Blue Cat Audio releases Blue Cat's MB-7 Mixer 2.5 - Now with External Side Chain and Other Enhancements

Blue Cat Audio has released Blue Cat's MB-7 Mixer 2.5, a new version of their multiband mixing plug-in and VST/AU host.

Blue Cat's MB-7 Mixer 2.5 now includes an external side chain input that can be used by sub-plug-ins for multiband side chain applications. It is now also possible to select the audio i/o used by each sub-plug-in on each band for more flexible audio routing.

This new version also improves compatibility with third party plug-ins, adding support for plug-ins that do not provide a user interface ("GUI-less" plug-ins), and fixing several compatibility problems.

Moreover, several other areas such as presets loading, skin management and performance have been improved (full list below).

The update is free for existing customers and is available for download from the same page as the initial purchase (link received by email). Demo versions can also be downloaded on www.bluecataudio.com, in VST, RTAS, AAX, Audio Unit and DirectX plug-ins formats, for both Mac OS X and Windows (32 and 64-bit).

New Features:

• External side chain support: side chain input can be used by sub plug-ins on each band.
• Sub plug-ins audio i/o routing: connect the inputs and outputs of each plug-in to any channel (enabling multi-mono or creative side chain usage).
• Latency is now compensated for individual channels when a plug-in is processing only a subset of all available channels.
• GUI-less plug-ins support: a generic user interface is now provided for VST or AU plug-ins that do not include a graphical editor.
• Presets can now be selected using MIDI Program change and bank select messages.
• Factory and user skins can now be selected directly from the plug-in menu.
• Improved crossovers precision and performance.
• Improved presets and session load/save performance (up to 4 times faster in some situations).

Fixes and compatibility improvements:

• Fixed issue with iZotope Audio Units that were configured as mono effects on stereo tracks.
• Fixed issue with some Audio Unit instruments that did not produce any sound (IK Multimedia, Kontakt, ...).
• Fixed crashes during auto save with Kontakt 5 in Pro Tools 11/12.

Price: €99 or $129 (VAT excluded).