Shaper 2 combines a wave-shaper and multi-effects processor under control of a very futuristic-looking GUI that is 100% graphic symbolic. But just clicking on a button fills in text labels for the controls\--great for newbies but this is not a preset processor that you would just click through factory presets to get something close. Of course that is possible but I wanted to understand how each module works, their parameters and how the chain order influences the final sound.

Shaper 2 works as a sound design tool for completely reassembling audio. I am interested in using it in my Pop music mixes for creating or finding either the 'beauty or the beast' in the songs I am tasked to mix. A look at the bottom section of its GUI shows four processing modules with their chain order depicted schematically in the center of the GUI.

When you re-order the Gate, Transform, Resonator and Shape modules, you'll see the processors' position and connections change within the GUI. Shaper 2 encourages experimentation because of this click/drag functionality. Double-clicking on them restores their default value as given in the initialized preset that comes up when you first insert Shaper 2. There are no individual module bypass buttons.

Most of my experimenting was with the Wet/Dry control at 100% Wet just to hear what is happening. Just ahead of this control is the Cut control--a simple Lo-pass filter when the control knob is hard left and a High-pass filter when the control is hard right--bypass lives in the center. Values are given in +/- percentages and not specific frequencies.

For my first 'baby steps' testing, I started with a simple sound design for realizing a distorted bass guitar track made from a perfectly good-sounding clean and direct-recorded Fender bass. For a starting patch/position, you can toggle through over 40 ready-to-go but cryptically named presets using the back/forward arrows on either side of the name. Know that some presets will produce no throughput--usually because the Gate Threshold is NOT at 0% or at that moment, the source audio is too low level and below the Gate's threshold.

Using the Gate on sustaining sounds causes a kind of 'broken' sound that I love--it reminded me of an old Lovetone Big Cheese pedal. The Gate, set with the same settings, has a completely different affect depending on where it is placed in the chain. Version 2 has a Smooth feature in the Gate with a longer release time.

The Shape module, short for Waveshaper has five different functions with two parameter control knobs that change depending on which function is in play. The first three functions in order are: Muffin a digital warmer, Multistress an FM effect (you have to hear this), and Cracker a smoother-sounding Muffin. The fourth wave shaper function is called S&M and I used that shape for adding metallic overtones to a pretty stereo guitar. And the fifth wave shaper is called Bit & Samps, a generic bit crusher that you can change both the bit depth and sample resolution.

The Transform module has four functions called Clip, Wrap, Fold, and sFold. Their effect is shown superimposed over a single cycle of a sine wave on an oscilloscope screen. After you pick one of them, turn up the Amount control to see how the wave would be warped. I've been running Shaper 2 as a mono-to-stereo instance because the left and right channels distort or mangle in different ways and at different moments especially if you have the Resonator module active.

Resonator is a decay system with the Time control allowing variable times from 1ms up and to 1 second while the miss-named Decay control is for adjusting feedback. Because Resonator can be inserted anywhere in the chain, I got some pretty strange stuff here with no way to sync to session tempo but of little concern since I tended to use it as either a Haas delay effect or as comb filter. I liked automating Resonator for flanging and reshaping entire drum loops. I had a good time running an entire drum kit bus though Shaper 2 and sound has become the basis for a new remix I'm doing. The producer loved the sound I got with it!

Shaper 2 is available as VST, AU, and AAX, for Macs or PCs, and I think it is essential for creating different and unusual sounds in my mixes. If WOV and TTAP are this useful and different, I want them!