Alternatives to speakerphone?

[thagreatbelow]

Hello all,

I know that speakerphone is a f**king incredible plugin, but HOLY SHIT it's expensive. Definitely geared towards the professional. No Black Friday deals from that guy!! Are there any alternatives? I have McDSP futzbox, but n comparison to speakerphone it's complete garbage.

[pekbro]

DId you try texture from Devious Machines... Its along similar lines and on sale currently.
Used is the only way to get speakerphone for maybe 500 ish if your lucky. Also futzbox
is not garbage...

https://www.deviousmachines.com/texture/

[thagreatbelow]

texture is interesting, but not really the same thing :/ Texture IS on my to buy list though so I'll probably pick it up before the sale is over.

[pekbro]

You can do a lot with Texture. I would just get speakerphone if I wanted it. I just looked, it's only about
$440. I could have sworn it used to be $700 ish. It's been a while since I was interested in it though.
A bargain (comparatively) if you ask me.

[reggie1979]

Nothing is speakerphone. But it's too expensive.

[Ah_Dziz]

I have Speakerphone along with most of the “sound dirtifier” plugins on the market. You won’t find anything that A: covers as much ground as Speakerphone (everything from vinyl modeling, mic modeling, many types of distortion, many types mod fx (vibrato, tremolo, etc), radio tuning simulation, cell phone encoding, and B: has such a massive collection of extremely well recorded background samples (traffic noise, line noise, needle drops, and on and on) and a collection of incredibly well recorded bizarre Impulse responses.
So nothing else I have can sound like a distorted guitar being played off of a 78rpm record through an old suitcase cellphone which is played through a set of laptop speakers that are covered by a blanket in the cabin of a 747. This isn’t something someone needs often, but there isn’t much else that could do it if you wanted.

The only thing that I can think of that would be capable of doing all this in one package is mxxx. That being said, you would still have to have all the proper IR files, and the setup would take much longer. If you “need” the capabilities of Speakerphone, you need to grab it on sale (which happens semi regularly) or you can save money by combining tons of other stuff which will take far longer to set up.

For the more analog parts (if you’re a windows user) I can’t recommend sonitex enough. For crazier digital stuff try Chipcrusher from plogue. These two can cover quite a bit of the same ground in many situations. I would recommend grabbing Speakerphone though if it’s what you want and just getting it second hand or on a sale. There isn’t much that can do that much in one package as easily.

[thagreatbelow]

Damn y’all are right I just got to pony up the 440$. Shit is expensive but seems to be worth every penny. There’s nothing like it. It’s a shame because he’d probably sell twice as much if he cut the price in half

When does it go on sale??? I searched kvraudio forum for speakerphone and I didn’t see anybody talking about sales.

[dayjob]

Damn y’all are right I just got to pony up the 440$. Shit is expensive but seems to be worth every penny. There’s nothing like it. It’s a shame because he’d probably sell twice as much if he cut the price in half

When does it go on sale??? I searched kvraudio forum for speakerphone and I didn’t see anybody talking about sales.

i've never noticed it on sale. i had the audioease bundle years ago and speakerphone was the hardest to say goodbye to when i sold all my ilok plug ins in a rage.

there's nothing that does all of what it does but as mentioned plogue chipcrusher is really good and does not require ilok. audioease requires a physical ilok dongle and doesn't offer any other form of authorization. this is fine for some people not for others. not offering an opinion. just bringing it up so you're aware in case you don't already have an ilok.

whatever convolution reverb you have can be used to do more than just reverb. there are a lot of responses out there for sound design and creative weirdness and many of them are free.

you'll need multiple plugins to get what speakerphone offers and even then it won't be the same.

[Aloysius]

mcdsp futzbox

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I remember lusting after that, a long time ago. The iLok was a dealbreaker, for me. If you have no problem with that, it's certainly a great option.
For myself, these days, I wouldn't come close to spending that kind of money, regardless of copy-protection. It's not that I think it's not a worthwhile collection for certain use-cases, and for certain people. I just think that you can 'ballpark' most of this stuff with much cheaper apps and a decent set of IR's.

[bermudagold]

true there is nothing like it in one package.....but at the end of the day it's just distortion sim, noise sim, modulation, foley samples, and IRs of mics, speakers, and small places....most DAWs today have plugin racks you can save as presets, and if not there are freeware ones, so you can build the same chains
In one package chipcrusher and trash come pretty close

Building chains route,...tons of options and freeware
1. melda has a convolver with box, cabinet, mic, and sound design IRs....a handful of distortion sims, ...and a handful of modulation plugs....most have basic free versions
2. there are small space IRs and noise samples packages out there

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

mcdsp futzbox

You only needed to read one post

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

true there is nothing like it in one package.....but at the end of the day it's just distortion sim, noise sim, modulation, and IRs of mics, speakers, and small places....most DAWs today have plugin racks you can save as presets, and if not there are freeware ones, so you can build the same chains
In one package chipcrusher and trash come pretty close
Building chains route,...tons of options and freeware
1. melda has a convolver with box, cabinet, mic, and sound design IRs....a handful of distortion sims, ...and a handful of modulation plugs....most have basic free versions
2. there are small space IRs and noise samples packages out there

Yup! Trash and ChipCrusher would be a great start. Add a selection of cheap/free IR's and a dash of Devastator 2, into the mix, and Bob's your aunty's live-in lover.

[dayjob]

true there is nothing like it in one package.....but at the end of the day it's just distortion sim, noise sim, modulation, and IRs of mics, speakers, and small places....most DAWs today have plugin racks you can save as presets, and if not there are freeware ones, so you can build the same chains
In one package chipcrusher and trash come pretty close
Building chains route,...tons of options and freeware
1. melda has a convolver with box, cabinet, mic, and sound design IRs....a handful of distortion sims, ...and a handful of modulation plugs....most have basic free versions
2. there are small space IRs and noise samples packages out there

yeah.. there's ways to get there.. allbeit w/different character and interface. what i liked in speakerphone was the interface, modulation, quality of each section, the various shitty cellphone stuff, the reverb is very musically useful, multiple IRs all at once in difference places/combinations.

it's been years since i sold it. it's a high quality processor in every way but i don't feel like i'm lacking in any of that stuff w/what i have now.. it's just a different routine to get there.

i will say it's nice having smaller dedicated processors for different tasks. i was unaware of mcdsp futzbox.. will have to have a gander at it.

[Spitfire31]

If you're going to build a chain, don't overlook AudioThing's Speaker, Megaphone and Reels. The Orb and Filterjam might also have a place. 30% off sale right now…

www.audiothing.net