Cytomic "The Scream" stomp box distortion plugin

[flurp]

Amp sims plugins are indeed terrible. Happy to see Cytomic will save the world on this one

[andy-cytomic]

If I remember correctly, you posted a while back on the current state of cabinet simulation in the amp sim world and not being pleased with static IR's, but also feeling like getting this piece right would be processor intensive. Just curious if your thoughts have changed on that subject, or how you'd want to address that. Then there's still trying to get the sound of the signal chain post-amp (microphone into pre) in order for it to sound like a recorded amp.

The amp sim side of things is definitely a way off in the future. I’ll most likely use GPU acceleration to help do the finite difference modelling of the amp and speaker cone because it’s an inherintly parallel task that requires a lot of small computations, so GPUs are perfect for this.

For me, I'd love to see some more stomps (fuzz box - preferrably a muff with all the different variations, maybe a Rat) then honestly, some really high quality compression or even EQs, and of course the Cytomic synth. These days, I've acquired a few good amps with a pretty wide palette of tones between them, and just gone back to mic'ing them up when it's critical or declaring amp sims as being "good enough" when I'm feeling lazy.

I’ve specificially taken the extra time on The Scream to sort out the new PDK method to tackle more stomp boxes, compressors, and other devices much more quickly. The original MNA “brute force” modelling for The Scream only took a month or so, and that is still best for the HD (high cpu) mode.

Making things run with lower CPU while still preserving all the detail is the tricky bit, and that’s what the PDK method handles. I’ve automated pretty much the entire process of solving circuits using the PDK method, so it’s going to be much quicke to roll out new stomp boxes and other plugins using this tech

[andy-cytomic]

awesome, thanks for the info and the great presets ! i'm already using them.

You’re welcome! There will be a much better selection of presets for the final release. The Scream is very versatile, I’m still discovering new things I can do with it

[andy-cytomic]

One one hand that sounds really marvelous but on the other hand we all know the pace at which you use to release and wrap-up, so I'm not holding my breath.

Fair call

I have been focussing on R&D pretty heavily over the last 6 years or so, and it’s all come together now, and I’ve automated the process of solving both brute force “MNA”, as well as the lower cpu “PDK” method, so I really hope to put out a lot more plugins over the next few years

[risome]

Look forward to them Andy

[bishop666]

What about designing your own stomp boxes, amps,... from scratch. Not "just" mods

[Unaspected]

The amp sim side of things is definitely a way off in the future. I’ll most likely use GPU acceleration to help do the finite difference modelling of the amp and speaker cone because it’s an inherintly parallel task that requires a lot of small computations, so GPUs are perfect for this.

I'm pretty impressed with how Kazrog's Thermionik handles feedback but this is genuinely exciting to me. Also really pleased that we can expect many more stomp box emulations to be released in less time over the coming years - You know I'm looking forward to your RAT emulation. I had also suggested an emulation of the original Danelectro Fab Tone, which you said you would check out - but I should probably provide a picture of the version I was talking about as I don't think I did before.



^ This - The big metal one.

I'd like to see if you can get me to sell some of my stomp boxes because I strongly favour your Tube Screamer over the real thing. It's great to have some viable distortion options ITB these days.

[sqigls]

^ i've been picked up by THAT fuzz before

i want a Budda Phat Bass, while the requests are flowing in...



not enough GOOD bass distortions in my opinion

this one is rare, and my fave for bass guitar anyway...
the two tubes are interchangeable with 12AT7 and 12AX7 tubes, so it's possible to tailor your own sound to a fair extent i guess. Simple things

[acousticglue]

Depending on configuration of components in The Scream you can affect whatever spectrum required bass or guitar. It's been a learning experience for myself

[meloco_go]

I tried Mix Wide present on the mix yesterday and it's really interesting. It cuts low end a little bit too much (and top end too, but slightly less), so I played with C103 and C105 values. I ended up with a little bit of boost on the low end and high end instead, and it seems to work extremely nice on the whole mix!
What is interesting is that The Drop and The Scream seem to have this feeling of "liveliness" in them which I have heard in Acustica's plugins before. And that is perplexing as it's completely different approaches to modeling.
Anyway, now I am salivating for The Glue HD even more!

One note, Andy, can you please consider adding Trim control instead of Pre/Post volumes, or maybe adding an icon to link them?
Especially when you only want a gentle drive you have to drop Pre volume and compensate with Post and it's a little bit of a vibe killer adjusting two things when you only need to do one thing.

