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

[bmanic]

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 .

You really need to get up to speed on the current trend in high gain tones. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the audio demos of your high gain examples are so weak?

It's not "dynamic" in the actual sense of the word but rather how reactive the good high gain tones are.. heck, even slightly changing the angle of the pick can drastically impact the attack portion of the picking sound, even when gain is cranked to 11.

The point is, the good modern high-gain tones are full of "life".. even tiny changes in picking/pickup volume and incoming tonal changes (from pre-processing or just filtering by the guitar pickups) will drastically alter the tone.

Hard to explain if you are not into these kinds of tones..

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.

Indeed.. but this statement can also be used as a cop-out. I'm sure there are people who love the original Line6 emulations (before they even went hardware) but lets be frank, they were pretty bad. You get my point.

[Blue Cat Audio]

It's not "dynamic" in the actual sense of the word but rather how reactive the good high gain tones are.. heck, even slightly changing the angle of the pick can drastically impact the attack portion of the picking sound, even when gain is cranked to 11.

So I guess we are actually just saying the same thing then... But using the words in their actual sense would help a little bit, wouldn't it?

[hansvaneven]

Hi there, not really a metal sound, but a small snippet of Destructor in action in a guitar-rock song with a more hi gain sound (rhythm + lead) on the intro of a tune of mine.

http://www.guitarattitude.com/documents ... _intro.mp3

[Blue Cat Audio]

It's time to finally unleash today Blue Cat's Destructor: the plug-in is now available for purchase with 20% off until 11/11, while existing customers get an extra 10% discount during the same period (check your email!).

More details about the plug-in and demo downloads can be found on the Destructor plug-in page. You can now try it by yourself and tell us what you think!

You may also want to check out these first reviews of the plug-in:
- Pro Tools Expert Video Review of Blue Cat's Destructor for Guitars
- Studio One Expert Video Review of Blue Cat's Destructor for Guitars
- Blue Cat's Destructor Review on Audiofanzine (French), with many audio examples - sounds are not in French btw

[plexuss]

I am really interested in this plugin but last I checked Blue Cat doesn't support license transfers. Blue Cat has your policy changed or are you still not allowing transfers? I find that I need to work with a tool for awhile, do some tracks with it, in order to determine if it's something important to keep in my toolbox, or transfer to someone else who can use it. The usual demo limitations and period are ok for getting an initial sense of it, but like I said I find I need to work with tools in actual productions over some time and not just in a demo mode. I am happy to buy plugins as long as I am not tied to them for the rest of my life. Let me know the current transfer status. thanks!

[bmanic]

Holy hell.. the demo really does mute for 4 seconds every 45 seconds. Wow.. I thought we were past these kind of stupid demo restrictions that make zero sense.

Can somebody explain the benefit of a 4 second bypass versus a 0.5 second bypass? Is it there only to annoy the potential customer? If that's the reason the job well done.

EDIT: toned down the frustration

[hansvaneven]

Holy hell.. the demo really does mute for 4 seconds every 45 seconds. Wow.. I thought we were past these kind of stupid demo restrictions that make zero sense.

Can somebody explain the benefit of a 4 second bypass versus a 0.5 second bypass? Is it there only to annoy the potential customer? If that's the reason the job well done.

EDIT: toned down the frustration

Sincerely bmanic, I really don't know what makes you so upset but no need to become vocal From my experience Blue Cat Audio has fantastic customer support, always trying to do their best to satisfy users!! If you'd like to suggest changes maybe there are other ways to do that.

[bmanic]

It's just extremely annoying. I mentioned it already a few pages ago after reading the website and pointed out the bad decision.

The thing is: What's the point?

I also don't like the single instance restriction. To be able to test how this works on a drum groove with multiple elements I had to bounce the damn stuff in real time.

For this kind of multi-tool distortion plugin the demo is massively restrictive.. and I can't find a single good reason for it to be this way. There's just no proper way of evaluating the thing.

But whatever, I've said my piece. I've deleted the demo and I'll be moving on to something else.

[hansvaneven]

It's just extremely annoying. I mentioned it already a few pages ago after reading the website and pointed out the bad decision.
The thing is: What's the point?

From my experience as a user with software from other companies I've never really had issues with restrictions on demos, each company has their reasons for this and I respect this, as long as you can hear how it works it's ok for me. Each one has their vision on things, but again best way to suggest changes is to send a kind mail to the company. Peace!

