FOAM by Carbonated Audio is a $49 ducking reverb that lowers its own tail by up to 36 dB while the dry signal plays, then blooms in the gaps, on macOS and Windows.
Plugin comparison
Carbonated Audio FOAM vs Baby Audio Crystalline
Specs, price and the Dubspot Score, side by side — with our verdict on which effect to buy.
Independent score / workflow fit / buying signal
Contenders
The side-by-side
Effect / Baby Audio
Baby Audio Crystalline
8.6Great
Crystalline is an algorithmic studio reverb plugin by Baby Audio with modern controls for shaping reverb character and sound design.
Technical matrix
Specs compared
| Signal | Carbonated Audio FOAM | Baby Audio Crystalline |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $49 | — |
| Dubspot Score | — | 8.6 |
| Formats | VST3, AU, AAX, macOS, Windows | VST, VST3, AU, AAX |
| Type | Ducking reverb | — |
| Ducking | Make Room, up to 36 dB, recovery in note values or milliseconds | — |
| Detector | Internal by default, switchable to an external source | — |
| Room | Size and Bloom XY field, ten factory spaces | — |
| Tail Shaper | Four points (Onset, Build, Body, Decay) on a tempo grid | — |
| Tempo sync | Decay, Pre-Delay, and Recovery, with manual BPM fallback | — |
| Routing | Send (reverb only) or Insert (equal-power dry/wet) | — |
| Latency | Zero samples, no lookahead | — |
| Formats | VST3, AU, AAX on macOS, VST3 on Windows | VST, VST3, AU, AAX (64-bit) |
| System | macOS 11+ universal, Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) | — |
| Plugin type | — | Algorithmic reverb (allpass loop algorithm) |
| Presets | — | 300+ curated presets |
| Mac compatibility | — | macOS 10.11 and up, including native Apple Silicon M-chip support |
| Windows compatibility | — | Windows 10 and newer |
| Key functions | — | BPM-synced pre-delay/decay, ducker, freeze, reverse, shimmer, gated reverb, Eco Mode for low CPU |
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