On Tap by Carbonated Audio is a $20 sidechain ducking plugin with 16 curves, three trigger modes and a band-split crossover, on macOS and Windows, with zero latency.
Plugin comparison
Carbonated Audio On Tap vs Cableguys VolumeShaper 6
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 / Cableguys
Cableguys VolumeShaper 6
8.4Great
VolumeShaper is a Cableguys effect plugin that shapes audio with a drawable volume LFO triggered by beats, MIDI or transients across three frequency bands.
Technical matrix
Specs compared
| Signal | Carbonated Audio On Tap | Cableguys VolumeShaper 6 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $20 | — |
| Dubspot Score | — | 8.4 |
| Formats | VST3, AU, AAX, macOS, Windows | VST 2, VST 3, AU (Mac), AAX |
| Type | Sidechain ducking and volume-shaping plugin | — |
| Curves | 16 hand-crafted shapes, including sidechain pump, sub-bass duck and reverse chain | — |
| Trigger modes | Sync (DAW tempo), MIDI (any note), Audio (incoming signal) | — |
| Band split | Crossover from 20 Hz to 5.12 kHz, duck above or below | — |
| Controls | Mix, slope offset, shift amount, draggable end marker | — |
| Latency | Zero, no lookahead | — |
| Formats | VST3, AU, AAX on macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon native); VST3 on Windows | — |
| System | macOS 10.13 or later, Windows 10 or later (64-bit) | — |
| License | $20 one time, 3 activations, free updates | — |
| Current version on official page | — | VolumeShaper 7 (version 6 no longer listed/sold by Cableguys) |
| Multiband shaping | — | Separate volume LFOs for lows, mids and highs |
| Triggering | — | Beat-locked sync, MIDI, or audio-transient triggering with external sidechain input |
| Smoothing | — | Click-free lookahead smoothing with transient pre-smoothing |
| Mac formats | — | VST 2, VST 3, AU or AAX |
| Windows formats | — | VST 2, VST 3 or AAX |
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