Source Audio Sorcerers Society (S.A.S.S) Part 3

[yberwaffe]

I bet it's the hub; I had a similar experience with a Lego NXT brick and a USB hub I got from a trade show - would communicate when connected directly to the PC, but wouldn't do poo when connected to the cheap hub. I swapped that out for a Sabrent HB-U14P hub and haven't looked back; the Sabrent is currently pushing 4x One Series pedals without issue.

ETA: check to see if the ports on the hub are 'split voltage' - one port doing 5v, another 3.3v, another 1.2v or whatever, and if they are, try it in the 5v port.

That's a powered hub, that might solve the problem.
I think I have one somewhere to try with.

It's a bit strange that both of the Red panda pedals worked fine.
Maybe that only require 3.3 volts to operate the USB port.

Well, it's good to know that it should work, my up-and-coming MIDI setup requires the hub.

 

[roleki]

That's a powered hub, that might solve the problem.
I think I have one somewhere to try with.

It's a bit strange that both of the Red panda pedals worked fine.
Maybe that only require 3.3 volts to operate the USB port.

Well, it's good to know that it should work, my up-and-coming MIDI setup requires the hub.

While the 13-port I use does have a power brick, I run it without (i.e it uses power from the USB port on the machine)... in theory, I would only need the power brick if everything connected to it drew more than ~5v simultaneously. I probably SHOULD use the brick, but I already have 140,000 power bricks under my desk.

 

[_Tay_]

Uh, since I am here...

I had to drop my son's guitar off at Sweetwater's campus for some warranty work, and those clever bastards put the service desk waaaaay in back so you have to pass everything twice to get in and out of the building.

While I resisted the urge to ACQUIRE EVERYTHING on that visit, I doubt I have it in me to resist a second time when I go to pick the guitar up in a few weeks. I don't know what, but something is going to stick to me on the way out, the only question is what?

I currently have an Atlas, Spectrum, Gemini and Aftershock. I don't gig or jam or whatever, aside from playing some root notes along with my kid as he learns songs; I just like monkeying with settings and seeing what comes out.

As such, I love the Spectrum, but I keep looking at all the extra stuff the C4 can do and can't help but wonder if I would like that more. I'm also interested in the UltraWave, but not as interested as I am in the C4 because I don't really 'get' what the UltraWave actually does; I mean, I get the concept behind it, but all of the demos I've seen sound like Spectrum sets rather than their own THING, if that makes sense.

I was hoping somebody who has experience with any of these would chime in with their pro/cons to the C4/UltraWave, and maybe explain what all I would need to get BESIDES a C4 if I wanted to save as many presets as the Spectrum can hold.

I'd appreciate any info that would help me figure out the exact amount of cash I need to carry with me back to Fort Wayne.

Both the C4 and Ultrawave are on my board so i can chime in. 100% would swap the Spectrum for the C4, as if you had to choose between one, the C4 has all the glorious filter gubbins as the Spectrum.

Personally i use the C4 for the Filter, Octave sounds live with a couple of synth patches thrown in. I use the Ultrawave as a Dual compressor and EQ. Parametric EQ is great and 2 channels... Awesome options. Though I struggle to get beefy, decent distorted patches for my bass with the Ultrawave that can stop me using my MBD-2.. (tall order for most bass ODs)

 

[aguacateojos]

Get a C4! That's all the info you need haha.

 

[yberwaffe]

While the 13-port I use does have a power brick, I run it without (i.e it uses power from the USB port on the machine)... in theory, I would only need the power brick if everything connected to it drew more than ~5v simultaneously. I probably SHOULD use the brick, but I already have 140,000 power bricks under my desk.

An old powered USB hub was all that was needed.
Now I can talk to it the way I want.
Thanks for the hint.

 

[odarellmc]

Uh, since I am here...

I had to drop my son's guitar off at Sweetwater's campus for some warranty work, and those clever bastards put the service desk waaaaay in back so you have to pass everything twice to get in and out of the building.

While I resisted the urge to ACQUIRE EVERYTHING on that visit, I doubt I have it in me to resist a second time when I go to pick the guitar up in a few weeks. I don't know what, but something is going to stick to me on the way out, the only question is what?

I currently have an Atlas, Spectrum, Gemini and Aftershock. I don't gig or jam or whatever, aside from playing some root notes along with my kid as he learns songs; I just like monkeying with settings and seeing what comes out.

As such, I love the Spectrum, but I keep looking at all the extra stuff the C4 can do and can't help but wonder if I would like that more. I'm also interested in the UltraWave, but not as interested as I am in the C4 because I don't really 'get' what the UltraWave actually does; I mean, I get the concept behind it, but all of the demos I've seen sound like Spectrum sets rather than their own THING, if that makes sense.

