FAQs
Unlocking
Q: Do I need to be online when registering Curve, FilterShaper, VolumeShaper or MidiShaper?
A: No, you don't, you just need to have the license key file on your machine and to choose it when unlocking one of our products.
Q: I have lost the mail with my license key. How can I obtain it again?
A: You can always access your license keys from your user account.
Q: I have bought one of your plugins. Where do I find the full version download?
A: The full versions are available for download in your user account.
Text input/unlocking in Sonar
Q: I cannot enter text in Sonar for unlocking plugins or for editing preset names in Curve.
A: You need to activate keyboard input for plugins in Sonar, by clicking this button in the top right corner of the plugin window:
Purchasing
Q: If I select a currency other than EUR or USD on your shareit shop page, prices get more expensive.
A: Yes, that's due to a security margin for currency fluctuations chosen by our payment provider shareit. We recomment to simply pay in EUR or USD.
Contact us for alternative payment methods if you do not want to buy via shareit.
Loading plugins
Q: One of the plugins does not show up in Cubase on Mac OS X, it's note even listed. What can I do?
A: Sometimes Cubase stores a blacklist of plugins which caused some troubles. We recommend that you delete the blacklist file (or temporarily rename it so you can restore it if necessary). Find it here:
/Users/[YOUR USERNAME]/Library/Preferences/Cubase [Essential 5, LE 5, ..]/Vst2xBlacklist.xml
Q: The plugins do not show up on mono channels in ProTools or Logic. What can I do?
A: Our plugins are stereo only. We might consider stereo versions if many users request it.
Displaying issues
Q: The menus flicker or do not show up at all in Reaper.
A: This happens when opening our plugins in Reaper's floating plugin windows. This is always the case when loading 32-bit versions of our plugins in 64bit versions of Reaper—to solve it, simply use our 64-bit versions in 64-bit Reaper.
Manual
Q: Where do I find the manual?
A: We invest lots of time and user testing to make sure our plugins are easy to use. On questions, you can find help texts and tips on waveform editing within the plugins and check these FAQs. So we believe there is no need for a manual. But on any questions, we are here to help.
Curve
Q: Can I use Curve on more than one computer?
A: Yes, this is possible with the full version of Curve.
Also, your changes in the presets library will always be in sync on both computers. Let's say you are on computer A. There, you rate and tag some presets, and you add two presets to the presets library. Afterwards, you press "Sync".
Later, you make music on computer B and press "Sync". The ratings, tags and new presets you did on computer A will then be synced to computer B. We can do this because the database saves all your changes based on your license.
Note that private presets are not uploaded and are not backuped in the online database.
Q: Will Curve's presets be lost if I format my hard drive?
A: If you have the full version of Curve and synced your presets, ratings and tags to the online database, then you just need to install Curve on your new hard drive, and press "Sync" once. All your ratings, tags and shared presets will be in place again.
Note that private presets are not uploaded and are not backuped in the online database.
FilterShaper and VolumeShaper
Q: Is it right that VolumeShaper is essentially included in FilterShaper?
A: Besides cutoff, resonance and pan, you can also modulate volume in FilterShaper. VolumeShaper is a bit more streamlined if you only want to do volume modulation. On the other hand, FilterShaper's modulation matrix allows for more complex modulations, as there are 4 LFOs which can be used for modulating volume. VolumeShaper 3 owns an oscilloscope and MIDI triggering, which FilterShaper 2 does not have.
Q: When loading a song that uses an instance of FilterShaper or VolumeShaper on a track, no sound is heard on that track.
A: That is a limitation of the demo version. Before audio is processed, you need to click the splash screen once every time you add VolumeShaper or FilterShaper to a track, and also when you open a saved song that uses either one. The full versions do not have that limitation, of course.
Q: Are FilterShaper and VolumeShaper working in editors such as WaveLab?
A: We've tested both with WaveLab 7 and they're basically working. Note, though, that WaveLab does not report a position in the audio, which means that the LFO is running, but cannot be synced to the host correctly. You can still perfectly use them in WaveLab for those effects that do not need to be synced (tremolo, bit-crushing etc). We propose to download the demo versions to find out if it is to your needs.
