We (Source Audio) released Neuro 3 too early. We're sorry!

[rsmith601]

As a lot of you probably know, we recently released NEURO 3, the newly rebuilt version of our effects editing software. Unfortunately, NEURO 3 got off to a very shaky start. We are acutely aware that our under-performing software really frustrated a lot of new and longtime Source Audio pedal owners. The truth is, we are guilty of rushing out Neuro 3 well before it had been adequately tested, and we apologize to anyone who had a bad experience. We have always had a great relationship with the TalkBass community, so we feel it’s imperative that we let all of you know that we are working tirelessly to right this situation.

As a first step, we are happy to announce that on August 26 we released a new update for NEURO 3 (versions 3.0.20 desktop & 3.5.5 mobile). It basically fixes all the major issues that people were having with the initial release. You can download the updated version of Neuro on our website -Neuro 3: Public Beta. If anybody has any questions or concerns, feel free to ask us about it here. Niko, Dave, Jeff, and I will be monitoring this post and give you an answer as soon as possible. You can also email us at [email protected].

Again, we are sorry if you downloaded the initial version of NEURO 3 and it didn’t work well for you. There are more updates coming, each with new improvements. Moving forward we promise to make ourselves exceedingly available to anybody who has questions or needs some assistance.

 

[tonym]

@rsmith601 - As one of those very frustrated long-time SA users I appreciate the apology and transparency. Honestly, this was terrible - just a mess. I spend hours just trying to get my setup back to where it used to be. If I didn't have a long term history with the the quality of the SA products I would have dumped SA and never come back. But I will say that the basic functionality seems to work very well with the release of the 3.0.20 desktop version, and the new features are really useful. It was also very helpful to finally publish a list of which bugs had been fixed so we could track that as users without having resort to loading the software. A list of current open issues still being worked on would be very useful as well. Still a way to go I think, but much better and headed in the right direction.

BTW, the Artifakt just kills - worth buying for the Tape mode alone. And the new pedal format combines the best of the old Soundblox 2 functionality (lots of in depth features available right from the pedal!) with the compact design of the One series. I hope you use this format for all of your future pedals (and offer updated versions of old ones with this kind of control).

 

[OneNut]

Would you prefer items noted here, in the Source Audio Neuro App Improvement thread, or sent to contact email?

I've only got the Ultrawave, but there is numerous labeling issues outstanding (that I reported in the improvement thread), As well, the bigger issue is that you cannot use the mobile apps to burn a UW Bass presets to the Ultrawave (also previously reported)

 

[rsmith601]

@rsmith601 - As one of those very frustrated long-time SA users I appreciate the apology and transparency. Honestly, this was terrible - just a mess. I spend hours just trying to get my setup back to where it used to be. If I didn't have a long term history with the the quality of the SA products I would have dumped SA and never come back. But I will say that the basic functionality seems to work very well with the release of the 3.0.20 desktop version, and the new features are really useful. It was also very helpful to finally publish a list of which bugs had been fixed so we could track that as users without having resort to loading the software. A list of current open issues still being worked on would be very useful as well. Still a way to go I think, but much better and headed in the right direction.

BTW, the Artifakt just kills - worth buying for the Tape mode alone. And the new pedal format combines the best of the old Soundblox 2 functionality (lots of in depth features available right from the pedal!) with the compact design of the One series. I hope you use this format for all of your future pedals (and offer updated versions of old ones with this kind of control).

Hi Tony,
You have been a long-time SA fan, and it pains me to think we burned so much of our goodwill with you by jumping the gun on N3.

I suppose the good news is the effort required to get mobile and desktop into the same UI across all pedals will never need to happen again. This was one reason why the project exploded for us in terms of scope and complexity.

Yes, we will be posting items that are being worked on. @LuckyJackson

 

[NPappas]

Would you prefer items noted here, in the Source Audio Neuro App Improvement thread, or sent to contact email?

I've only got the Ultrawave, but there is numerous labeling issues outstanding (that I reported in the improvement thread), As well, the bigger issue is that you cannot use the mobile apps to burn a UW Bass presets to the Ultrawave (also previously reported)

You may use any of those channels - we are monitoring all of them. I'll report your findings you've just mentioned directly to our development team. Thanks!!

 

[LuckyJackson]

Would you prefer items noted here, in the Source Audio Neuro App Improvement thread, or sent to contact email?

