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

Ok - I suppose I'll leave these up for educational purposes, but I've made some progress.

If you switch the polarity of the pedal AND reverse your min/max, putting 100 (or desired max) in the min field and 0 (or desired min) in the min field - you're in business.

I don't love the sensitivity, but it is working as it's supposed to now, besides getting a couple of expression pedal presets going, I learned a couple of things.

It's all [Invalid or Expired Link Removed], but I was expecting it to work a little differently, and I guess comprehension isn't always my strong suit. I did not need the RCA cable trick, as the 1/8 to TRS was suitable, and the Dunlops have the ability to switch polarity.

Are you plugging the cable from your expression pedal directly into the Spectrum? If so, there are two things to be aware of:

In the desktop editor, you need to set the “control port” input device to “expression” or whatever the option is called. It is I think set to “switch” by default.

The control port has a TRRS connector (not TRS) which may account for the polarity flip (and possibly the on/off behaviour) as one the connectors may be attached to the wrong pin.

That aside, I’m presuming you have done the following:

You are using the AUX output jack on the Dunlop pedal, aren’t you?

You’ve switched the internal switch to “expression”?

Have you checked that the internal trimpot is fully counterclockwise?
 
Are you plugging the cable from your expression pedal directly into the Spectrum? If so, there are two things to be aware of:

In the desktop editor, you need to set the “control port” input device to “expression” or whatever the option is called. It is I think set to “switch” by default.

The control port has a TRRS connector (not TRS) which may account for the polarity flip (and possibly the on/off behaviour) as one the connectors may be attached to the wrong pin.

That aside, I’m presuming you have done the following:

You are using the AUX output jack on the Dunlop pedal, aren’t you?

You’ve switched the internal switch to “expression”?

Have you checked that the internal trimpot is fully counterclockwise?

Thanks for the checklist!

  • I'll review the control port setting in the editor. What I saw made sense, but I don't recall specifically stating expression vs switch. By my ears, the expression starts at about 40% of the pedal movement and is effective upwards from there.
  • The adaptor from SA from 1/8" to 1/4" appears to be to TRS. I have that connected via a Temple Audio thru port, to a longer TRS that goes to the pedal.
  • For Dunlop X large, there's an expression port, for the mini, it's Aux - however, yes.
  • You’ve switched the internal switch to “expression”? - Good question - I'm assuming you mean on the expression pedal, which I didn't look at. (XL) Doesn't have one, but (Mini) does. It should default to Exp, but I'm going to go back and double-check.
  • Trimpot - I double checked and they were both counterclockwise as manual indicates the should be by default. Many sources seem to point that going from Tip to Ring should also increase range of sweep, in addition to fixing polarity.
Appreciate the help, and I suppose I can always sell these two for an SA dual....
 
Thanks for the checklist!

  • I'll review the control port setting in the editor. What I saw made sense, but I don't recall specifically stating expression vs switch. By my ears, the expression starts at about 40% of the pedal movement and is effective upwards from there.
  • The adaptor from SA from 1/8" to 1/4" appears to be to TRS. I have that connected via a Temple Audio thru port, to a longer TRS that goes to the pedal.
  • For Dunlop X large, there's an expression port, for the mini, it's Aux - however, yes.
  • You’ve switched the internal switch to “expression”? - Good question - I'm assuming you mean on the expression pedal, which I didn't look at. (XL) Doesn't have one, but (Mini) does. It should default to Exp, but I'm going to go back and double-check.
  • Trimpot - I double checked and they were both counterclockwise as manual indicates the should be by default. Many sources seem to point that going from Tip to Ring should also increase range of sweep, in addition to fixing polarity.
Appreciate the help, and I suppose I can always sell these two for an SA dual....
By “adaptor” I presume you mean the cable that is in the C4 box. That is for connecting to the audio/headphone output of your mobile device (3.5mm TRS) to Input 2 of the C4 (6.35mm TRS) so that you can control the pedal from the SA mobile app. When C4 launched, this was the only way to use the mobile app (one-way connection). In a much later update they added two-way control over USB which was standard from the EQ2 onwards.

In other words, that cable is not to be used in the control port!
 
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By “adaptor” I presume you mean the cable that is in the C4 box. That is for connecting to the audio/headphone output of your mobile device (3.5mm TRS) to Input 2 of the C4 (6.35mm TRS) so that you can control the pedal from the SA mobile app. When C4 launched, this was the only way to use the mobile app (one-way connection). In a much later update they added two-way control over USB which was standard from the EQ2 onwards.

In other words, that cable is not to be used in the control port!

Well that would complicate things, and also seems to be a difficult cable to find.

In the SA manual/support doc, it looks like TRS is suitable, with the footnote that If you can flip tip/ring on the pedal - you shouldn’t need the RCA trick.

it is an argument for the hub, I suppose, but I didn’t really think I needed it.

IMG_2462.png
 
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I went fully stereo about 3 years back and then realised that I didn't need to go full stereo across my whole board. Basses aren't stereo, if they have 2 outputs...it's just a seperate channel for each pickup.

For me, I'm single input from my Hog 2, C4, Atlas, Ultrawave and Spectrum. Then my Lunar output is stereo into my EQ2, H90, Nemesis and finally out from my Ventris output ports. I tend to find modulation, delays and verbs really work best in stereo. Dirt, octaves, filters, synths...seem to work best for me in mono / single input.

