Cytomic "The Scream" stomp box distortion plugin

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Looks good to me Andy!

[Robert Randolph]

Ok, two more minor nitpicks...

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# 1 I have a few hundred (literally) right angle patch cables here from a wide variety of manufacturers, and I have exactly zero that have a separated collar near the plug end. All of them are a single homogenous molded piece that tie the ground sleeve to the chassis.

Here's an image of the discrepancy:



I marked in yellow on the right where the potential issue is, with the obvious arrows. Maybe you have some patch cables I don't, seems entirely possible

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#2 The LED on my TS808s and TS9s are all slightly smaller than the hole, which gives it an inset look (even though it's not!) and a darker border around the LED. I think that difference makes the GUI look a bit cartoonish compared to a real pedal.

A sweetwater image of a new ts808 clone shows the difference pretty well I think:



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I know it's nitpicky, but since you asked for feedback... I figure I may as well

Perhaps a third note is that none of my vintage ibanez pedals have similar wear patterns to what you have there. The wear on mine tend to mostly be around the raised 'stomp' area's corners like this:



I wouldn't expect THAT much wear on the GUI, but it's probably more authentic to have some extra wear on those edges compared to the corners.

[spunkmuffin]

Andy could you add a gouge tool so I can add more scratches? Maybe a chisel or a crowbar? Also could I arrange the green flakes of paint I chip off on the background carpet? I want to spell out a rude word or two with the chips. Thanks!

[Frantz]

Andy could you add a gouge tool so I can add more scratches?

Every mouse click should cause a bit of damage. If you click too much, the knobs fall off. Then you need to send it back to the Cytomic factory for repair.

[Lucastyle]

Hey Andy how is the Fuzz Box coming along? cant wait to buy that one too , you should do guitar amps next, I think that the guitar world needs to get cytomisized!

[electro]

you should do guitar amps next, I think that the guitar world needs to get cytomisized!

How many more AMP Sims do you think we need?

[Lucastyle]

you should do guitar amps next, I think that the guitar world needs to get cytomisized!

How many more AMP Sims do you think we need?

Just one, only if it's from cytomic

[Winstontaneous]

Andy could you add a gouge tool so I can add more scratches?

Every mouse click should cause a bit of damage. If you click too much, the knobs fall off. Then you need to send it back to the Cytomic factory for repair.

Yeah, needs a "bikeshedding" mode. I know Eric Johnson claims to hear the difference between battery brands so be sure to add that as well! Also, please make sure the input/output jack nuts loosen up every few months, and add an option for replacing the virtual rubber feet on the bottom with virtual Velcro (probably the most common real-world pedal mod), though I suppose that would affect the resale value.

[Andrew Souter]

The dude is an absolute DSP/mathematics guru, and the GUI is photorealistic and ranks in the top % of skeuomorphic designs I have ever seen...

I think the style of the patch cable and how much distress texture is added may be counted as pretty minor details in the grand scheme of things.

Awesome work Andy!

[electro]

you should do guitar amps next, I think that the guitar world needs to get cytomisized!

How many more AMP Sims do you think we need?

Just one, only if it's from cytomic

Really?

UAD Tweed 55
Kazrog Thermionik + Recabinet
TSE X50II
Overloud TH3
Amplitube 4 Collections
Mercuriall
Softube
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5

They all fall short?

[bmanic]

you should do guitar amps next, I think that the guitar world needs to get cytomisized!

How many more AMP Sims do you think we need?

Just one, only if it's from cytomic

Really?

UAD Tweed 55
Kazrog Thermionik + Recabinet
TSE X50II
Overloud TH3
Amplitube 4 Collections
Mercuriall
Softube
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5

They all fall short?

It's all very subjective of course but quite a few you've mentioned here do indeed fall short, in my opinion.

[shroom81]

Wow the latest render looks gorgeous! I love this little beast and I've never even touched a guitar

[farfadetfarfelu]

[Lucastyle]

you should do guitar amps next, I think that the guitar world needs to get cytomisized!

