Universal Audio’s garden-hose delay now runs natively for $49
The plugin’s two delay lines run from 5 milliseconds to 2.5 seconds, with modes based on the original hose configurations.
In 1971, Universal Audio founder Bill Putnam Sr. and engineer Duane H. Cooper introduced a studio delay that sent sound through coiled garden hose. Now the Cooper Time Cube Delay is a native plugin for macOS and Windows, Magnetic Magazine reported. It had been available in Universal Audio’s DSP ecosystem for years, and the native version drops the Apollo or UAD-2 hardware requirement.
The original Time Cube was a plywood enclosure of coiled hose with a transducer at each end to send and pick up sound, suspended to cut mechanical interference. Its delay came from the relatively slow travel of sound through air, and the tubing shaped the frequency response of what came out the other end.
The plugin has two independent delay lines, each with its own decay, volume and pan controls. Times run from 5 milliseconds to 2.5 seconds, either synced to the session or set freely. Very short settings create doubling on vocals, synths and guitars, while longer ones give conventional echoes and rhythmic repetitions. The hardware’s single- and double-hose configurations are selectable modes, and tone is handled with Treble, Bass, Color and a high-pass filter.
The introductory price is $49 through December 31, 2026, after which the regular $99 price applies. For Black Friday, anyone buying at least $29 of eligible software can add Cooper Time Cube Delay for $1 through November 30.
