Cytomic "The Scream" stomp box distortion plugin

[zvenx]

Just figured out how to use the mouse to change pre/post/mix.
Very unusual but very nice.
And crash on exit so far seems to be a thing of the past.
thanks
rsp

I found that whole section visually confusing. They look like buttons but work like faders. And not being able to constantly see the current value makes it easy to lose track of these settings. I think some kind of knob would make more sense for those three.

Agreeing with you makes me sound more flip floppy than a politician .
But yeah I do agree as nice and unusual as it is, knobs would have worked better and I sure there was some screen (like drop but not as big) where once you touch a knob you can see its value.
rsp

[zvenx]

I am not sure I am a fan of the GUI in another way though.
The bottom part, which only functionality I can see is the bypass button, which there are at least two other ways (the yellow led and the cytomic logo) to bypass, so I then hide it, but the GUI then looks very incompletely, almost like a photo that someone tore a part off of and not in a transparent way.
Probably too late now, but I think all the knobs on the top section was in the bottom section and the top section was a readout screen where you can touch a parameter and see values or edit your mods from there.
rsp

[Melvin J.]

Next up is to investigate into Cubase not finding the plugin on some systems, and do AAX builds on both Win and Mac.

If you have any outstanding issues and have not already emailed me please do so: support@cytomic.com

Andy, REAPER 4.40 x64 on Windows 7 isn't seeing the plug-in either for me. I just tried installing another plug-in to see if there was any difference and REAPER immediately found it. No The Scream, though

Mel

[Klinke1]

---
You wrote Bx-Greenthingy is not very close to the hardware. (edit: ..least close to hardware from the products you tested)

I wonder: Are there are alot differences from pedal to pedal? There are so many types/re-issues.

Pl-Alliance states: "Faithful re-creation" + "bx_greenscreamer Overdrive is an exacting plugin emulation of the classic Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer" + "component level emulation of this classic pedal, capturing all.."

And you wrote it was the least close to hardware from the products you tested.
So what difference did you discover? (i wonder.. whats was so different/why should yours be so much better)

[michu]

Andy what are minimum requirements systemwise? when i tried installing the demo i got some missing .dll message i didn't write down and i cannot reproduce at the moment as Reaper started ignoring The Scream completely. Reaper x32 on Win7

[Mogular]

I am still having issues with Paypal. I will keep trying, but basically whenever I select paypal I just get the 'continue with checkout to complete payment' message and no button or any other indicator to proceed

[spunkmuffin]

^
Mogular just below the "Continue with checkout to complete payment." message don't you see a "REVIEW ORDER" button? Try clicking it once.

Also maybe try using a different browser...Firefox maybe. It only takes 5 minutes to download and install.

[Mogular]

That did it thanks. Previously when I clicked on 'review order' I got some odd errors so didn't bother doing it again until you mentioned it.

[Klinke1]

The Scream-circuit: The 1st resistor has 1kOhm (R101)
...While in Revalver the first resistor is 10kOhm (with default 5% tolerance) Name: R5 in ReValver.

I just spotted that. Now i am concerned...

All other components were identical/ReValver is missing the "Bias" section on the circuit.. (ima going to check the actual circuit..)

----

Sweet.. thanks to the Scream-Circuit + Looking at the "Mods" Tab.. i learned something.

In the "Mods"-Tab..not the "Full" view:
There are HP(C103) and LP(C105) -> I looked at the circuit and identified the C103 and C105.

--> Then in ReValver i looked at the circuit there.. and it looks the same.. i now know where i have to tweak in ReValver to adjust the filter. (if that is what HP/LP stands for..)
----
Revalver Screamer :
30 circuit-components can be adjusted/exchanged in the "tweak-shematic"
- 11 different Op-Amps
- 4 different Diodes
etc.

[Klinke1]

All circuits from web i have found have R101 at 1kOhm... Peavey wtf.

[bmanic]

---
You wrote Bx-Greenthingy is not very close to the hardware. (edit: ..least close to hardware from the products you tested)

I wonder: Are there are alot differences from pedal to pedal? There are so many types/re-issues.

Pl-Alliance states: "Faithful re-creation" + "bx_greenscreamer Overdrive is an exacting plugin emulation of the classic Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer" + "component level emulation of this classic pedal, capturing all.."

