Issues arising during the buying process can usually be solved by using a different browser.

If that doesn't work, or you don't have another browser, click the shop link again and change "cookies=1" to "cookies=0" in your browser's URL field, then hit Enter. This will reload the shopping page, after which it should work. Please contact us if it doesn't and we'll find another solution.

Issues arising during the purchasing process can usually be solved by using a different browser.

If that doesn't work, or you don't have another browser, please get in touch with our payment provider, MyCommerce, for more information, or contact us.

This is due to a security margin for currency fluctuations put in place by our payment provider, MyCommerce. Unfortunately, it's entirely out of our control. To avoid it, though, simply opt to pay in EUR or USD.

In most cases, yes. Just log in to your Cableguys account to see your discount automatically applied to the ShaperBox Bundle and Cableguys Bundle prices.

Usually, the email containing the login details for your Cableguys account (where you access your installers and license files) is sent immediately after your purchase. In some cases, though, it can take a few hours for your purchase to be processed. Also, please check your spam folder. If you've not received your account details within 24 hours, please contact us.

For full version upgrades (from 1.x to 2.0, for example), we usually charge an upgrade price, which will always be cheaper than buying the latest version without already owning the previous one.

Minor 'point release' updates will usually be free of charge (from version 1.0 to 1.1 or 1.5, etc, for example) – in fact, we’ve never charged for them in the past and are not planning to do so in the future. If we add a new Shaper to ShaperBox, however, it may not be free and will stay in demo mode until you buy it. The update to ShaperBox itself and any Shapers that you own will usually be free of charge.

Yes, on request we often provide educational discounts. Simply send us proof of your educational status – a scanned certificate of enrollment, for example.

Our Terms of Services are defaulting to German laws.

Our refund policy defaults to German law, but on request we sometimes allow longer terms.

Please check our in-depth installation guide for step-by-step instructions on installing and authorizing your Cableguys plugin.

No, you don't – you just need to transfer the license key file to your offline computer, so you can select it when the plugin asks you to upon first launch.

All your full version downloads are available in your Cableguys user account.

Anti-virus software can silently block our installers, or might erroneously report a virus in an installer.

It's rare that this happens, but if it does, we can assure you that it's a false alarm (assuming you've downloaded the software directly from your Cableguys account via our website, of course). Please disable your virus scanner during installation and turn it back on immediately afterwards.

If you're unsure, you can upload the installer to an online virus scanner to have it checked by multiple virus scanners.

The license file needs to be loaded into the plugin – it's not an executable file that you can 'run' on its own. Please check our in-depth installation guide for more information.

Please download and install the latest full version of the plugin and your license file from your user account. Then, try to unlock the plugin with the zipped license file (.zip). If that doesn't work, unzip the file and try to unlock the plugin with the .lic file.

Also, make sure you're using the right license file for the plugin in question, particularly if you have more than one version of it. For example, ShaperBox 2 and ShaperBox 3 use separate license files, so you can't unlock ShaperBox 2 with the ShaperBox 3 license file or vice versa.

You can download your license files from your Cableguys user account whenever you need to.

Older plugins (ShaperBox 2, VolumeShaper 4, Kickstart 1, etc), can be found in the Legacy Downloads section of your account.

It is not possible to unlock the demo versions of our plugins. Please download the full version from your Cableguys user account.

On macOS, the full version installation will automatically overwrite the demo version, as long as you install to the default locations.

On Windows, the VST version must be installed to the 'VST Plugins' folder specified in your DAW. If you've previously installed the demo version, please install the full version to the same folder. This will overwrite the demo with the full version.

This is a bug in macOS 13 Ventura that affects many vendors. If you're installing from the macOS Downloads folder, please allow the installer access to the Downloads folder when it requests it.

Alternatively, move the installer to a folder other than the Downloads folder before running it. If that doesn't fix it, please move the installer to a removable hard drive and run it from there.

Please check our in-depth installation guide.

If you can't find the solution to your issue there, contact us with a clear description of the problem you're having.

Please enter your registered email address at the login page to have your login information sent to you.

You can't. But we can always resend you your password via the login page.

Rest assured that nothing whatsoever is stored in your Cableguys account apart from your email address and your list of registered Cableguys plugins. All financial transactions between us and our customers are handled by our ecommerce provider, MyCommerce.

