I often find shaperbox presets that are shared in .fst format, which only works with FL Studio. To get these to open in Shaperbox with any DAW, I had chatgpt develop a python script that converts an entire folder of .fst to Shaperbox .fxp in seconds. Super easy to use, and I imagine this could work with other presets with a bit of tweaking.

Here is the read me, I'll paste the actual script below. Its super simple to use, and works great.

# ShaperBox `.fst` → `.fxp` Converter

Converts old FL Studio-only ShaperBox presets (`.fst`) into native ShaperBox `.fxp` presets without needing FL Studio.

## Requirements

- Python 3
- One legitimate exported ShaperBox 3 `.fxp` preset
This is used as the template container.

## How it works

The script:

1. Extracts the compressed ShaperBox plugin state from each `.fst`
2. Injects it into a valid ShaperBox `.fxp` structure
3. Outputs working `.fxp` presets

## Usage

```bash
python3 shaperbox_fst_to_fxp.py "template.fxp" "input_folder" "output_folder"
```
Example:
```bash
python3 shaperbox_fst_to_fxp.py "Space Chopper.fxp" "./FSTs" "./Converted"
```
macOS example with full paths:

```bash
python3 shaperbox_fst_to_fxp.py "/Users/yourname/Desktop/Space Chopper.fxp" "/Users/yourname/Desktop/SHAPERBOX" "/Users/yourname/Desktop/Presets New"
```
## Notes

- Tested successfully with ShaperBox 3 presets
- Works best when presets come from the same major ShaperBox version
- Some presets may inherit internal preset names from embedded metadata
- Original `.fst` files remain untouched
- If a preset fails, it may not contain the expected compressed ShaperBox state or may be corrupted

## What this does not do

This does not crack, modify, or bypass ShaperBox.
It only repackages existing preset state data from an FL Studio `.fst` into a ShaperBox-readable `.fxp` container.

## Basic troubleshooting

If Terminal says Python is not found, install Python 3 and try again.

On macOS with Homebrew:

```bash
brew install python
```
Then rerun the command using `python3`.

 

Here is the actual py script. Copy and paste, save as "converter.py", or whatever you want .py, make sure you are using plain text. Then run the script and link to your input and output folders, and the legitimate exported .fxp

Code:

import zlib
from pathlib import Path
import sys

# Usage:
# python3 shaperbox_fst_to_fxp.py "template.fxp" "input_folder" "output_folder"

def extract_plugin_state(fst_path):
    data = Path(fst_path).read_bytes()

    marker = b'#zip#'
    idx = data.find(marker)

    if idx == -1:
        raise ValueError("No compressed plugin state found")

    comp = data[idx + len(marker):]

    # Find valid zlib stream
    for i in range(min(256, len(comp))):
        try:
            dec = zlib.decompress(comp[i:])

            if len(dec) > 1000:
                return dec

        except Exception:
            pass

    raise ValueError("Could not decompress plugin state")


def parse_template(template_path):
    data = bytearray(Path(template_path).read_bytes())

    marker = b'#zip#'
    idx = data.find(marker)

    if idx == -1:
        raise ValueError("Template FXP missing #zip# marker")

    comp_start = idx + len(marker)

    # Locate valid zlib stream
    for i in range(256):
        try:
            dec = zlib.decompress(data[comp_start + i:])
            return data, comp_start + i, dec

        except Exception:
            pass

    raise ValueError("Could not locate compressed block in template")


def rebuild(template_data, old_comp_start, new_state, out_path):
    new_comp = zlib.compress(new_state)

    rebuilt = (
        template_data[:old_comp_start]
        + new_comp
    )

    Path(out_path).write_bytes(rebuilt)


def main():

    if len(sys.argv) != 4:
        print("Usage:")
        print(
            'python3 shaperbox_fst_to_fxp.py '
            '"template.fxp" "input_folder" "output_folder"'
        )
        sys.exit(1)

    template = Path(sys.argv[1])
    in_dir = Path(sys.argv[2])
    out_dir = Path(sys.argv[3])

    out_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

    template_data, comp_start, _ = parse_template(template)

    fst_files = sorted(in_dir.glob("*.fst"))

    if not fst_files:
        print("No .fst files found")
        return

    converted = 0
    failed = 0

    for fst in fst_files:

        try:
            state = extract_plugin_state(fst)

            out_name = fst.stem + ".fxp"
            out_path = out_dir / out_name

            rebuild(template_data, comp_start, state, out_path)

            converted += 1

            print(f"Converted: {fst.name} -> {out_name}")

        except Exception as e:

            failed += 1

            print(f"FAILED: {fst.name} | {e}")

    print()
    print(f"Done. Converted: {converted} | Failed: {failed}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()