And you wrote it was the least close to hardware from the products you tested.
So what difference did you discover? (i wonder.. whats was so different/why should yours be so much better)

Dude.. it's not the first time a company like Plugin Alliance (or waves for that matter) writes a marketing blurb that still isn't anywhere close to the truth. Just look at all the analogue emulations floating around.

Andy actually provided very thorough audio examples in this thread, direct A/B comparisons that were almost indistinguishable from one another. He also provided graphics that show the differences between the various plugins available.

While I'm sure PA did their best to model whatever pedal they had at their disposal, there's only so much "component modeling" you can do, at a high level, without killing the CPU. This is where "The Scream" differs from the others. It doesn't sacrifice anything and indeed does kill the CPU.

[Klinke1]

everybody writes that..
but PAlliance didn't write bad about Cytomic-Scream..(as far as i know)

[spunkmuffin]

Andy didn't say it sounded bad. Here's what he wrote:

In my testing I found the Plugin Alliance bx_greenscreamer sounded the least like an analog TS808 tube screamer of almost all products I tested. I found the best sounding one to be the free Mercuriall TSC, which is too low passed at the top end, but overall the closest in tone, apart from The Scream, to the analog units I've used. If you want low CPU and like the tone of the bx_greenscreamer then please use it. If you want something like sounds like an actual tube screamer pedal then I would use something else.

The Scream is the most accurate emulation, and super deep since you can modify every parameter of every component in the entire model to create amazing sounds. You can adjust the battery voltage and bias position to for all kinds of create effects, and switch between arbitrary sets of diodes, or even bypass them completely to get a TS9 TURBO sound. Nothing else comes even close to what The Scream offers in terms of tone and customisation, but it does take more CPU, there is always a tradeoff! To lower CPU you can disable oversampling, it takes around 6% CPU on my laptop without oversampling.

I guess sometimes the truth hurts.

[Compyfox]

In the "Mods"-Tab..not the "Full" view:
There are HP(C103) and LP(C105) -> I looked at the circuit and identified the C103 and C105.

--> Then in ReValver i looked at the circuit there.. and it looks the same.. i now know where i have to tweak in ReValver to adjust the filter. (if that is what HP/LP stands for..)

Check out what I wrote last time - considering that my knowledge with circuits is not the best:

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.

Ah... understood. So C105 (Low Pass) and C103 (High Pass) affects what the OP Amp is getting frequency wise, C160 adjusts the cutoff steepness of the tone dial.

Pl-Alliance states: "Faithful re-creation" + "bx_greenscreamer Overdrive is an exacting plugin emulation of the classic Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer" + "component level emulation of this classic pedal, capturing all.."

I can at least speak for the DS-1 ports between Plugin Alliance and Hornet Plugins, and I do prefer the latter. We don't know how long certain recently released TS clones have been in the making, but I find it strange that somebody announces a "new tool that might break new grounds" and weeks later it's "a war of tool XYZ" between various companies. Happened with console emulations, tape emulations, reverbs,delays... we're back to Guitar related tools I guess. Not negative criticism, just pointing out the obvious.


It's always better (IMO and all that) to take things with a grain of salt. I was skeptical with "THE SCREAM" as well. In fact, I'm weary of marketing speech. I want hands on experience first. And Andy delivered eventually. Without crazy demo restrictions, requesting licenses or "logging in first".

But considering the price, the feature set and the overall sound (I like modding the pedal to one of the MA Diode types, and dropping the HP Cap by one step from the dropdown menu to get more lowend but less harsh distortion)... and aside from the initial bug, I say it's a worthy contender that easily cuts through the competition.

I'm not even sure if I'll continue using my go-to TS (TSE TS808), or my go-to DS-1 (Hornet Plugins, Keely Mod) as boost pedals/initial distortion stage in the long run. Though they are definitely lower in CPU usage/latency right out of the box.


Now if only Cubase would realize that THE SCREAM can have 0 latency as well (stupid plugin manager!)

[andy-cytomic]

Now if only Cubase would realize that THE SCREAM can have 0 latency as well (stupid plugin manager!)

You can have zero latency, just switch both the realtime and render oversample rates to x1 (off). Their plugin manager may only bother checking at startup what the latency is, so perhaps try setting both realtime and render to x1 (off), then choose "Save Settings As Default", then re-scan the plugin.