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

[odarellmc]

https://www.facebook.com/david.haan.5/videos/797591308660120/?idorvanity=124053058325037

maybe this one works?

Checking this out now.

 

[odarellmc]

If you guys are interested in something like this, let me know, last time I did a livestream it ended up being me, @rsmith601 , Ray, and one guy from the fbgroup, lot of work for a low turnout. Maybe if I do a video rather than a livestream, might be better? Would at least be shorter than a 75minute video.

Man I wish I was part of that live stream, I'm so desperate to find out if the soleman will do what I need for it to do, if not move on to something else. I would so be interested to see if you can solve my problem I'm sure others would be interested, but it may be better just to record that one. Would even pay for your time

 

[El Spearo]

Quick question, can I control the C4 via MIDI directly from my Quad Cortex or do I need to use the Neuro Hub? If the QC can't, how about the MC6 Pro? Thanks gents

 

[Quatschmacher]

Quick question, can I control the C4 via MIDI directly from my Quad Cortex or do I need to use the Neuro Hub? If the QC can't, how about the MC6 Pro? Thanks gents

MC6 Pro has USB host so can control C4 directly.

 

[El Spearo]

MC6 Pro has USB host so can control C4 directly.

That's what I thought. I only got the MC6 Pro today, but did notice the USB host port. So just a micro usb to usb c cable?

 

[odarellmc]

That's what I thought. I only got the MC6 Pro today, but did notice the USB host port. So just a micro usb to usb c cable?

??? Micro USB>C? What are you connecting again? What ports are we talking about?

 

[Derek Williams]

That's what I thought. I only got the MC6 Pro today, but did notice the USB host port. So just a micro usb to usb c cable?

Should be a mini USB to USB C

 

[DwarfyStyl]

I finally joined the club, with an Aftershock. What a fantastic pedal, and ultimately, a space-saver, as it's knocked two pedals off my board.

My only concern is it has "gateway drug" written all over it. I'm already looking at the C4 and the Spectrum.

A question for those familiar with both: does the C4 have "enough" filter features/controls that I could maybe not have to buy a Spectrum, he asked hopefully?

Is it possible to come close to something like the patch this guy makes on the Spectrum, on the C4?

 

[davedamage]

The C4 can use all Spectrum patches, not vise versa, as I understand it. I've only ever used the C4, though.

 

[Quatschmacher]

I finally joined the club, with an Aftershock. What a fantastic pedal, and ultimately, a space-saver, as it's knocked two pedals off my board.

My only concern is it has "gateway drug" written all over it. I'm already looking at the C4 and the Spectrum.

A question for those familiar with both: does the C4 have "enough" filter features/controls that I could maybe not have to buy a Spectrum, he asked hopefully?

Is it possible to come close to something like the patch this guy makes on the Spectrum, on the C4?

All Spectrum patches can be loaded into the C4. The only caveat is that Spectrum has a few (combination) control knob assignments that aren’t available on C4. Also Spectrum’s depth knob is hard mapped to master depth whereas C4’s is mapped to processor 1 depth.

Spectrum has more on-device knob control (when no custom assignments are made).

 

[DwarfyStyl]

The C4 can use all Spectrum patches, not vise versa, as I understand it. I've only ever used the C4, though.

Wow! That is freaking awesome.

Thanks!

All Spectrum patches can be loaded into the C4. The only caveat is that Spectrum has a few (combination) control knob assignments that aren’t available on C4. Also Spectrum’s depth knob is hard mapped to master depth whereas C4’s is mapped to processor 1 depth.

Thank you so much for breaking down the exact differences.

They sound like small concessions to make to save 200 clams.

Thanks again.

 

[Quatschmacher]

Thank you so much for breaking down the exact differences.

They sound like small concessions to make to save 200 clams.

Thanks again.

No problem.

I am fortunate enough to have both and I do like having the extra hands-on control for the Spectrum for when I want to easily tweak on the fly without recourse to external gear or the editor, but yes, C4 will cover all the sounds of Spectrum and a whole bunch more stuff. I’d even thought about removing my Lunar Phaser as I tend to mostly use 4-and 6-stage phasers, which the C4 and Spectrum cover. However, I’ve made some nice 8-stage sounds and the more comprehensive EQ in Lunar does help for replicating other hardware phasers. Also, I fancy trying out the stereo phasing options.

 

[Luke the Fluke]

Man I wish I was part of that live stream, I'm so desperate to find out if the soleman will do what I need for it to do, if not move on to something else. I would so be interested to see if you can solve my problem I'm sure others would be interested, but it may be better just to record that one. Would even pay for your time

could you just ask on talkbass?

 

[DwarfyStyl]

No problem.

I am fortunate enough to have both and I do like having the extra hands-on control for the Spectrum for when I want to easily tweak on the fly without recourse to external gear or the editor, but yes, C4 will cover all the sounds of Spectrum and a whole bunch more stuff. I’d even thought about removing my Lunar Phaser as I tend to mostly use 4-and 6-stage phasers, which the C4 and Spectrum cover. However, I’ve made some nice 8-stage sounds and the more comprehensive EQ in Lunar does help for replicating other hardware phasers. Also, I fancy trying out the stereo phasing options.

The Lunar was the other one that caught my eye. You're saving me all kinds of cash. Thanks!

