Five minutes, and most of it is waiting for a scan
Every fBox download is a zip file holding three things: the plugin itself, a file ending in .vst3, a one-page START HERE guide, and the full PDF manual for that product. Two downloads hold a second program as well, each with its own START HERE guide and its own manual: fBox Console adds an .exe for the standalone desk, and fMeter adds one for fMeter Offline.
Unzip it somewhere you can find again, like your Downloads folder. Right-click the zip and choose Extract All if you are not sure how.
Read the START HERE page first. It is one side of A4 and covers installing that product and getting a sound out of it, which is most of what this page says, tailored to what you downloaded.
Copy the .vst3 file into the folder every VST3 host on Windows looks in:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
That is it. There is nothing to run and nothing to install. Windows may ask for permission to write to that folder, which is normal.
Keep the PDF manual somewhere sensible while you are there. It is the full reference for that product, and it is worth ten minutes before you start.
Your recording software will not see a new plugin until it scans for one. Most do it on startup, so closing and reopening is often enough. If not, the setting is usually under Preferences or Options, in a section called Plugins, VST or Plug-in Manager, with a button reading Rescan, Scan or Reset.
Some hosts scan a folder you choose rather than the standard one. If yours does, either point it at the folder above, or copy the .vst3 into the folder it already scans. Either works.
A scan can take a minute on a machine with a lot of plugins. Let it finish before deciding it has not worked.
Both of these host other plugins in their own insert slots, and both keep their own list rather than borrowing your DAW's. So a plugin you have just installed will not appear in a slot until they have scanned for it.
There is a Scan Plugins button in the header, at the top left of both, and you will use it constantly. Neither remembers its plugin list between sessions, so you click it every time: on a new session, on a saved session you have reopened, and after installing anything new.
Click an insert slot before scanning and a box appears reading Plugins not scanned, telling you to click Scan Plugins before using insert slots. Click OK, run the scan, and carry on.
The scan defaults to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, which is where the steps above put things, so it will find them without you doing anything. If you keep your plugins somewhere else, point it at that folder instead.
One difference between the two. fBox Rack hosts any VST3, ours or anyone else's. fBox Console lists fBox plugins only. Neither of them loads fTape, fBox Console or fBox Rack into a slot, so do not go looking for those three. The Console has its own tape machine, the Rack has a Tape mode in both its saturation and its output stage, and a host cannot sit inside itself.
fBox Console comes as both a plugin and a standalone Windows application, and one licence covers both. The plugin installs exactly as above. The standalone is the .exe, which you run rather than copy.
The standalone manages its own audio device, and it will not prompt you to set one up. Click Audio Set in the header yourself: set Device type to ASIO, pick your audio interface, and choose a sample rate and a buffer size. That one panel is behind almost every report of crackles or dropouts, so it is worth getting right once. The manual covers it in full.
Windows will probably warn you the first time you run a standalone application. There are two in the range, the fBox Console standalone and fMeter Offline, and both do this. A blue box appears reading Windows protected your PC, with a Don't run button and a small More info link. Click More info, then Run anyway.
Nothing is wrong. That warning appears for any Windows program the system has not seen many times before, and it has nothing to do with whether the software is safe. Large companies avoid it by buying a code signing certificate, and it fades on its own as more people run a given version.
Your browser may also warn you while downloading the zip, for the same reason. Choosing Keep is safe.
We would rather tell you this in advance than have you meet it cold and assume the worst.
Almost always one of these, in this order.
The scan has not run. Restart your DAW, or find the rescan button in its plugin preferences.
The file is in the wrong place. Check the .vst3 is in the folder above, and that you copied the file itself rather than the zip.
Your DAW scans somewhere else. Look for a plugin folder setting in its preferences and see which folder it actually lists.
Your DAW does not host VST3. Pro Tools and a few others do not. Use the fBox Console standalone instead: export your stems, load them onto its channels, and mix there.
A box says Plugins not scanned. That is fBox Console or fBox Rack telling you it has not looked yet. Click OK, then Scan Plugins in the header. Both need it every session, including saved ones.
It is hidden behind a filter. Some hosts group new plugins under the manufacturer name. Look for fBox.
Still stuck? Email info@fboxaudio.com and tell us which recording software you are using and what you have tried. We will get it working.
Open the plugin on a track and an activation screen appears. Put your email address in, and a six-digit code arrives in your inbox. Type it into the plugin and your 14 days begin. No payment details and nothing to cancel.
When you buy, a licence key arrives by email. Paste it into the same activation screen and the plugin simply stops expiring. Every setting and every saved unit stays exactly where it is, and there is nothing to reinstall.
A licence covers three computers you use yourself. If you run out of slots, or you have replaced a machine, you can see which computers are using your licences and remove one from the manage your licence page. That is also where to go if you have lost your key.
Activation needs an internet connection. After that the plugin checks its licence with our server about once a fortnight, at launch. It never checks mid-session, so nothing can stop working while you are in the middle of a mix, and a dropped connection will not lock you out. The only thing that does is a licence that is no longer valid, for instance if the purchase was refunded, and in that case the plugin opens to the activation screen just as an unlicensed one does.
Check your machine against the system requirements, and see the purchase page for prices and bundles.