So you just got a gorgeous brand new Mac with a Retina display, but it is awfully slow when launching your favorite audio app or plug-ins? Don’t panic, there is a solution! Continue reading
Slow Mac? How to Fix Mac OS GUI Performance Issues
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No NAMM Show in 2021, But Keep Connected!
As expected, the 2021 NAMM Show has been canceled, for obvious COVID19-related safety reasons.
While we won’t be able to meet with all of you and demo our new products and updates on the show floor this year (yes there are new products coming!), we’ll keep posting details along the way on our website, forums, social medias, newsletter…
So until shows and gatherings are back (hopefully later in 2021), stay safe online, and keep connected!
Ridin’ the dynamic range
Dynamics processing is one of the most important techniques in the audio engineer’s bag of tricks. Compressors, limiters, expanders and gates are examples of these tools and they come in a wide variety of types and functions both as hardware and plugins. Let’s take a look at how these techniques can be useful to your music-making, whether you are a player or a producer.
Continue readingMB-7 Mixer: The Box Of Audio Magic
Multiband processing with your favorite VST/AU plugins
Multiband processing opens up a new world of possibilities for creative producers. Traditionally, this has been a technique used by mastering engineers to glue a mix together with purpose-built tools for multiband compression, or to control the stereo width of a complete mix with multiband techniques.
Continue readingDelay – From Tape To Late Replies
Delay is perhaps one of the most well-known and often or even over-used effects in music production. Since the early days of rock’n roll recordings in the 50s, tape delay was an important part of the sound: the slapback guitars, the beefed-up vocals. Creative use of tape delay would follow in the 60s with pioneering artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. About that time, delay also got easier to handle when Philips brought out the Bucket Brigade Device (BBD) chip that could delay a signal electronically, making bulky and fragile tape machines redundant.
Continue readingHow To Make A VST, Audio Unit or AAX Plug-In, In 20 Minutes!
Have you ever wondered how you could create your own audio or MIDI plug-ins, without headaches, deep knowledge of C, C++, compilers and linker errors?
Ilya Orlov (also known as “Letimix”), developer and creator of fantastic tools for Plug’n Script, explains you everything you need to know to get started with Plug’n Script and create your own plug-in easily.
Within 20 minutes, with these two video tutorials, you should be able to write your first dsp scripts and export a plug-in of your own, check them out! Continue reading
The Problem With Headphones And How To Fix It!
All audio professionals and musicians know it: listening to music on headphones sounds unnatural and causes ear fatigue, whereas the same experience with speakers or when listening to instruments directly in a room does not have the same problems.
Why? And how can this be fixed? That’s the questions we propose to answer in this article. Continue reading
Built-In Plug-Ins: What’s Included?
As you’re probably aware, Blue Cat’s PatchWork, MB-7 Mixer, Late Replies and Axiom are able to load third-party plug-ins. But did you know that they also all come with many built-in Blue Cat Audio effects and utility plug-ins? There’s so many of them that they’re almost hard to keep track of. So here’s a walkthrough of what you get.
First—why do we call them “built-in”? Because if you get them as part of these “host-in-the-host” style plug-ins, they can only be used inside of those plug-ins. Which is of course what you would probably do anyway. All of the built-in plug-ins include the standard features that all Blue Cat Audio plug-ins have: they come loaded with presets, support MIDI learn and MIDI program change, Many of them also include tone maps support.
So let’s take a look at what it is you get! Continue reading
5 Reasons To Use PatchWork
Blue Cat Audio’s PatchWork is a plug-in in which you can load up to 64 other plug-ins. How is that useful? Here are five reasons.
1. Easy management and recall of your template plug-in chains
Many mix engineers find they often reuse specific combinations of plug-ins for similar sound sources. For example one template plug-in chain for bass guitar, one for vocals, and another for the master bus. PatchWork makes it easy to manage and recall these plug-in chains—just save a preset and quickly recall it at any time. You can combine any VST, VST3 or AU plug-ins, from any brand.
2. Quickly switch between different plug-ins or plug-in chains
PatchWork allows you to create eight parallel plug-in chains. So for example, you can create one PatchWork preset for bass guitar. In that preset, you add one plug-in chain for picked rock bass, one for present finger-style playing, one for fat reggae bass, one for slapping … and then you simply switch between them depending on the track you’re working on.
In a similar way, you can of course also use PatchWork to make side-by-side comparisons between individual plug-ins. Which compressor plug-in is really the best choice for this particular track? Add your candidates to PatchWork and quickly switch back and forth between them.
3. Create simple or complex plug-in chains with the effects in series or in parallel
PatchWork makes it easy for you to get creative. Not only can you add eight plug-in chains, but you can also run them in parallel and set their relative levels.
4. Combine synths and instruments to create new exciting sounds
This also works with synths and instruments. With PatchWork Synth (included in the purchase), you can add synths and instruments and create entirely new sounds and textures by combining them. Of course, you play them all simultaneously from a single MIDI keyboard or controller.
5. Use identical plug-in chains and settings across different DAWs
Saving your effects or instrument chains in PatchWork as opposed to in your DAW means you can open those plug-in chains independent of the DAW. So if you switch between DAWs depending on your clients’ or collaborators’ preference, or work in different studios, you can always take your PatchWork presets with you and recall them in any DAW.
Excited yet? Go ahead and try out the free demo of PatchWork now.
AcouFiend: The Reviews Are In!
Our guitar amp feedback simulator AcouFiend has been out for a few weeks, and the YouTubers are taking notice. Check out some of the video walkthroughs and reviews that have been posted so far.
“The bottom line is—AcouFiend works!”
— EiytschPi42
”Thumbs up from me to Blue Cat Audio! It sounds natural, it’s easy to use – I can’t say enough good things about it.”
— RealHomeRecording.com
”It sounds very, very good. Perfect!”
— Mad Steex Production
Get the free AcouFiend trial now! There’s a 25% off introductory offer that ends Monday March 30, 2020.