Comparison

Traverse Lo vs FALSE MEMORY

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Traverse Lo

This audio plugin emulates the character of cassette tape, offering a unique tape delay with degrading echoes. It includes controls for saturation, wobble, and procedural noise, allowing for creative sound design and adding warmth to any audio source.

Highlights
  • Cassette tape character emulation
  • Stereo tape delay with tempo sync
  • Procedural splice-point emulator
  • Curated noise generator
  • Gated noise control
  • Ping-pong width control
Features
Read full description

Traverse is a lo-fi tape effect and delay plugin from Audio Damage, makers of premium audio software since 2002. Runs as an AUv3 plugin inside AUM, Cubasis, Drambo, GarageBand, or any AUv3 host on iPhone and iPad. Make a beat sound like an old mixtape. Wash a vocal in tape echo. Push a clean synth into a slow, self-saturating wobble. Or just add a little warmth to anything. One plugin, one signal flow, no chaining, infinite possibilities. WHAT IT DOES - Cassette tape character — Drive, Wow, Flutter, and a tilt-EQ Tone knob that goes from clean and warm to wobbly and worn - Stereo tape delay, 20ms to 10 seconds, free or host-tempo synced - POST DELAY routing button reorders the chain: tape emulator with a delay, or tape delay with a clean input - Procedural splice-point emulator with four controls for tape dropouts and chirps - Curated noise generator with hiss, crackle, dust, fan rumble, 60Hz and 50Hz hum, white, pink, and the Califone Card Reader - Gated noise that drops the floor when input is silent — room tone speaks only when the track does - Ping-pong width control, click-free bypass, fully-wet mix by default WHY IT SOUNDS DIFFERENT Most tape delay plugins keep saturation and delay as separate stages: input gets saturated, then echoed cleanly. Traverse re-processes every feedback repeat through the full cassette chain, so echoes degrade and bloom with each pass instead of just decaying in volume. PART OF THE MOTION EFFECTS FAMILY Traverse joins Ascent (shimmer reverb) and Descent (granular effect processor) in Audio Damage's Motion Effects family — three plugins for ambient explorations and sound design sonic science. ALSO AVAILABLE FOR DESKTOP The full version of Traverse runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux as VST3, AU, AAX, and CLAP. Same DSP, same sound. Visit audiodamage.com for the desktop builds and 20-year catalog of plugins. ABOUT AUDIO DAMAGE Founded in 2002 by Chris Randall and Adam Schabtach, Audio Damage builds plugins for people who care more about character than convention. No copy protection, no subscriptions, no DRM. Just plugins that sound like nothing else. NO TRACKING. NO IN-APP PURCHASES. NO SUBSCRIPTIONS. NO ADS.

About

FALSE MEMORY

This app transforms any sound into a decaying audio effect, simulating tape degradation or digital corruption. Explore various destruction parameters to create unique sonic textures and atmospheres. It can also evolve the sound automatically over time.

Highlights
  • Real-time audio disintegration
  • Analog/Digital destruction engine
  • Pitch and timing destabilization
  • Frequency spectrum smearing
  • Past audio bleed-through
  • Automatic evolution over time
  • Randomize parameters
Currently charting
Read full description

FALSE MEMORY is a real-time audio disintegration effect. Feed it any sound and watch it decay. A tape left in the sun. A corrupted file half-recovered from a dead drive. A memory dissolving as you try to hold onto it. Turn up MEMORY and the destruction begins. Everything else shapes how the sound falls apart. DESTRUCTION ENGINE The Analog / Digital slider is the soul of the effect. Slide left for warm, organic decay: Cassette wobble, Reel-to-reel saturation, VHS tracking errors. Slide right for cold, precise corruption: Lo-fi aliasing, Circuit-bent glitches, Data-mosh block artifacts. Drift destabilizes pitch and timing. At low settings it breathes. Cranked up, the signal loses its grip on reality. Damage controls how aggressively the signal gets torn apart. ATMOSPHERE Fog smears the frequency spectrum into clouds. Three modes: Tonal keeps harmonic structure intact, Inharmonic scatters it, Evolving slowly morphs between the two. Ghosts lets past audio bleed through the current signal. Echoes repeat rhythmically. Imprints leave residual traces. Granular scatters fragments across time. TEXTURE Hiss adds tape noise, from subtle warmth to a roaring floor. Crackle introduces vinyl pops and surface damage. SET IT AND FORGET IT Evolve lets the destruction deepen automatically over time. Pick a duration from 1 to 64 minutes. Walk away. Come back to something completely different. The Randomize button rerolls all destruction parameters instantly. Hit it until something clicks. AUv3 plugin for iOS. Runs in AUM, GarageBand, Logic, and any AUv3 host. Standalone app for iPhone and iPad. From All The Machines.

Screenshots

Traverse Lo2 screens
FALSE MEMORY4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: FALSE MEMORY at daily against Traverse Lo's every 3 months. FALSE MEMORY also leads on chart position (#190 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 16.0). Traverse Lo's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $3.99). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Traverse Lo costs $2.99 and FALSE MEMORY $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Traverse Lo against 5.0 for FALSE MEMORY. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 8 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Traverse Lo ships an update every 3 months, FALSE MEMORY daily. The most recent releases landed on September 9, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Traverse Lo versus FALSE MEMORY: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTraverse LoFALSE MEMORY
Price$2.99 — better$3.99
Rating5.0 (7 ratings)5.0 (8 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings78 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#190 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size62 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAudio Damage, Inc.Stephan Bolch

Customer experience

Traverse Lo

All ratings7 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

FALSE MEMORY

All ratings8 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Traverse Lo

No in-app purchases

None

FALSE MEMORY

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Traverse Lo free?
Traverse Lo costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is FALSE MEMORY free?
FALSE MEMORY costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Traverse Lo or FALSE MEMORY?
Traverse Lo and FALSE MEMORY are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 7 and 8 ratings respectively.
Do Traverse Lo or FALSE MEMORY have ads?
Neither Traverse Lo nor FALSE MEMORY shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Traverse Lo or FALSE MEMORY?
Traverse Lo ships an update every 3 months, and FALSE MEMORY daily. Most recently, Traverse Lo was updated on September 9, 2026 and FALSE MEMORY on September 22, 2026.

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