I've only got the Ultrawave, but there is numerous labeling issues outstanding (that I reported in the improvement thread), As well, the bigger issue is that you cannot use the mobile apps to burn a UW Bass presets to the Ultrawave (also previously reported)

Hey all, this is Jeff from Source Audio. Our engineers tried to prioritize the major issues and get them take care of in this update - so there are some lesser issues that will wait to be addressed in the next update. So just because certain problems didn't get fixed this time around, doesn't mean they weren't heard. I'm going to double check the UW Bass issue you're talking about. That certainly qualifies as a more urgent issue. I'll let them know about it.

Please do feel free to continue reporting issues in the Issue Tracking Form . This link will be active for quite a while. And again, thanks for working with us on this.

 

[aguacateojos]

Thanks for the transparency - keep rocking!

 

[Geddy Claypool]

SA team, you guys are (and always have been) the best, both in terms of products but especially in the way you interact with customers. We appreciate the transparency, but stuff happens, don't beat yourselves up too much about it. Thanks for all you do.

I'll give the new Neuro mobile app a try (first time in a while, I've traditionally been a desktop user) and will be sure to share any findings/thoughts.

 

[OneNut]

Hey all, this is Jeff from Source Audio. Our engineers tried to prioritize the major issues and get them take care of in this update - so there are some lesser issues that will wait to be addressed in the next update. So just because certain problems didn't get fixed this time around, doesn't mean they weren't heard. I'm going to double check the UW Bass issue you're talking about. That certainly qualifies as a more urgent issue. I'll let them know about it.

Please do feel free to continue reporting issues in the Issue Tracking Form . This link will be active for quite a while. And again, thanks for working with us on this.

I did just reported those couple of known issues that I've seen via that form.

I do realize that when there is such a large set of issues that some items will have to be addressed first and then less critical ones will have to wait. That is just part of having only so many development resources available.

Here is one thing that I would add to the software - a progress bar that reflects reading/writing to the pedal. I don't know if it's just my pedal (Ultrawave Beta) plus my phone (S24+), but my god does it take a long time to read the preset from the pedal. Like 20-30secs. Long enough that you figure stuff is updated and then suddenly the screen updates to what was on the pedal.

As well, I don't know if it's due to that slowness, but I keep hosing the connection between the app and the pedal (to the point I have to delete the pedal from the app and re-add it). And that borking of the connection somehow ends up being reflected in the cloud data, since my iPad will then also not connect to the pedal until it is re-added. And the serious problem with that is if the connection gets messed up, the app may still say the pedal is connected when there is no data communication.

I bought my pedal as Neuro 3 came out, so it's the only version I've used. The other issues I can deal with, but the communication one may well be a deal breaker - if I can't trust that the pedal is communicating, how can I trust anything else going on?

 

[logdrum]

I do have a high tolerance for alpha or beta software so the beta phase never bodied me. I always made it work but everyone is not me.

I do think the firmware on the new Artifakt is solid as I never had an issue except for the missing factory presets when the factory reset wiped them out. What it forced me was to create sounds without Neuro 3 (even though I was able to make it work and I had the legacy Neuro). I got busy also and did not keep up with the releases until today

This transparency is awesome though. It could be worse.

May I suggest an alternative hardware based firmware rollback i.e, you can rollback with no PC/Phone through power up sequences or a file copy method like Pigtronix or Zoom (where the eMMC has a partition appears as a USB storage and you dropped a bin file). In this way, we can still do firmware updates and possibly an alternate way of storing and moving patches even if the software has issues which can be brought about by MacOS and Windows restrictions and driver signing BS.

Thanks Roger.

 

[Neon Blues]

The irony of this post is they will probably get more users from a public apology and connection to the users than losing for a product released too soon.

 

[stubbsonic]

I've only used the iOS version, and haven't yet discovered the improvements over the old version.

I'm sure the SA folks will continue to test drive on as many devices as they can, and catch & fix all the many value/display glitches and usability problems with this new version.

I prefer virtual sliders to knobs, and I miss the 1:1 parameter values of 0-255. The former is available by long-pressing, and then dismissing a special pop-up window (these few extra steps make it feel more tedious than the old version). The latter MIGHT be revived down the road.

Ideally, the older Neuro would continue to get maintenance fixes; and both versions of the app (particularly iOS) would be version-separated, so old-version-#? and new-version-#? would co-exist in the app store. With Android, I can side-load the old apk, but a legit Play-Store option would be nice for some.

I know SA has already sunk a fortune in this work, so hopefully we'll all feel hunky dorey about the new version soon.

Can someone clarify the version numbers?

 

[JimmyM]

The irony of this post is they will probably get more users from a public apology and connection to the users than losing for a product released too soon.

I’d say that is the idea. The Source gang has always dealt straight up and honest and this will pass.

