Seal Eggs Nautical Delay

Updated on 27 April 2025. I've rebuilt it in v4.0 and have cleaned up the interface. See notes below. Enjoy! 

I was super impressed when Mylar Melodies demoed the  Intellijel Sealegs a couple of years ago on YouTube. I really wanted one, but as I don't have a Eurorack case, the space to install one, or the money to go that way I built my first version in VCV Rack and used it in Reason a bunch. It was pretty cool, but a bit clunky. Then, a year ago, I started using Bitwig (the whole Reason 13 thing was a major turn off), and after trying my hand at making a Sherman Filterbank emulation I thought was time to try the Sealegs emulation.

Caveats: there was a recent patch video on YouTube from Intellijel where they demonstrate some very impressive flexing with feedback self-oscillation and the freeze function. My current preset will start to do this (I have not quite got the feedback such that I can maintain a fixed, constant output in freeze - it tends to run away, so watch out), the then will go into some unpleasant states and break. This would be where a digital program is not able to replicate what analogue hardware is capable of. I'll keep exploring if I can get this to work, but for now it's a swamp with dragons in it.

Seal Eggs Nautical Delay v1.52 (Bitwig v4.0+ fxGrid Preset) 

Warning: can produce frequencies and volumes which may damage hearing, audio gear and speaker coils. Be kind to your ears and gear.

Before we get going you need to know that there is no FOG (reverb) built into this preset. This is because the hardware Sealegs unit allows the routing to put the reverb before the delay, or after the delay. You, as a Bitwig Studio user, can drop in the reverb of your choice as a device that is either upstream or downstream of the Seal Eggs preset in the device chain.

Another thing is that the hardware version of Sealegs has a CV MOD out where you can route the MOD pretty much anywhere. There is a Modulator Out that you can map to any of the panel modulators (arguably, the Bitwig preset is more flexible than the hardware version).

New in v1.51: 

• I added a VCF safety so that regardless of the LP and HP levels that the output of the mixed signals never exceed unity. This prevents a Feedback Excursion which could do bad things to your ears or gear.

• Synced Delay is now working.  When Sync Delay is active the taps for Ping Pong, Width and Time are all muted. Freeze works with Sync Delay.

• I've boosted the delay tap signal - it was too quiet. I corrected the signal dip that was not being applied to Time delay and allowed for runaway feedback (yikes!).

• Freeze now works. When active the different Colour Modes (Tape, BBD and Digi) have no effect. It is recommended that you have only one mode active at a time.

• Please only use one delay mode at a time (Ping Pong, Width, or Time). I wish we had radio buttons or button logic that was easily implemented for this.

• Mod now selects between a smaller selection of 8 modulation sources (Wow & Flutter, Env Follower +/-, Smooth Random, Saw, Triangle, Square and Sine).

• The mod LFOs had been synced on note data which was making for some less organic and smooth results. I may add an option to enable this globally in the future.

• I also found one of the delays had some accidental gain causing issues in freeze mode. This is corrected.

• Added the option to not freeze the modulation (the feedback will reduce over time if this is inactive), but adds some fleeting wobbles to the frozen delay.

• There is more work to be done, but it makes pleasing sounds in its present state.

Controls

Drive
At 50% this is set to unity and should does not boost or colour the incoming signal. Settings over 50% exponentially introduces distortion and continues to boost the signal loudness.

Trim
Trim can be used to further manipulate the incoming signal level from 0.5x strength at a level of 0%, to 1.0x at 50% and exponentially reaching 2.5x at 100%.

Mix
Mix adjusts the wet/dry balance of the signal. The default is 50% wet:dry.

