Big (Free) Update for Blue Cat's Axiom and Destructor

[Blue Cat Audio]

Dear KvR Members,

We are happy to announce the release of Blue Cat's Axiom 1.3 and Destructor 1.5 free updates with major improvements for these distortion, amp simulation and guitar & bass effects processors.

The new version of Destructor, which also acts as an amp and pedals modeler inside Axiom, introduces a brand new way to explore presets and create new tones easily: with the tone maps explorer, you can navigate and morph factory or user presets in two dimensions, on predefined or user-created maps: you can find the right tone without diving into the parameters of the plug-in. In Axiom, it is now possible to create brand new amp models by just choosing the right spot on the screen.

Both Axiom and Destructor also include a new presets browser with built-in search, to find your way through the thousands of presets available for the entire plug-in, or for each section. Many new presets have been added in these new versions (not forgetting bass guitar players), and extra free guitar amp presets using impulse responses from Seacow Cabs are available as a separate free download.

Axiom 1.3 also adds 4 new built-in effects (2 distortions pedals), and both updates include many other new features and improvements detailed below.

The update is free for existing customers, available from the same location as the original download (link received by email upon purchase). Special offers are available for new customers (details below), and registered Blue Cat Audio customers have been sent extra coupons by email.

What's New in Axiom 1.3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEHPZHWWjl8
New features:
- New amp tones explorer with amp models morphing: explore and morph amps in 2 dimensions to create unique new tones easily.
- New presets (and sub-presets) browser with built-in search: find factory or user amp models and effect chains to create new patches.
- Added hundreds of new presets, sub-presets, new amp models (from Destructor 1.5) and new reverbs, delays and modulation effects from Late Replies 1.4.
- VST3: added MIDI output support for VST3 plug-in format.
Built-in effects:
- New "Overdrive" and "Overgrind" distortion pedals.
- New Level (volume control) and Micro EQ built-in plug-ins.
- Added a gain parameter to several built-in plug-ins to avoid volume changes when switched on/off (pitch and frequency shifters, modulation effects, delays).
- Increased knobs precision for pitch shifter and waveshaper built-in plug-ins for smoother control.
- Increased gain control range for distortion pedals.
Third party plug-ins host:
- VST and VST3 plug-ins previously displayed as missing because of name changes are now relocated automatically (Waves major updates, 32 and 64-bit plug-ins with different names etc.)
- Improved auto-relocation performance when a large number of plug-ins have moved.
- VST3 Host: added MIDI output and program change support for recenlty updated VST3 plug-ins.
Other fixes and improvements:
- Enlarged the area to click on plug-ins bypass and "Show Editor" buttons.
- Fixed an issue with hosted plug-ins editors not always restored in the right position in Cubase on Windows.
- Mac: fixed issue with Magic Mouse that could trigger drag and drop instead of mouse click.
- Spectrum analyzer display of built-in EQ will not take priority over DAW or other plug-ins user interfaces.
- Changing the slope of lowpass and highpass filters in the built-in EQ is now smoother.

What's New in Blue Cat's Destructor v1.5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jm3q36ZjJk
- New tone explorer with presets morphing: explore presets on predefined or custom visual maps, and morph tones in 2 dimensions to create unique new sounds easily.
- Added more than 100 factory "tone maps" for the new tone explorer.
- New presets (and sub-presets) browser with built-in search.
- New guitar factory presets: classic guitar amps, metal and signature guitar presets.
- New bass guitar factory presets, including 45 new bass cabinet models.
- Free Seacow cabs presets available for download here.
- Performance improvement: the user interface now only loads modules that are visible.
- Changing the slope of lowpass and highpass filters in pre and post filters is now smoother.

What's New for both Axiom & Destructor:
- Each instance of the plug-in can now have its own MIDI Program Change settings.
- MIDI Program Change preference is now saved into session instead of global preferences, so each instance can now use different MIDI channels. It is also saved in the user default preset.
- VST3: added support for MIDI program change messages to change presets via MIDI.
- VST: the user interface is now properly resized in Cubase on Windows.
- Hovering the mouse on the current preset name now displays a tooltip with the full path of the last loaded preset file.
- Improved plug-in listing in Windows 10 start menu.
- Mac: faster GUI rendering on recent Mac OS systems (up to 5x faster on level meters).
- Mac: fixed user interface not properly shown on retina displays in some applications built with the 10.14 Mac OS SDK.

System requirements:
- Intel Mac running Mac OS 10.7 or newer.
- PC running Windows Vista or newer.

