4 Wave Editing and Envelope Tips for ShaperBox 3

Our flagship effect plugin, ShaperBox, is a powerhouse of creative signal processing, centring on a freeform modulation system. Here, we’ll delve into a grab-bag of inspirational tricks and techniques with which to take your Shaping in all manner of new directions…

1. Randomise waveforms for inspiration

When you’re stuck for ideas, give the wave editor’s Randomize button a click. Rather than call up a completely random set of LFO points, this randomises the positions of the existing points, snapped to grid if Snap is active, or completely freely if it isn’t.

If your LFO waveform is rhythmic, you can elect to randomise only the Y-axis (vertical) positioning of the points by holding down your keyboard’s Shift key while clicking Randomize. With the X-axis (horizontal) positioning maintained, the timing of your LFO will be unaffected, but the groove will change as the value of each point is submitted to the whims of chance.

2. Put LFO Smooth to creative use

ShaperBox’s Smooth control is primarily intended for the alleviation of clicks arising from sudden jumps in modulated parameter values, but it also has plenty of potential as a creative tool. Not only does Smooth let you alter the fluidity and character of your modulations at a touch, but it can even be automated for real-time smoothing and sharpening as the track progresses.

Try progressively softening a hard VolumeShaper gating pattern in a build-up by raising the Smooth control, then slamming it back down at the drop, for example.

3. Automate modulation parameters with Envelope Shift

For technical reasons, it’s not possible to directly automate the LFO-modulated parameters in each Shaper – DriveShaper’s Drive slider or FilterShaper Core’s Cutoff, for example.

However, since the Envelope Follower’s Shift control offsets the current value of the selected control, and is available as an automation target, you can simply automate that to achieve the same thing. You don’t need to do anything to the Envelope itself to activate this – the automation will even work with the Envelope Amount set to zero.

4. Audio rate modulation

ShaperBox is perhaps best known for the endless rhythmic possibilities opened up by its LFO-controlled effects parameters, but when those LFOs are cranked up into what’s known as the audible range (ie, speeds that would generate an audible tone if the LFO was connected to an amplifier), the super-fast, microscopic modulations they bring to bear can take you down some truly gnarly sound design avenues.

The fun begins at around 40Hz or so, where the movement of the target parameter blurs enough to make it largely unrecognisable; but wind that LFO up into the hundreds or thousands of cycles per second, and all kinds of intriguing artefacts and sidebands start to make themselves known.

Of course, the specific effect of any audio rate modulation depends on many factors, including the parameter being modulated, the dry/wet mix, the Smooth amount, and the shape of the LFO waveform, so don’t be afraid to push things to extremes and experiment!