# [New BABY Audio reverb] Crystalline. Intro: $49.



## doctoremmet (Apr 4, 2022)

FEATURES
✱ BPM-Synced Start And End Times:
Crystalline lets you hard-sync the reverb attack and decay time to your DAW’s tempo. This will generally result in cleaner mixes where the reflections are naturally in sync with the music.
Prefer the classic way? Just hit the “Sync/MS” switch and Crystalline lets you set pre-delay and decay times in milliseconds instead.

✱ Reflections Section:
- “Size” lets you set the room size from tiny to large. This control is detached from the “Length” control, meaning you can get any size/length combination you want, including esoteric settings like huge spaces with very short tails or tiny spaces with very long tails.
- “Sparkle” emphasizes high frequencies inside the reverb algorithm. This generates reflections that are naturally brighter, which will help you achieve that extra shine on vocals or snares.
- “Width” lets you set the stereo image of the reverb from mono to wide – and even further to extra wide.

✱ Depth Section:
- “Resolution” sets the complexity of the algorithm from ‘basic’ to ‘pristine’. More complex settings will give you an ultra-clean reverb response, free of metallic artifacts – while the ‘Basic’ setting will give you an efficient CPU performance at a normal fidelity.
- “Modulation” creates pitch variations inside the reverb algorithm. This results in a richer sound that works especially well to fatten up synths, guitars and vocals.
- “Shimmer” makes the high frequencies of the reverb tail decay slower than the rest of the spectrum, giving the reflections an ‘angelic halo’ effect. You can set the frequency cutoff point as well as the multiplier effect, which controls how much longer it takes for the higher frequencies to decay. Please note that if Shimmer is active, the high frequencies will decay later than your specified reverb “End Time” (either at 2x, 4x or 6x the length).

✱ Clean-Up Section:
- “Damping” is a dual filter control that lets you remove high and low frequency content from the reverb reflections. This control offers a fast way to get rid of clutter and muddiness in your mixes.
- “Sides” is a high-pass filter that removes stereo information from the low end of the reverb, while keeping the mono-information intact. This is especially helpful for creating wide vocal or lead instrument reflections without muddying-up your low end.
- “Gate” lets you instantly recreate the classic 1980s gated reverb sound. The gate offers ‘threshold’ and ‘release’ controls and makes it fast and intuitive to make your snares go ‘Phil Collins’.

✱ Shape Section:
- “Tone” is a tilt EQ that lets you quickly shift the frequency balance of the reverb to brighter or darker.
- “Smoothing” gradually applies an EQ-curve custom-designed to address the frequency areas that tend to get resonant and sharp. It mellows out harshness and gives Crystalline a more subtle feel. This allows you to add a little more reverb without drenching your mix.
- “Transients” lets you shift the reverb algorithm’s emphasis to either the attack or sustain part of the incoming signal. Emphasizing the sustain more than the transients will make the reverb feel airy and light, while emphasizing the attack stage is a great way to get a splashy and dense sound. The Transients feature works especially well for controlling reflections on percussive material.

✱ Output Section:
- “Ducker” lowers the reverb signal when the dry/incoming track is playing. This gives you a cleaner mix, where you can turn up the reverb more without compromising the dry track. “Ducker Gentle” mode offers a slow and natural ducker setting, while the standard ducker mode has a more pumpy feel.
- ”Reverse” reverses the reverb playback, giving you some radical sound design possibilities.
- “Freeze” is another creative effect that takes a granular snapshot of the reverb when clicked and holds this snapshot continuously until the button is un-clicked again. It can be a powerful effect for creating interesting transitions in a mix.
- “Dry/Wet” sets the global mix balance between the dry/incoming signal and the reverb signal. Clicking the “Wet Lock” button lets you browse presets while keeping your preferred wet/dry balance - for easier comparison.

