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

[OneNut]

Hey there, I wrote the user guide and the blog post that Luke replied to you with, as well as the paper about Distortion Types (linked below) talking about the distortion types. I'm not out to defend the work here, I just want to learn what else you need in terms of documentation for this pedal.

User Guide: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Distortion Type Lexicon: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Editor Deep Dive: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

So I've read over the manual, and I've looked over the editor deep dive and there is still questions.

Let me be clear - I'm new to bass/pedals. So some things like lfo/tremolo/envelope are foreign to me. But if I put those aside, I still have items that are unclear. I will be upfront that I don't know if these are documentation required problems or app problems.

For example, open Neuro 3, select Ultrawave and a new preset. Without morphing, there is three places to set Drive - Master Controls, in the blue box, and Multiband Drive. Are those additive, percentages of each other, override each other? Let's simplify - 1 band - now what happens if I set master gain to 100% and the "blue box gain" to 0% and band 1 gain to 100%? Do I have drive or not? Now flip those number (0 for 100 and vice versa), same question.

Sure I could play with the pedal with my phone attached and figure all that out, but then you get all the communication problems I've had between my phone and the pedal. The app will randomly lose the connection to pedal (even though it says connected). It just makes it NotFunTM​

A written tutorial about how to build a preset would be awesome. I think I saw one for the C4 (or maybe the Spectrum). I can get the flowchart, I can get the description of each section, but sometimes having a simple example of going from nothing to done sticks a lot better.

Here is something that is missing as well - the workflow it takes to take settings from the pedal to your library once you've tweaked them while playing. I asked about this in one of the other threads, and someone said hold the footswitch down until the light flashes. I'd assume from there it's connect the pedal via USB, select the pedal, click the preset three bars, click the slot, hope everything loads from the pedal (a huge risk at the moment), and then save it to your library. But a clear set of supplied instructions would help.

How about a section on loading of Ultrawave Bass patches on a Ultrawave (as I picked up a Beta for a good price). For the most part this is clear, but what about the knob settings? Default = what? Default for the pedal or default for the patch? What do I do to make it behave like a UW Bass - should I just set the sustain knob to blend? Hey wait, there is only wet/dry mix - and I have to choose a channel. Does the original do that or does the blend affect both channels? And the app calls them Left/Right so I have to guess at which is channel 1/2.

This one is truly a bug - start a new preset from scratch and you won't get sound. Take a look at this default setting:

That's isn't getting you any sound out of your preset. Makes it hard to get comfortable with the platform when the defaults don't work. I did report this as a mislabel, but now I realize that the settings are just plain wrong after looking at other presets.

This is a truly brilliant platform - the power and options are phenomenal. It needs QA however - I've experienced communication issues, incorrect defaults and labelling issues. There is also the things that should be added, but aren't problems (like filtering a creators pedals). I do get that Neuro 3 needed to go public so that the Artifakt could ship. But I bought my bass earlier this year to have fun after a lot of health issues. I don't need to spend time debugging an app as I work IT and spend my day job doing that. I want something that JustWorksTM​. I don't doubt that SA will get there - it's just a question of do I want to let pedal sit on my shelf until that happens.

 

[Luke the Fluke]

@OneNut - I think there’s the actual bugs and the UX work that needs to be done on each pedal, I use a C4 and once you get used to scrolling side to side for different functions the fact the distortion and Filter share a screen and I need to scroll is annoying! (And LFO hidden under envelope)

In terms of the different gains - this is the nub of one of the most amazing and sometimes annoying things about source audio. …how I would explain it in my head …
think of a line6 hx stomp where you have a signal chain and can put different effect models in - and each block might have gain and volume that control that effect.
SA pedals I’ve used tend to use a similar modular approach - where for example you have an overall input gain to the effect, a gain on the comp, a gain on the drive effect, and a gain on whatever else the ultra wave can do as it’s a bunch of modular blocks stuck together that need or want their own gain.
This then adds complexity - but also possibility. For instance you sort out the amazing OneNut drive sound on your passive P bass save it - you can then copy that sound for your hot active bass - and possibly only have to tweak the input gain to compensate.
If you dive in it goes very deep, and compared to Nuero3, bugs and UX stuff aside it’s more useable than the previous Neuro IMO

Compare this to the UX on an Eventide H9 where you are restricted to one set thing at a time, with a set number of things you can tweak per algorithm- this does work out the box, but removes the modular approach and ability to try as much and as varied.

