Audio engineers and music producers looking for a next-generation algorithmic reverb effect will be thrilled with the BABY AUDIO Crystalline, a reverb 60 years in the making, with modern features and an unreal sound. With more than 300 presets from professional designers, you'll never be at a loss for epic, out of this world sounds. Its rooms and halls won't sound anything like those in your house—but closer to those of your dreams.
BPM-Synced Start and End Times
Crystalline lets you hard-sync the reverb attack and decay time to your DAW's tempo. This generally results 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 predelay and decay times in milliseconds instead.
Reflection 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, to extra wide.
Depth Section
- Resolution sets the complexity of the algorithm from basic to pristine. More complex settings will give you an ultraclean reverb response, free of metallic artifacts; while the Basic setting will give you an efficient CPU performance at 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 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 sound like 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 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 plug-in’s state to your default preset.
- Tool Tips gives you help texts explaining each plug-in parameter when hovering your mouse over a parameter.
Preset Creators
Crystalline comes loaded with more than 300 presets created by BABY Audio and friends of the house including:
- Damian Taylor (Bjork, The Prodigy, The killers, Arcade Fire)
- Michele Canova (John Legend, Alicia Keys, Olly Murs)
- Eric J Dubowsky (Flume, St. Vincent, Chet Faker, Kygo)
- Mat Sim (Nicki Minaj, Big Sean, Gucci Mane)
- M-Phases (Eminem, Madonna, Demi Lovato)
Compatibility
- Plug-In Formats: VST, VST3, AU, AAX
- Platforms Supported: Mac OS 10.7 and up, including M1 native compatibility. Windows 7 and up.
- DAW Supported: All major DAWs, including Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Cubase, Nuendo, Studio One, Bitwig, Reaper, Reason, etc.