Re-Guitar/Axiom by Blue Cat - review now with a tune

[journo]

Hi,

Got the Axiom with Re-Guitar feature last week and I've been really enjoying it.

Re-Guitar is happening! It's a really strange feeling getting a superb 335 neck HB sound when playing a Tyler Studio Elite single coil. I made a screen shot of that very rig that is shown below. I set the source to single coil and the target as a Classic Bucker plus I added Hollow Body and took down the brightness slightly.
The amp is a Deluxe where I tweaked the compression characteristics a bit to fit my playing touch.

Today I tried a Collings City Limits with Throbaks and while it wasn't quite as successful going to single coil as vice verse, I did get great result with the P90 model.

With the Tyler I got great HB sounds including the Ricky Bucker and the Vintage Bucker (Gretsch style) as well as some really nice Tele sounds.

What really surprised me in a positive way was how Re-Guitar worked when converting a single coil pickup to another single coil pickup. It was like changing the pickup in my favourite guitar without having to open it up. The Tyler with the Vintage Single turned out to be really nice.

I like the amps in Axiom more than I thought I would as I'm a fan of S-Gear. They are different and you can edit the amps in Axiom to a great degree making them sounding good and have a dynamic feel that suits my playing style.

The fx in Axiom are many and of good quality. And you can use a lot of them! There are 6 slots pre-amp and six slots post-amp. If that isn't enough you can also fit 4 of them in the input section and four more in the Master section. Oh, did I say that you can run two amps simultaneously with twelve fx slots for each amp?

There plenty of speaker models in Axiom but you can import you own IRs if you are so inclined.

While I do like S-Gear, I miss not having a booster and a few OD boxes. So when I found out that you can use external VST plugins in the fx slots in Axiom I realized I could use S-Gear inside Axiom and use amps from either plugin or both using both amp signal paths in Axiom.

But I could very easily get by using just Axiom and very few guitars.

I was so inspired by the sounds I got from Axiom so I started writing a tune and ended up using Axiom for all the sounds in the tune except for the drums. There are presets for electric bass as well so I used Axiom for the bass as well. I'll post the tune as soon as it's done.

Cheers,

Mats N

 

[ColdFrixion]

Not seeing the image.

 

[journo]

Fixed!

 

[journo]

So now i have spent some more time with the Axiom and the clean sounds I'm getting are really good and dynamic. In my experience clean sounds in modelling solutions are kind of whimpy and weak. Not so with Axiom.

I've spent more time with the fx and the usual suspects are present. One pleasant finding was the wave shaper which together with the fuzz allows the creation of some octavia style sounds. The compressor is really good and works both before and after the amp. My personal preference is using it after the amp just like I would in the studio but you can use it before the amp for some authentic country style sounds.
The chorus is excellent and the multi-tap delay is easy to set up. I like the spread function where you can set exactly how much stereo spread you want. The reverb is also good.

Axiom seems to be coded very efficiently as I was able to run six instances at the same time using presets with processor intensive fx like reverb.

I have also been experimenting with using Axiom as a host for other guitar oriented plugins. I used the TSE 808 for overdrive into a Axiom Deluxe amp model in one channel and the Gain fx from Axiom into a Tweed amp in S-Gear, running both of them into the TriStereoChorus from the Amplitube Fulltone Collection and then into the Axiom Multi-Tap Delay and Reverb. And all this without feeling any latency problems. Lots of fun and really easy to put together and all that saved as one single preset. I love S-Gear but I sorely miss having a boost and a compressor in that software. Now I can have everything using both software packages.

I love tweaking, but I want easy tweaking and Axiom allows for that. For the past 7 years I have almost always used the Kamper exclusively for recording as I always have thought that was the easiest and most complete package to get my songs recorded. That may now change as the added advantage of the Axiom together with whatever additional software you like allows me to easily put together a lot of stuff in one preset that I can save in both the project as well as in Axiom and use it in recording, and I can change my sounds in minute detail until the very last mixing session.

Cheers,

Mats N

 

[Blue Cat Audio]

Thank you for mentioning our plug-in. Glad that you like it!

The Re-Guitar plug-in is now officially available:

We are very excited to unleash Blue Cat's Re-Guitar, our new guitar tone modeling plug-in capable of emulating an infinite number of guitars out of a single instrument.

Re-Guitar can simulate many kinds of guitar tones (electric or acoustic), regardless of the solid body guitar model used for recording: you can change the pickups, dig the body or emulate an acoustic guitar, all inside the box, without modifying the original instrument.

