Spirals

Spirals by Daniel Gergely is a dual-delay plugin with pitch-shifting capabilities that ventures into shimmer-reverb territory. If you make ambient, cinematic, or experimental music, this one deserves your attention. The plugin features two independent stereo delay lines that can be configured from parallel to ping-pong, with pitch shifting ranging from -2 to +1 octaves per delay line, plus fine detuning of ±100 cents.

Cross-feedback between the two delay lines opens up complex, evolving textures. It also offers reverse delays (assignable per channel), a resonant low-pass filter with an XY pad that adds saturation when pushed hard, adjustable diffusion to blend discrete echoes into lush reverb washes, and a freeze function for creating pads. Spirals started as a free beta in 2022 and matured significantly with the 2025 updates, which brought a 5x performance improvement, smooth delay time changes without artifacts, and a proper preset browser.

I use the free version a lot in real projects. The main limitations compared to the $30 full version are the lack of tempo sync and the cap on oversampling at 2x. I also featured Spirals in our “10 unusual free VST plugins released in 2025” roundup, and the 2025 release really does feel like the point where everything clicked. It’s one of the most inspiring free tools I’ve found for ambient sound design and shimmer-style effects.

13+), with support for Apple Silicon. No registration is required for the free version.