✱ Top Panel:
- “Color” lets you change between light and dark background colors.
- “Eco Mode” lets you run Crystalline in a low-CPU mode by setting the resolution to “Basic” and disabling the shimmer effect.
- “Save As Default” lets you save your own default preset that will appear when the plugin initializes or you hit the reset button. That way, you can save your preferred color+size settings.
- “Reset” resets the plugin’s state to your default preset.
- “Tool Tips” gives you help texts explaining each plugin parameter during mouse hover-over.

✱ Resizability:
- Plugin window fully resizable (click+drag bottom right icon).


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## doctoremmet (Apr 4, 2022)




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## doctoremmet (Apr 5, 2022)

BABY Audio - Crystalline - Algorithmic Reverb Plugin (VST / AU / AAX)


Get Crystalline - or download the free demo. Crystalline by BABY Audio is a new algorithmic reverb plugin (VST, AU, AAX). It gives you unprecedented control over your reflections and offers a modern interpretation of the classic digital studio reverbs of the 20th century. Possibly the best reverb pl




babyaud.io


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## Dr.Quest (Apr 5, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> BABY Audio - Crystalline - Algorithmic Reverb Plugin (VST / AU / AAX)
> 
> 
> Get Crystalline - or download the free demo. Crystalline by BABY Audio is a new algorithmic reverb plugin (VST, AU, AAX). It gives you unprecedented control over your reflections and offers a modern interpretation of the classic digital studio reverbs of the 20th century. Possibly the best reverb pl
> ...


Did you buy it?


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## doctoremmet (Apr 5, 2022)

I did not. Not yet. And I may not either. I have a ridiculous number of reverbs. And I mainly use MTurboReverb, Seventh Heaven, R4, SP2016 and since a short while VSL MIR Pro24. For all things pop / rock I tend to pick IKM’s brilliant Sunset Sound Studio Reverb. 

But especially MIR Pro is really cool so if I’d spend any more money on reverbs I might as well save up a while longer and buy another MIR Roompack (the Teldex one is tempting).

I also have a ton of creative reverbs, the Arturia REV Intensity, PSP, all BABY Audio’s plugins, the Denise Perfect series, the RELAB stuff. So I really ask myself what this one would bring to the table, and there’s also Unfiltered Audio’s BT TAILS to consider (although for PA stuff I usually play the waiting game and use the $39.99 sale + $25 voucher combo) 

TL;DR
Yeah. Likely hehe. Who are we even kidding here.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 5, 2022)

I don't think I have a lush reverb like this; though perhaps some of the reverbs I do have can do this sort of thing and I just haven't realised. However, while it sounds amazing on the demos, I also thought most of the clips would have sounded better with a less obtrusively opulent reverb on them. Maybe I'm just not into lushness. I didn't know that about myself as I had been thinking of it as a gap in my toolkit.


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## Pier (Apr 5, 2022)

Not sure I need it but it does sound awesome.


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 5, 2022)

Pier said:


> Not sure I need it but it does sound awesome.


According to Immanuel Kant (and he can't have been wrong about _everything_) 'where there is a want, there is a need'. Although he was using German, so it might have been something like 'Wo dare ist ein Wanted dare sit einen needed gehaben'. That's how languages work, right?

Anyway, the point is that to satisfy any desire, something is required. That something is needed - conditionally upon the desire, which one might have or might not.

Are there needs that aren't conditional in any way? Perhaps, in a sense of 'need' - where they are distinguished from wants/desires rather than related to them as means to ends. So I need food, but I don't need a takeaway, no matter how much I want it. Where it doesn't even matter if I want not to eat any food, or want not to live, and so on. There is that sense of need. But forget about that one; it really isn't going to apply to the business of this little corner of the internet.

All of which is to say - if you need to need it in order to buy it, you just have to want it.


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## Pier (Apr 5, 2022)

"Wo dare ist ein Wanted dare sit einen needed gehaben"

That translation seems wrong.

According to Google translate it says:


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 5, 2022)

Pier said:


> "Wo dare ist ein Wanted dare sit einen needed gehaben"
> 
> That translation seems wrong.
> 
> According to Google translate it says:


Well, you can't believe everything you read on the internet, you know!


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## José Herring (Apr 5, 2022)

Can one really have too many reverbs? Me thinks not. This one sounds really good.


