KVR Audio

Blue Cat Audio · Post by **Blue Cat Audio** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 7:03 am

Wow, it look like there has been a bit of distortion along this thread

.

About the demo limitations, honestly there is no specific reason for these. I think it was a compromise that seemed to work for most people during all these years: all our plug-ins demos have similar limitations (now that I think about it, the choice for 4 seconds was probably because with shorter times we got bug reports for "audio glitches" that were not understood as part of the demo limitation, but I'll have to double check).

@bmanic: regarding this topic, we took note of your point, and I guess we can indeed improve the demo user experience in the future. It's just that this not the kind of things that we would change a few days before releasing, when all binaries are tested and ready.

BTW, beta testers have not have the opportunity to try the demo, so we are the only ones to blame for it!

Blue Cat Audio · Post by **Blue Cat Audio** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 7:12 am

GreyLion wrote: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.

Thanks for the feedback! Glad that you like it. We have also heard you about the improvements. However there is no plan to add a reverb INSIDE the plug-in.

jens · Post by **jens** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 7:40 am

So you are developing a reverb plugin...

Nice!

- and nice teaser - well played!

jens · Post by **jens** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 7:43 am

Blue Cat Audio wrote:
BTW, beta testers have not have the opportunity to try the demo, so we are the only ones to blame for it!

Well then

for not having them test the demo built

Blue Cat Audio · Post by **Blue Cat Audio** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 7:54 am

jens wrote:So you are developing a reverb plugin...
Nice! - and nice teaser - well played!

To tell the truth... Not yet!

jens · Post by **jens** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 8:25 am

Oh, I see...

Well, hurry up then!

hansvaneven · Post by **hansvaneven** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 10:12 am

jens wrote: 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.

Hi Jens, no problem mate, I completely understood what you meant on the demo limitations "sound advice", it's just that my efforts as beta tester went into some presets which I truly hope you'll like

peace & hope you'll all have fun as much as I do with Destructor!

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 4:57 pm

Blue Cat Audio wrote: @bmanic: regarding this topic, we took note of your point, and I guess we can indeed improve the demo user experience in the future. It's just that this not the kind of things that we would change a few days before releasing, when all binaries are tested and ready.

I can understand this, definitely. I'm very surprised to hear you have these limitations on other plugins as well. I haven't of course demoed any of your plugins in a long time but I do enjoy your freebies. How would a person properly evaluate a basic plugin like a compressor or EQ if one can run only a single instance? It just blows my mind that this kind of demo restriction has ever even been considered. You are obviously a very clever chap considering all the wonderful plugins you've created.. so my brain kind of goes "Huh? How is this possible??" which results in malfunction and the outcome is frustration and rage (yes, it's one of my bad personality traits and I'm fully aware of it).

Anyhow, I can't thank you enough for the absolutely brilliant BC Gain 3.0 plugin. It's one of my most used plugins ever. It's literally on every track where I run a Nebula/Aqua instance or any other kind of plugin that doesn't do proper gain staging itself. This brilliant freebie is one of the reasons I kind of feel "guilty" and need to buy one of your plugins and was looking very much forward to Destructor as I'm kind of in the distortion market right now.. and I don't have any really flexible options at the moment (except Reaktor where I've been building my own devices but that damn user experience is not enjoyable when I need to work on client mixes).

I'll wait for an updated demo to see how it works. Suggestion to minimize the confusion you mentioned: You can use a tiny bit of noise, just make it obviously low enough so that it doesn't bother. Fading in a bit of noise into a short but clear pause/mute will definitely tell people "this is a demo". I also would perhaps not let the dry signal through during the bypass.. it can be especially confusing if the effect in question is very subtle (not the case with Destructor though). Also, it may be a good idea to sync the demo mute among plugin instances, if at all possible.. because if you have a mute of 4 seconds every 45 seconds and the user runs 10 instances for a mix, you can just imagine the frustration when everything mutes all the time.

A more complex timer system would be preferable, like Ohmforce used to do it. The first 30 min are noiseless and then gradually more and more noise is added after that time. Once your "demo time" has run out, it starts to heavily mute the audio every minute or so.

Think of it like this: Most effects are used within the context of a mix. Can a person properly evaluate the plugin within a mix and make a well educated purchase?

Cheers!
bManic

jens · Post by **jens** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 6:58 pm

hansvaneven wrote: Hi Jens, no problem mate, I completely understood what you meant on the demo limitations "sound advice", it's just that my efforts as beta tester went into some presets which I truly hope you'll like peace & hope you'll all have fun as much as I do with Destructor!

Oh, I see - the misunderstanding was on my part then - my apologies!

hansvaneven · Post by **hansvaneven** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 7:32 am

jens wrote: Oh, I see - the misunderstanding was on my part then - my apologies!

irtimid · Post by **irtimid** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 8:07 am

Before the demo gave me a 4 second time out i already knew i had to buy it, it sounds really GREAT and POWERFUL!!
Big up for the great VST you just delivered Blue Cat Audio!!
Now back to the essence, music making! more music less blahh

All the best!

Blue Cat Audio · Post by **Blue Cat Audio** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 10:41 am

Glad that you like it! That was a fast purchase decision!

Blue Cat Audio · Post by **Blue Cat Audio** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 10:48 am

BTW if you want to know more about the plug-in, or if you just want to learn how to get the best of it, Groove 3 has released a great in-depth training for Blue Cat's Destructor that really covers all features (including side chain distortion):

We have partnered with them so that you can get a free 30 days access pass to watch this tutorial or any other (there is more than 1200 hours of videos). Enjoy!

woodsdenis · Post by **woodsdenis** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 2:46 pm

I am not a guitarist and this is next on my list, don't really understand whats going on inside but its a fantastic distortion/saturation effect.

wasi · Post by **wasi** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 7:48 pm

I'm very impressed. The guitar sounds are much better than expected and it's very easy to work with for anything else distortion related. Had to buy it.

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