Blue Cat's Destructor - Beyond Distortion and Amp Simulation, Now Available!

[morelia]

I already use S-gear, so I don't really need an amp sim, but could this be used to model distortion boxes. IMO if it can be used to model stomp boxes that would be really useful(there seems to be a lack of stompbox vsts).

I agree, but I use almost any distortion to model a stompbox distortion. Favourites are Ohmicide, Saturn and Decapitator.

[incubus]

Here are the thoughts simply from what has been discussed and the cool funky playing:

First, mind-blowing is necessary for what is todays expectations. Nothing short of that is interesting to a huge majority of players/payers/etc.

The cleanish stuff sounded pretty good. But as gain is introduced, I was more and more turned off.

But the price is good, and despite anything "negative" I've said, it's great to see someone/anyone developing this.

[AudioGuy720]

Can't say I'm a fan of this plugin. Scuffham S-Gear is the one to beat. The only thing it doesn't do well is heavy metal tones and it doesn't do bass at all. Sorry if someone posted a similar comment...I am posting blind after watching the demo video.

[hansvaneven]

I'm very confident you'll be able to make whatever metal sound you want. From my own experience the sounds that are most hard to reproduce with plugins are the crunch and clean sounds and for that part Destructor rules.

[Burillo]

I'm very confident you'll be able to make whatever metal sound you want. From my own experience the sounds that are most hard to reproduce with plugins are the crunch and clean sounds and for that part Destructor rules.

from my experience, everyone who plays in a certain style claims that plugins reproduce other guys' sounds well, but their style still has ways to go. metal guys say plugin metal sounds sound like crap but clean/crunch sounds are nailed, clean/crunch guys say metal sounds are nailed while it's the clean/crunch sound that's been a weak spot in amp sims for decades.

[Robmobius]

I'm very confident you'll be able to make whatever metal sound you want. From my own experience the sounds that are most hard to reproduce with plugins are the crunch and clean sounds and for that part Destructor rules.

I'll take the demo for a spin, I think it's got a lot to offer as a distortion unit. It's a shame that the metal tones are a tad lacklustre (in the vid).

But we will see what it can do from the actual demo.

[sinkmusic]

I have been beta testing Destructor for months, and i am not a guitarist, but i have enjoyed it for various tasks : mixing, mastering, sound mangling, etc.
Since the plugin looks like a guitar amp (and that the video features a guitar), of course there is much talk about expectations of the plugin being a great amp emulation. It was expectable (and intentional).

But Destructor can do so much more that's it is a bit missing the point : I wish BlueCat would make another video or clear statement about all Destructor potential, so, before being able to try it, people would realize how powerful it can be : in a nutshell, you have one compressor, one noise gate, two eq, two comb filters, a distorsion and a bitcrusher into a single, dynamic interface.
It can be a channel strip, it can be a clipper, a bitcrusher, it works great for pre & de-emphasis, it can do tape emulation, gritty compression, tube emulation... you can use it on single tracks for adding color, mangling or shaping audio, you can use on busses to add glue and color, you can use it on the master buss...
It can do subtle, it can do nasty, and, as most of you already know, pre-eq and pre-comp are the keys to a great distorsion tone, and Destructor makes it fast and easy to setup, with its "all in one" approach.

The BlueCat developer is a guitarist, therefore the communication around this plugin is very guitar-orientated, but really, this plugin is so much more than "just" a guitar amp simulation, that it might be missing the point not caring about Destructor's other uses, and just focusing on how accurate it can be as a strict emulation of amps and cabs.

Well, of course, i don't mean users shouldn't talk and compare it with other amp sims (since the thread title mentions "amp sim"), but i really hope that non-guitarists will still be curious to try out the demo when it's out, and will not think it is "yet another amp sim, not for me"...

[Robmobius]

But Destructor can do so much more that's it is a bit missing the point : I wish BlueCat would make another video or clear statement about all Destructor potential, so, before being able to try it, people would realize how powerful it can be : in a nutshell, you have one compressor, one noise gate, two eq, two comb filters, a distorsion and a bitcrusher into a single, dynamic interface.
It can be a channel strip, it can be a clipper, a bitcrusher, it works great for pre & de-emphasis, it can do tape emulation, gritty compression, tube emulation... you can use it on single tracks for adding color, mangling or shaping audio, you can use on busses to add glue and color, you can use it on the master buss...
It can do subtle, it can do nasty, and, as most of you already know, pre-eq and pre-comp are the keys to a great distorsion tone, and Destructor makes it fast and easy to setup, with its "all in one" approach.

The BlueCat developer is a guitarist, therefore the communication around this plugin is very guitar-orientated, but really, this plugin is so much more than "just" a guitar amp simulation, that it might be missing the point not caring about Destructor's other uses, and just focusing on how accurate it can be as a strict emulation of amps and cabs.

Well, of course, i don't mean users shouldn't talk and compare it with other amp sims (since the thread title mentions "amp sim"), but i really hope that non-guitarists will still be curious to try out the demo when it's out, and will not think it is "yet another amp sim, not for me"...

To be honest, I don't think people are missing the point. Most people have been really interested to see the what this plugin can actually do, and have looked beyond the guitar aspect. Bmanic already mentioned it's drum examples, etc.

But when it comes to showing guitar demo tones people are going to be damn picky, especially if it's metal.

And the intro price and even the final price is very reasonable. So it's got a lot going for it.

[sinkmusic]

Ah ah ! yes, you must be right

[hansvaneven]

I suggest best is to try out the plugin when it comes out next week, from what I tried so far, is that it can do any sound you want but each one has his own preferences, one of the big advantages of Destructor is that it responds much better to dynamics then other plugins using IR's, the playing experience is more natural. And like sinkmusic wrote, it's not just for guitar, it's a very complete distortion plugin with a lot of useful tools inside of it.