Pricing (taxes included):
Blue Cat's Axiom: 149 EUR or $149 (instead of 199, until October 15th)
Blue Cat's Destructor: 79 EUR or $79 (instead of 99, until October 15th)
Blue Cat's Axe Pack guitar & bass bundle: 249 EUR or $249 (instead of 299, until October 15th)

Enjoy!

[glokraw]

Dear KvR Members,

We are happy to announce the release of Blue Cat's Axiom 1.3 and Destructor 1.5 free updates with major improvements for these distortion, amp simulation and guitar & bass effects processors...

...Enjoy!

It seems difficult to use Axiom without discovering new and
delightful possibilities and effect combinations. I don't know if
you've had vocal or synth specialists sit in with your team
and test things in their scecialties, but I suspect labeling as

"distortion, amp simulation and guitar & bass effects processors"

may be too limiting, and hence some talented but unstrung artists
may miss out on great possibilities and discoveries.
Thanks for the great update and continuing the product line
at such a high level!

[DOD505]

Built-in Re-guitar some time ago, and now this.
Axiom has been giving me a lot of fun since I purchased.
Thanks for your effort.

[dandezebra]

Nice update!

[Blue Cat Audio]

It seems difficult to use Axiom without discovering new and
delightful possibilities and effect combinations. I don't know if
you've had vocal or synth specialists sit in with your team
and test things in their scecialties, but I suspect labeling as

"distortion, amp simulation and guitar & bass effects processors"

may be too limiting, and hence some talented but unstrung artists
may miss out on great possibilities and discoveries.
Thanks for the great update and continuing the product line
at such a high level!

Well, like many multi effects processors with lots of built-in effects, it can work for many different types of audio signals, but the workflow was originally designed for guitar and bass.

Thank you for your messages! Glad that you like the update!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Built-in Re-guitar some time ago, and now this.
Axiom has been giving me a lot of fun since I purchased.

My personal favorite is to create new cabs out of existing models - as you can see there is quite a bit of empty space to explore between them:

(extra large screen recommended )

[Slipgate]

Absolute ripper of a plug-in, has become my go to. The new metal presets with IRs sound fantastic.

Question - out of the distortions pedals which is most like the tube screamer?

[Blue Cat Audio]

There was a little glitch with the update, so a maintenance release (Axiom 1.31 and Destructor 1.51) has just been issued, which mainly fixes a major problem with the new tone maps on Mac:

What's new:
- Fixed tone maps presets morphing that did not work on Mac.
- Fixed tone maps "reload from presets" when the map was created on another platform (Mac vs PC).
- (Axiom only) Fixed persistency of tools rack display setting.

We apologize for the inconvenience!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Absolute ripper of a plug-in, has become my go to. The new metal presets with IRs sound fantastic.

Have you tried the free Seacow Cabs IR amp presets as well?

Question - out of the distortions pedals which is most like the tube screamer?

I would say probably none of them, as we have not tried to imitate this particular model.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Here is a great demo of the new features introduced in Axiom 1.3 (to hopefully make guitar tone crafting easier):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1bLsrWx0IE

[Slipgate]

Absolute ripper of a plug-in, has become my go to. The new metal presets with IRs sound fantastic.

Have you tried the free Seacow Cabs IR amp presets as well?

Question - out of the distortions pedals which is most like the tube screamer?

I would say probably none of them, as we have not tried to imitate this particular model.

That's fair.

I've not tried them yet, will do this weekend.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Question - out of the distortions pedals which is most like the tube screamer?

I would say probably none of them, as we have not tried to imitate this particular model.

In fact there are so may free plug-ins out that emulate this particular pedal that it's probably not worth adding one more : you probably just want to load one of them inside Axiom (that's what the third party plug-in hosting feature is for).

[dandezebra]

Try TSEs.

[Tappistry]

Absolute ripper of a plug-in, has become my go to. The new metal presets with IRs sound fantastic.

Have you tried the free Seacow Cabs IR amp presets as well?

Question - out of the distortions pedals which is most like the tube screamer?

I would say probably none of them, as we have not tried to imitate this particular model.

That's fair.

I've not tried them yet, will do this weekend.

The HoRNet Tubescreamer emulation is pretty good and I think it's about $3 or so.

[LGK_Dude]

Browsing presets and finding tones quickly was my main gripe and that seems to have been solved with the latest update. Well done!! Any chance of an upgrade path to Axiom full for Re-guitar owners? Starting to wish I just purchased Axiom from the get go.