"Re-Guitaring" made easy: Blue Cat's Re-Guitar 1.0 is Out!

[GreyLion]

Ah. I don't have a normal license, so it makes sense that I wouldn't get that email. No problem. I'm still wayyy ahead of the game here.

[A3ntar]

For a while now I have been looking for a way to get rid of my Line 6 Variax JTV, this clunky, cheap playing, cheap feeling guitar...I hate it with a passion...yet I loved the convenience of being able to recall sounds from different guitars instantly...It was not specifically good at doing any emulation, but the stock analog single coils were all right.

Needless to say that I was looking forward to this plug-in with huge anticipation. So tonight I gave it a quick demo. I am rather impressed with what this little gadget can do.

It can do HB<->SC much, much better than my Variax and without any noticeable latency!

I did A/B comparisons between my LP -> SC, and my american/jap bastard strat with the texas special pups and while it was not a 100% emulation, it was darn close.
The feel is there, the pluckiness and twang are somehow magically re-created from nothing, and the smooth and creamy sound of a humbucker becomes a piercing high sound of a string vibrating over a single coil! Fantastic!

Same deal when going from ST -> HB...the twang gets tamed out, and all becomes creamy and smooth automagically. Although my strat was NOT able to re-create my LP's sustain, which is immense on this guitar...but neither did my Variax with it's crappy LP emulation.

Now on the negative side, what I don't like about Re-guitar is it's acoustic sim.
It is so weak and thin, even on the thickest body and all values pretty much maxed out. It sound like a 20$ cheap half baked acoustic guitar...and on some settings, like a mildly amplified electric.
Was not impressed at all, and will not be using this part of the pupSim.

For that type of Elec->Acoustic, the uncontested king is still Overloud's AcGtrSimul...this thing is a *beast* and no need to select input source type...just instantiate and go.
Maybe Blue Cat should take a listen on how these guys do it and re-profile ther acoustic simulators.

Also, I wish the pupSim had more emulations, like banjos, dobros, etc. Maybe in a future update?

Regardless, this is a fantastic plugin and even though it has it's weakness, I was impressed enough that I am now thinking of getting rid of my Variax, and getting this plug-in instead.

[reggie1979]

I tend to think about the emu less and how it just sounds in general. I have no qualms making a single coil mo' ringy or adding an extra slice of bacon to a humbucker

[Blue Cat Audio]

Acoustic simulations highly depend on the input signal, so you may want to experiment with several pickups & settings in Re-Guitar. You will definitely need to add a bit a reverb if you want to avoid the feeling of a raw piezo sound.

However it is indeed not the main purpose of Re-Guitar (think of it as the icing on the cake), even if you can get pretty convincing sounds if you work a bit on it and also adapt your playing, as explained in this acoustic guitar tone tutorial (free preset for Axiom included):


But well, yes, simulations will never feel and sound as good as a well-recorded acoustic guitar, for sure - but it can help in many situations!

[Blue Cat Audio]

I tend to think about the emu less and how it just sounds in general. I have no qualms making a single coil mo' ringy or adding an extra slice of bacon to a humbucker

There's never enough bacon!

[reggie1979]

What surprises me, and how few have chimed in on this, is the difference in feel even if you are just adding it to the chain. Now, some gain-staging is necessary or you might get fooled by "mo volume" or something like that. But even just geeking out and using VU meters to make sure there isn't anything crazy happening, it just feels so much better playing through it.

[Blue Cat Audio]

[Blue Cat Audio]

Here are a few more audio examples of Re-Guitar in David Wallimann's Axiom review here (the part about Re-Guitar starts at 7:00). He uses humbuckers as input:

[A3ntar]

Also, I wish the pupSim had more emulations, like banjos, dobros, etc. Maybe in a future update?

@Blue Cat Audio

Would this ever be a possibility?

And I agree, adding this plugin at the front of the plugin chain does wonders to the digital emulations

[KenjiDeVries]

Just wanted to say thank you for this gorgeous invested development time

[Blue Cat Audio]

Also, I wish the pupSim had more emulations, like banjos, dobros, etc. Maybe in a future update?

@Blue Cat Audio

Would this ever be a possibility?

The problem is that these kind of simulations usually do not sound very natural. If we find a way to make it sound good enough, why not - but we are not there for the moment!

[Blue Cat Audio]

BTW we have extended the introduction offer until April 10th, so there are a few more days to get Re-Guitar, Axiom or the Axe Pack bundle at special intro price!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Just noticed this radical acoustic re-guitaring video on YouTube... Friday Night in San Francisco with an electric guitar anyone?

[tristan-]

wow! that's wonderful. blue cat are becoming a goldmine for guitar tones.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Thanks!