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## Trash Panda (Apr 5, 2022)

Tried it. Too many harsh metallic artifacts, even on Pristine on a completely dry source. Blech.


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## confusedsheep (Apr 5, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> According to Immanuel Kant (and he can't have been wrong about _everything_) 'where there is a want, there is a need'. Although he was using German, so it might have been something like 'Wo dare ist ein Wanted dare sit einen needed gehaben'. That's how languages work, right?
> 
> Anyway, the point is that to satisfy any desire, something is required. That something is needed - conditionally upon the desire, which one might have or might not.
> 
> ...


This is prolly the most mind boggling amazing thing i have read here 

i was going to throw in some herbert marcuse and his critique of modern consumer society... but "if you need to need it in order to buy it, you just have to want it" trumps everything. consider me a fan


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## Bee_Abney (Apr 5, 2022)

confusedsheep said:


> This is prolly the most mind boggling amazing thing i have read here
> 
> i was going to throw in some herbert marcuse and his critique of modern consumer society... but "if you need to need it in order to buy it, you just have to want it" trumps everything. consider me a fan



Thank you kind sheep, but I wouldn't want to discourage you from sharing Marcuse!


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## tressie5 (Apr 5, 2022)

How could they decide this is the best reverb plugin of 2022 when we're only four months into 2022?


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## doctoremmet (Apr 5, 2022)

We Looked 9 Months Into The Future
Click Here To Find Out What Happened Next


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## Trash Panda (Apr 5, 2022)

tressie5 said:


> How could they decide this is the best reverb plugin of 2022 when we're only four months into 2022?


The must know LiquidSonics and Reverb Foundry aren’t releasing anything this year. #shotsfired


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## Pier (Apr 5, 2022)

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## doctoremmet (Apr 6, 2022)

Warren seems genuinely happy with it


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## Pier (Apr 6, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Warren seems genuinely happy with it



Did he say "logarithmic reverb"? 😂



Trash Panda said:


> Tried it. Too many harsh metallic artifacts, even on Pristine on a completely dry source. Blech.


Did you disable/play around with the shimmer, sparkle, and tone settings?

I haven't demoed it, but from the videos these seem to be too strong on the default preset.


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## Trash Panda (Apr 6, 2022)

Pier said:


> Did he say "logarithmic reverb"? 😂
> 
> 
> Did you disable/play around with the shimmer, sparkle, and tone settings?
> ...


I turned them off completely and it was still metallic sounding. It’s a bummer because I like the interface and the concept. 

I had the same feeling about Valhalla Room, which is well liked, so it’s probably more of a sensitivity I have than a problem with the reverb itself.


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## Pier (Apr 6, 2022)

Trash Panda said:


> I had the same feeling about Valhalla Room, which is well liked, so it’s probably more of a sensitivity I have than a problem with the reverb itself.


Now I'm curious. So what reverbs do you like?

I had Valhalla Room and sold it after getting Pro-R (which I think is superior) but I still own VVV and Plate. I would have never said that Room sounded metallic actually.


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## kgdrum (Apr 6, 2022)

For me the gui is the really interesting part of this new verb. The control and ease of use looks great but sound wise the little bit I heard just sounded OK,
nothing mind blowing like anything Liquidsonics seems to release regularly. Like Temme and others have said eloquently how many verbs(yes I’m really saying this) do we really need?
I’m sure I will get the new Fuse plate because it’s Fuse,it sounds great it’s only $29 at the moment and I think Reimond is one of the special talents in the industry that seems to have that special sauce I find incredibly tasty in just about everything he develops.
Maybe because I’m becoming an old fuck but there seems to be a trend with many new releases of libraries,synths and effects that seem to be more about the gui and while they are visually alluring the sound is just OK.
The developers realize the stunning visuals on these new products presented in the demos and walkthroughs sell more product than the same product with a more traditional gui.
I have been getting into the habit in these cases right or wrong in listening without the visuals to judge the sound of these newer beauties because for me the eye candy seems to be the bait and I’m more interested in the sound.


