirage — a variable-speed multi-head delay inspired by the 1967 Eltro Information Rate Changer. One to four rotating heads play through a circular buffer at any speed from -2 to +2.

Sky Valley — a granular delay with independent control over grain size, scatter, and pitch randomization. Transpose from three octaves down to one octave up.

MODULATION

Two tempo-syncable LFOs with variable shape and skew, plus an envelope follower with sidechain input. Almost every parameter in the plugin can be modulated. Click any knob and assign modulation depth from each of the three sources independently.

DIFFUSER

A diffusion processor sits inside the feedback path, with controls for size, diffusion amount, modulation rate and depth, and a dedicated low-cut filter. At high settings it takes the delay into reverb territory, especially paired with the Thermal algorithm.

LEVELS

Full input/output gain control, stereo width, independent delay pan, regeneration balance, and wet balance. Input level and mute sit before the delay block, so the plugin works correctly as both an insert and a send, with proper tails behavior.

PRESETS

Factory presets from Chris Randall, Matthew Lyon, Red Means Recording, and Time Rival, plus a cross-platform XML-based preset manager with import, export, and clipboard paste.

FEATURES

Six distinct delay algorithms

Two LFOs and an envelope follower with sidechain

Diffuser with independent modulation

Tempo sync on delay times and LFO rates

Delay times up to two seconds free, ten seconds synced

Cross-platform XML preset format

AUv3 and standalone

Also available for macOS, Windows, and Linux in VST3, AU, AAX, and CLAP formats from Audio Damage.