Cytomic "The Scream" stomp box distortion plugin

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

The solution for what?

The problem described here...

One of the only exceptions may be Sknote as they have no demo and I am usually too lazy to ask for a refund - I sometimes do, but rarely - and nonetheless barely use the stuff because a lot of it is just buggy as hell - and yet I do not complain because it's my own choice after all (even though I think there should be a big bold red disclaimer all over the Sknote-website saying something along the lines of: "WARNING - the chance that this software is going to work for you as advertised is mimimal" )...

...seems like just avoiding them in the first place (going forward at least) would prevent these issues. That's the conclusion I came to for myself with them anyway.

[jens]

Yes, but my point was that I know what I am getting myself into, so there's no real point in complaining afterwards...
if you walk into a strip-bar, don't complain afterwards because you've been exposed to nudity.

[parnarules]

When I think of Cytomic products...

The Drop still sounds absolutely incredible and it is -at least to my ears- the best saturation/filter plugin ITB. Trying running any software synth through it and be prepared to be amazed.

The Glue, after all these years, is preferred by so many users to newer and more 'flashy' alternatives. The Glue HD update will surely take it to the next level.

The Scream, even though it is still in beta, is rock-solid and more stable than other official releases (think of Plugin Alliance and their long history of bugs).

And I haven't even tried any of his work for Ableton which gets rave reviews everywhere (EQ8, filters for Wavetable, The Glue...)

I don't mind waiting longer for the official release because I know everything Andy releases is top-notch and the level of detail is amazing. One of my favourite developers, Big up Andy and Cytomic!

[mrj1nx]

Question, whats the preffered way of using The Scream to add some subtle saturation to the material? Low on the dry/wet? Or is there a way to 'mod' it so the drive knob goes much lower in amount of drive applied? And if so, would that be prefferable? Would any method yield an objectively better quality? This would be for all kinds of stuff like synths, drum parts and base lines.

[ariston]

Question, whats the preffered way of using The Scream to add some subtle saturation to the material? Low on the dry/wet? Or is there a way to 'mod' it so the drive knob goes much lower in amount of drive applied? And if so, would that be prefferable? Would any method yield an objectively better quality? This would be for all kinds of stuff like synths, drum parts and base lines.

My first thought was: why would you want to use a TS808 for SUBTLE saturation? Wouldn't that be like using an excavator to mow a lawn? Well, I'd be curious to hear if and how anyone uses it that way, too.

[jbraner]

Just turn the drive all the way down. It's a stomp box - so you don't mix wet and dry, it's either on or it's not

[Havok]

Question, whats the preffered way of using The Scream to add some subtle saturation to the material? Low on the dry/wet? Or is there a way to 'mod' it so the drive knob goes much lower in amount of drive applied? And if so, would that be prefferable? Would any method yield an objectively better quality? This would be for all kinds of stuff like synths, drum parts and base lines.

Turn the input right down, remove the diodes in the mod section and increase the voltage to 18V should be a good start, and yeah play around with the dry/wet after you've got a nice tone/timbre

[jens]

My first thought was: why would you want to use a TS808 for SUBTLE saturation? Wouldn't that be like using an excavator to mow a lawn? Well, I'd be curious to hear if and how anyone uses it that way, too.

Why would you not, if it's a saturation plugin as flexible as this one and with as high a quality as this one, regardless of what it emulates by default?


The Scream is indeed great for suble warm saturation... increasing the voltage is good start...


edit: Havok beat me to it by a few hours...

[andy-cytomic]

For a gentle warming sound you can click on the main button to turn the LED off, it still processes the audio through two class-a biased BJT buffers with dc blocking, so will impart some subtle analog character to the sound.

If you want more tone that that then you can set R106 to 0, and set C103 to 2.2u and C105 to 4.7n. The drive knob at 0 will process audio through the drive op-amp and sum this with the diode clipped path as well, but at unity gain, and without the mid hump of the TS-808. If you want more subtle drive than this then you can set the diode count to higher on each side, or completely remove them, or pad the input and output as needed to either increase or decrease the drive. For more drive increase the input and decrease the output gain, or vice-versa for more subtle drive.

In the final release there will be a bunch of production presets, and also the lower cpu mode will mean you can use The Scream on more tracks for warming applications.

[ariston]

Interesting! Will definitely try it out.

[jens]

Well, I have of course not the slightest idea what I am doing, but here's a nice setting I came up with...
a little different than the afore-mentioned diode-recipes...

https://easyupload.io/y2mdw6

[jens]

And if you change it to the following, you get a nice, still warm, slightly crunchy amp-ish tone:

https://easyupload.io/eiyfin

[ariston]

Using Andy's instructions on several sources... you can get a nice warming vibe, if you don't overdo it. Setting the drive to somewhere between 5 and 10% is more than enough, so it's still kind of aggressive. But it's crunchy in a nice way. Maybe have to adjust the output gain as suggested.
Interesting, would never have thought of using it this way.

[Winstontaneous]

Using Andy's instructions on several sources... you can get a nice warming vibe, if you don't overdo it. Setting the drive to somewhere between 5 and 10% is more than enough, so it's still kind of aggressive. But it's crunchy in a nice way. Maybe have to adjust the output gain as suggested.
Interesting, would never have thought of using it this way.

Also be aware that one reason guitarists love Tube Screamers is their sensitivity to input level. So if you know what you're doing you can go from quite clean to ripping leads just by varying your picking, volume and pickup settings rather than dancing on footswitches to change tones. Sounds like Andy's modeled that behavior very well. Also great to see there's a way to dial down that "screaming" midrange.

[lasteno]

the sound of "The Scream" is amazing ; do you have a date to the final release? can't wait to use the final version..