Blue Cat Audio gets its claws into the guitar amp/effects plugin market with Axiom

There’s no shortage of high-quality guitar amp and effect sims on the market, but with Axiom, Blue Cat Audio looks like it’s making a serious attempt to challenge the very best of them.  

Designed for both guitar and bass, this offers two amp sim channels with pre and post effects. The simulations are based on Blue Cat’s Destructor plugin, and the channels can be mixed or used independently. Hundreds of amp model presets come included, and you can also build you own in the amp editor, giving you complete control over the tone.

There are additional input and master sections, too, plus a tuner and brickwall limiter.

There are 40 built-in effects that can be loaded into the 32 plugin slots, with Blue Cat’s Late Replies and Destructor processors coming built-in. There are also three slots that can be used to host your other AU and VST plugins, giving you total flexibility. You can even load up to three virtual instruments in the tools section.

Axiom is available now for PC and Mac in VST/AU/AAX/DirectX formats from the Blue Cat Audio website. It’s currently being sold at the discounted price of $149/€149 (regular price is $199/€149) and you can also download a demo.

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.