I was hoping somebody who has experience with any of these would chime in with their pro/cons to the C4/UltraWave, and maybe explain what all I would need to get BESIDES a C4 if I wanted to save as many presets as the Spectrum can hold.

I'd appreciate any info that would help me figure out the exact amount of cash I need to carry with me back to Fort Wayne.

I have both, my c4 does synth stuff, my spectrum does filter stuff, each has its own strength. Get both you won't regret it.

 

[GMC]

I initially bought a C4 because it covers all of the ground and capability that the Spectrum does. The Spectrum offers a slightly reduced feature set (compared to the C4) and is more focused as a result. As an "all in one" pedal, both the Spectrum and C4 cover a lot of ground.

The issue I found is where I had a patch that used both an octaver and a filter but I wanted more control than the 4 knobs allowed me.

I also found a few situations where the (excellent but limited) integrated dirt was a bit limited and I wanted to throw an Aftershock or Ultrawave between the two voices. While this can be done via cable routing...it's a lot of faf just for a few patches. So I chose a board layout that had this flow: Input> C4> Atlas > Ultrawave > Spectrum.
I chose this layout so that I could utilise my Spectrum as a dedicated "filters" pedal and apply it after my dirt and C4. My C4 is then used purely as an Octaver or Synth (preset machine).

For me, this opens up my board creatively and allows me a lot of flexibility in terms of device controls.

 

[aguacateojos]

I initially bought a C4 because it covers all of the ground and capability that the Spectrum does. The Spectrum offers a slightly reduced feature set (compared to the C4) and is more focused as a result. As an "all in one" pedal, both the Spectrum and C4 cover a lot of ground.

The issue I found is where I had a patch that used both an octaver and a filter but I wanted more control than the 4 knobs allowed me.

I also found a few situations where the (excellent but limited) integrated dirt was a bit limited and I wanted to throw an Aftershock or Ultrawave between the two voices. While this can be done via cable routing...it's a lot of faf just for a few patches. So I chose a board layout that had this flow: Input> C4> Atlas > Ultrawave > Spectrum.
I chose this layout so that I could utilise my Spectrum as a dedicated "filters" pedal and apply it after my dirt and C4. My C4 is then used purely as an Octaver or Synth (preset machine).

For me, this opens up my board creatively and allows me a lot of flexibility in terms of device controls.

So did you ditch the Aftershock and go with the Ultra Wave?

 

[Rick Penrose]

So did you ditch the Aftershock and go with the Ultra Wave?

I have the same group of SA pedals. There is a lot there. My signal chain is Atlas->C4->UW->Spectrum. No special reason I chose this order just seemed right. Was there a reason you chose to put the C4 first?
Thanks,
Rick

 

[odarellmc]

Do you guys find that with digital pedals just blend differently. I've tried various positions with my SA pedals not much of a sound difference, now my analog pedals are a different story..

 

[bassbrad]

Hold on you guys are using DIs on your board. When you have an amp DI? Why?

IME many amp DIs can be problematic for a lot of sound techs who do not know how to handle line level signals or have a proper board, for that reason I have a Radial JDI in my kit for the sake of quality and simplicity, plus I don't always use an amp.

Uh, since I am here...

I had to drop my son's guitar off at Sweetwater's campus for some warranty work, and those clever bastards put the service desk waaaaay in back so you have to pass everything twice to get in and out of the building.

While I resisted the urge to ACQUIRE EVERYTHING on that visit, I doubt I have it in me to resist a second time when I go to pick the guitar up in a few weeks. I don't know what, but something is going to stick to me on the way out, the only question is what?

I currently have an Atlas, Spectrum, Gemini and Aftershock. I don't gig or jam or whatever, aside from playing some root notes along with my kid as he learns songs; I just like monkeying with settings and seeing what comes out.

As such, I love the Spectrum, but I keep looking at all the extra stuff the C4 can do and can't help but wonder if I would like that more. I'm also interested in the UltraWave, but not as interested as I am in the C4 because I don't really 'get' what the UltraWave actually does; I mean, I get the concept behind it, but all of the demos I've seen sound like Spectrum sets rather than their own THING, if that makes sense.

I was hoping somebody who has experience with any of these would chime in with their pro/cons to the C4/UltraWave, and maybe explain what all I would need to get BESIDES a C4 if I wanted to save as many presets as the Spectrum can hold.

I'd appreciate any info that would help me figure out the exact amount of cash I need to carry with me back to Fort Wayne.