How many more AMP Sims do you think we need?

Just one, only if it's from cytomic

Really?

UAD Tweed 55
Kazrog Thermionik + Recabinet
TSE X50II
Overloud TH3
Amplitube 4 Collections
Mercuriall
Softube
Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5

They all fall short?

You could argue the same with the TS808 emulations, theres lots of it (UAD, Kazrog, TSE Overloud, Amplitube, Native instruments) they all make one, but it just seems that none of them take such great care to the details as Cytomic does, that why I think Cytomic should delve in the Amp sim business.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

If you go into "The Drop" thread and search the word cabinet, you'll see that this was discussed back in 2015. Sounds like the issue (from Andy's perspective) is/was the cabinet modeling and modern computers maybe not being quite there just yet.

Here's the relevent portions...

I have been looking at modelling a bunch of classic stomp boxes like the TS-808/909, Big Muff PI etc, so I visited here: http://www.igniteamps.com/en/audio-plug-ins and downloaded their free TS-999 tube screamer emulation and thought it was pretty good, it was just a fraction duller than the analog pedal I had, but I would have been happy using it in production. There must be better paid products as well, so I thought I should tackle other things instead, like a decent Boss IR-3109 based phaser.

However, in the cabinet simulation department I think they are all equally bad. Linear FIR impulse responses don't really cut it for decent tone. I feel to get that right there needs to be a full model of the coupled load of the power amp and the speaker coil + mass, with non-linearities of both modelled electro-accoustically and spatially. That is something I'm keen to investigate in the future, actually building a 3D model (lattice) of the speaker and cabinet, but I'm not sure computers are quite up for it just yet but they are getting more powerful.

Hello andy ! Sorry if I come back to something you have said a few weeks ago...

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Can you tell me why do you think that Linear FIR impulse responses don't give you what you are looking for ? I'm curious about what you mean. Indeed, there is a lot of things to do on this field like fully modeling cabinet instead of using impulse responses, but right now I think that you can get a very very good tone with some of the commercial impulse responses and cabinet simulation software (see what people say about the librairies OwnHammer or Rozen Digital for example). I wouldn't say even they don't sound decent

I'm just curious, no offence

FIR is linear, so no distortion or drive or anything interesting, it just attenuates frequencies it doesn't add any frequency content that wasn't there to begin with. This is fine, but most guitar speakers and amps distort a bit, and there is interaction between the two that changes how this distortion sounds. This is too much for modern computers, but I like to keep an eye on the future with projects, so I can have them done when computers are just powerful enough for them to be reasonable.

Sure, using impulse responses only does not provide any nonlinear modeling of the guitar cabinets into the simulation algorithm, but for me that doesn't mean it will sound "bad", especially if the preamplifier and the power amplifier distort already a bit.

I think that most of people, including professional guitar players and sound engineers, are not even able to tell if a guitar recording has been done with guitar cabinet miking or any modeling software. That's why commercial impulse response librairies are popular again nowadays.

That doesn't mean we can't do better of course, and in fact there are already a lot of things done on this field in commercial products. I'm thinking about my (old) algorithms in the Two Notes Torpedo products of course, but also in Vandal Amps where there is some cabinet modeling with nonlinearities (from Sascha Eversmeier working now at u-he), in TSE X50 v2 with the movement control, in Mercuriall Cab v3 from Roxolder etc. Most of recent guitar amplifiers simulations developers have also included the modeling of the interaction poweramp-speaker for a long time.

Anyway, I'd like to see what you can do on this field, but that's not fair to say that everybody else is doing bad things until then

I was only meaning to comment on software using linear FIR filters alone to "model" the cab (and power amp interactions with the cab) section, if people doing more advanced models that are physically motivated and have non-linearities then I think this is a good thing, so sorry for not being specific to exclude those people.