I also haven’t worked out the best workflow of building something and saving it in a logical way - but Neuro3 is better on phone for that than previous.

 

[rsmith601]

So I've read over the manual, and I've looked over the editor deep dive and there is still questions.

Let me be clear - I'm new to bass/pedals. So some things like lfo/tremolo/envelope are foreign to me. But if I put those aside, I still have items that are unclear. I will be upfront that I don't know if these are documentation required problems or app problems.

For example, open Neuro 3, select Ultrawave and a new preset. Without morphing, there is three places to set Drive - Master Controls, in the blue box, and Multiband Drive. Are those additive, percentages of each other, override each other? Let's simplify - 1 band - now what happens if I set master gain to 100% and the "blue box gain" to 0% and band 1 gain to 100%? Do I have drive or not? Now flip those number (0 for 100 and vice versa), same question.

Sure I could play with the pedal with my phone attached and figure all that out, but then you get all the communication problems I've had between my phone and the pedal. The app will randomly lose the connection to pedal (even though it says connected). It just makes it NotFunTM​

A written tutorial about how to build a preset would be awesome. I think I saw one for the C4 (or maybe the Spectrum). I can get the flowchart, I can get the description of each section, but sometimes having a simple example of going from nothing to done sticks a lot better.

Here is something that is missing as well - the workflow it takes to take settings from the pedal to your library once you've tweaked them while playing. I asked about this in one of the other threads, and someone said hold the footswitch down until the light flashes. I'd assume from there it's connect the pedal via USB, select the pedal, click the preset three bars, click the slot, hope everything loads from the pedal (a huge risk at the moment), and then save it to your library. But a clear set of supplied instructions would help.

How about a section on loading of Ultrawave Bass patches on a Ultrawave (as I picked up a Beta for a good price). For the most part this is clear, but what about the knob settings? Default = what? Default for the pedal or default for the patch? What do I do to make it behave like a UW Bass - should I just set the sustain knob to blend? Hey wait, there is only wet/dry mix - and I have to choose a channel. Does the original do that or does the blend affect both channels? And the app calls them Left/Right so I have to guess at which is channel 1/2.

This one is truly a bug - start a new preset from scratch and you won't get sound. Take a look at this default setting:
View attachment 7033926
That's isn't getting you any sound out of your preset. Makes it hard to get comfortable with the platform when the defaults don't work. I did report this as a mislabel, but now I realize that the settings are just plain wrong after looking at other presets.

This is a truly brilliant platform - the power and options are phenomenal. It needs QA however - I've experienced communication issues, incorrect defaults and labelling issues. There is also the things that should be added, but aren't problems (like filtering a creators pedals). I do get that Neuro 3 needed to go public so that the Artifakt could ship. But I bought my bass earlier this year to have fun after a lot of health issues. I don't need to spend time debugging an app as I work IT and spend my day job doing that. I want something that JustWorksTM​. I don't doubt that SA will get there - it's just a question of do I want to let pedal sit on my shelf until that happens.

I am sorry about 2 things.
First, you picked one of the most interesting and unique pedals ever created. It also happens to be the most advanced pedal in our collection. Unlike the C4 Synth (which is also difficult but makes sense to those who know about modular synths), the Ultrawave has no similar starting point. If you had known our Multiwave pedals, that might have been a starting point...but only maybe. The Ultrawave pedals were created by Bob Chidlaw for those who can get up to his level....and that is not easy. I would not have recommended this as a starting point. We created lots of tools to help people grasp the Ultrawave, but clearly we could have created even more.