I'm in a perfect spot for the C4, as I only rock out at home, at the computer, so tweaking things on the pedal isn't important to me.

The only downside is that simplicity is out the window now. My set-up used to be: compressore > DCX Bass > Bassrig '64/Bass Butler, into the computer, with minimal tweaking tweaking of knobs, and mostly only on the DCX Bass.

Now, I can't stop cycling through the various OD/distortion/fuzz models in the Aftershock, and seeing which ones pair up better with the Bassrig, and which sound better through the Bass Butler.

Adding the C4 to the mix is going to torpedo any semblance of simplicity going forward.

 

[Quatschmacher]

The Lunar was the other one that caught my eye. You're saving me all kinds of cash. Thanks!

I'm in a perfect spot for the C4, as I only rock out at home, at the computer, so tweaking things on the pedal isn't important to me.

The only downside is that simplicity is out the window now. My set-up used to be: compressore > DCX Bass > Bassrig '64/Bass Butler, into the computer, with minimal tweaking tweaking of knobs, and mostly only on the DCX Bass.

Now, I can't stop cycling through the various OD/distortion/fuzz models in the Aftershock, and seeing which ones pair up better with the Bassrig, and which sound better through the Bass Butler.

Adding the C4 to the mix is going to torpedo any semblance of simplicity going forward.

Lunar does chorus and flanger too, which C4 can’t do so if those are sounds you want, it’s worth bearing in mind.

I get where you are coming from with the simplicity thing. I tend to do more music making when I’m using gear with a restricted feature set. When things are completely open-ended I spend all the time programming (which I do like doing too).

The Aftershock and Lunar can be used in a simple fashion by just loading 3 base presets on and using the knobs to tweak, but it’s also possible to go right down the rabbit hole.

 

[odarellmc]

could you just ask on talkbass?

Been asking for years this is the first time any real discussion is being done for the soleman that I can see. It's just disappointing that the brain for the SA pedals is not a priority for the company.

 

[Quatschmacher]

Been asking for years this is the first time any real discussion is being done for the soleman that I can see. It's just disappointing that the brain for the SA pedals is not a priority for the company.

It’s not the only brain and there are other companies who only make brains and so are further developed.

 

[odarellmc]

It’s not the only brain and there are other companies who only make brains and so are further developed.

Yeah I'm talking about the company that made the pedal not other companies. With that being said, SA should be embarrassed that another company are needed to really use their own pedals... and they continue to sell the thing, but of course many here are fine with that, me, not so much.

 

[Quatschmacher]

Yeah I'm talking about the company that made the pedal not other companies. With being said SA should be embarrassed that another company are needed to really use their own pedals... and they continue to sell the thing, but of course many here are fine with that, me, not so much.

If I recall correctly, Soleman may have existed before the One Series pedals came out.

Soleman still works for doing lots of stuff related to SA pedals, but just with a different workflow and smaller feature set than some of the other controllers such as those from Morningstar.

Bear in mind, SA is a small company with 14 or so pedals now, so that’s a lot to keep on top of. Morningstar is also small but they only make a small number of products, most of which are interrelated and share the same base concepts and coding. That does allow them to spend more time on improvements.

I don’t think it’s that bad; most other pedal companies don’t make controllers to support their own pedals. MIDI control and controllers have been around for a lot longer than SA has.

 

[rsmith601]

Yeah I'm talking about the company that made the pedal not other companies. With being said SA should be embarrassed that another company are needed to really use their own pedals.

I met with the senior leaders of the company today to discuss your feedback and situation at length. The notion that we don't care is not credible. The notion that we lack technical expertise is also not credible.

Had I been more available to you last week, I would have seen that you are looking at Soleman NOT as a general purpose MIDI controller (which is what it is intended to be), but as a dedicated Hub/Source Audio pedal controller (which is not what it is). The workflow you have in mind is not how 95% of our customers think when it comes to using our pedals with MIDI.

You have raised an interesting point. Perhaps we should have focused 100% on making Soleman a dedicated Hub/Source Audio pedal controller and treated the MIDI controller aspects as secondary. I think at the time we considered it important for Soleman to compete with the best MIDI controllers and when it came out, it was considered one of the best. We are also generally catering to a customer group who are already very familiar with MIDI, so we were influenced by that kind of workflow and not what you are suggesting.

Since Soleman came out there are other MIDI controller companies that have been very narrowly focused on that segment (Disaster Area and Morning Star are 2 examples). They now have many offerings and engage closely with folks here too. We also work with them to help ensure their products work well with our stuff. MIDI is an industry standard. Perhaps we should not partner with them to make their products better, but that does not seem right. We have not updated Soleman and done Soleman II. It is valid to say that Soleman II would be nice to have and probably address some of your requests.

With all of this said, the Hub is an incredibly powerful and simple means to create single or multi-pedal scenes. There is nothing like it in our industry, except for all-in-one things like Helix. While we have some customers who use Soleman with the Hub, we have many more who would rather use their own favorite MIDI controller brand.

We are a small company working very hard to create unique and useful tools. We engage very closely with our customers here and on the Gear Page. I have hired the best and brightest that I can find. I have invested money in new products and risky things like the Hub and Neuro rather than taking profits for myself. I make it clear to the team that customer service is job #1. I am always accessible to people here and elsewhere. I am not sure what else to do, but my mind is always open to new thinking.