[bmanic]

In my experience the actual impulse responses have nothing to do with how well an amp model reacts to dynamics. It's just filtering after all. In the real world, of course the actual cabinet itself can introduce some breakup and give a sense of "oomph" but I still am not convinced it plays such a large role.

Good dynamics come from the actual distortion/saturation part of the code. Thermionic suite is an excellent example of this. I can put a simple low pass filter on it's output and it still reacts to dynamics exceptionally well.

One thing bothers me a lot, the demo restrictions say:

"The effect is bypassed for 4 seconds every 45 seconds."

Please.. not this bullshit again. Why the hell does it have to bypass for 4 seconds?? That makes absolutely no sense at all. Just make it bypass for a split second 500ms or heck, even a single second. It makes no difference at all.. once it's being bypassed, it creates the restriction. Having it at 4 seconds creates an ANNOYANCE instead which makes me hate the demo and then I'll not be even considering a purchase of the plugin.

How on earth some developers don't understand this is just incredible. Could somebody give me an actual VALID reason why the bypass has to be so long? What is the benefit? What is the thought behind it?

[bharris22]

But Destructor can do so much more that's it is a bit missing the point : I wish BlueCat would make another video or clear statement about all Destructor potential, so, before being able to try it, people would realize how powerful it can be : in a nutshell, you have one compressor, one noise gate, two eq, two comb filters, a distorsion and a bitcrusher into a single, dynamic interface.
It can be a channel strip, it can be a clipper, a bitcrusher, it works great for pre & de-emphasis, it can do tape emulation, gritty compression, tube emulation... you can use it on single tracks for adding color, mangling or shaping audio, you can use on busses to add glue and color, you can use it on the master buss...
It can do subtle, it can do nasty, and, as most of you already know, pre-eq and pre-comp are the keys to a great distorsion tone, and Destructor makes it fast and easy to setup, with its "all in one" approach.

The BlueCat developer is a guitarist, therefore the communication around this plugin is very guitar-orientated, but really, this plugin is so much more than "just" a guitar amp simulation, that it might be missing the point not caring about Destructor's other uses, and just focusing on how accurate it can be as a strict emulation of amps and cabs.

Well, of course, i don't mean users shouldn't talk and compare it with other amp sims (since the thread title mentions "amp sim"), but i really hope that non-guitarists will still be curious to try out the demo when it's out, and will not think it is "yet another amp sim, not for me"...

To be honest, I don't think people are missing the point. Most people have been really interested to see the what this plugin can actually do, and have looked beyond the guitar aspect. Bmanic already mentioned it's drum examples, etc.

But when it comes to showing guitar demo tones people are going to be damn picky, especially if it's metal.

And the intro price and even the final price is very reasonable. So it's got a lot going for it.

I see the final price is $99 - what is the intro price?

[Robmobius]

But Destructor can do so much more that's it is a bit missing the point : I wish BlueCat would make another video or clear statement about all Destructor potential, so, before being able to try it, people would realize how powerful it can be : in a nutshell, you have one compressor, one noise gate, two eq, two comb filters, a distorsion and a bitcrusher into a single, dynamic interface.
It can be a channel strip, it can be a clipper, a bitcrusher, it works great for pre & de-emphasis, it can do tape emulation, gritty compression, tube emulation... you can use it on single tracks for adding color, mangling or shaping audio, you can use on busses to add glue and color, you can use it on the master buss...
It can do subtle, it can do nasty, and, as most of you already know, pre-eq and pre-comp are the keys to a great distorsion tone, and Destructor makes it fast and easy to setup, with its "all in one" approach.

The BlueCat developer is a guitarist, therefore the communication around this plugin is very guitar-orientated, but really, this plugin is so much more than "just" a guitar amp simulation, that it might be missing the point not caring about Destructor's other uses, and just focusing on how accurate it can be as a strict emulation of amps and cabs.

Well, of course, i don't mean users shouldn't talk and compare it with other amp sims (since the thread title mentions "amp sim"), but i really hope that non-guitarists will still be curious to try out the demo when it's out, and will not think it is "yet another amp sim, not for me"...

To be honest, I don't think people are missing the point. Most people have been really interested to see the what this plugin can actually do, and have looked beyond the guitar aspect. Bmanic already mentioned it's drum examples, etc.

But when it comes to showing guitar demo tones people are going to be damn picky, especially if it's metal.

And the intro price and even the final price is very reasonable. So it's got a lot going for it.

I see the final price is $99 - what is the intro price?

$79!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Good dynamics come from the actual distortion/saturation part of the code

Indeed. That's especially crucial for "clean/crunch-ish", and what you cannot achieve with a static wave shaper. That's what the dynamics and adaptive controls are for in this plug-in, which you will not find elsewhere.


While it can still make a difference on the shape of attacks and thus change the resulting spectrum over time, honestly, I would not use the word "dynamics" for ultra high gain tones . From my point of view (be it with real gear or software), with lots of gain, post-filtering is what really shapes the tone: you end up with so many harmonics and such a flat waveform that it's a bit like using a filter on white noise: remove it and you are fried, change it and it's a completely different tone.

Anyway, what's great (and awful at the same time) with guitar tones is that it is highly subjective, and it depends a lot on the interaction of the player, the instrument and the gear. Also, it's completely different from the guitarist prospective and in the mix - in fact even just playing alone or with a band makes it feel and sound completely different.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Here is a short review of the plug-in by Pro Tools Expert, from a guitarist prospective. Available for demo and download tomorrow!