[Aaron Zilch]

What about designing your own stomp boxes, amps,... from scratch. Not "just" mods

+1 on this. The KSM circuit in The Drop is one of my favorites. I don't know if it was specifically designed to do amazing things to the low end with a highpass, but it is an absolute bass monster. As much as we need quality recreations of legendary circuits ( they are time tested classics for a reason after all ), I really look forward to also seeing this modeling tech focused on innovative designs.

[andy-cytomic]

Thanks for the suggestions Unaspected (Danelectro Fab Tone) and sqigls (Budda Phat Bass), I've downloaded their schematics and they both look interesting. I've still got a fuzz face and rat to do first, but I like having options of good sounding circuits to try

[andy-cytomic]

I tried Mix Wide present on the mix yesterday and it's really interesting. It cuts low end a little bit too much (and top end too, but slightly less), so I played with C103 and C105 values. I ended up with a little bit of boost on the low end and high end instead, and it seems to work extremely nice on the whole mix!
What is interesting is that The Drop and The Scream seem to have this feeling of "liveliness" in them which I have heard in Acustica's plugins before. And that is perplexing as it's completely different approaches to modeling.
Anyway, now I am salivating for The Glue HD even more!

One note, Andy, can you please consider adding Trim control instead of Pre/Post volumes, or maybe adding an icon to link them?
Especially when you only want a gentle drive you have to drop Pre volume and compensate with Post and it's a little bit of a vibe killer adjusting two things when you only need to do one thing.

Thanks for the feedback on the mix wide preset. For further tone shaping info -

The main "low pass" caps are: c104, c105
The high pass drive cap is: c103 (only affects the drive signal path)
The DC blocking caps are: c101, c102, c107, c108, c109, coutdc

Typically you use the equation: 1/(2*pi*R*C) to get the actual cutoff frequency (-3 dB point) of the one pole low or high pass filter. For example at the input stage you have c101 = 20e-9, and r101 + r102 = 1e3 + 510e3 = 511e3, which makes 1/(2*pi*20e-9*511e3) = 15 Hz. For full band mastering type stuff the low pass needs to be up around 30 kHz, and the high passing down around 5 Hz. I recommend only changing the capacitor values as otherwise you can change the gain levels through the circuit.

I could have a UI only mouse drag key modifier for linking the pre/post gains, would that be enough? I don't want to clutter the interface with any more controls, or have any more controls exposed to the DAW if possible!

[andy-cytomic]

What is interesting is that The Drop and The Scream seem to have this feeling of "liveliness" in them which I have heard in Acustica's plugins before. And that is perplexing as it's completely different approaches to modeling.
Anyway, now I am salivating for The Glue HD even more!

Thanks great feedback Both The Drop and The Scream are much more detailed in terms of multiple non-linearities in the main signal path, so expect that the HD mode for The Glue will do similar things! Even more important I think will be some subtle stereo component variation, which will first appear in The Scream. You will be able to bypass the main drive section in The Scream (just click the LED or stomp box silver button) and just use two class-a biased transistors with dc blocking for some subtle stereo warming. Each stereo transistor takes around 0.3% cpu on my system, and once I've done a bunch of different buffer models from the input stages of various devices I plan to make a plugin that just does this type of input stage non-linear warming

[meloco_go]

Thanks for the feedback on the mix wide preset. For further tone shaping info -

The main "low pass" caps are: c104, c105
The high pass drive cap is: c103 (only affects the drive signal path)
The DC blocking caps are: c101, c102, c107, c108, c109, coutdc

Typically you use the equation: 1/(2*pi*R*C) to get the actual cutoff frequency (-3 dB point) of the one pole low or high pass filter. For example at the input stage you have c101 = 20e-9, and r101 + r102 = 1e3 + 510e3 = 511e3, which makes 1/(2*pi*20e-9*511e3) = 15 Hz. For full band mastering type stuff the low pass needs to be up around 30 kHz, and the high passing down around 5 Hz. I recommend only changing the capacitor values as otherwise you can change the gain levels through the circuit.

Thank you for the explanation! Will play more with the mods!

I could have a UI only mouse drag key modifier for linking the pre/post gains, would that be enough? I don't want to clutter the interface with any more controls, or have any more controls exposed to the DAW if possible!

Mouse modifier would be fine, especially if it is possible to make a floating notification describing it. I wonder if that would work across all the various DAWs though? Maybe it is simpler to add a small lock/unlock icon between pre/post areas? I get the point on avoiding clutter, but is that really that much of a problem? I am not an expert on image manipulation but here's the crude mockup of what I am talking about (I don't have a DAW installed on the PC I am using ATM, so I grabbed the picture from the website, so it's smallish).