Every Source Audio pedal has exceeded my expectations in sound, versatility and utility. I started with the Aftershock in an attempt to pare down my needs for multiple drives for songs and styles ~ so many great options but needs more memory.
Then was uber excited when the C4 Synth was released and continue to adore and explore that pedal. My use includes filters, octavers, pitch shifter and harmoizers, phaser, vibrato tremolo plus the amazing 4 voice synth sounds.
Then there was the Ultrawave Bass Toolbox that has amazing multiband distortion but also a DAW style compressor, 3 band semi parametric, 8 band EQ, noise gate, hpf, lpf and the very cool multiband tremolo plus a few other goodies.
I then decided to add a Spectrum at the end of all these to have the option for octaver and filters after my distortions for creating more interesting sounds as that is my thing these daze.
Adding the Neuro Hub allowed me to save more sounds on the Aftershock as well as create scenes for songs for recall.

 

[Mohawk]

Love both the C4 and the UW and in some cases use them together. I see some of you guys have installed C4 before UW, whereas I have the UW before the C4. Getting great results as is but is there any reason I should consider switching the order?

 

[aguacateojos]

Is there a solid case to be made to run both and AS and UW?

 

[Derek Williams]

Is there a solid case to be made to run both and AS and UW?

The Aftershock is easier to dial in. If you put in the work to create the drives you want like @GMC has, then you don't need the Aftershock. I'm far too lazy for that though So I use both.

 

[Trvbass]

I haven't run amp-less so far and presently run the pedals into a GK amp and send the post EQ DI signal from the amp to the mixer. Using in-ears where I control my mix (and most band member control theirs) so I get a great bass sound with all the cool effects.

I use an EQ profile on the bass channel in the mixer but no additional compression as the pedals take care of that. As far as the ambient result, if FOH has subs and good drivers the bass should sound good out front. Often the bass amp on stage can cause problems from resonance at certain frequencies due to stage/venue geometry and also interactions, delays, etc with the FOH. This can cause variations in the bass volume versus listening position. If everyone used in-ears and there was always a sub in the system I would like to drop the amp and just go DI.

P.S. looks like you got the DA/Neuro Hub setup working like mine. How do you like it so far?

I am liking it!

It took a while to find a USB hub that my MSFT Surface tablet would support, but I found one that has 7 ports to cover the five pedals, Hub and DMC and it runs without power. Everything makes more sense now that I have the DMC and I moved the Hub to the top of the board and can hit the "save scene" button.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SOXN1I8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Open questions ATM are setting up one patch per song so I can step through the setlist vs. less patches and no "setlist" built in to the board, how to get the sound to FOH and pedal order!

I also just discovered that the stompbox wireless is actually putting out a balanced TRS signal and that provides a mutable DI for the FOH if I want to just have the effects in the bass rig and looking at something like a Stagebug SB-2 to feed the effected signal to FOH and to the bass rig.

Finally, I'm not sure if the pedal order makes sense and where the best places are for the Atlas and EQ2, so looking forward to more posts on that here in the SASS thread.

 

[bassbrad]

Is there a solid case to be made to run both and AS and UW?

The Aftershock is easier to dial in. If you put in the work to create the drives you want like @GMC has, then you don't need the Aftershock. I'm far too lazy for that though So I use both.

I like the simplicity of creation on the Aftershock because it begins with engines [models] of popular choices that we can enhance and refine with the available options in Neuro. I do not find as much overlap between the pedals as I have spent a lot of time with the various voices and textures in those popular pedals. The Ultrawave is such a versatile great tool box it makes sense for me to have both for even a frugal soul as I, even for just the added fuzz possibilities.

 

[Spector2112]

So I have the Gemini, but, GAS....so I was wondering which SA pedal would be best for a good 8-String bass effect.
I don't have any real need for all that the C4 can do, and the Spectrum is also probably overkill as well.
Or, should I just go the Pog/Sub'n'up/Mosaic route?

 

[_Tay_]

So I have the Gemini, but, GAS....so I was wondering which SA pedal would be best for a good 8-String bass effect.
I don't have any real need for all that the C4 can do, and the Spectrum is also probably overkill as well.
Or, should I just go the Pog/Sub'n'up/Mosaic route?

Personally i'd go for the POG as it is poly and superb tracking. There is that new mini one coming out which looks really good and currently have massive GAS for that. The octave up sounds are slightly delayed on the Source Audio stuff but still produces this cool 'slap back' delay kind of vibe. The ultrawave does have octave distortion but i think the pog would be best.

 

[aguacateojos]

I guess if I were to have overlap with the current lineup I'd run a C4 and Spectrum to have envelopes handled by the latter and octave plus sythn by the former.

But there's still that mystery red pedal...

 

[Felkara]

So did you ditch the Aftershock and go with the Ultra Wave?

Yes, and sold it to me!