At NAMM 2020, Blue Cat Audio are announcing not one, but three new plug-ins, AcouFiend, Re-Head and Hot Tuna, as well as an update for Axiom. We have everything you need to know…

Blue Cat Audio AcouFiend

Blue Cat's AcouFiend is an acoustic feedback simulator plug-in for guitar and other types of instruments. It has been designed to either simulate natural-sounding and responsive feedback or generate more unusual and creative harmonies, thanks to its controls and transposition capabilities.

AcouFiend can make a guitar scream at low volume or on headphones, sound like a virtual bow or a sustainer, and also add smooth background harmonies to keyboards or vocal tracks. The main features include…

• 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.

Blue Cat Audio Re-Head

Blue Cat Audio’s Re-Head is a "head response" simulation plug-in that aims to re-create the missing response of the head when working on headphones.

Because the head and ears are missing in the signal path between the speakers and the brain, music can sound un-natural through headphones, compared to speakers.

With Re-Head, it is now possible to get a more natural-sounding tone with headphones, even when recording instruments such as distorted guitars or monitoring mixes with hard-panned tracks. Features include…

• "Head response" simulation plug-in to get a more natural tone when working with headphones.

• Adjust the position of the sound source and the angle between the virtual speakers.

• Adjust the brightness.

• Built-in EQ and impulse response (IR) loader to tweak the frequency response, and compensate actual headphones.

• Flip left and right ears.

• No latency.

Blue Cat Audio Hot Tuna

Blue Cat's Hot Tuna has been designed as a high precision chromatic tuner plug-in that can dim or mute the signal when active. You can adjust the amount of dimming, which makes it very useful for live gigs!

The reference frequency can be changed (from 430 to 450 Hz), for when non-standard tuning is required. Apparently, most of the processing is performed in the background, which means that the tuner does not impact the performance of the real-time audio engine of the host.

This plug-in will also be available as a built-in effect inside Blue Cat's Axiom, the multi-effects processor for guitar and bass. Hot Tuna’s features include…

• High precision tuner plug-in.

• Dim or mute the signal when active.

• Adjust the reference frequency from 430 to 450 Hz.

• Processing performed in the background, not impacting real-time audio.

Blue Cat Audio Axiom 1.4 Update

Last but not least, Blue Cat Audio has announced an Axiom 1.4 free update, which will include the new Hot Tuna plug-in as well as a new “stomp box” graphical user interface for all the other 42 built-in plug-ins, making a pretty big pedalboard inside the box!

You can check out Eli Krantzberg’s review of Axiom from Blue Cat Audio.

Pricing And Availability

There is no pricing information at the time of writing and Blue Cat Audio is saying that these three plugins will be available sometime during the first quarter of this year along with Axiom 1.4 update.