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## Pier (Apr 6, 2022)

kgdrum said:


> I’m sure I will get the new Fuse plate because it’s Fuse,it sounds great it’s only $29 at the moment and I think Reimond is one of the special talents in the industry that seems to have that special sauce I find incredibly tasty in just about everything he develops.


Woah it does sound great






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## Trash Panda (Apr 6, 2022)

Pier said:


> Now I'm curious. So what reverbs do you like?
> 
> I had Valhalla Room and sold it after getting Pro-R (which I think is superior) but I still own VVV and Plate. I would have never said that Room sounded metallic actually.


I have way too many, but here’s my best shot below. 

Universal usage:
Cinematic Rooms
Seventh Heaven
HD Cart
Tai Chi

Situational usage:
Spaces 2 (only on bone dry material or it’s metallic city)
Sunset Studios Reverb
SP2016
Lustrous Plates
Neoverb/R4/Nimbus

I demoed Pro-R and liked what I heard, but haven’t been able to justify the cost with the other options I already have.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 6, 2022)

Trash Panda said:


> I have way too many, but here’s my best shot below.
> 
> Universal usage:
> Cinematic Rooms
> ...


Cool selection.


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## Snoobydoobydoo (Apr 6, 2022)

Id like to have a more shimmery shimmer than valhalla. Its fine but it could be shimmerier. Had the Big Sky, thinking of it again but that as vst, awwww shimm.


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## vitocorleone123 (Apr 6, 2022)

I definitely don't want another reverb, but how can I not demo this? I like Baby Audio, their design and approach, and their pricing, etc. I have, mostly acquired for free, about 3/4 of their plugins. However, I don't tend to use them.

But I always try them.

EDIT: only 5 min of use, so some super early impressions

* The UI is smartly done and attractive - no surprise from B.A.
* I've not been able to get it to shimmer as much as Valhalla's - yet? But, then, I also uninstalled Valhalla Shimmer as I never used it (and I have a Meris Mercury7 that can modulate and shimmer)
* Even on the largest setting of "spacy" and with full width, it sounds a bit small and narrow - is it too focused on the tail and not the early reflections? like it's in a gigantically long space that isn't very wide (even when using a wide stereo source)
* TaiChi can modulate more and sound better doing it (to me) - but can't deliver the sparkles of the shimmer
* It doesn't sound as innately metallic to me as Valhalla Room or Pro-R, but we'll see as I use it more. I was using it with a very soft and rounded Model 84 pad and need to try it with the OB-6 with the resonance up, Nucleus strings, etc.
* I doubt I'd pay full price for this over something like Valhalla, but it may be a credible alternative to Shimmer (and other competitors) for around $50


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## Russell Anderson (Apr 6, 2022)

tressie5 said:


> How could they decide this is the best reverb plugin of 2022 when we're only four months into 2022?


The answer lies in their thumbnail face.

I like the tonal/transient feature but I’m in the “I have a lot of reverbs I’m good” camp. It sounds good, but doesn’t do Sonsig or Valhalla’s job better than they do besides the features like the transient/sustain which I use rarely enough I’m happy to just setup myself as a preset and use that way. You really gotta do something cool to get me gassed up now, like MIR, or Hyperspace which is like easy-mode MTurboReverb. United Plugins is actually even part of Melda’s business portfolio, literally. Now you know


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## Snoobydoobydoo (Apr 6, 2022)

vitocorleone123 said:


> But, then, I also uninstalled Valhalla Shimmer as I never used


Really not liking? Using shimmer solely is a bit too much and always sounds the same, but works really well to use it in a fx chain. Just before a delay, or on a room or what else. Not as a hard effect.
What i love is mapping Valhallas Shimmer Parameters (pitch or feedback and mix!) to velocity. Thats really fun.


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## vitocorleone123 (Apr 6, 2022)

Snoobydoobydoo said:


> Really not liking? Using shimmer solely is a bit too much and always sounds the same, but works really well to use it in a fx chain. Just before a delay, or on a room or what else. Not as a hard effect.
> What i love is mapping Valhallas Shimmer Parameters (pitch or feedback and mix!) to velocity. Thats really fun.


