Blue Cat Audio’s flagship guitar and bass multi-effects software has recently received a significant update that delivers a whole host of new features, improvements and bug fixes. Axiom 2.3 delivers improved audio performance along with multi-touch display support, expanded MIDI control, greater compatibility with third party plug-ins and much more.
What’s New?
Audio & DSP
- Smoother transition between presets (in particular between presets using IRs and others using modelled cabs).
- New quiet update mode for built-in delays (Late Replies, Echo and Multitap delay) avoids ‘zipping’ noise that occurs in analogue delay emulations when changing delay lengths.
- Destructor engine now offers up to 16x oversampling.
- Drastic DSP performance improvements for Axiom and most built-in plug-ins (up to twice as fast on some presets).
- New pedals and amps models.
- All factory presets have been tweaked and updated.
Audio Recording & Playback
- Recorded audio files now contain current transport position to help synchronising recordings when imported into a DAW (BF format).
- Audio file recorder now switches automatically to RF64 file format for files larger than 2GB.
- Fixed an issue where MP3 files loaded in audio player were not always in sync with the transport.
- Audio recording and playback now take plug-ins latency into account and offer latency compensation.
MIDI Control
- All plug-in parameters can now be controlled with MIDI notes, pitch-bend, NRPN, 14-bit CCs, aftertouch or channel pressure, in addition to MIDI CC.
- MIDI settings window can now be resized to display more parameters.
- Optimised MIDI settings window display on Windows (load time and scroll).
- MIDI Settings window now splits parameters into multiple pages for quicker access.
- MIDI Settings window now shows custom display names.
- Optimised preset load upon MIDI messages when using several hundreds of user presets.
- Plug-in no longer sends Bank number 0 when loading a preset that is not located in a bank.
- Fixed audio dropouts when navigating presets via next/previous and plug-in set to send MIDI Program Change messages.
Standalone Application
- Windows: ASIO driver now keeps running when ASIO control panel is opened from the app audio preferences.
- Windows: The application now follows ASIO driver buffer changes made in the ASIO control panel or external ASIO configuration app.
- Performance: The application now automatically selects the minimum number of I/O required from the driver.
- Fixed audio dropouts when selecting MIDI output devices in preferences when using many MIDI devices.
The update also overhauls the software’s third-party plug-in hosting features, and tackles a number of known bugs. A full changelog can be found on the Blue Cat Audio website.
Compatibility
Axiom 2.3 is supported on PCs running Windows Vista or higher, and Macs running macOS 10.9 and later. VST, AU and AAX plug-in versions are available.
Pricing & Availability
Axiom 2.3 is available now, and is a free update for existing Axiom 2 users. Those looking to purchase a new license can take advantage of a 15% discount until 21 April 2026, which brings the plug-in down to $€169 (usually $€199).