Second, I am sorry that you got the pedal during the N3 migration. It is terrible timing. This pedal probably got the least beta testing, because it is so complicated. It probably needed the most.

If you want to exchange it for anything new in our library, send us a note at [email protected]. Tell them that Roger sent you.

 

[Luke the Fluke]

But I bought my bass earlier this year to have fun after a lot of health issues. I don't need to spend time debugging an app as I work IT and spend my day job doing that. I want something that JustWorksTM. I don't doubt that SA will get there - it's just a question of do I want to let pedal sit on my shelf until that happens.

I work as a designer staring at a screen and bass is my outlet to that. I’ve had all sorts of Zoom and then Line6 digital effects that I’ve had to program and my 2p is that unless you need the comfort and convenience of presets, sometimes life’s too short for programming stuff.
I have digital stuff like the C4 that does things that you can’t do easily without the digital pedal - otherwise it’s analogue stuff ive bought or built myself - not using a screen to control is part of the point and more fun.
What do you want the ultra wave to do tonally? It has features you would find hard to replicate in analogue - but you might be happier with simpler workflow that sounds simpler

 

[stubbsonic]

One issue with the premature beta is REMOVING the old version from the iOS App Store. So users may update from the old v3 to 3.55, and they are effed because you can't roll back.

How is Ultrawave support on the old desktop & android apps? If it's good, perhaps this user could just install the old desktop version or side-load the android APK for the old version and be good to go. ?

 

[OneNut]

I am sorry about 2 things.
First, you picked one of the most interesting and unique pedals ever created. It also happens to be the most advanced pedal in our collection. Unlike the C4 Synth (which is also difficult but makes sense to those who know about modular synths), the Ultrawave has no similar starting point. If you had known our Multiwave pedals, that might have been a starting point...but only maybe. The Ultrawave pedals were created by Bob Chidlaw for those who can get up to his level....and that is not easy. I would not have recommended this as a starting point. We created lots of tools to help people grasp the Ultrawave, but clearly we could have created even more.

Second, I am sorry that you got the pedal during the N3 migration. It is terrible timing. This pedal probably got the least beta testing, because it is so complicated. It probably needed the most.

If you want to exchange it for anything new in our library, send us a note at [email protected]. Tell them that Roger sent you.

Roger,

Thank you for the response.

Yes the Ultrawave is a hugely feature packed pedal. But the beauty of what you've done is that I can ignore all I don't care about. I can use it as a compressor, distortion and eq while ignoring tremolo/envelope/morph (hope that answers your question @Luke the Fluke). Then I can learn the other bits and see what they do.

And yes, I got onto the platform at the wrong time. If there was one thing resolved, I'd happily stay with Neuro 3 - the communication issue (as witnessed by @LuckyJackson above as well) Between my phone (an up to date S24+) and the pedal weird stuff happens. It takes 20 seconds to load a preset from the pedal. The app doesn't always read the name of the presets loaded onto the pedal, randomly skipping some. Changing presets via the app can hose the connection. Basically if you move too fast in the app, the connection can get broken. But at the same time there is no indication that there is still communication going on. A bar or a spinner or something would be a great help.

Thank you for the extremely generous offer of changing the pedal out. However, my integrity says I must decline. I bought my pedal used (with no other parts) and it just feels wrong to accept an offer such as yours for a new replacement. The offer is appreciated and it really goes to show the character of you and your company.

As you've said, this is just a matter of bad timing - the rough edges of Neuro 3 and my personal mindset at the moment aren't quite meshing. I've no idea how stable the old version sideloaded to my phone would be, but I'd be willing to give it a try (given a SA provided APK). I honestly do believe that the product is incredible and worth a shot.

 

[Rick Penrose]

I am sorry about 2 things.
First, you picked one of the most interesting and unique pedals ever created. It also happens to be the most advanced pedal in our collection. Unlike the C4 Synth (which is also difficult but makes sense to those who know about modular synths), the Ultrawave has no similar starting point. If you had known our Multiwave pedals, that might have been a starting point...but only maybe. The Ultrawave pedals were created by Bob Chidlaw for those who can get up to his level....and that is not easy. I would not have recommended this as a starting point. We created lots of tools to help people grasp the Ultrawave, but clearly we could have created even more.

