Cableguys ShaperBox 3.5 UPDATE

[__Karlo__]

Yeah, you can accomplish most everything Shaperbox does with Reaper (minus the midi or side chain custom shape triggering), but reaper automation is not fun or easy when you can just slap Shaperbox on a track to get some side chain pumping going on.

I chose Shaperbox over Infiltrator because infiltrator IME required a lot more puttzing around to get consistent volume between all the different effects. There are a lot. I didn't think many of the spectral effects where usable but that's more my abilities than the effects themselves, but I thought the compressor was trash... it did manage to tame and glue much of the wildness of it (and maybe it was my source material) but I thought it made everything kinda harsh sounding. I like glitchy sounding stuff, but Infiltrator became painful to listen to after using it for a few hours. It's a really cool plug, but I think shaperbox is more surgical for mixing tasks where as Infiltrator is more for creative effects.

[Trancit]

Just out of curiousity: Can Shaperbox do something that Devious Machines Infiltrator can't? Does anyone own both and can compare?

This question is silly, because at the end you want both

Corrected that for you, with a good DAW (with strong automation/modulation) you might not need any of the three, but you might need them to feed your GAS…

Tbh... for me it´s about the presets...

Just being able to mangle some input through a ton of different presets just to have a look what´s coming out...

So for me, it´s definetely the presets where I rate Tantra a bit higher than Shaperbox but the latter has better editing... (never touched Infiltrator though as the ones I have already cover all I most likely need in the next 500 years...)

Hard to do with even the most flexible DAW without a tough time and hard work...

[Schnickschnack]

Thank you for the input The multi band processing seems to me like the biggest advantage over Infiltrator. Would be interesting to know if DM is planning on implementing that to a future Infiltrator version.

[SamDi]

Just out of curiousity: Can Shaperbox do something that Devious Machines Infiltrator can't? Does anyone own both and can compare?

This question is silly, because at the end you want both

Corrected that for you, with a good DAW (with strong automation/modulation) you might not need any of the three, but you might need them to feed your GAS…

For most cases you could find a workaround in the DAW, but drawing automatization curves is PITA for me in most DAWs. Ableton is the only DAW, which comes in my mind (and which I have) where at least are offered some basic shapes to draw. In the others you have to set it point by point and bend the curves around. And then you have to copy it from measure to measure. And modulation, I guess you point at BW - they don't even have MSEGs. So all not impossible but much less nice and more time consuming. Yes "need" is a relative relative word...

[ROTMetro]

Shaperbox is quick and simple. Has multiband and keyswitches. Shaperbox lives on my snare plate verb send to do the opposite of ducking (what's that called?). I want the plate verb only when the snare is hitting. Super simple to dial in, super simple to adjust, once it's in place I can add key switches later if I need movement/life, push the plate verb down in some places, let it have tail others. With keyswitches I can just 'play' that in instead of drawing it (you get 8 or 9 key switches) which is cool because the DAW has a midi buffer so I can play a bunch of options and easily go back and use the midi/keyswitchs that worked. It ended up my goto because I was forcing myself to use it for everything so I could learn it better and now it takes no thought to get what I want. For ducking the multiband its great, pushes the delay out of the way on the frequencies I want but doesn't completely obliterate the delay. And with key switching to less/more aggressive shapes I can easily have the ducking slowly lift and/or morph so it doesn't sound strange/artificial (with the ducking suddenly just releasing) and again I can play those variations emotionally (and taking advantage of my DAWS MIDI buffer) using keyswitches with the music instead of mechanically drawing in automation, playing it back, changing it, playing it back. There are other tools but for me I like being deeper with one common tool especially as I suck at all this and I like the musicality of playing keyswitches versus drawing in/programming automation

[psynical]

Dan Worrall put out a Shaperbox tour yesterday:

https://youtu.be/FNdsl4q17Sk

[psynical]

Clicking on any of the colored dots on the right hand side of the presets window crashes SB v3.2.1/VST3 on a M1 MBP running OSX 13.2.1. Tried in Ableton and Bitwig, and both crash.
Clicking the filter dots doesn't cause the crash, but clicking any of the dots below that will crash the daw.

