Lost SatelliteSignal dropout effect · signal loss, tape dropouts and audio cutting out
The only dropout effect you'll ever need to make any signal fail on cue.
Make any sound break up like a failing connection: signal loss on a phone, radio or TV, a skipping CD, a tape dropout. The audio cuts out at uneven moments with the real noise of a link going down, repeatable in every bounce, on the beat or on a key you hold.
- Use it on 5 computers per copy
- Lifetime updates
- 90-day money-back guarantee
- Download link in minutes
- VST3, AU and AAX, Windows and macOS
Formats and DAWs
Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit): VST3 and AAX
macOS 11 or later: VST3, AU and AAX
Works in any 64-bit DAW that loads VST3, AU or AAX plug-ins.
Licence
Use it on up to five of your own computers per copy you buy. Yours for good, no subscription. Unlock it with your email and a six-digit code, no dongle and no password. It checks in now and then and works offline in between.
Delivery
Download links by email within about five minutes, and always in your account under Downloads.
Hear the difference
The same part, without and with Lost Satellite.
Signal breaking up
A soul songstarter · Init (random cuts, squelch noise)
Failing phone line
A dry spoken rap vocal · Signal / Failing Phone Line
Skipping CD
An electronic synth melody · Skip / CD Skip
Tape stall
A lo-fi synth chord loop · Tape / Tape Stall
Radio squelch tail
A dry pop vocal · Radio / Squelch Tail
Digital radio burble
A boom-bap songstarter · Radio / Broken Radio
Every clip is level-matched, so the difference you hear is tone, not volume.
Why Lost Satellite
Sounds like a real failing link
The cuts land at uneven moments, the way a bad signal fails, and each kind brings the noise that link really makes: a radio's squelch, a set losing its station, digital burble, CD clicks, tape hiss.
Signal loss, skips and tape dropouts
Six kinds of dropout in one knob: silence, a CD-style stutter, a bit crush, a tape warble, static, and a tape dropout's dull dip, around a line from clean to a crackling phone.
Repeatable and playable
The same SEED drops in the same places in every render, from wherever you press play. Lock the cuts to the beat with GRID, or hold TRIGGER or any MIDI note to drop the signal exactly when you want.
Chance. Length.
Two big knobs do the work: how often the signal drops, and how long each dropout lasts. The rest decides what it sounds like.
- VST3 · AU · AAX
- Windows and macOS
- 0 ms latency
- 20 presets
The signal dropout effect
- Signal loss that sounds real. Uneven cuts with a radio's squelch, static crashes, digital burble, CD clicks or tape hiss.
- Six kinds of dropout. Silence, stutter, crush, warble, static and tape, around a line from clean to a crackling phone.
- Repeatable. The same SEED drops in the same places in every bounce, from wherever you press play.
- On the beat or on cue. Lock dropouts to 1/8 or 1/16, or hold TRIGGER or any MIDI note.
- CHANCE, LENGTH (20 ms to 1 s) and DAMAGE (clean to a 300 Hz to 3.4 kHz phone line).
- TYPE (SILENCE, STUTTER, CRUSH, WARBLE, STATIC, TAPE) and NOISE, the real noise of each failing link.
- TRIGGER (a held key or any MIDI note), GRID (OFF, 1/8, 1/16), SEED (1 to 9999) and STEREO.
- MIX, ENGAGE, and IN and OUT meters.
- 20 factory presets and your own preset files; A/B, undo and redo, MIDI Learn on every control; a window from 75 to 200 %; the full manual.
TYPE · NOISE
Every way a signal dies.
Silence with a radio's squelch, a skipping CD, a crushed digital stream, a stalling tape, a set losing its station or a dull tape dropout.
What Lost Satellite does
Every control has one job: the exact failing signal you hear in your head, faster.
CHANCE
From an occasional glitch to a dying link
How often the signal drops: at 35 % about 1.4 dropouts a second at uneven moments, at 100 % four a second. On a GRID it becomes the chance each eighth or sixteenth note starts one.
LENGTH
Split-second blips to whole lost words
Each dropout's length, from 20 ms to 1 second. Every one is drawn between half and one and a half times LENGTH, so no two are alike, with 3 ms edges that never click.
DAMAGE
From clean to a crackling phone line
The line around the dropouts: clean at 0, then narrowing to a 300 Hz to 3.4 kHz phone band with codec grit and static at 100 %. Level-matched as it narrows.
TYPE
Six ways a signal dies
What fills a dropout: SILENCE, a STUTTER of the last moment like a skipping CD, a bit CRUSH, a tape WARBLE, STATIC for TV and radio signal loss, or TAPE, the dull dip of an oxide dropout.
NOISE
The real sound of a link failing
Each TYPE brings the noise its link really makes: a radio's clicks and squelch tail, a static crash, CD error clicks, digital burble, tape hiss and crackle. 0 for clean cuts, 100 % for 12 dB more than the default.