Second, I am sorry that you got the pedal during the N3 migration. It is terrible timing. This pedal probably got the least beta testing, because it is so complicated. It probably needed the most.

If you want to exchange it for anything new in our library, send us a note at [email protected]. Tell them that Roger sent you.

I’ll take you up on that offer. I have struggled no end to get use out of my UW.

 

[rsmith601]

I’ll take you up on that offer. I have struggled no end to get use out of my UW.

I extended this offer to @OneNut , because of the timing of his purchase and the N2 to N3 migration.

I take issue with the notion that there are no good sounds in the Ultrawave:

1) The compressor is one of the better bass compressors on the market
2) The pedal is based on the Multiwave Bass distortion, which was a VERY popular product (Victor Wooten and Mike Gordon used them for many years).
3) There is a huge library of Ultrawave sounds for bass, including classic distortion tones that @GMC ported over from the Aftershock.
4) The synthy octave up distortion tones are a signature multiband tone and worth the price of admission.

There are lots of wacky sounds that may not be for everyone. However, there is lots of very useful sounds in the Ultrawave and I stand by the utility of it. There are many folks who begged us to create this pedal.

Here is a list of Ultrawave Bass presets listed by likes:

Neuro Community by Source Audio

neuro.sourceaudio.net

 

[Discount Bassy]

Despite the current growing pains, I am looking forward to adding an Atlas and Artifakt to my board in the near future. I really dig my SA pedals. I already own eight and can foresee a dozen with my current wish list and unforseen new entries into the market. They are incredibly flexible and great platforms for exploration and learning. My approach to pedalboards changed with the introduction of the C4, opening the gates to modular synth logic and seeing pedals differently in general. SA stuff is the backbone on my rig. My old favorites are still present, but almost out of nostalgia, as most can be readily emulated or even improved with some time in the editor on SA processors.

 

[JimmyM]

I'll be honest and say that I'm considering ditching my Ultrawave, but not because I don't thing SA can't fix the app issues because that I think they can.

It's the documentation. There is a *lot* of configuration options going on in this pedal and while the documentation give a very brief overview, it's not enough for my relatively new mind to the platform (and bass). Add that I'm highly analytical, and I want more to understand interactions. Even a SA supplied tutorial - in print - would help as reference to understand how things are interacting.

As simple example of this is the drive knob - there is two of them active by default on the Ultrawave (one under master, and one under distortion in the blue box). Which one matters? How do they interact? And then the multiband is a percentage of that or it's own thing on top of those?

If I was younger, I'd have more time and more inclined to play with stuff and learn it. At this point, I just want to read and understand the controls so I can plan and then play.

Your position is legit, and I found out as much when I bought an Aftershock. It does a whole lot of cool things but you have to enjoy the hunt. But the documentation’s always laid out as well as can be done considering the tons of things you can do.

 

[logdrum]

I extended this offer to @OneNut , because of the timing of his purchase and the N2 to N3 migration.

I take issue with the notion that there are no good sounds in the Ultrawave:

1) The compressor is one of the better bass compressors on the market
2) The pedal is based on the Multiwave Bass distortion, which was a VERY popular product (Victor Wooten and Mike Gordon used them for many years).
3) There is a huge library of Ultrawave sounds for bass, including classic distortion tones that @GMC ported over from the Aftershock.
4) The synthy octave up distortion tones are a signature multiband tone and worth the price of admission.

There are lots of wacky sounds that may not be for everyone. However, there is lots of very useful sounds in the Ultrawave and I stand by the utility of it. There are many folks who begged us to create this pedal.

Here is a list of Ultrawave Bass presets listed by likes:

Neuro Community by Source Audio

neuro.sourceaudio.net

Thanks Roger.