Q: When using FilterShaper or VolumeShaper in ACID Pro 7 or MAGIX Samplitude Music Studio 14, updating the waveform is disabled when the playback is stopped. The plugins work fine during playback, but I would like to edit the curves with the transport stopped.
A: Our plugins update the waveform whenever the hosts says "here is some new audio to process". Hosts such as Live or Cubase do that also while the playback is stopped, so it works fine here, but Acid and Samplitude do not send processing requests then. But we agree that it would be better if the waveform is updated then as well, so this is on our internal TODO list.
VolumeShaper
Q: Can VolumeShaper 3 coexist next to VolumeShaper 2?
A: VolumeShaper 3 can load all songs made with VolumeShaper 2. To make this happen it uses the same plugin ID as VolumeShaper 2. All host sequencers recognize plugins based on their plugin ID. Great host sequencers also consider the file names. You can only run VolumeShaper 2 and 3 in parallel with the latter.
But as VolumeShaper 3 can open all songs and presets made with VolumeShaper 2, there's no need to keep version 2 (only if you like the old layout). Note that we've dropped the interpolation parameter with version 3 (before you could choose between "no interpolation", "linear interpolation" and "cubic interpolation"; now it's always cubic interpolation).
Q: I installed VolumeShaper 3 and it is working, but Logic lists it as "VolumeShaper 2".
A: VolumeShaper 3 can load all songs made with VolumeShaper 2. To make this happen it uses the same plugin ID as VolumeShaper 2. Logic seems to cache plugin names based on plugin IDs and to not update this cache when a plugin file changes.
Q: VolumeShaper works fine in Ableton Live when being the only plugin on a track. But it shows noticeable latency in other cases — when there are several plugins on the track, or when used on a group or on an audio track with other tracks routed to it.
A: This is a PDC (Plugin Delay Compensation) issue with Ableton Live. VolumeShaper is synced to the timing information that is provided by the host. Sadly, Live does not take PDC into account here and thus the timing information provided by Live can be wrong. We've already talked about this with Ableton in 2011 and are glad about anyone who bugs them about this issue.
As a workaround, you can use VolumeShaper's oscilloscope to move the waveform to the left until timing matches again (use the arrow buttons below the waveform; SHIFT-click for precise adjustments).
A more reliable workaround is to set up a MIDI track which plays a note at the beginning of a bar, route this track to VolumeShaper and set VolumeShaper to one of its "Retriggered" modes. This resulted in correct timing in all our tests.
MidiShaper
Q: How do I set up MidiShaper in my host sequencer?
A: Please see the tutorials at the bottom of MidiShaper's page.
Q: Selecting a MIDI port for output shows me this message for each of them: "Cannot open this MIDI port. Please choose another MIDI port." What can I do?
A: We recommend using the VST version of MidiShaper and to output MIDI directly to your host sequencer. Only if this does not work with your host, synths or effects, choose one of the given MIDI outs. If none of them can be opened, they are blocked by your host sequencer or other software. Please check your host's settings.
Q: MidiShaper only sends out MIDI CC as soon as I raise the waveform above a certain values. Why are the lowest (or highest) waveform values cut?
A: The formula for calculating the output value is "Center"-value + "Source 1"-value/100 * LFO-value + "Source 2"-value/100 * LFO-value + .. where "LFO"-value is between -1.0 and 1.0. Output values are trimmed to be between 0.0 and 1.0.
We recommend to set the "Center"-value in the "Modulations"-area to 0.50 and the multiplier in the "Source"-row to 50. This 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, values might be cut.
Waveform drawing
Q: The waveform stays at a flat line and does not change when being edited.
A: Our plugins compute the waveform when the hosts asks them to process audio. Some hosts, such as Logic, only do so when audio playback is running, and when there's audio or a virtual instrument on that channel.
Q: Is there a way to make the minimum and maximum values of a sine go to -1/+1?
A: No. What you can do, though, is to draw something like this, which is still close to a sine:
Got more questions? Contact us here.
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