McDSP - FutzBox Native

McDSP FutzBox makes audio sound like it's coming out of something else: a phone, a radio, a TV, a toy speaker, often in a sorry state. It's a staple in post-production and just as useful in music for lo-fi vocals and degraded textures.

How it works

At its heart is a library of Synthetic Impulse Models (SIMs) of real devices. They're far lighter on processing than convolution, and they can be scaled and changed on the fly. Around them you get filtering and EQ, distortion, a noise generator with ducking, a hyper-sensitive gate for dropout effects, and lo-fi tools including downsampling and bit depth reduction. A dry/wet mix lets you automate between clean and futzed sound.

The sound

Convincing rather than cartoonish. A cheap phone sounds like a cheap phone, and the gate and noise generator make it easy to fake a bad signal. In music, a touch on a vocal or drum loop gets you the telephone or radio effect without reaching for EQ and distortion separately. For lo-fi effects into a reverb, see FutzVerb.

Native or HD?

Native runs on your computer in AAX Native, AU and VST3, which is all most studios need. If you mix on Pro Tools HDX or an Avid VENUE S6L, FutzBox HD adds AAX DSP support.

Features

• Library of Synthetic Impulse Models (SIMs)
• Filtering, EQ, distortion, downsampling and bit depth reduction
• Noise generator with ducking
• Hyper-sensitive gate for dropout effects
• Dry/wet mix
• Double precision processing, ultra low latency
• Mono and stereo versions

System requirements

• Version: 7.3
• Mac: macOS 10.13 High Sierra to macOS 26 Tahoe. AAX Native, AU and VST3. Native on Apple Silicon and Intel
• Windows: Windows 10 and 11. AAX Native and VST3
• RAM: not specified by McDSP
• Licence: iLok, on an iLok2 or iLok3 USB key, your computer or iLok Cloud (a free iLok account is needed). Two activations per licence

SOUND7 is an authorised McDSP reseller. Digital delivery: licence activation code sent by email.

Demo