Please restart your computer after plugin installation – this is especially important on Mac. On Windows, make sure you've installed the plugin to the VST Plugins folder specified in your DAW's preferences.

If this does not solve the issue, please check our in-depth installation guide. If you still can't get your plugin to appear, contact us.

PanCake is a stereo-only plugin, but newly created audio tracks in Logic are mono by default. You can set a mono track to stereo via the settings in Logic's mixer.

Currently, these plugins are only available in VST and Audio Units (AU) formats, so they're not compatible with Pro Tools.

They might work with plugin wrappers such as Blue Cat's PatchWork, and although we've not tested this ourselves, we have had very positive reports from users. Blue Cat offers a demo version of Patchwork should you wish to try it.

We are working on AAX support for Curve, but we can’t provide any timeline for that at this point.

Please disable OpenGL via the Main Menu in ShaperBox. If the graphics issues are preventing you accessing the Main Menu, download this ZIP file, unpack it, and double-click the file 'cableguys-shaperbox-disable-opengl.reg' to disable OpenGL.

Old versions of our plugins are unable to load settings that have been saved with newer versions, so please make sure that you're running the same version on both systems.

CPU usage inevitably increases while moving points in the wave editor, especially when a small audio buffer is set (ie, less than 200 samples).

This happens when opening the 32-bit version of a Cableguys plugin in the 64-bit version of Reaper's floating plugin window. To remedy it, simply use the 64-bit version of your Cableguys plugin with the 64-bit version of Reaper.

Set the looping mode (Tail) in FL Studio's rendering options to 'Leave remainder'.

Cableguys YouTube channel

ShaperBox 3 manual and tutorials

Introduction to ShaperBox 3

ShaperBox Production Tips & Tricks

HalfTime manual and tutorials

Curve 2 manual

Introduction to Curve 2 with Dan Worrall

FilterShaper XL manual and tutorials

Kickstart 2 manual

Please note: these videos were made using TimeShaper 1 and 2, but the principles and techniques explained still apply to TimeShaper 3.

Mini Guides – Curve shapes to create common effects

Introduction to TimeShaper with Dan Worrall

Get your vinyl scratches perfectly in time

You can use the MIDI Trigger mode in ShaperBox, FilterShaper XL, Kickstart, MidiShaper or PanCake, as well as the Audio Trigger mode in ShaperBox 3 and Kickstart 2, to trigger the LFO with any rhythm you like. Alternatively, if it's a repeating pattern, just draw an LFO waveform that follows the rhythm of the part in question.

Odd time signatures aren't supported directly within ShaperBox, FilterShaper XL, MidiShaper or PanCake, but it's entirely possible to apply them using MIDI triggering. Here's how:

1. Set the Length parameter to any value longer than one bar of your odd time signature. For example, if your track is in 7/4, set Length to 2 Bars (ie, 8 beats) or higher.

2. Set MIDI Trigger to ‘On (1-Shot)’. Now, your LFOs won’t start cycling until they receive a MIDI Note.

3. Route the MIDI track to ShaperBox, following the Instructions for your DAW – see “How do I set up MIDI triggering in my Cableguys plugin?”.

4. Create a 1-bar clip with a MIDI note on beat 1, then duplicate it onto every bar in the song. This retriggers ShaperBox’s LFOs at the start of every bar, cycling them in your chosen time signature.

These guides show you how to use MIDI notes to trigger LFOs in ShaperBox, FilterShaper XL, MidiShaper, Kickstart and PanCake, and the Transient and Snapback sample layers in Snapback, in a range of DAWs:

• MIDI triggering in Ableton Live
• MIDI triggering in Apple Logic Pro X
• MIDI triggering in Avid Pro Tools
• MIDI triggering in Cockos Reaper
• MIDI triggering in PreSonus Studio One
• MIDI triggering in Propellerhead Reason
• MIDI triggering in Steinberg Cubase
• MIDI triggering in Image-Line FL Studio

Please see these guides for instructions on setting up ShaperBox 3's external sidechain input in various DAWs.

Yes! Please find out how on this page.

There are two possible causes of this:

1. You have placed the effect on a mono track/channel in your DAW – stereo effects must be placed on a stereo channel in order to work.

