If there’s one plugin that has become my personal 'Swiss Army Knife' in the studio, it's ShaperBox 3 by Cableguys. This plugin is built entirely around an LFO workflow, letting you literally draw in the curves of a low-frequency oscillator to modulate various effects. This time-based manipulation adds a layer of precise control that many other plugins just can't match.
At first glance, ShaperBox 3 looks like a straightforward multi-effects powerhouse, and it absolutely is. But the real value for me lies in its versatility as a creative tool and a fix-it utility for common mixing challenges. The unique interface, centered around the drawable LFO, gives you incredibly detailed control over how effect parameters change over time.
For anyone familiar with using LFOs in a digital audio workstation, you know the oscillations can generally be synced to your timeline, or run freely in Hertz or milliseconds. With the release of ShaperBox 3, Cableguys introduced the ability to trigger the LFO via audio transients from the input signal. This one feature unlocked a new range of possibilities, allowing you to completely sculpt the sound of percussive hits, synth notes, and more.
Here’s a breakdown of how I approach this powerful tool, from the basics to the next level.
Shaping Volume and Dynamics
The most common application of ShaperBox for me is as an ADSR shaping tool using the Volume module. For example, I might want to tweak the shape of a snare drum. Because the LFO can be triggered with every transient, you can draw exactly how you want the volume to change over time for each snare hit, redesigning it to better fit into your track.
Let's say a snare recording has too much room sound and is muddying up the mix. I could use the Volume shaper to fade out the volume right after the initial transient, almost like a manual expander. This makes the snare tighter and more focused, helping it cut through without the lingering sound I don’t want between the hits. On the flip side, if the transient is too sharp, you could roll off the volume slightly at the start of each hit, creating a subtle fade-in to soften the attack.
The Volume shaper also excels at side-chain ducking. Instead of relying on a compressor's attack and release settings, you can draw the exact shape of the ducking you want. You can even trace the specific shape of your kick drum's decay (the side-chain signal waveform is displayed behind your LFO shape) and invert the LFO shape so that the ducking on the bass track allows the kick drum to fit perfectly like a puzzle piece.
Beyond Volume: Modulating Other Effects
Once you understand the power of shaping volume over time, you can apply this same LFO workflow to the other effect modules. Take distortion, for example. With a snare drum, you could draw in a shape that applies a burst of distortion just for the transient, then has the distortion level drop for the rest of the waveform, leaving the tail clean. Or you could do the opposite: no distortion on the transient to keep it sharp, but then ramp-up the saturation on the sustain. This kind of precise, time-based distortion is hard to achieve with most distortion plugins.
Dynamic Effects with Envelope Following
In many of the modules, you can link the effect amount directly to the amplitude of the input signal. This is "envelope following". It opens up some fun possibilities with effects like filters, reverb, panning, and width. Think about a pad sound where the louder it gets, the more it extends to the sides of the stereo field, or a vocal where the amount of reverb changes dynamically with the singer's volume. All of this can happen automatically, without any manual automation.
Precision and Power with Multi-Band Control
Once you're comfortable with the core workflow, you can expand the creative and problem-solving possibilities even further with ShaperBox's multi-band functionality. All shaper modules can operate in up to three distinct bands, meaning you can apply different settings and LFO shapes to different parts of the frequency spectrum. The possibilities are wild. Want a different reverb algorithm for the low end than the highs? Check. Apply distortion to just the midrange, leaving the lows and highs clean? Why not.
One of my favourite multi-band use cases is with the volume shaper on a kick drum. For example, I might apply a tight volume roll-off to the high and mid bands to get a focused, clean attack, but I'll let the low end ring out a bit longer with a slower fade. This lets you retain the full weight of the low end, but reduces unwanted room noise by gating the rest of the signal after the initial attack.
Endless Possibilities
If you want, you can stack these modules so the signal passes through each one in a custom effects chain. The signal flow is up to you, and the creative potential is near endless.
There's so much more to say about each specific module, from the unique Time shaper to the textural possibilities of the Noise module. The main takeaway is this: the plugin is incredible value and crazy versatile. The team at Cableguys have excellent tutorials on their YouTube channel too. This is one of my must-have plugins, and I think more people should know about it.
Happy creating!
If there’s one plugin that I could consider as my ‘Swiss Army Knife’, it’s Shaperbox 3 by Cableguys.
Shaperbox is a plugin that is designed entirely around an LFO workflow, allowing you to draw in LFO waveforms that change the amount of effect that gets applied to the input signal over time. This manipulation across time adds a dimension of control that many other plugins simply do not have.
Shaperbox 3 Modules
Here are all the modules that come in Shaperbox 3:
- Volume
- Drive
- Filter
- Pan
- Crush
- Width
- Liquid
- Noise
- Reverb
- Time
- Compressor
- Oscilloscope
Any one of these modules might replace an entire plugin from your collection. Some modules are already feature-rich before considering the LFO functionality. For example, if you don’t draw in an LFO shape in the Drive module, it’s still a good distortion plugin with many saturation types to choose from. Same with the reverb; there are enough reverb algorithms and useful settings to justify simply using it as a static reverb plugin before you consider what the LFO workflow offers.
