Cytomic "The Scream" stomp box distortion plugin

[andy-cytomic]

Crash is always the same, btw - "StackHash"
You got a detailed report via mail.

Will check into the shutdown issues on Windows now, worst case it may take a couple of days to track down, fingers crossed it's just something basic. Could be related to the oversampler bug some people are seeing on Windows as well.

[incubus]

Well, I have the PA "greenscream".. yeah, they aren't even close. But each to their own.

We already knew it'd be CPU intensive. That was the whole reason Andy started the topic to see if there are people willing to trade CPU for a "spot on" super flexible emulation.

But what is "flexible" about it?

[GrabtharsHammer]

Hey Andy,

Perhaps you could offer preset packs?! There are a lot of different pedals sharing more or less the same circuit, only with minor differences.

I would definitely pay good money for a meticulously designed SD-1 preset (changing one of the diode values from 1 to 2 was a step in the right direction, but I guess there are a couple of further adjustments necessary to get there 100%). And I'm sure there are a lot of other TS variations that are perhaps easy to emulate with The Scream's mod option - but only for people that really know a lot about that stuff. For Jon-Snow-know-nothing people like me it would be SO cool to just load a preset and get the sound of another TS-like pedal.

[GrabtharsHammer]

News update: The Scream v1.0.2 is now ready for download, only the Mac version has changed - now with new and improved AU Validation! Logic people please let me know if that is all fixed now, and sorry for the delay.

Works. Thanks for fixing!

[x2mirko]

For me, the windows version works, but when i try to remove the plugin from a track, Ableton Live crashes. After playing with it a while, I don't see why I would ever want to remove it from a track, but I still thought it is worth mentioning

Windows 7, Ableton Live 9.7.2, 64 bit

[penguinfromdeep]

Thanks Andy works now in logic!

[andy-cytomic]

For me, the windows version works, but when i try to remove the plugin from a track, Ableton Live crashes. After playing with it a while, I don't see why I would ever want to remove it from a track, but I still thought it is worth mentioning

Windows 7, Ableton Live 9.7.2, 64 bit

I'm hunting for the shutdown bug right now, hopefully won't be too much longer but I won't know till it's fixed how long it will take to fix

[morelia]

Are there any audio demos around? Only found the one in this thread but looking for more guitar examples.

[andy-cytomic]

Hey Andy,

Perhaps you could offer preset packs?! There are a lot of different pedals sharing more or less the same circuit, only with minor differences.

I would definitely pay good money for a meticulously designed SD-1 preset (changing one of the diode values from 1 to 2 was a step in the right direction, but I guess there are a couple of further adjustments necessary to get there 100%). And I'm sure there are a lot of other TS variations that are perhaps easy to emulate with The Scream's mod option - but only for people that really know a lot about that stuff. For John-Snow-know-nothing people like me it would be SO cool to just load a preset and get the sound of another TS-like pedal.

Sure thing! I just need to add one extra capacitor in the feedback of the second op-amp and the components will match. I can set this capacitor to a very small value so it won't change the tone of the regular TS808, but you will then be able to change its value to get SD1 behaviour. I've already added an extra resistor to the feedback section of the first op-amp to be able to model HOT mode of the TS9DX. No need to pay for the presets, I'll write them and include them in the final release. I'll track down an SD-1 to match the op-amp and diode parameters

[andy-cytomic]

Are there any audio demos around? Only found the one in this thread but looking for more guitar examples.

You can download the trial version and process any audio you want, including yourself playing guitar! I'll put some more guitar examples together for the final release and upload them to the web page. You can search the internet for anyone playing an analog TS808/TS9, The Scream is a stupendously accurate model and sounds the same, apart from the hiss - which I may add later on as an option.

[aMUSEd]

Tied it - turned off all OS, cycled through Linear Phase to Minimum Phase... Cubase doesn't adjust the Latency

You have to turn off both the realtime and render oversampling to have no latency.

Why would you need to turn off the offline oversampling too - that has no bearing on realtime use surely?

[morelia]

You can download the trial version and process any audio you want, including yourself playing guitar!

It's a sound theory but my studio is disassembled right now. I know playing through it will be the ultimate test but just wanted to hear some examples. I'll run my own recordings through it.