TRIGGER and MIDI
Drop the signal on cue
Hold the key, or any MIDI note, and the signal drops now, for as long as you hold it, from the exact sample the note arrives on. Automate it or map it to a pad.
GRID
Glitches on the beat
OFF for the uneven timing of a real fault, or 1/8 and 1/16 for dropouts that start on your session's eighth or sixteenth notes, rhythmic chops and skips.
SEED
The same dropouts in every bounce
Picks the pattern, 1 to 9999. The same SEED drops at the same song positions every render, even when you start playback halfway through. Turn it to audition a new pattern.
STEREO
Dropouts that move across the field
Left and right drop out on their own, for wide, unstable signal loss; off, both drop together.
MIX
Keep the part under the cuts
The effect against your dry signal. 100 % for full dropouts; 50 % keeps the part audible through the cuts.
20 sourced presets
Start from signals that fail well
Breaking up, packet loss, a failing phone line, broken radio, squelch tails, CD skips, frozen packets, tape stalls and dropouts, TV signal loss and grid chops, level-matched.
A face that moves
See the signal fail
A blue halo round the satellite follows the output and cuts out with every dropout, and while a dropout lasts the satellite breaks up into scanlines and static.
Inside the plugin
The Lost Satellite window: two big knobs, the dropout's sound, and its timing and pattern.
Every feature
Everything in Lost Satellite, down to the smallest switch.
38 features
The dropouts
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CHANCE
How often the signal drops, at uneven moments
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LENGTH
20 ms to 1 s, every dropout a little different
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DAMAGE
Clean to a 300 Hz-3.4 kHz phone line with grit and static
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TYPE
Silence, stutter, crush, warble, static or tape
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NOISE
Squelch, static crashes, burble, skip clicks, tape hiss
Timing and pattern
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TRIGGER
Hold for a dropout right now, as long as you hold
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MIDI notes
Any held note drops the signal, to the sample
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GRID
Dropouts anywhere, or on 1/8 or 1/16 notes
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SEED
1 to 9999: the same dropouts in every render
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STEREO
Left and right drop out on their own
Mix and output
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MIX
The effect against your dry signal
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Level-matched
The line and the presets sit at the level of the dry part
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Click-free
3 ms edges on every dropout, crossfades on every switch
Workflow and control
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A/B compare and A>B
Two complete settings, switch in one click
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Undo and redo
Step back and forward, or press Ctrl+Z
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MIDI Learn
Take complete control of your workflow: right-click any control, move a knob
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Host automation
Automate every control from your DAW
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ENGAGE
Click-free bypass, to hear the before and after
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IN and OUT meters
See the level going in and coming out at a glance
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Tooltips
Every control explains itself as you point at it
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Resizable window
75 to 200 %, and the size you pick is remembered
Presets
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20 factory presets
Starting points built from real settings producers use
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Previous and next arrows
Audition presets one click at a time
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Save your own
Keep your settings as .lostsatellitepreset preset files
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Open presets folder
Back up or share your presets in one click
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Reset to default
Back to a clean start in one step
Performance
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Zero latency
Play and perform through it live
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Repeatable
Bounces drop in the same places every time
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Mono or stereo
On a vocal, a loop, a bus or the whole mix
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Moving face
The satellite's halo cuts out with every dropout
Licence and compatibility
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VST3 and AAX, Windows 7 SP1 or later
Loads in any 64-bit Windows DAW with VST3 or AAX
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VST3, AU and AAX, macOS 10.13 or later
Loads in any Mac DAW with VST3, AU or AAX, Intel or ARM
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5 computers per copy
Studio, laptop and more on one licence
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Email and code unlock
No dongle, no password, no extra app
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Works offline
No internet needed between check-ins
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Check for updates
From the plugin's menu; nothing installs without asking
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Lifetime updates
Every future update included
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Platinum priority support
Questions answered by the people who build it
How Lost Satellite compares
Every kind of signal loss in one insert, with the controls most leave out.
| Lost Satellite | Typical dropout plugins | |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Uneven like a real fault, or on 1/8 or 1/16 | A fixed rhythmic gate |
| What fills a cut | Six types: silence, stutter, crush, warble, static, tape | Silence only |
| Noise of the link | Squelch, static, burble, clicks and hiss, per type | None, or a generic noise layer |
| The line | DAMAGE: clean to a phone band with grit | A separate EQ and crusher |
| Repeatable | SEED: the same dropouts in every bounce | Random each pass |
| On cue | TRIGGER key or any MIDI note, to the sample | Automation only |
| Latency | 0 ms | Often some |
| Try-and-compare | A/B, A>B, undo and redo | Often missing |
| Hardware control | MIDI Learn on every control | Often host automation only |
| Licence | 5 computers per copy, no dongle, works offline | Often fewer activations, or a dongle |
| Updates | Lifetime updates included | Often paid upgrades |
"Typical" describes what we commonly see in this category; it does not describe any particular product. Lost Satellite facts are from the plugin and its manual, October 2026.
