Tools & Utilities

Blue Cat's DXi Manager

Blue Cat's DXi Manager is a simple freeware tool that lets you use DXi plug-ins in any DirectX-enabled application: despite the fact that the DXi format has become a standard in the audio industry, many applications do not always support DXi plug-ins correctly: the plug-ins may not be recognized by the host application (not listed) or seen as software synthesizers even if they are only audio effects with MIDI control capabilities. This handy utility lets you disable the MIDI capabilities of any DXi plug-in so that it's seen as a simple DX plug-in with no MIDI capabilities with a single click. You can of course re-enable the MIDI capabilities as well, which lets you use you DXi plug-ins with optimal support in different applications at the same time.

Blue Cat's Gain Suite

This plug-in suite is a series of gain utilities which let you control the volume of one or several audio tracks in real time. The interest of these plug-ins resides in their particular features:

First, their automation and advanced MIDI control capabilities (the response curve of the MIDI controllers can be fully customized). Used together with one of our analysis tools or a MIDI controller, these plug-ins let you remotely control and automate the gain of each channel of the audio signal.

Another interesting and exclusive feature is the ability to link several instances of the same plug-in: thanks to our unique data sharing technology, you can control the gain of several tracks at the same time, with advanced response curve capabilities.

The plug-in bundle contains a stereo and a mid/side version for independent control of the left and right or mid and side channels. It can be very useful for stereo widening/narrowing. Additional information about stereo widening with mid/side processing can be found in this paper.

Last but not least, the skinning capabilities of these plug-ins allow you to customize the way you interact with them.

Blue Cat's Remote Control

Blue Cat's Remote Control is a set of plug-ins which let you control and monitor in real time several MIDI controllable plug-ins or devices from a single customizable user interface: the user interface of your favorite DirectX or VST plugin does not satisfy you? Your favorite hardware device is too complicated to control? Your project contains hundreds of plug-ins and you would like to control them all from a single user interface? You want undo/redo for all your modifications? This product was designed for you!

The package includes 3 plug-ins: Remote Control 16, 32 and 64, which have the ability to manage up to 16, 32 or 64 parameters. You can assign a MIDI channel and CC number to each controller, customize its response curve. You can as well choose a skin that suits your needs for every instance of the remote control (several skins are included in the package, see the screenshots), or create your own (see the Skins section): this is the best way to create your own user interface to control your entire Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) the way you have chosen. If you have a very specific project and you do not have time to spend on our Skinning Language, Blue Cat Audio can also create custom skins for you: see our Services page for more information.

Another way to use the product is for MIDI control remapping and transform: assign an input parameter a given MIDI CC, and assign the associated output parameter to another MIDI CC with different response curve parameters: the plug-in will remap the controller to the new CC and channel with a new response curve.

Read our Remote Control Tutorials and see this product in action!