 

[Luke the Fluke]

I have had a source audio C4 for two years and never really gelled with it - I couldn’t get a workflow for building a patch, saving it and then recalling what it was. Pedal sounded great though for filters and synth sounds.
I picked up an Eventide H9 and though it didn’t sound as nice, and though the whole approach is way way way more restrictive than SA the app was just nicer to use. The C4 was on the chopping block!

I think Robert gave me access to one of the early betas, and as someone who struggled with the previous software it was so much clearer what I was doing, and to work out how I was conceptionally controlling patches and storing them - also the UX matched across mobile and desktop. Sure there were bugs, some annoying but overall it was a step up.


Looking at where it is now it feels like a load of bugs have gone, and there’s now a good platform for UX improvements - looking at the Artifakt on N3 mobile it’s clear the UX was designed around neuro 3 and the side to side tabs work really well… I’m sure with time things can be tweaked to bring further improvements - but it’s all minor UX and UI stuff (like c4 pitch track field - on desktop “pitch track off” needs to be renamed to “off” or “no pitch track” or something as it truncates on desktop) or experiments seeing if splitting distortion envelope into separate tabs is simpler to navigate on mobile, or if having filter 1 and 2 on its own tab works better… or improving the icons on the effect level box (and making clickable?)
It’s all good stuff.
And looking at the artifakt, I want one!!

 

[rsmith601]

Can someone clarify the version numbers?

This page tells you all you need to know, and if it does not.....let us know!

Neuro

www.sourceaudio.net

 

[paskisti]

This page tells you all you need to know, and if it does not.....let us know!

Neuro

www.sourceaudio.net

Oh, that was public beta I got my first SA pedal (UW bass) last week and installed without noticing that. No worries, Windows version works very well, and I reported some USB connection issues with Android app already via your contact form.

The way of telling honestly about issues is a good move. Every company has problems with products or services, but most important is how to fix them for customers instead of trying to hide the issue. Keep up the good work and continue innovations and unique approach no other pedal manufactures do.

 

[LuckyJackson]

I did just reported those couple of known issues that I've seen via that form.

I do realize that when there is such a large set of issues that some items will have to be addressed first and then less critical ones will have to wait. That is just part of having only so many development resources available.

Here is one thing that I would add to the software - a progress bar that reflects reading/writing to the pedal. I don't know if it's just my pedal (Ultrawave Beta) plus my phone (S24+), but my god does it take a long time to read the preset from the pedal. Like 20-30secs. Long enough that you figure stuff is updated and then suddenly the screen updates to what was on the pedal.

As well, I don't know if it's due to that slowness, but I keep hosing the connection between the app and the pedal (to the point I have to delete the pedal from the app and re-add it). And that borking of the connection somehow ends up being reflected in the cloud data, since my iPad will then also not connect to the pedal until it is re-added. And the serious problem with that is if the connection gets messed up, the app may still say the pedal is connected when there is no data communication.

I bought my pedal as Neuro 3 came out, so it's the only version I've used. The other issues I can deal with, but the communication one may well be a deal breaker - if I can't trust that the pedal is communicating, how can I trust anything else going on?

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still working on this. I ran into some odd behavior last night when I was trying to connect to an Ultrawave. I should have some more information for you later today.

 

[stubbsonic]

This page tells you all you need to know, and if it does not.....let us know!

I'm confused by the version numbers of the previous version (pre v3). On the desktop version it is version zero (0.8.71 or 0.8.86a). And as far as I can tell, the version numbers for the mobile app have already been called version 3 for some years.

It's good that the versioning between mobile and desktop are now being unified, but perhaps you can understand my confusion.

 

[NPappas]

I'm confused by the version numbers of the previous version (pre v3). On the desktop version it is version zero (0.8.71 or 0.8.86a). And as far as I can tell, the version numbers for the mobile app have already been called version 3 for some years.

It's good that the versioning between mobile and desktop are now being unified, but perhaps you can understand my confusion.

They (Neuro mobile & Neuro desktop) were originally two separate entities built by two different developers and on two different platforms. A sticking point of N3 for all of us was that there had to be much more parity and sameness throughout all platforms (as a Minecraft enjoyer who prefers Java over Bedrock but constantly infuriated by Bedrock's platform-specific advantageous features, I can sympathize that version parity is an evergreen issue across many domains!) and for the most part we have achieved that, Neuro 3 is the same development and backend across all 4 supported platforms.

 

[stubbsonic]

Seems like calling it "version 4" would have avoided the issue of "old 3 vs new 3".