Meet Blue Cat's AcouFiend, the feedback simulation plug-in: now available!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Dear KVR Members,

We are thrilled to announce the release of Blue Cat's AcouFiend, our new acoustic feedback simulation plug-in that can make electric guitars (and other instruments) scream, growl, or sing, even at low volume or through headphones.



AcouFiend can simulate the acoustic feedback (a.k.a. "Larsen effect") well known to guitarists playing loud and close to their speaker, but with total control over the effect: you can choose when and how to trigger the feedback, on sustained notes or chords, with advanced harmonization capabilities.

The plug-in can be controlled via MIDI or automation, and feedback can be applied to existing tracks after recording. It is of course not limited to guitars, as shown in one of the demo videos (links below).

The new plug-in is available separately, or as part of the Axe Pack guitar software bundle. A special introduction offer applies to both AcouFiend and the Axe Pack bundle until March 31st (details below), and existing customers will receive a special offer by email.

More information about this new plug-in, demo versions and videos can be found on www.bluecataudio.com.

Blue Cat's AcouFiend Main Features:
- Acoustic feedback simulator.
- Total control over the feedback: adjust the rise and fall time, the sensitivity to pitch and amplitude changes, and the generated harmonic.
- Supports chords.
- Limit the range of notes that can produce feedback.
- Transpose the feedback signal to create harmonies.
- No latency.

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

Introduction Pricing until March 31st:
- Blue Cat's AcouFiend: 59 USD/EUR (instead of 79)
- Blue Cat's Axe Pack: 249 USD/EUR (instead of 299)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... Ca6UVt85nw

Enjoy!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Guitar feedback in the style of Joe Satriani:

MIDI controlled feedback:

Feedback and distortion on a lead synth:

[Halonmusic]

Wow! This is pretty cool

[Blue Cat Audio]

You may also want to check out RealHomeRecording's review. It's a good overview of the plug-in and how it works on existing material (post recording):

[Halonmusic]

Thanks. Will check it out

[Local Man]

I look forward to checking this out some time.

I was very disappointed by Softube's Feedback plugin (it sounds like a tea kettle), and no one else has released anything similar until now.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Here is a video shot at NAMM earlier this year that shows AcouFiend in action, but also discusses tone maps, amp simulation and more...

[plexuss]

I've been using Softube's acustic feedback. I tried AcouFiend but find it too "robotic" in that the feedback comes in, in a very repeatable way. This makes it sound less organic and "real" than Softube's. Softube's is somewhat unpredictable and more natural sounding. Is there a way to get that character in AcouFiend?

[Niowiad]

I really liked the demo (and not just on guitars). It's already on my buylist.

With that said, I agree that adding some degree of instability (the very first and simplest/stupidest thing I could think of would be a random gliding LFO with dedicated depth and rate controls) could maybe improve an already nice plugin.

But in all honesty I also just like the plugin as it is right now.

[Forgotten]

I definitely like the instability idea - maybe something like a real speaker cab where feedback starts with one harmonic and drifts to another with very little prompting?

[Blue Cat Audio]

Entirely random feedback is probably not an option, as you definitely want the plug-in to produce repeatable output, and the idea of the plug-in is to be able to control the feedback .

It is however possible to achieve some degree of fake randomness with harmonics switching by changing the harmonic or using the transpose parameter like here:



This will re-trigger feedback every time, so you need to adjust the fade-in and fade-out parameters according to your own taste. We will probably show this in a video. In live situations you can also control this via MIDI.

[plexuss]

This is why I like the Softube feedbacker - it's reaction is somewhat unpredictable, like real life. I like when certain tools are not consistent because it helps to make music sound more organic and interesting. But yes, if you need a feedbacker that is predictable AcouFiend is a good choice, IMHO.

[Blue Cat Audio]

I tend to disagree that "real-life" feedback is necessarily unpredictable, but hey, that's great to have different tools for different usages, isn't it?

[RafaelMorgan]

I've been using Softube's acustic feedback. I tried AcouFiend but find it too "robotic" in that the feedback comes in, in a very repeatable way. This makes it sound less organic and "real" than Softube's. Softube's is somewhat unpredictable and more natural sounding. Is there a way to get that character in AcouFiend?

I'm not a fan of Softube's acoustic feedback either, but I agree about it sounding more natural and organic. It reacts way better to, let's say, changes in vibrato intensity while trying to ride the feedback. I've already raised this point on the Gearslutz thread.

Blue Cat's more polished but it's just too pure...Not everybody want to ride feeback like Joe Satriani. Some people prefer Jimi Hendrix.

Blue Cat, I know you're listening, because you always do: Why don't you give us more options to have the best of both worlds?

Check out this Hendrix video:



Note how he makes the feedback growls, how it wildly transitions between one kind of harmonics to another, how it mixes up with the guitar tone and how it responds to changes in vibrato and bending aggressiveness.

While you can indeed automate to make AcouFiend migrate between different kinds of harmonics, it doesn't transition naturally. Notice that, in real life, when it happens, the different harmonics kind of clash into each other, producing some rough tonalities; They don't just jump from one kind to another like a piano.

I'll tell you this: There's A LOT of room for improvement on AcouFiend. So far, it's mostly a one trick pony. It's very far from reacting like the real thing, unless you want to achieve that extremely specific "Flying in a Blue Dream" sound.

[Blue Cat Audio]

There is always room for improvement, and like our other plug-ins, AcouFiend will keep evolving over time, that's what is great with software.

Note how he makes the feedback growls, how it wildly transitions between one kind of harmonics to another, how it mixes up with the guitar tone and how it responds to changes in vibrato and bending aggressiveness.

From what I can see and hear in this particular video, the feedback is actually pretty stable and "clean"! It seems to me that most of what you can hear is produced by Jimi's fingers on the fretboard (note how he plays harmonics on the guitar, that are then amplified by feedback) and the (ab)use of the tremolo bar, not the feedback itself going wild.

By default, AcouFiend will indeed untrigger pretty fast so that you can play naturally even if it's "on" all the time.

To get nice "dive bombs" with feedback that follows wild tremolo movements, even on lower strings, you can just decrease the value of the attack and pitch sensitivity knobs (depending on your playing, below 35% or maybe 25% do the trick), AND increase the detection range (just set the lower bound to C1 to be safe).