Alternatives to speakerphone?

[thagreatbelow]

Futzbox sucks but I didn’t know Melda had a convolver that could do amp sims and the like. I’m going to have to dig into that some more and see how he’s it would be to find IR’s for old radios and the like. I never thought of that. Like I could make my own “speaker box” with the right collection of IR samples. Hmmm that gets the noggin going for sure.

[Aloysius]

mcdsp futzbox

You only needed to read one post

I have McDSP futzbox, but n comparison to speakerphone it's complete garbage.

A bad workman blames his tools.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

Futzbox sucks but I didn’t know Melda had a convolver that could do amp sims and the like. I’m going to have to dig into that some more and see how he’s it would be to find IR’s for old radios and the like. I never thought of that. Like I could make my own “speaker box” with the right collection of IR samples. Hmmm that gets the noggin going for sure.

Trash 2 also has the same, albeit with some added sound-shaping goodies, in the same plugin

[CrystalWizard]

Speakerphone has always been enticing (more so when i had the budget) but it also seems that if i had a vast collection of IRs i would be close.

[bermudagold]

mcdsp futzbox

You only needed to read one post

I have McDSP futzbox, but n comparison to speakerphone it's complete garbage.

A bad workman blames his tools.

I wouldn't say its that cut and dry....Regardless of skill levels, there is no getting around the difference in source materials.....ask a good carpenter and a bad carpenter to build you a stool with the same set of tools, ....then give the bad carpenter mahogany and the good carpenter balsa wood....which stool you want to sit on?

Speakerphone uses convolution with true stereo IRs and real noise.....Futzbox uses synthetic impulse approximations and synthetic noise....Futzbox is usable, but you can clearly hear the difference between the two

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

mcdsp futzbox

You only needed to read one post

I have McDSP futzbox, but n comparison to speakerphone it's complete garbage.

A bad workman blames his tools.

there is no getting around the difference in materials.....ask a good carpenter and a bad carpenter to build you a stool with the same set of tools, ....then give the bad carpenter mahogany and the good carpenter balsa wood....which stool you want to sit on?

Bad analogy - Conflating tools with materials, and the utility of the end-product

[bermudagold]

mcdsp futzbox

You only needed to read one post

I have McDSP futzbox, but n comparison to speakerphone it's complete garbage.

A bad workman blames his tools.

there is no getting around the difference in materials.....ask a good carpenter and a bad carpenter to build you a stool with the same set of tools, ....then give the bad carpenter mahogany and the good carpenter balsa wood....which stool you want to sit on?

Bad analogy - Conflating tools with materials

I dont think so,...alyosius I believe was implying thagreatbelow didn't like futzbox because he wasn't skilled enough to get the desired results out of it....what I'm saying is the two different tools being used towards the same objective are using fundamentally different quality sources...
When quality of tools is fixed, an unskilled craftsmen using the highest quality materials can produce a result subjectively and/or objectively superior to a highly skilled craftsman working with low quality materials.

this notion that only unskilled craftsmen blame their tools for the outcome,ignores the third variable of the quality of source materials the tools are operating on
Some people say you cant put lipstick on a pig....engineers say GIGO (garbage in....garbage out)

[Sahul]

There's a quite interesting collection of free IRs from old speakers and telephones by Fokkie van Saane, which can be downloaded here: https://fokkie.home.xs4all.nl/IR.htm

Obviously, it's not Speakerphone, and you need an IR player to use them, but they are very nice. Apart from that, I'd also recommend chipcrusher (again, not the same thing, but way cheaper than Speakerphone and now with VST3 support).

[bermudagold]

There's a quite interesting collection of free IRs from old speakers and telephones by Fokkie van Saane, which can be downloaded here: https://fokkie.home.xs4all.nl/IR.htm

Obviously, it's not Speakerphone, and you need an IR player to use them, but they are very nice. Apart from that, I'd also recommend chipcrusher (again, not the same thing, but way cheaper than Speakerphone and now with VST3 support).

Thanks for that....very generous of Fokkie

[Caine123]

i did buy speakerphone and havent used it much though. i wouldnt pay 400 bucks though to tell you the truth! i paid around 200 i think, but it was 2nd hand so i would recommend it too to look out in the marketplace for it!
the quality is great and lots of playground, it depends for what you want to use it, if you are into sound engineer stuff etc go for it, as a hobby and just for fun wait for a nice offer.

[Aloysius]

....which stool you want to sit on?