Build
Hash: 389a85912f
Architecture: macOS M1 arm_64
Timestamp: Dec 15 2022, 14:17:01

Plugin
Name: ShaperBox
Version: 3.2.1
Licensed to: xxx
Your Shapers: Time Drive Noise Filter Liquid Crush Volume Pan Width Compressor Oscilloscope
Channels: Stereo In, Stereo Out
Type: VST3
Permissions: 600UG
Path: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/ShaperBox 3.vst3/Contents/MacOS/ShaperBox

Host
Name: Bitwig Studio
BPM: 110
Sample rate: 48000
Path: /Applications/Bitwig Studio.app/Contents/MacOS/Bitwig Plug-in Host ARM64-NEON.app/Contents/MacOS/BitwigPluginHost-ARM64-NEON

System
OS name: Mac OSX 13.2.1
Region: US
Memory: 64.000 GB (total)
Up Time: 2.192 days
Time: 2023-02-18T14:22:11.155-05:00

CPU
Model: Apple M1 Max
Vendor:
Cores: 10
Threads: 10
Speed: 0.000 GHz (current)

UI
Scale: 125%
Host scale: 100%
Screen 1: 2056*1329 (current)
Editor area: 378 268 1300 793

[plexuss]

Nothing we can do about it. Report it to CableGuys.

[Jakob / Cableguys]

Clicking on any of the colored dots on the right hand side of the presets window crashes SB v3.2.1/VST3 on a M1 MBP running OSX 13.2.1. Tried in Ableton and Bitwig, and both crash.
Clicking the filter dots doesn't cause the crash, but clicking any of the dots below that will crash the daw.

I've never heard of that bug before. Does this happen with an empty set, with only ShaperBox in it?

[Rickskii]

I can confirm clicking the dots on the right of the preset window crashes Ableton on my M1 Mac instantly.

Also tried in an empty set with the same result.

[Jakob / Cableguys]

I can confirm clicking the dots on the right of the preset window crashes Ableton on my M1 Mac instantly.

Also tried in an empty set with the same result.

Ouch! I have no M1 at home, but we'll address this first thing on Monday and hopefully release a quick bugfix update. Weird..

[woodsdenis]

I can confirm clicking the dots on the right of the preset window crashes Ableton on my M1 Mac instantly.

Also tried in an empty set with the same result.

Same here, Mac Studio (2022) 12.6.3

[Jakob / Cableguys]

I can confirm clicking the dots on the right of the preset window crashes Ableton on my M1 Mac instantly.

Also tried in an empty set with the same result.

Same here, Mac Studio (2022) 12.6.3

Thank you all for reporting the bug! We've just released am update that fixes this.

[Trancit]

If I had a wish free for Shaperbox I would love to see some more visualizations!

I love how you used i.e. in Drive Shaper the empty space to visualize the distortion graph...
The same I would wish i.e. for the Filter Shaper but editable that you can grab the node in the freq view to adjust the cutoff there instaed of just having a slider...

Just a quick mockup (not pretty neither ):

Mockup.jpg

.
I would find that especially handy when using the Filter Shaper not as an LFO automated thingie but for making a pre EQ band (ok, in the mockup it´s post...) for the i.e. Drive Shaper, Crusher, or Noise Shaper... and I have to say I am more of the type of guy prefering to adjust parameter in a visual context like in parametric EQs...

[Lee / Cableguys]

We just released ShaperBox v3.2.3 – an update focused on workflow and quality improvements.

Some of you asked for a way to access the presets from ShaperBox 1 & 2, so we've added a "Show Legacy Presets" option to the Main Menu. When enabled, all legacy presets will appear in the Browser's All section. Please Sync once to download them.

We've also made improvements to wave editing. Selections can now be randomized. And Shift-clicking a Wave Preset now scales it to the same vertical range as the current wave – for example, to try different wave shapes within a narrow filter cutoff range.

There are new "Auto" options (on by default) for the editing grid and background waveform oscilloscope. These switch between Straight and Triplet grids depending on LFO Length, and select the most appropriate oscilloscope mode (Stereo, Combined or Magnitude) for each Shaper, respectively. There's also a "Snap on by default" option, if you prefer ShaperBox to launch with snap-to-grid enabled.

The sidechain detector signal is now shown while adjusting the Envelope/Compressor's Filter Band. The LFO Timing Mode (Beat / Hertz / Pitch) is now DAW-automatable. And we crushed a few bugs too!

Download the ShaperBox 3.2.3 update from your account, or try the demo.