More Than a Multi-FX Plugin
At first glance, Shaperbox 3 presents as a multi-FX powerhouse with a range of different effect modules for sound design. While this is absolutely true, the reason why I like the plugin so much is because it’s also incredibly useful as a fix-it utility tool, helping to solve common sound-shaping and mixing tasks. Because the interface is designed around an LFO interface and workflow, it works in a different way to many other plugins by giving you detailed control of how the effect parameters change over time. Anyone familiar with LFO tools will understand that the oscillator loop can linked to the timeline, so that they loop every beat, bar, or other timeline division; or un-synced and measured in time or frequency. Some LFO tools might have MIDI triggering too. With the release of the 3rd version of Shaperbox, Cableguys introduced the ability to trigger the LFO by audio transients from the input signal, and that opened up a whole new range of possibilities. With the LFO being triggered by audio transients (as well as MIDI or timeline sync), you can completely shape the sound of percussive sounds and notes. This opens up some intriguing possibilities and creative solutions to common problems once you get the hang of it.
Level 1 - Volume Shaping
One way I can explain this is by using it as a drum designing tool with the Volume shaper module; for example, by shaping up the ADSR of a snare drum. Because the LFO can be triggered every time a drum like a snare is hit, you can literally draw in how you want the volume to change over time across the snare waveform. For example, if the snare recording has too much room sound and is getting lost within the mix, you might use the Volume shaper tool to turn down the volume shortly after the transient, as if it was an expander. By doing this, you can make the snare much tighter so that it cuts through the mix with each hit without adding reverberant muddiness between hits. Alternatively, if the transient on the snare is too sharp sounding for your track, you could roll off the volume very slightly at the front of each hit as if you were adding a very short fade-in, softening the attack of the waveform.
You can also use the Volume shaper in the opposite way as a sidechain ducker, where another track, such as the bass, gets turned down each time an input track, such as a kick drum, triggers the LFO. This works in the same way as sidechain compression, except that you have complete control over the shape of the ducking by drawing it in, rather than relying on compressor settings like attack and release. With such precision, you can even draw the shape of the ducking in to be the exact same shape as the input kick drum waveform, so that the kick and bass fit together like puzzle pieces.
Level 2 - Applying the LFO Workflow to Other Effects
As soon as you realise the broad potential of being able to shape volume across time based on the different LFO trigger types, you can start to consider what this LFO workflow can mean when using different effects. Take distortion, for example. You can shape the amount of distortion you want to apply to the signal as the waveform progresses. With our snare drum example, this could mean that you distort the signal just for the start of the transient hit and have the distortion level drop down for the rest of the waveform so that the tail is cleaner. Or, you could do the opposite, where there is no distortion on the transient, leaving it sharp, but the sustain gets distorted - this might be harder to do with regular distortion plugins.
Level 3 - Dynamic Envelope Following & Multiband
If you want, you can automatically have the amount of the effect linked to the amplitude of the waveform, so that it dynamically changes with the input signal. This leads to interesting possibilities with effects like filters, reverb, panning, or width. The louder the input signal, the more it gets panned to the sides, or the more (or less) reverb gets applied, or the wider it becomes, all without any manual automation.
Level 4 - Multi-band
Once you’re familiar with applying the LFO workflow to the various effect modules, you can expand the creative and problem-solving possibilities of the plugin even further by using the multi-band functionality. All shaper modules can operate in three bands, meaning you can apply different settings and LFO shapes to low, mid, and high frequencies. Wow! Oh, the possibilities. Different reverb algorithm for the low frequencies compared to the highs? Check. Different type of distortion for the low-end and the mid-range? Why not. Panning different parts of the frequency spectrum to different positions? Might sound good, worth a go!
One of my favourite uses of multi-band is with the volume shaper. You can apply a tight volume roll-off after each transient of a kick drum or tom so that you get the initial tap but the room noise is reduced for a tighter sound, but leave the low end to ring out a bit longer. Or maybe the opposite is more appropriate - perhaps leaving the top end open with a natural room decay is a nice touch, but you want to shorten the length of the low end so that it thuds nicely but doesn’t interfere so much with the bass guitar. So useful to have these options.
Level 5 - Combine effects in Series!
Yes, you can stack up these modules so the signal passes through each one you have set up in a chain. Endless fun!
Watch the Cableguys’ Youtube Tutorials for More
There’s so much more to talk about with each specific module, and I haven’t even touched on the many possibilities of the Noise shaper, the unique Time shaper, or some of the unique reverb possibilities that this thing can do. The main takeaway should be that this plugin is incredible value, even at full price (they usually discount it for Black Friday if you want to wait, though!). The Cableguys team do some great tutorials on Youtube, so check that out for more use cases.
Happy creating!