"Re-guitaring" can be used to enhance or completely modify the guitar tone while playing your own instrument, or to virtually switch guitars after recording - just like we already do with guitar amp simulations and "re-amping".

The plug-in is included as a built-in plug-in inside Blue Cat's Axiom 1.2, our multi effects processor for guitar and bass that was just updated. It is also available separately as an independent plug-in, alone or within the Axe Pack guitar software bundle.

A special introduction offer is available for Re-Guitar, Axiom and the Axe Pack bundle until April 5th (details below). For more details about this new plug-in, demo versions and videos can be found on www.bluecataudio.com.

Blue Cat's Re-Guitar Main Features:
- Guitar tone modeler, with electric pickups, acoustic guitars and hollow body emulations.
- Built-in single coil pickups: single hot, vintage, modern, active, tele, neck+mid, bridge+mid, P90, P90J.
- Built-in humbucker pickups: vintage, classic, ricky, modern, rails, bright, wide, wide(jazz), jazz box.
- Built-in piezo & acoustic guitars: solid body piezo, acoustic sim pedals, modern & dreadnought, jumbo, mini jumbo, 000, small.
- Create your own electric pickups or acoustic guitar emulations with the custom electric and custom acoustic models.
- Adjust hollow body thickness and amount.
- Adjust simulations brightness and gain.
- Built-in virtual volume and tone pots.
- No latency.

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

Check out our "Re-Guitaring" videos here

Introduction Pricing until April 5th:
- Blue Cat's Axiom: 159 USD/EUR (instead of 199)
- Blue Cat's Re-Guitar: 69 USD/EUR (instead of 99)
- Blue Cat's Axe Pack: 248 USD/EUR (instead of 299)
- Blue Cat's Axiom for customers: 139 USD/EUR (instead of 199)
- Blue Cat's Re-Guitar for customers: 49 USD/EUR (instead of 99)

 

[rkbrock]

Wow that's awesome Blue Cat, I'm really looking forward to trying this. I've been wanting to add a semi hollow but if this gets it even close I'm sold.

Added bonus.... I saw the estimate release date was Q2 and well, instead of being at the END of Q2, let alone even inside Q2, it's out in Q1 instead! Nice work!

 

[Blue Cat Audio]

Indeed, we tend to be conservative with promises to avoid deception

 

[journo]

I'm really getting into this plugin! I haven't really appreciated the possibility to leave the final guitar sound sculpting decisions until the final mix before, but with the Axiom this is obvious to me. Apart from the fact that it sounds great, is very easy to understand and edit and is very inspiring. It aslo has good presets that I use as starting points for my own sonic adventures. In short, very inspirational.

Here's a tune I wrote using only sound and fx from the Axiom for all the guitars and the bass. Guitar was a Tyler Studio Elite HSS and the bass a Marcus Miller 2nd G V7.
Drums were from IK Multimedia SampleTank 4 and Superior Drummer 3.
Hope you enjoy it!


Cheers,

Mats N

 

[Blue Cat Audio]

Sounds great! Thanks for sharing!

 

[JerEvil]

I'm really getting into this plugin! I haven't really appreciated the possibility to leave the final guitar sound sculpting decisions until the final mix before, but with the Axiom this is obvious to me. Apart from the fact that it sounds great, is very easy to understand and edit and is very inspiring. It aslo has good presets that I use as starting points for my own sonic adventures. In short, very inspirational.

Here's a tune I wrote using only sound and fx from the Axiom for all the guitars and the bass. Guitar was a Tyler Studio Elite HSS and the bass a Marcus Miller 2nd G V7.
Drums were from IK Multimedia SampleTank 4 and Superior Drummer 3.
Hope you enjoy it!


Cheers,

Mats N

Sounds really good!

 

[journo]

Sounds really good!

Thanks, JerEvil!

Cheers,

Mats N

 

[danel59]

Great stuff as usual Matts. A little off topic but what are your thoughts on the Blue Cat vs the Sim1 XT1 pedal? I understand the benefits of a plugin vs outboard pedal for recording but as far as the actual guitar tones.

 

[journo]

Thanks Danel!

Regarding your question I was very curious about this as well as I came straight from the Blue Cat demo to the SIM-1 demo at NAMM. I was impressed by SIM-1 for what it is as I'm impressed by Re-Guitar for what it is.