[Dominus]

I also don't like the single instance restriction. To be able to test how this works on a drum groove with multiple elements I had to bounce the damn stuff in real time.

Really? I'd need to test it on four guitar tracks playing live. I'm not bouncing.

[bmanic]

Exactly. These restrictions are just bizarre.

@hansvaneven: You are of course right, a polite email would of course be the best course of action but the natural reaction to these demo restrictions is one of severe frustration, especially when one is looking very much forward to testing a plugin. I'm also the type that questions everything. If somebody is going to do a damn cavity search on me, I want to know why. I'm not blindly going to "respect" anything without an explanation.

Anyhow.. will take a look at this at some later time. Perhaps the demo will get fixed.

[jens]

Hans, just to weigh in on this: perhaps Bmanic simply can't be bothered to go to the length of writing a mail? I in his place couldn't. Another option is alway to simply move on to other, more pleasant encounters.

And I clearly see how his points are actually very reasonable.

It's a fact that in the plugin market there is heavy competition, so I'd say do what you can to attract your potential customers, instead of making them shy away. My advice to any developer would be to make everything they can to make the demo-experience as little unpleasant as possible (i.e. as unpleasant as neccessary, but certainly not more unplesant). After all you want them to really enjoy using the demo so that they will end up making up their mind about all the good things the plugin offers.

It is also a fact that this discussion keeps popping up again and again, so I can see why Bmanic gets less and less patient / more short-fused with developers who have vastly unreasonable demo-restrictions.

Also I would say it's part of the beta-testers' job to offer sound advice to the developer in regards to this before the actual release.

Just my two Stuivers.

[GreyLion]

I'm not sure yet if it's just the pleasure of newness, but I've been fooling around with the demo for a couple of hours now, and I'm really, really liking Destructor. It's one of those plugs that just feels right to me. Great presets, and very easy to create and modify tones that please me greatly. The controls and signal flow feel intuitive, and the cab sims via filters rather than IR sound excellent on my rig. Touch is excellent. I'm a rocker, not a metal-head, FWIW, if y'all want to keep arguing about that aspect.

I do agree with one of the vid reviewers that the gate and compressor should be easily bypassable. I have other plugs for those purposes that have more flexibility and that don't detract from the immediacy of connection to Destructor. I want those functions at the very beginning of the signal chain anyhow.

Not to get mired in the discussion about the 4-second dropout, but, yes, it's mildly annoying. I suspect most people will find a way to cope.

Add in a little reverb of choice and it competes successfully with any of the other (too damn many) ampsims that I have.

As usual, YMMV, but I'd highly recommend giving the demo a thorough workout.

Definitely a buy for me.

[hansvaneven]

It is also a fact that this discussion keeps popping up again and again, so I can see why Bmanic gets less and less patient / more short-fused with developers who have vastly unreasonable demo-restrictions.

Hi Jens, I'm not going to comment more on this, it's really not a problem for me, never has been with software from other developers either, but best is to ask Blue Cat Audio directly for future requests.

Also I would say it's part of the beta-testers' job to offer sound advice to the developer in regards to this before the actual release.
Just my two Stuivers.

While sound advice is highly subjective, in the "guitar legends" presets section of the demo, you'll find plenty of these

[jens]

Well, this is a thread started by Blue Cat Audio in order to introduce Destructor - these forum threads then offer the forum members the possibilty to discuss all that concearn the thread subject - which is what we do.

And Bmanic mentioned the demo-restrictions as a legitimate contribution to this discussion and you subsequently decided to reply to Bmanic£s comment, which in return made me answer your reply.

So far so good.

But now I have to say:

1) nobody originally adressed YOU personally in regards to this. I only did so because you - out of your own free will - joined the discussion previous to this.

2) nobody ever claimed that YOU personally would have any problems with the demo-restrictions. It was Bmanic who had the problem with it.

3) hence I am puzzled as to why you would say "best is to ask Blue Cat Audio directly for future requests". Personally I prefer to simply continue the discussion where it takes place, which is here in this very thread. Whether you continue to take part in it is - just as it was right from the start - your own choice alone.


something unrelated:

when I wrote "sound advice" it was of course in reference to the demo-restrictions and I used the word "sound" in the sense as it is explained here:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sound

In no way did I mean "sound" as in "audio".

(that would have been a bizarre statement - entirely bare of any respective context - from my side otherwise, wouldn't it? Makes me wonder how little of what I write people on average actually comprehend to at keast some extent)


With that being said, I am looking forward to trying your presets though as I quite liked what I heard in your demos.