Blue Cat Audio has released version 1.7 of Late Replies, its creative delay and reverb plug-in that combines built-in and third-party effects within customizable delay lines and feedback loops for advanced echo, reverb and sound design applications.
The update delivers significant performance gains, alongside smoother preset transitions and a new quiet update mode for seamless delay time changes without pitch shifting artifacts.
Version 1.7 also introduces new tools for managing presets and third-party plug-ins, expanded MIDI control capabilities, and numerous enhancements to the user interface, compatibility, and overall user experience. A complete list of new features, improvements and fixes is available below.
New in Late Replies 1.7
Audio / DSP
- New quiet update mode for silent delay length changes (instead of tape-style pitch shifting effect).
- Smoother transition between presets.
- Drastic DSP performance improvements (up to twice faster on some presets).
- All factory presets have been updated.
User Interface
- Late Replies’ background color can now be customized (tip: choose a color matching your track).
- Enhanced presets browser:
- Displays results in real time while typing.
- Supports full-text search within presets (find presets containing a specific plug-in or keywords).
- Performs searches without blocking the user interface.
- Both the plug-in and preset browsers now match files containing all search terms (AND logic) instead of just one (OR logic).
- Windows Multitouch support (manipulate multiple controls at the same time with several fingers).
- Windows accessibility: native system widgets are now scaled according to text size settings on Windows 8 and newer in settings windows.
- Multiple performance improvements.
- Fixed window opacity changes not shown in plug-in when host application modifies it.
- Fixed selected text in text edit box sometimes not easy to read on Mac depending on the color scheme.
- Fixed text edit boxes sometimes loosing focus when hovering mouse over other controls.
- Fixed Mac installers not showing brand image in dark mode.
- Fixed macro params issues when back-inserting a plug-in (via drag an drop) in a chain that overwrites its previous position.
- Windows: fixed context menu not always displayed in the right position when the window spans across several screens with different DPI.
- Windows: fixed return key sometimes unexpectedly forwarded to host while typing in a text edit box.
Macro Parameters
- Choose Macro params control style: knob or switch.
- Macro params default/neutral value can now be chosen (the value set upon right click or alt-click).
Plug-ins Hosting
- New Plug-ins Scanner: scan third party plug-ins and load them directly from the plug-in menu.
- New Plug-ins Browser: browse and search plug-ins once scanned, with optional full text search inside saved plug-ins.
- Added support for Audio Unit V3 (AUV3) plug-ins on MacOS.
- A missing plug-ins report is now displayed in case plug-ins are missing upon loading a session or presets.
- Plug-ins user interface is now opened automatically when dragged and dropped from the file system.
- VST3 plug-ins editor loading deferred and called only when user interface is displayed.
- Improved synchronization of hosted plug-ins sychronized to host transport when using plug-ins with latency.
- Built-in plug-ins can now follow host zoom.
- Recently updated VST, VST3 and Audio Unit plug-ins can now follow Late Replies’ zoom like built-in plug-ins.
- Plug-in format is now displayed in the title bar of the plug-in window.
- Hitting the Escape key now closes the plug-in window that currently has focus.
- It is now possible to use different oversampling options for realtime and offline rendering.
- Fixed two memory leaks in VST3 plug-ins host (causing potential crashes upon VST3 plug-in unload too).
- Fixed plug-in latency not always fully compensated when using plug-ins with latencies of more than 1024 samples.
- Improved undo management with built-in and VST3 plug-ins, now detecting non-parameter changes (for Axiom: Destructor skin changes etc.).
- Fixed built-in multitap delay high DSP usage upon first load when syncing delay to host BPM.
- Fixed offline rendering mode not always reported to hosted plug-ins.
- Fixing built-in harmonizer crashing when manually configured with more audio outputs than inputs.
- Fixed some VST3 plug-ins taking a long time to load (a couple of plug-ins with multiple audio busses).
- Fixed built-in harmonizer crashing when manually forcing more audio outputs than inputs.
- Added recording status support for Audio Unit format.
- Fixed unexpected bypass control behavior with some Audio Unit plug-ins.
- Fixed VST3 plug-ins not loading when moved to a directory with the same name as the original .vst3 library file.
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.
- Optimized MIDI settings window display on Windows (load time and scroll).
- MIDI Settings window now splits parameters into multiple pages for faster access.
- MIDI Settings window now shows custom display names if any.
- Optimized preset load upon MIDI messages when using several hundreds of user presets.
- Fixed plug-in sending 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.
Pricing & Availability
Blue Cat’s Late Replies 1.7 is available now for Windows and macOS in VST, VST3, Audio Unit and AAX formats. To celebrate the release, Blue Cat Audio is offering a 20% introductory discount until June 30, 2026 (79 EUR or $79 instead of 99). The update is free for existing customers and available from their original download location.
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