Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit

Scream 4 is a very versatile stereo in/out sound destruction device, capable of warping any sound literally beyond recognition, but also capable of producing more subtle musical effects. Scream 4 features a wide range of algorithms for distortion and sound mangling which can be combined with an EQ and a resonant “Body” section to provide everything you need to add an edge to your sounds. This effect is most often used as an insert effect.

#About the Patch format

Unlike most of the other effect devices, Scream 4 features programmable effect presets. Included are a number of factory Patches which can be used as they are or provide you with a good starting point for further tweaking.

Patches use the Windows file extension “*.SM4”. Loading and saving Patches is done in the same way as for instrument devices.

#Parameters

Scream 4 contains three main sections; Damage (distortion and other types of sound destruction), Cut (EQ) and Body (places the sound in a resonant environment - can serve as anything from a cabinet emulator to a wah-wah to completely new special effects) which can be switched on or off independently. The parameters in each section are as follows:

#Common effect device parameters

While the specific parameters for the Scream 4 effect device are described below, some features and procedures are common to all effect devices. Please, refer to “Common effect device features” for information about the Input meter, the Bypass/On/Off switch and Signal Flow Graphs on the effect device.

#Damage section controls

The “Damage” section is where you specify the basic sound mangling algorithm and make settings to inflict the desired amount of damage to the sound. There are ten basic algorithms to chose from, ranging from classic distortion effects to digital-sounding warping and modulation effects.

There are five controls in this section, with the following functions:

| Parameter

| Description

Damage button

This switches the Damage section on or off.

Damage Control knob

This controls the input gain which in turn determines the amount of damage inflicted. The higher the value, the more destruction!

When raising the Damage Control you may need to lower the Master level to maintain the same output level (and vice versa).

Damage Type knob

This selects the type of effect - see the table below for a description of the available damage methods.

P1/P2 knobs

The functionality of these knobs vary according to the selected Damage Type - see the table below for a description.

#Description of the various Damage Type algorithms

Here follows a basic description of the ten Damage Types available, and what parameters the P1/P2 knobs control for each type:

| Type

| Description

Overdrive

This produces an analog-type overdrive effect. Overdrive is quite responsive to varying dynamics. Use lower Damage Control settings for more subtle “crunch” effects.

- The P1 knob controls the basic tone of the effect. Turn clockwise for a brighter sound.

- The P2 knob controls Presence. Presence boosts frequencies in the high midrange before the distortion stage which in turn affects the character of the distortion. Turn clockwise for more Presence boost.

Distortion

Similar to Overdrive, but produces denser, thicker distortion. The distortion is also more “even” across the Damage Control range compared to Overdrive.

- The P1/P2 knobs control Tone and Presence, respectively - see Overdrive for a description.

Fuzz

Fuzz produces a bright and distorted sound even at low Damage Control settings.

- The P1/P2 knobs control Tone and Presence, respectively - see Overdrive for a description.

Tube

This emulates tube distortion.

- The P1 knob controls Contour, which is somewhat like a high pass filter, changing the tone and character of the distortion.

- The P2 knob controls Bias, which changes the “symmetry” of the tube distortion. Setting this to the minimum or maximum value will produce asymmetrical distortion (typical of a real-life tube amplifier), while a 12 o’clock setting will produce symmetrical distortion (odd harmonics only).

Tape

This emulates the soft clipping distortion produced by magnetic tape saturation and also adds compression which adds “punch” to the sound.

- The P1 knob controls Speed, which simulates tape running at different speeds. The higher the Speed setting the more of the original high frequency material in the signal. Turn clockwise for a brighter sound.

- The P2 knob controls the amount of Compression. Turning the knob clockwise increases the compression ratio.

Feedback

This effect combines distortion in a feedback loop which can produce many interesting and sometimes unpredictable results. Feedback is basically when a sound source is fed back to itself. An open microphone picking up sound from a nearby loudspeaker that is also being used to amplify sound from the microphone will produce a feedback loop with the associated typical howling. For this effect the Damage Control knob controls the gain of the feedback loop.

- The P1 knob controls Size, which could be described as the “length” (i.e. the distance between the microphone and the loudspeaker in the above example) of the feedback loop.

- The P2 knob controls Frequency, which for this effect determines which overtones will “howl”.

Modulate

Modulate first multiplies the signal with a filtered and compressed version of itself, and then adds distortion. This can produce resonant, ringing distortion effects.

- The P1 knob controls Ring, which is the resonance of the filter. Turn clockwise for more pronounced ringing effects.

- The P2 knob controls Frequency, which is the filter frequency. Turn clockwise to raise the filter frequency which generally produces a sharper, more piercing effect.

Warp

Warp distorts and multiplies the incoming signal with itself.