2. WidthShaper adjusts stereo width – it cannot create or add width if the signal has no stereo content (in the same way that an EQ cannot boost frequencies that aren't already there). So ensure that your signal has some stereo content before processing it with WidthShaper.

Each of these parameters is the average of the points in the LFO curve, so whenever you edit the LFO curve, you’re also changing the value of that parameter (try drawing some points and you'll see the value changing). So for example, if you had automation armed while editing the LFO curve, you'd inadvertently overwrite your Drive, Cutoff or Resonance automation with semi-random values. Also, some DAWs (eg, Ableton Live) would interpret any change in the value as the user adjusting the control manually, and automation playback would be disabled.

In short, allowing automation of Drive, Cutoff and Resonance as regular VST/AU/AAX parameters could unleash chaos.

A workaround is to use the Envelope's Shift slider (which is an automatable parameter) to offset the LFO. This works even with the Envelope's Amount at 0%.

The wave you draw in TimeShaper defines how much you're going 'back in time'. If a given point on the wave lies within the gray dashed area, you might move back to a point at which no audio was playing yet.

Additionally, TimeShaper does not pass audio when the transport in your DAW is stopped, so if you want to play through TimeShaper in real time, your project must be playing back. This is to prevent TimeShaper's buffered audio continuing to play back after you hit stop.

Cableguys effects work perfectly in all DAWs when they're the only plugin on a track, but in certain DAWs, including Ableton Live and Apple Logic Pro, they can suffer from latency in other cases – such as when there are several other plugins also on the track, or when used on a group or audio track with other tracks routed to it.

This problem is not caused by Cableguys plugins, but is the result of a PDC (Plugin Delay Compensation) issue within the DAW. Our plugins are synced to the timing information provided by the host DAW, but unfortunately some DAWs don't correctly factor in PDC, so the timing information provided can be wrong. Please feel free to bug the developer of your DAW about this, as this failure to compensate for latency correctly in timeline-synced plugins is as frustrating for us as it is for you. We discussed this with Ableton in 2011 and 2022 with no success, and we encourage anyone affected by the issue to bug them about it.

As a quick workaround, you can use the oscilloscope in your Cableguys plugin to move the wave to the left until the timing matches up again (use the arrow buttons below the wave; SHIFT-click for precise adjustments).

For Ableton Live, a more reliable workaround is to trigger your Cableguys plugin via MIDI or via audio. This has consistently resulted in correct timing in our tests. You can even use one MIDI track to trigger multiple Cableguys plugins.

Snapback’s Snapback layer uses lookahead to trigger the snapback sample so that it ends perfectly at the triggering audio transient or MIDI note, and this inevitably (because… physics!) introduces latency. The amount of latency is determined by the length of the loaded sample. Specifically, the snapbacks in the ‘Short’ column of the sample library add 25ms of latency, while the samples in the other three columns add 125ms. The latency introduced by the Snapback layer can be eliminated entirely, of course, by unloading the sample, which is done by selecting ‘[Off]’ in the sample menu.

Your DAW may offer some sort of plugin delay compensation system to help to alleviate the resulting lag in responsiveness – Live’s ‘Reduced Latency When Monitoring’ option or Cubase’s ‘Constrain Delay Compensation’ feature, for example.

Clicks and pops can be caused by sudden and hard volume, filter or panning modulation. To avoid it, use the Smooth control and/or soften the LFO waveform. In this example, a click at the start of the beat is avoided by softly lowering the volume slightly at the end of the LFO cycle:

Clicks can occur if you trigger the LFO with MIDI notes or audio triggers, since the waveform suddenly starts when the trigger is activated. ShaperBox features a Trigger Smoothing option, alleviating the clicks that can arise when retriggering LFOs with MIDI, which is on by default. If triggering still causes a click, though, we suggest softening the very beginning of the waveform as well – just enough to make the click disappear. If the timing is off afterwards, move the triggering MIDI notes a little earlier on the timeline to compensate.

TimeShaper works by changing the playback position within an audio buffer. Sudden 'jumps' inside an audio buffer can create clicking sounds, just like splicing audio clips together in a DAW. If you're hearing clicks in your TimeShaper setup, first enable the Smooth Step mode.