It could be lack of user knowledge of on my part, but I just never found the shimmer to be great for me. Modulation yes. Shimmer not so much. I’ll have to try it more like you said rather than as a straight up reverb send.

I have used some dark shimmer on the Mercury 7 but it’s the last pedal in the chain so I can’t go hard on the shimmer - but I can also pitch it down instead of up, which sounds better to me.


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## Galois (Apr 6, 2022)

Snoobydoobydoo said:


> Id like to have a more shimmery shimmer than valhalla. Its fine but it could be shimmerier. Had the Big Sky, thinking of it again but that as vst, awwww shimm.


Irid from Tritik might be more to your liking, looks similar to valhalla but with a bit more design space (ended up not buying it in the end though, so no guarantees). I usually use grainspace from audiority with some fine tuned presets and separate reverb further down the chain. What I'd really love would be a standalone version of the shimmer from Peter V's Abyss though.


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## myfragileego (Apr 6, 2022)

Trash Panda said:


> Tried it. Too many harsh metallic artifacts, even on Pristine on a completely dry source. Blech.


I've been sensitive to metallic artifacts myself. I considered the absence of metallic ring the hallmark of a good reverb. The very first reverb I bought was MorphVerb and I thought it was great initially while demoing it (mostly on percussion). After I noticed how metallic MorphVerb sounded at 100% wet, I was really turned off using it and it's one of the few reverbs I've regetted buying. 

Enter Crystalline. Yesterday I compared it to a bunch of my favourite reverbs, and found Crystalline produced a really lovely long reverb tail, the words lush / creamy / dreamy came to mind. I couldn't replicate that sound with any of my other reverbs. The closest I could get was with Arturia's Rev Intensity... and it wasn't that close. While focusing on that creamy lush reverb tail, the last thing on my mind was it sounding metallic.

So I thought it'd be good to go and test it against MorphVerb, since that's the first thing that comes to mind when I think metallic reverb. In doing so the first thing I noticed was yes Crystalline can sound metallic. What?! Why hadn't I noticed this yesterday? The second thing I noticed was that it sounded a lot like MorphVerb. 

I loaded up yesterday's test project again, and found the settings I had used didn't sound so metallic - that was a good start. So then I set about trying to match the sound in MorphVerb and managed to get remarkably similar lush creamy reverb tails by playing with the reverb types, LP filter and high dampening, whilst avoiding the unpleasant metallic tone. Huzzah!

It seems reverbs with a metallic tone can, with the right configuration, produce incredibly lush reverb tails that are not metallic at all, and sound quite unique compared to those produced by less metallic reverbs. And then, with the metallic tone kept in, they can also add a brighter presence in a mix for certain material such as cymbals or bells that have a ringing component to them, which less metallic reverbs seem not to touch. 

Having said all that, now I just need to decide whether to add Crystalline to the collection =) It has some great features and it looks amazing.


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## paulmatthew (Apr 7, 2022)

Crystalline is not my cup of tea. It sounds like a room reverb run through another one to emulate a larger hall sound. I have to agree, it does have a metallic , maybe boxy sound to it. Spaced Out sounds miles better in comparison to Crystalline.


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## vitocorleone123 (Apr 7, 2022)

paulmatthew said:


> Crystalline is not my cup of tea. It sounds like a room reverb run through another one to emulate a larger hall sound. I have to agree, it does have a metallic , maybe boxy sound to it. Spaced Out sounds miles better in comparison to Crystalline.


To my ears it's not metallic, but it leans that way more than not. "Boxy" is a good way to put it, though. That, and the regular price of $99 (I mean, Valhalla Shimmer is $50 and then you can add Vintage Verb on top for $1 more than RRP), make it something I'm probably not getting.

I'm primarily comparing it against
* Valhalla Shimmer (reinstalled)
* TaiChi (full)
* CRP

That's some serious competition.