I don't want to sit on anybody's stool. Not even my own. That's a bit too kinky for me.

[thagreatbelow]

There's a quite interesting collection of free IRs from old speakers and telephones by Fokkie van Saane, which can be downloaded here: https://fokkie.home.xs4all.nl/IR.htm

Obviously, it's not Speakerphone, and you need an IR player to use them, but they are very nice. Apart from that, I'd also recommend chipcrusher (again, not the same thing, but way cheaper than Speakerphone and now with VST3 support).

Thank you! That's a great resource!

I've been playing around with some of the suggestions y'all have made and I'm really impressed so far! I'm still hunting for quality impulse responses, and none compete with speakerphone for sheer quantity, but I'm still hunting, and I think in the short term this will satisfy me and save me 440$. If speakerphone 2 ever goes on sale though, or if I can get a used copy, I'll swoop it up in an instant.

One problem I'm having though is the file types. I own trash 2 and it can read .wav files easily, but some of the impulse responses I've downloaded that I really want to try out (like this one I got of a forest!), have a .L and .R file extension in 2 files, and OSX reads them as plain text files. I'm making an educated guess that they're for left and right stereo versions, and likely made for a very specific reverb type (Like altiverb that costs 800$). Does anybody have experience with these file types? Would the MconvolutionMB plugin read these file types? 55$ is pretty affordable when it's contrasted with 450$ for speakerphone, but if it won't do any better than Trash2, then I'd be wasting my money. I'm looking into buying fog convolved for the impulse responses alone, but maybe even that would be able to read them? I've delved pretty deep into sound design, but I'm sad to say convolution is something I haven't gotten much experience with, and I'm excited to learn as much as I can to make my own "speakerphone".

[Ah_Dziz]

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 got mine on a JRR shop sale. I haven’t noticed it on sale since and it’s been a few years. That doesn’t mean it won’t/ doesn’t go on sale more often. I just haven’t been looking.

I would expect you might be able to get a second hand copy for a good price. That’s how I got Altiverb. I would recommend looking over at the classified ads on v.i. Control. Lots of those people work in post production.

JJ

[zerocrossing]

It only seems expensive if you don’t look at how much it would cost to buy individual plugins that do everything that Speakerphone does, and does them as well. I resisted it for a long time due to the price, but that was a mistake. It’s an incredible tool. Also, look at Vectormelt

[bermudagold]

There's a quite interesting collection of free IRs from old speakers and telephones by Fokkie van Saane, which can be downloaded here: https://fokkie.home.xs4all.nl/IR.htm

Obviously, it's not Speakerphone, and you need an IR player to use them, but they are very nice. Apart from that, I'd also recommend chipcrusher (again, not the same thing, but way cheaper than Speakerphone and now with VST3 support).

Thank you! That's a great resource!

I've been playing around with some of the suggestions y'all have made and I'm really impressed so far! I'm still hunting for quality impulse responses, and none compete with speakerphone for sheer quantity, but I'm still hunting, and I think in the short term this will satisfy me and save me 440$. If speakerphone 2 ever goes on sale though, or if I can get a used copy, I'll swoop it up in an instant.

One problem I'm having though is the file types. I own trash 2 and it can read .wav files easily, but some of the impulse responses I've downloaded that I really want to try out (like this one I got of a forest!), have a .L and .R file extension in 2 files, and OSX reads them as plain text files. I'm making an educated guess that they're for left and right stereo versions, and likely made for a very specific reverb type (Like altiverb that costs 800$). Does anybody have experience with these file types? Would the MconvolutionMB plugin read these file types? 55$ is pretty affordable when it's contrasted with 450$ for speakerphone, but if it won't do any better than Trash2, then I'd be wasting my money. I'm looking into buying fog convolved for the impulse responses alone, but maybe even that would be able to read them? I've delved pretty deep into sound design, but I'm sad to say convolution is something I haven't gotten much experience with, and I'm excited to learn as much as I can to make my own "speakerphone".

@Aloysius: Wiping coffee from my monitor....thanks

@thagreatbelow: Depends on the convolver....not all can deliver the different imaging configurations including true stereo.... Some have facilities to enter the different impulses according to the imaging configuration....some require a single interleaved file.
Some like SIR,...will do the interleaving for you and create a new single file....SIR may be one of the most slept on convolvers....great feature set....remarkable how many dont have free envelope editors for the impulse....the only thing SIR is missing is an imaging positioner
A good resource from fellow kvrians if ur up for the hunt
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