- The P1 knob controls Sharpness. Lower values will produce a soft, compressed distortion, while higher values produces more harmonics and a sharper sound.

- An effect of multiplying a signal with itself is that the fundamental pitch is removed from the signal, leaving overtones only. The P2 knob controls Bias - raise this to reintroduce the fundamental pitch in the sound.

Digital

Lo-fi anyone? This reduces the bit resolution and sample rate for raw and dirty sounds or for emulating vintage digital gear.

- The P1 knob controls (bit) Resolution. If the knob is turned fully to the right there is no bit reduction, fully the left the resolution is 1-bit.

- The P2 knob controls the sample rate. If the knob is turned fully to the right the sample rate is not reduced; turning it to the left gradually reduces the sample rate.

Scream

Similar to Fuzz, but with a bandpass filter with high resonance and gain settings placed before the distortion stage.

- The P1 knob controls the basic tone of the effect. Turn clockwise for a brighter sound.

- The P2 knob controls the filter frequency. The high resonance setting of the filter makes it suitable for wah-wah effects.

#Cut section (EQ)

The sliders in the Cut section are tone controls, allowing you to cut or boost the level by up to 18dB in the low, mid and high frequency areas. The Cut section is activated with the Cut button above the sliders.

Move the slider from the middle upwards to boost the level, and from the middle downwards to cut the level of the corresponding frequency area.

#Body section

The Body section is just what it says - it places the sound in a resonant “body”. Depending on the settings, the result can be similar to a speaker cabinet simulator, an auto-wah effect, or effects with no real-world counterpart. The section is based on 5 basic body types, which simulate how a sound is affected by different physical enclosures. The size and resonance of the Body types can be changed, and the section also features an envelope follower.

The Body parameters are as follows:

| Parameter

| Description

Body button

This switches the Body section on or off.

Body Type knob

This is used to select one of the five available Body types (A-E).

Body Reso knob

This simulates the resonance of the selected Body. Turning the knob clockwise gives a more resonant effect.

Body Scale

The Body Scale parameter could be said to control the “size” of the Body. Note that this is “inverted” - turning the knob clockwise reduces the emulated size.

Auto knob

Determines the amount of envelope follower effect on the Scale parameter - see below.

#About the envelope follower

The Body section features an envelope follower for dynamic control of the Scale parameter. The envelope follower analyzes the amplitude of the incoming signal and changes the Scale setting accordingly - the louder the incoming signal the higher the value of the Scale parameter. The operating frequency (or size) range is set with the Scale parameter, and the envelope follower amount is set with the Auto parameter. A typical use for this is auto-wah effects - try Body Type “B” for a pronounced wah effect.

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On the back of the Scream 4 you will find an Auto CV output - this delivers the CV signal from the envelope follower, allowing you to dynamically control parameters in other devices. See “Creating a real dynamic wah effect with the envelope follower” for an example.

#About the Master level control

The Master level control should be used when you need to increase or decrease the output level, while retaining the basic character of the effect. It can also be used to balance the level between the distorted sound and the “clean” (unprocessed) sound if the effect is to be switched in and out in the mix.

If the output level is too high, turning down the Damage Control setting would lower the output, but it would also change the character of the distortion, as would changing eq or presence settings.

Simply lowering the mixer channel level (for the channel that Scream 4 is connected to) would also work of course, but this would also mean that the level difference between the unprocessed and processed sound would increase.

So if the clip indicator lights up on the Transport, or if the distorted sound is too loud compared to the normal sound, the solution is to lower the Master output level.

As pointed out elsewhere in the manual, audio out clipping (indicated by the red clip indicator lighting up on the Transport Panel) can only happen in the Reason Hardware Interface. In other words, you never have to worry about levels passed internally from device to device. However, bear in mind that if you use high Master output settings (or a lot of boost in the Cut section) Scream 4 can quite easily cause audio out clipping - and that is most likely not a distortion effect you want!

#CV inputs and outputs

On the back of the Scream 4 you will find CV inputs for controlling the following four parameters:

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Damage Control

Use this for dynamically changing the amount of damage effect.

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The use for this depends on the selected Damage Type. For example, if the Feedback effect is selected, this will control the Size parameter - connect it to the CV Out on a Matrix or synth LFO for strange, flanger-like sweeps.

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The use for this depends on the selected Damage Type. For example, if the Scream effect is selected, this will control the Frequency parameter, producing a distorted wah wah sound.

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Scale

Lets you control the Scale parameter in the Body section from another CV source, for wah wah-like effects, etc.

In addition, you find a CV output from the “Auto” (envelope follower) function in the Body section. By connecting this to a CV input for a parameter in another device, the level of the signal going into the Scream 4 will affect that parameter. See below for an example on how to use this.