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## Russell Anderson (Apr 7, 2022)

On the note of metallic reverbs sounding lush, ...it is a solid point. I hear the same thing in Sonsig. What makes it not sound wretched is the "charged" fat beefy dense sound and a well-executed high dampening, which when left unused can lead to super silky high ends or super 80's over the top obvious digital reverb sound depending on the brightness of the source.


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## Zoot_Rollo (Apr 7, 2022)

Pier said:


> Did he say "logarithmic reverb"? 😂


oh dear, did he?

i can't listen to him any more.


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## Russell Anderson (Apr 7, 2022)

Zoot_Rollo said:


> oh dear, did he?
> 
> i can't listen to him any more.


Says you without capitalization!










not the cleanest gif posting
it wasn't even necessarily supposed to be a gif
I'm too young to be a boomer


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## Zoot_Rollo (Apr 7, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> All of which is to say - if you need to need it in order to buy it, you just have to want it.


and if you buy it without wanting it,

that's another maki to unroll.


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## Zoot_Rollo (Apr 7, 2022)

Russell Anderson said:


> Sonsig


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2022)




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## doctoremmet (Apr 8, 2022)




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## Russell Anderson (Apr 9, 2022)

After I demo'd it for some reason... it actually sounds like a good pop reverb. Pretty unique sound, I get what people are saying by boxy and like a room in a room... it does a good job of sounding behind the source, I actually kind of like the effect.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 9, 2022)




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## jazzman7 (Apr 9, 2022)

Actually I'm more interested in the next Spaced Out sale TBH.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 9, 2022)

jazzman7 said:


> Actually I'm more interested in the next Spaced Out sale TBH.


I am still kind of indifferent / undecided on Crystalline, whereas I am convinced of Spaces Out’s intrinsic qualities


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## jazzman7 (Apr 9, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> I am still kind of indifferent / undecided on Crystalline, whereas I am convinced of Spaces Out’s intrinsic qualities


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## Jeremy Morgan (Apr 9, 2022)

Pier said:


> If you subscribe to BabyAudio's newsletter you get a 15% discount code (on top of the 50%)
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Welp that might have broken me of true


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## SupremeFist (Apr 11, 2022)

I am an idiot and like shiny things so I bought another reverb. I really like it! For me it nicely fills a space (lol) between my usual go-tos 7H and VVV.


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## CGR (Apr 11, 2022)

SupremeFist said:


> I am an idiot and like shiny things so I bought another reverb. I really like it! For me it nicely fills a space (lol) between my usual go-tos 7H and VVV.


I too like shiny new things (and probably am also an idiot) but after deliberating for a while (how many reverbs do you really need?) I just bought a license. The GUI and ease of workflow is great – really well conceived and implemented.

I was a little concerned that I'd be covering similar ground with Eventide's Blackhole and Valhalla's wonderful (and free) Supermassive, but after a quick comparison just now, I found Crystalline allows a finer control over combining the source with the reverb, whilst maintaining definition by engaging the ducker and pre-delay. Haven't had the time to dig deeper, but here's a quick demo using solo piano – Pianoteq's Steingraeber Grand – first Dry, then the same passage with Crystalline:


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## SupremeFist (Apr 12, 2022)

CGR said:


> I too like shiny new things (and probably am also an idiot) but after deliberating for a while (how many reverbs do you really need?) I just bought a license. The GUI and ease of workflow is great – really well conceived and implemented.
> 
> I was a little concerned that I'd be covering similar ground with Eventide's Blackhole and Valhalla's wonderful (and free) Supermassive, but after a quick comparison just now, I found Crystalline allows a finer control over combining the source with the reverb, whilst maintaining definition by engaging the ducker and pre-delay. Haven't had the time to dig deeper, but here's a quick demo using solo piano – Pianoteq's Steingraeber Grand – first Dry, then the same passage with Crystalline:



Really nice example (as ever!}. Yes I also have Supermassive (and Raum) but I'm finding Crystalline to be more flexible for single instruments/as an insert when I want a really pristine and dense/non-grainy "artificial" verb (for which the smoothing works great).


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