What you get
Vox Samples
90-day money back · Thank you
Specs and system requirements
- Formats
- VST3 and AAX on Windows; VST3, AU and AAX on macOS
- Operating system
- Windows 7 SP1 or later, 64-bit; macOS 10.13 or later, universal (Intel and ARM)
- Host
- Any 64-bit DAW that loads VST3, AU or AAX plug-ins
- Channels
- Mono or stereo
- Sample rates
- Whatever your session runs at
- Latency
- 0 samples
- Rate
- GRID off: 4 x CHANCE dropouts a second of clean signal, at uneven moments; on 1/8 or 1/16: CHANCE per grid line
- Length
- 20 ms to 1 s; each dropout drawn from 0.5 to 1.5 x LENGTH, with 3 ms edges
- Damage
- Clean at 0 (bit-exact) to a 300 Hz-3.4 kHz band with codec grit and static at 100 %, level-matched
- Types
- SILENCE, STUTTER, CRUSH, WARBLE, STATIC, TAPE, each with its own noise (NOISE 0 to 100 %)
- Pattern
- SEED 1 to 9999, placed by song position: the same dropouts in every render
- Trigger
- The TRIGGER key, its automation, or any held MIDI note on any channel, sample-accurate
- Presets
- 20 factory presets; your own as .lostsatellitepreset files
- Window
- 960 x 600 at 100 %, resizable from 75 to 200 %
- MIDI
- MIDI Learn from any controller routed to the track
- Licence
- 5 computers per copy you buy. Unlock with your email and a code we email you. Checks in now and then and works offline in between.
- Internet
- Needed once to unlock, then for the occasional check-in
90Day money-back guarantee
Our guarantee
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90-day money-back guarantee
Not for you? Email contact@voxsamples.com within 90 days for a full refund.
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5 computers per copy
Use it on up to five of your own computers per copy you buy, and move it yourself from the plugin's Licence menu.
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Lifetime updates
Every future update and upgrade of Lost Satellite, included.
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Platinum priority support
A real person at contact@voxsamples.com, first in line.
Questions
Can it do the TV or radio signal loss sound?
Yes. TYPE STATIC replaces the sound with static as a set losing its station does (Signal / TV Signal Loss), and SILENCE with NOISE gives a radio's clicks and squelch tail (Radio / Squelch Tail).
Can it do tape dropouts?
Yes. TYPE TAPE is the dull, quick level-and-highs dip of an oxide dropout, with tape hiss under it (Tape / Tape Dropout), and WARBLE is a stalling tape (Tape / Tape Stall).
Will the dropouts land in the same places every time?
Yes. The pattern comes from SEED and the song position, so every bounce drops in the same places, even if you start playback mid-song. Change SEED for a new pattern.
Can I choose exactly where a dropout happens?
Yes. Hold TRIGGER, automate it, or play any MIDI note into the track: the signal drops from that exact sample for as long as you hold. Set CHANCE to 0 for triggered dropouts only.
Can I use it live?
Yes. It adds no latency, and TRIGGER can be played from a key or a pad.
Does it work in my DAW?
Any 64-bit DAW that loads VST3, AU or AAX plug-ins, on Windows 7 SP1 or later or macOS 10.13 or later. There is no standalone app.
How many computers can I use it on?
Up to five of your own for each copy you buy. To move it, deactivate it in the plugin on the old computer and unlock it on the new one.
Does it need the internet?
Once, to unlock it with the code we email you. After that it checks in now and then and works offline in between.
Is there a manual?
Yes. The full manual explains every control, every preset and the menus, with tips. It opens from the help key (?) in the plugin's top bar, and lives at https://voxsamples.com/lost-satellite-dropout-effect-manual.
What if it's not for me?
Request a refund from your account within 90 days.
Founder's Story
"When COVID hit, I finally had time to dive into music production—only to discover I was missing the right tools. The plugins I tried were clunky, overloaded with unnecessary features, and killed my vibe with endless tweaking. I knew there had to be a better way.
So, with my engineering background, I started making free and simple audio plugins for my producer friends. They loved them! That’s when I set out on a mission to create plugins that save you time, streamline your workflow, and keep your creativity flowing."
- Ryan Svensson (Founder & CEO)
Every way a signal fails. One insert.
Signal loss, skips and tape dropouts with the real noise of a failing link, repeatable, on the beat or on cue, at zero latency.
$43.18 AUD通常価格 $143.98 AUD70% off
- 90-day money back
- Five computers
- Lifetime updates
Pairs with
Lost Satellite Dropout Effect
$43.18 AUD通常価格 $143.98 AUD70% off