That said, I've had a lot of fun looping out 2 back into Input 2 on my C4. It's great feeding an octaver back into a filter on the other channel and then passing them to output 1. It's amazing what this tiny pedal can do.
Quatschmacher uploaded a number of great C4 and Spectrum patches with this feature. They are very cool.

These days, I prefer a dedicated Filter pedal so I can choose specific dirt and compression from my Ultrawave and Atlas. I frees up my C4 to synths and octave patches and lets my Spectrum just deal with filters and low pass filters....which it's rather good at. Sure, I can do 95% of this with just my C4 and looping patch cable, however I need the flexibility of control during a live context. A lot of the Source Audio pedals can be very deep and cover a lot of ground. However, I have the board space and I like more control than a single pedal often provides me.

I still think in most genres, Source Audio is best of breed. Especially if you like pedals single type pedals that do that thing exceptionally well. Vertigo, Ultrawave, Lunar, Atlas, Spectrum, C4, EQ2, Nemesis, Ventris....all very much best of breed for their genre.
In a world of Multi-FX pedals, Source Audio chooses a different path. It's a bit like choosing the best hi fi components, but reaching for the top row each time....yeah...I'm a self confessed Source Audio fan boy. They started to win me over with their gear years ago with the AfterShock. Since then, they have been building and building such great and novel gear.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this! So much to learn in the vast SA-verse. A steep learning curve for me, only compounded by this dual-mono setup I’m exploring. Thanks!
[An Atlas arrived yesterday ;-)]
 
@fourstringdrums Can you post this as a shared preset? I'd be happy to try it out and if I'm getting the same result.

Here you go. This is the preset. I don't get it. Both filters and envelopes are the same and I have filter 1 panned to processor 1 and filter 2 to processor 2. But if you go and turn filter 1 off just so you can listen to filter 2 by itself, filter 2 is very weak and not responsive at all. It makes no sense. Turning filter 2 off while filter 1 is on doesn't seem to make much of a difference either.
Screenshot_20240207_235213.jpg
 
Here you go. This is the preset. I don't get it. Both filters and envelopes are the same and I have filter 1 panned to processor 1 and filter 2 to processor 2. But if you go and turn filter 1 off just so you can listen to filter 2 by itself, filter 2 is very weak and not responsive at all. It makes no sense. Turning filter 2 off while filter 1 is on doesn't seem to make much of a difference either. View attachment 5344536

Well, I'm hearing what you are - they sound very different. It's sounds like the gain is stronger on 1 but I can't figure out why. And like you said this happens if you turn between 1 and 2 by using the pan, the mix or turning the voices on and off. I'd expect them to be the same based on your setting. I don't get it and figure I must be missing something obvious. @Gibs210 would you mind taking a look. See post #
 
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Well, I'm hearing what you are - they sound very different. It's sounds like the gain is stronger on 1 but I can't figure out why. And like you said this happens if you turn between 1 and 2 by using the pan, the mix or turning the voices on and off. I'd expect them to be the same based on your setting. I don't get it and figure I must be missing something obvious. @Gibs210 would you mind taking a look. See post #

The only thing I can figure is that processor 2 is purposefully voiced a little different?
 
The only thing I can figure is that processor 2 is purposefully voiced a little different?
This from Jesse:
There was an old DSP bug that Bob eventually fixed that limited the range of filter 2 vs. filter 1.

If you start from an “empty” preset, the fix will be on to start. However, if you’re starting from an older preset, it might be off. One other way to fix it is to export the .pre file and change it manually in the xml file. And then import the file.

This is the field in the .pre file. Set it to 1.

EDIT: confirmed that the preset has the field set to 0. This preset was created from another old preset. It is not new.
 
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This from Jesse:
There was an old DSP bug that Bob eventually fixed that limited the range of filter 2 vs. filter 1.

If you start from an “empty” preset, the fix will be on to start. However, if you’re starting from an older preset, it might be off. One other way to fix it is to export the .pre file and change it manually in the xml file. And then import the file.

This is the field in the .pre file. Set it to 1.

EDIT: confirmed that the preset has the field set to 0. This preset was created from another old preset. It is not new.

I've tried to make a new one in the android app. But maybe I have to start it in the desktop app? The mobile app is current.
 
This from Jesse:
There was an old DSP bug that Bob eventually fixed that limited the range of filter 2 vs. filter 1.

If you start from an “empty” preset, the fix will be on to start. However, if you’re starting from an older preset, it might be off. One other way to fix it is to export the .pre file and change it manually in the xml file. And then import the file.

This is the field in the .pre file. Set it to 1.

EDIT: confirmed that the preset has the field set to 0. This preset was created from another old preset. It is not new.

Oh can you repost the picture? It didn't come up.
 
Is anyone having issues with Neuro Desktop auto-crashing upon launching?

I use the software on a MacBook. I ensured that the MacBook is using the latest OS update. I uninstalled and reinstalled Neuro Desktop. It will launch and then right when the editor screen pops up it crashes. I snapped a quick shot of the popup before it closed. Something about Widget debugging?

IMG_5278.jpg Snapshot.PNG

 
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