S - M - L
This determines the range of time for the Delay L and Delay R/W controls. S = 3ms to 90ms, M = 50ms to 150ms, and L = 200ms to 6,000ms (6 seconds). When Sync Delay is activated these determine the base clock settings where S = 1/16th notes, M = 1/8th notes, and L = 1/4 notes. The time range then steps through a range of divisions from triplet, base and dotted, doubled, and doubled again as you sweep through the range: (I will try to replace this with notation as it is way easier to look at)
(S) 1/16t, 1/16, dotted 1/16, 1/8t, 1/8, dotted 1/8, 1/4t, 1/4, dotted 1/4, 1/2.
(M) 1/8t, 1/8, dotted 1/8, 1/4t, 1/4, dotted 1/4, 1/2t, 1/2, dotted 1/2, Whole.
(L) 1/4t, 1/4, dotted 1/4, 1/2t, 1/2, dotted 1/2, Whole(t), Whole, dotted Whole, Whole x 2.

Delay L
By default this controls the timing of the delay tap. When the Width or Time buttons are activated (one at a time please) Delay L controls the delay time for the left channel.

Delay R/W
When the Width is activated Delay R/W sets a proportional offset from that of Delay L and right channel lags behind the left channel. When Time is activated the Delay R/W control acts as an independent time control and the right channel can have a completely different delay time from the left channel (within the set Shot, Medium, or Long delay ranges). When Sync Delay is active the Delay R/W, Width, and Time controls do not have any effect on the delay signal. Ping Pong, however, does effect the delay signal.

Feedback
I've made some hand-tweaked level settings to the feedback path to try and maintain an even, near perpetual volume level. Here is a brief list repeats based on Feedback level settings. I used a single snare drum sample placed at 1.1.1.0 and counted the audible repeats after the original sample.

10% = 2x, 20% = 3x, 30% = 5x, 40% = 7x, 50% = 9x, 60% = 11x, 70% = 13x, 80% = 23x, 90% = 45x, and 100% = perpetual with a -2.0dB loss in signal at 10 minutes and -6.9dB loss after 1 hour.

WARNING: it is possible for a runaway feedback scenario to result if you have applied multiple Colour modes (Tape, BBD, and Digi) simultaneously with high Colour levels. Please be careful.

Freeze
This sets the delay buffer into a loop and disables incoming signals. The Delay L, Delay R/W, and various Mod, Rate, and Depth controls can be used for Sound on Sound manipulation of the buffer for unusual effects.

Mod, Rate, and Depth
These controls introduce a variety of different modulation options for manipulating the left and right delay times. This has interesting effects for both free-running and synced delays. Mod selects different sources. Rate applies speed, blending or smooth to the sources. Depth adjusts the amount of effect that the modulation has.
Mod from 0-12.5% = Wow & Flutter where rate blends between the slow meandering smooth random LFO and a faster smooth random LFO.
Mod from 12.6-24.9% = Envelope Follower where rate controls the fall time of the follower. Higher rate times result in a slower fall time. Use EF Inv to invert the signal.
Mod from 25-100% in 12.5% increments steps through a series of LFO options (Random Stepped, Smooth Random, Saw, Triangle, Square, and Sine).

Colour, Tape, BBD, and Digi
These enable different character options with which to Colour your delay signal. Tape introduces random volume and dropout. BBD has a variety a swept quantised noise effect (introduce some Clock Lvl for some clock noise bleed through into the signal), and Digi has S&H and Quantising which is affected by the delay time (longer  = more messy). The Colour knob controls how much of the coloured signal to blend into the delay path.

Noise and Noise Lvl
For added noise nautical fun, the Noise knob attenuates between a pre-delay white noise hiss, crackles and a post-delay hiss noise when turned from 0% to 100%. The pre-delay hiss fades completely at 50%. The crackle is at full volume at 50% and falls off to nothing at 0% or 100%. At levels above 50% the post-delay hiss is introduced.

LP & HP
This is a pair of filters in parallel to add extra colour to the delay signal. As of v1.4 I've added a LP/HP VCF level correction so that feedback excursions are limited.

I had a great time making this and there are some additional features that I'd like to add (optional delay routing and such like), but in this current configuration I figure a lot of enjoyable sonic discoveries await. I hope you'll share your results with me. If you'd like to 'buy me a coffee' for my efforts, you can send it via PayPal to chris@ambientspace.com Thanks!

Please email me at chris@ambientspace.com if you have any questions or find that it is doing something unexpected. Oh yeah. Another reason for how this got its name. Eggs!