The Ultrawave has a high level flow diagram in the manual. However the layout of the UI does not map the different functional blocks. The first block in the UI is the Final EQ block in the signal flow. This is key. It's not actually the EQ for the beginning of the signal

To get most of Source Audio and Eventide pedals, you have to really approach it in terms of Sound Design. Before you make any of these modules active you need to ask yourself, what do you want to achieve and possibly write it down.

I would start with no split first, then familiarize yourself with the distortion types that is a document of each own. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

The Green block is the morphing feature and can be controlled by an LFO which is really just a low frequency wave that acts as a pulsating knob control. The second way to morph is through an envelope generator and this where it gets crazy. The last morph is user controlled using an expression pedal. I suggest to not enable morph until much later. Notice how it interacts with 3 modules

The Tremolo module is crazy because it is also multi band. I think it splits with your multi band split also. There are some wild examples done by the community

In spite of its complexity, you can also turn it into a simple compressor and EQ with an HPF and LPF. In fact that is my default UW patch when I am playing bass. I also have another patch which acts like a wah-wah using the morph option (either auto wah or pedal controlled) and lastly on top of the default mild boost/compressed patch is a some added grit by introducing some tasteful multi band distortion as if I am slightly psuhing the front of the amp.

Do not give up on the UW. Just take baby steps. Go from utility to unbridled creativity slowly.

 

[logdrum]

Roger,

Thank you for the response.

Yes the Ultrawave is a hugely feature packed pedal. But the beauty of what you've done is that I can ignore all I don't care about. I can use it as a compressor, distortion and eq while ignoring tremolo/envelope/morph (hope that answers your question @Luke the Fluke). Then I can learn the other bits and see what they do.

And yes, I got onto the platform at the wrong time. If there was one thing resolved, I'd happily stay with Neuro 3 - the communication issue (as witnessed by @LuckyJackson above as well) Between my phone (an up to date S24+) and the pedal weird stuff happens. It takes 20 seconds to load a preset from the pedal. The app doesn't always read the name of the presets loaded onto the pedal, randomly skipping some. Changing presets via the app can hose the connection. Basically if you move too fast in the app, the connection can get broken. But at the same time there is no indication that there is still communication going on. A bar or a spinner or something would be a great help.

Thank you for the extremely generous offer of changing the pedal out. However, my integrity says I must decline. I bought my pedal used (with no other parts) and it just feels wrong to accept an offer such as yours for a new replacement. The offer is appreciated and it really goes to show the character of you and your company.

As you've said, this is just a matter of bad timing - the rough edges of Neuro 3 and my personal mindset at the moment aren't quite meshing. I've no idea how stable the old version sideloaded to my phone would be, but I'd be willing to give it a try (given a SA provided APK). I honestly do believe that the product is incredible and worth a shot.

Do you have a Windows or Mac PC. The 0.8x desktop applications are stable (For me the neuro 3 on desktop is also stable). I suggest doing your patch creation using the desktop application. Then if you need more than 6 presets for playing live, then burn the presets and either use a MIDI patch changer or just use the phone as a patch changer. Use the assignable knobs so that you can change parameters that you will use on the fly. Using the desktop app, and I hope this is doable on the phone, you can save a pedal settings (with all the presets) in a file. so for me I have a default one for bass, a couple for guitar that I load into the pedal. On each of the save states are curated presets that will not need any PC, phone or mid changer. Whatever adjustability I need, I can access via the knobs or an expression pedal.

 

[Rick Penrose]

I extended this offer to @OneNut , because of the timing of his purchase and the N2 to N3 migration.

I take issue with the notion that there are no good sounds in the Ultrawave:

1) The compressor is one of the better bass compressors on the market
2) The pedal is based on the Multiwave Bass distortion, which was a VERY popular product (Victor Wooten and Mike Gordon used them for many years).
3) There is a huge library of Ultrawave sounds for bass, including classic distortion tones that @GMC ported over from the Aftershock.
4) The synthy octave up distortion tones are a signature multiband tone and worth the price of admission.

There are lots of wacky sounds that may not be for everyone. However, there is lots of very useful sounds in the Ultrawave and I stand by the utility of it. There are many folks who begged us to create this pedal.