#Screamy tips and tricks

Don’t restrict yourself to using Scream 4 as a basic distortion stompbox, but try it in as many ways as possible - you may be surprised to find how often Scream 4 can add power, warmth and color to your sounds. Here are some examples:

#Creating a heavy drum sound

Scream 4 is ideal for processing drums. Try connecting it as an insert effect to a Redrum device and experiment with the Damage Types and settings.

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For classic distorted drums, try the Tube, Tape or Distortion algorithms.

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The Scream algorithm is excellent for a really raw body or industrial drum sound.

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For more weird, synth-like effects, try the Modulation or Warp effects.

Remember that you don’t have to route the whole drum kit through the Scream device - sometimes it may be better to route the individual outputs from the bass drum, snare and/or toms to a Spider Audio Merger (see “Spider Audio Merger & Splitter”), connect the merged output of the Spider to the Scream 4 and route this to a separate channel in the Mixer. That way, hi-hats, cymbals and similar are unprocessed.

#Warming up a mix with the Tape effect

If you find your mixes a bit sterile, the Tape algorithm is excellent for providing some warmth and gentle distortion:

Create a Scream 4 device and connect it between the main outputs of the Mixer and the Audio Hardware device.

Set the Damage Type to Tape.

Make sure the Cut and Body sections are turned off.

Start with a low Damage Control setting and P1 (Speed) and P2 (Compression) at 12 o’clock.

Play back your mix and adjust the settings.

Raise the Damage Control for more tape saturation distortion, adjust P1 to get the desired brightness and raise P2 if you want a more controlled, compressed sound. If you like, you could also activate the Cut section and use the three-band EQ to further adjust the sound.

#Using the Body section as a sound enhancer/phaser/wah

Nothing stops you from using the Body section on its own, without Damage. Try this:

Create a sampler device (e.g. an NN-19) and select an electric piano patch.

Select the sampler and create a Scream 4.

It is added as an insert effect.

Turn off the Damage section and instead activate the Body section.

You will find that this adds a resonant character to the sound, which will make it more “alive” and help it stand out in a mix. You should experiment with the Body settings to find the character that suits you best. You could also activate the Cut section- if you e.g. find the sound too bassy, just lower the “Lo” slider a bit.

Flip the rack around and connect the CV out from the sampler’s LFO to the Scale CV input on the Scream 4.

As you can hear, the Scale is modulated by the LFO.

Adjust the amount of Scale modulation with the pot next to the CV input on the back of the Scream 4, and the speed (and waveform) of the modulation in the LFO section on the sampler device.

With this type of modulation setup, it’s easy to get lush, dreamy phaser effects. For a more wah wah-like sound, select Body type B and raise the Reso and Scale settings.

#Emulating vintage digital gear

The first generations of digital instruments (drum machines, synths and samplers) used 8 or 12 bit sampling and processing, at low sample rates. This “lo-fi” sound is still in high demand, e.g. in hip-hop and R’n’B. Try this:

Connect a Scream 4 as an insert for a Redrum, with a suitable kit selected.

Set Damage Type to Digital and turn P1 and P2 fully right.

Play back and lower P1 (bit depth) and P2 (sample rate) to get the sound you want.

You may also want to use the Cut section to emphasize or cut frequencies in the sound.

#Creating a real dynamic wah effect with the envelope follower

As we have shown, you can get auto-wah-like effects with the Body section in Scream 4 (by using the Auto parameter). You could also use the ECF-42 envelope controlled filter and trigger this with a gate signal - this is after all a “real” filter and sounds even more like a wah effect. However, to get a “real” auto-wah effect that responds to the signal level, you need to combine both these devices:

Create an instrument device that you want to process with an auto-wah.

It should be velocity responsive so that the harder you play, the louder it sounds.

Create a Scream 4 device and an ECF-42 device.

Both these should now be connected as insert effects to the instrument device.

Turn off all three sections in the Scream 4.

This is of course a matter of taste - but here we will show how to use the envelope follower in Scream 4, not its sound destruction capabilities.

Flip the rack around and connect the Auto CV Output on the Scream to the Freq CV input on the ECF-42.

Lower the pot next to the CV input a bit - the envelope follower is rather sensitive and you probably don’t want the filter to open too much.

You can adjust this later if needed.

On the ECF-42, select the BP 12 (bandpass) mode and set the Res setting rather high.

Play the instrument device and adjust the Freq setting on the ECF-42 to taste.

As you can hear, the harder (or the more notes) you play, the more the filter will open.

If you find the auto-wah too responsive, you could add a compressor between the instrument device and the Scream 4 to even out the level differences a bit.

The Spider CV Merger and Splitter (see “Spider CV Merger & Splitter”) can be used to invert and split the Auto CV output for even greater flexibility.