Smooth mode applies a short crossfade when two points are at the exact same horizontal position, forming a 'step' shape. If you still hear clicks, the points may be at slightly different positions, making a short 'ramp'. This can happen when points are adjusted free-hand, so use Snap mode to accurately set points to the same horizontal position (and don't forget that this applies to the start/end points of your waveform too).

Smooth Step mode's crossfade is optimized for a tight, punchy response across a variety of musical material. However, deep sub-bass frequencies may require special treatment, since each wave cycle is longer than the crossfade. In this case, a low-pass filter (eg, FilterShaper Core) can be placed after TimeShaper to soften the full-range clicks, leaving just the sub-bass frequencies. A steep, clean filter works best.

This video explains the issue in detail, and gives further advice on getting smooth, professional results with TimeShaper:

Please accept "External Media" cookies to watch this YouTube video (might require page reload).

WaveLab does not report the playback position in the audio, which means that while the LFOs in our plugins run, they can't be synced correctly. You can still use them in WaveLab for effects that don't need to be synced (tremolo, bit-crushing, etc), but if you're planning on buying any of our plugins primarily for use in an audio editor, we suggest first downloading the free trial version to ascertain whether or not it suits your requirements.

1. With the track that you want to process with ShaperBox (but without ShaperBox actually loaded onto it, for reasons which will shortly become clear) and a second track containing your sidechain keying source set up, select 'Audio Connections' from Cubase's Studio menu.
2. In the Group/FX tab, click the 'Add Group' button in the Audio Connections window.
3. The Add Track dialog box appears. Open the Configuration menu and select 'More...' > 'Quadro'. Give your Group a name if you like (otherwise it will be called 'Group 1', which we'll assume is the case for the rest of this guide), then click the 'Add Track' button.
4. Back in the Audio Connections window, right-click the new Group and select 'Add Child Bus to "Group"' > 'Stereo'. Then right-click the Group again and select 'Add Child Bus to "Group 1"' > 'Stereo (Ls Rs)'. Both subgroups should be visible below the Group.
5. The Group track will have appeared in the Arrange page. Load ShaperBox onto it as an insert effect.
6. Set the output of the track you want to process with ShaperBox to the 'Stereo – Group 1'.
7. Set the output of your sidechain keying track to 'Stereo (Ls Rs) – Group 1'.
8. In ShaperBox, activate the Compressor/Envelope Follower sidechain input(s) for the Shaper(s) you want to route the keying signal to.
9. The ShaperBox-processed track outputs through the Group, while the keying track triggers all active sidechains in ShaperBox but remains inaudible.

HalfTime is entirely dedicated to half-speed effects. TimeShaper can do the half-time/half-speed effect and much more, such as scratching, glitching, stuttering, repeating, speeding-up, reversing, etc.

As far as the differences between them when it comes to half-speed effects, HalfTime has two fully adjustable Smooth modes, Percussive and Sustain, which you can also set to long values for creative FX (FX and Swell modes). TimeShaper only has the Percussive mode, with a short, fixed smoothing time.

The biggest difference, though, is convenience. HalfTime's interface makes it straightforward to create a slow-down effect (no setup – just add the plugin). In contrast, TimeShaper has an endless range of applications and is thus much deeper and more involved.

Yes, you can! Please open the ShaperBox Main Menu, and click the ‘Show User Noise Folder’ or ‘Show User Reverb Folder’ entry for instructions on how to import your own noise samples and reverb IRs.

Please see the MidiShaper PDF manual.

We recommend using the VST version of MidiShaper and outputting MIDI directly to your DAW ('To DAW'). Only choose one of the given MIDI outs if 'To DAW' doesn't work with your DAW, synths or effects. If none of the ports can be opened, it means they must be blocked by your DAW or other software, so please check your DAW's settings.

The formula for calculating the output value is:

Center value + Source 1 value/100 * LFO-value + Source 2 value/100 * LFO value + ..

...with LFO value being between -1.0 and 1.0. Output values are trimmed to be between 0.0 and 1.0.

We recommend setting the Center value in the Modulations area to 0.50, and the multiplier in the Source row to 50. That way, all values produced by MidiShaper are in the range 0.0-1.0 (or 0-127). If you then change the Center value, or increase the Source value, output values might be cut.