[andy-cytomic]

Tied it - turned off all OS, cycled through Linear Phase to Minimum Phase... Cubase doesn't adjust the Latency

You have to turn off both the realtime and render oversampling to have no latency.

Why would you need to turn off the offline oversampling too - that has no bearing on realtime use surely?

Well can you please tell the Cubase guys that? For latency compensation to work I need to report the latency to the host. If oversampling is disabled for realtime there is zero latency, so I can easily report that to the host, but as soon as you try and do a render then I need to switch the latency to some non-zero amount, which crashes Cubase. So the only workaround is to report a constant latency if either realtime or render settings are not x1. Great huh?

[GrabtharsHammer]

(...)I would definitely pay good money for a meticulously designed SD-1 preset (changing one of the diode values from 1 to 2 was a step in the right direction, but I guess there are a couple of further adjustments necessary to get there 100%). And I'm sure there are a lot of other TS variations that are perhaps easy to emulate with The Scream's mod option - but only for people that really know a lot about that stuff. For Jon-Snow-know-nothing people like me it would be SO cool to just load a preset and get the sound of another TS-like pedal.

Sure thing! I just need to add one extra capacitor in the feedback of the second op-amp and the components will match. I can set this capacitor to a very small value so it won't change the tone of the regular TS808, but you will then be able to change its value to get SD1 behaviour. I've already added an extra resistor to the feedback section of the first op-amp to be able to model HOT mode of the TS9DX. No need to pay for the presets, I'll write them and include them in the final release. I'll track down an SD-1 to match the op-amp and diode parameters

Wow, that would be a great added value for the plugin.
Just purchased.

[andy-cytomic]

FR through:
Please label the diodes with their "color name" or add an info in the manual or tooltip where to find specs for the spare parts. This would add a lot, not only for educational purposes.

And I take it the amount of Diodes are "in series", not in parallel, no?

Diode Count adds more diodes in series.

EDIT (8pm):
This thing is great! A bit CPU hungry, but honestly... on my i7 920 it shows 20-30% load, but it's actually quite minimal on 256samples (RME). So... pft.

I do encounter clicking noises if you hit the CPU meter (to reset the engine), and switching through the HP Capacitor. Else, no issues. Really liking the concept.

Switch off oversampling to save CPU and you'll also get no latency (make sure to switch off both realtime and render as Cubase has issues). Clicking the CPU meter resets the entire audio engine, so yes, this will click.

HOWEVER... my skills with electrical circuits aren't outstanding... so I try to find out where the positions of the caps are in "simplified mod" mode. I take it that "HP Cap" is C103 on the circuit, sucking out the frequencies for the OP amp (bass, to add "saturation"/distortion to the source signal). And the "LP Cap" is actually C106, influencing the Tone Pot's transition steepness. Others that are not as skilled might be wondering "wait, is this a Bandpass setup?! So that might be better to address in a manual (where is the manual anyway?)

HP_Cap = C103, LP_Cap = C105, I'll update those names to HP_Cap_C103 and LP_Cap_C105 to make life easier C106 adjusts the frequency of the tone boost / cut part of the circuit, when the TONE pot is at 50% then this part of the circuit is bypassed.

Also - please ignore my commentary on the LED Colors. Though what about Yellow and Violet and White? Don't they exist as well? However, please add something where we we can look up spare parts. Some US descriptions are definitely not the same for EU.

I'm sure they do but I couldn't easily track down many SPICE LED models.

SUMMARY:
Really linking it. Some modders will definitely get a kick out of it, non-Pedal techs will have a sh*tload of fun with just switching out the diodes and therefore get a different form of clipping.

Bit of a turnoff is the latency of 60samples. At least this is what Cubase 7.5 shows me. Realtime use might be a bit of an issue in combination with other tools.
EDIT2:
Oh - wait... got a crash (can reproduce it even) on my Win7 x64/Cubase x64 rig... will file a report

Switch off realtime and render oversampling and you get 0 samples latency. If you want 0 latency and anti-aliasing then run your session at 88.2 / 96 khz. There is a bug on shutdown on windows that I'm tracking down - do you have any other issues on Windows if you don't try to close a song / remove the plugin from a track?