My conclusion is that while both products seem to be similar, in my mind they are quite different apart from the fact that one you by as software and the other is software in hardware.
So, then how are they different? The SIM-1 seem to change one guitar into another whileRe-Guitar rather seem to change pickups in the guitar you play. While there is indeed the hollow body feature of Re-Guitar that works quite well, it doesn't transform the guitar quite as thoroughly as SIM-1. To my ears Re-Guitar also manages better with some guitar than others. It was easier for me to get my Tyler bridge HB to sound like a Telecaster than it was to get my Collings I-35 to sound like a Gretsch. I found it easier to get my Tele to sound like a Gretsch even though the I-35 already is a semi hollow body.

With that said there is no winner here. I have place in my studio for both. If I can get any of my guitars to sound like the Benedetto profiled I played at NAMM, that's a clear win and reason enough for owning the SIM-1. But it's also super fun to expand of the guitars I have with Re-Guitar. My Tyler Re-Guitared with a vintage neck humbucker sounds wonderfully warm and full. My Tele tranformed with p90 is raunchy slight OD fit for rock and modern country.

As said many times around these boards, it's a great time to be a guitar player.

I hope this answer helps somewhat.

Cheers,

Mats N

 

[leodiditright]

ReGuitar is a great plugin but I really don't understand at all what you can with the two custom menus?

 

[journo]

ReGuitar is a great plugin but I really don't understand at all what you can with the two custom menus?

According to Blue Cat you "can create your own electric pickups or acoustic guitar emulations with the custom electric and custom acoustic models."

Cheers,

Mats N

 

[Blue Cat Audio]

Indeed: with "custom E" or "custom AC" you can create your own electric or acoustic models.

Move the cursor on the map to change the sound of the pickup (or acoustic simulation), in between existing models. This will create a new model which properties are computed from the position of the cursor and the closest models in the map:

 

[rmg471]

Count me in on loving Axiom. I’ve used it live for about 2 months now and am very happy. One of the most important tonal shaping steps is to get the cabinet right, and now that I understand how to use the deep editor, I can basically create a custom curve that gives me exactly what I want. I prefer that over IRs.

Great product.

 

[metropolis_4]

Indeed: with "custom E" or "custom AC" you can create your own electric or acoustic models.

Move the cursor on the map to change the sound of the pickup (or acoustic simulation), in between existing models. This will create a new model which properties are computed from the position of the cursor and the closest models in the map:

Can you explain the layout of that X/Y grid? What do X and Y correspond to?

It's a little confusing figuring out what it means. If I Put the selector in the top right corner, how does that differ from the bottom right? Or the bottom left? etc.

 

[Blue Cat Audio]

Count me in on loving Axiom. I’ve used it live for about 2 months now and am very happy. One of the most important tonal shaping steps is to get the cabinet right, and now that I understand how to use the deep editor, I can basically create a custom curve that gives me exactly what I want. I prefer that over IRs.

Glad that you like it! It is a personal taste but I indeed tend to prefer the post filter tone shaping to impulses responses, for its sound and flexibility (once you are used to common filter shapes, it takes a few seconds to get right sound, as opposed to spending days trying out multiple IRs). There are however tones that require IRs (for example most modern metal tones heavily rely on the heavy comb filtering that you can find in many IRs), that's why you can now load and manipulate cabinet impulse responses in the amp modeler as well, or in the built-in EQ plug-in.

 

[Blue Cat Audio]

Can you explain the layout of that X/Y grid? What do X and Y correspond to? It's a little confusing figuring out what it means. If I Put the selector in the top right corner, how does that differ from the bottom right? Or the bottom left? etc.

It is pretty difficult to explain the exact meaning of X and Y coordinates, as the maps are the result of statistical analysis on the tone of pickups and acoustic models. From a perception standpoint, I could not even explain what exactly makes the difference between P90s, humbuckers or single coils: it is very complex.

So the idea of these views is to look at where the predefined pickups are located, and built your tone from there. For example, in the custom pickup view, if you start from the center:
- Go up and you will get (brighter and brighter) single-coil types of sounds
- Go down, and you will get darker P90 & humbucker tones, and then pickup combinations tones with less mids.
- Go left and you will get thiner tones (vintage bucker sounds thiner than other humbuckers)
- Go right and you will get tones with wider spectrum and more and more brightness (wide then modern humbucker, up to piezo simulation)

Once you are close to the sound you are looking for, you can zoom in and make more precise adjustments.

Hope this helps!