Here is a list of Ultrawave Bass presets listed by likes:

Neuro Community by Source Audio

neuro.sourceaudio.net

This has been my experience and I am not alone. Also, I believe I said that I struggle to get any useful sounds from the pedal NOT that there are NO good sounds in the UW pedal. The compressor is great. I liked it so much I bought the Atlas. Maybe it’s me, the pedals complexity, or the lack of useful documentation as echoed by many but the fact remains that I struggle with this pedal. Before you say it I have reached out to SA tech team for help and they are all great folks and they want to help... still I struggle with the UW. Victor didn’t answer when I called so here I am.

It’s fine if you take issue with what I am saying; however, I am a paying customer that feels a little put off by your response. While the UW is quite groundbreaking in many ways it is difficult to use (for me) and as everyone knows usability is the cornerstone of any product.

FYI-I have never responded like this before to any post and I am not trying to flame SA. I really like the Company (Spectrum, C4, Atlas, and yes the UW all purchased). I wish your SA continued success as I feel your company is quite innovative albeit a little tone deaf.

 

[Luke the Fluke]

for me the crux of what SA are doing are some very inivotive products - which have an easy entry point (presets)
The mid (neuro cloud of other peoples presets) or lets you get under the hood and do super complex things if you want in an approach closer to modular synth or something…

 

[Luke the Fluke]

And that in itself isn’t a flaw

 

[Dave Hill]

Something new every day.
Today my C4 won’t connect to Neuro via phone nor computer.

 

[rsmith601]

This has been my experience and I am not alone. Also, I believe I said that I struggle to get any useful sounds from the pedal NOT that there are NO good sounds in the UW pedal. The compressor is great. I liked it so much I bought the Atlas. Maybe it’s me, the pedals complexity, or the lack of useful documentation as echoed by many but the fact remains that I struggle with this pedal. Before you say it I have reached out to SA tech team for help and they are all great folks and they want to help... still I struggle with the UW. Victor didn’t answer when I called so here I am.

It’s fine if you take issue with what I am saying; however, I am a paying customer that feels a little put off by your response. While the UW is quite groundbreaking in many ways it is difficult to use (for me) and as everyone knows usability is the cornerstone of any product.

FYI-I have never responded like this before to any post and I am not trying to flame SA. I really like the Company (Spectrum, C4, Atlas, and yes the UW all purchased). I wish your SA continued success as I feel your company is quite innovative albeit a little tone deaf.

You are 100% right. Sorry about that. I try my best to be a good listener and be present here, but certain topics are challenging! The Ultrawave is on the list of challenging topics.

The Ultrawave is a divisive pedal both inside and outside the company. After lots of pressure from customers to create the Multiwave in the One Series format, I finally agreed. This was right in the wake of the success of the C4, so Bob went all-out in leveraging the capacity of Neuro to open up the Multiwave to thousands of configurable elements. He designed it for people with his level of sound design skills and it drove the rest of the company crazy:
1) Designing the Neuro Editor to be at least somewhat intuitive was really difficult and expensive.
2) The massive number of parameters broke the normal function mode of the Hub, so we had to create a work around.
3) User guides from competitive companies are rarely more than 20 pages. The Ultrawave is 41 and we added on the Editor Deep dive and the Ultrawave University video. Bob was assuming his users would be at an insanely high level and created an impossible challenge for those who need to try and explain this pedal to the vast majority of users who are not at his level.

Source Audio takes massive risks to develop game-changing products and support tools. In some cases like the Reflex and Ultrawave, we make a very small community extremely happy, but that community is too small to justify the massive expense of developing the product and supporting less technical users.

I share all of this to explain why things are as they are in our company. Should we have invested even more resources to try and explain the Ultrawave more effectively? Perhaps, but we put in 3X of what we normally put in and that was clearly not close to being enough. Should we stop creating pedals like the Ultrawave and avoid this risk altogether? Its the kind of question that as the leader of the company I must contend with!

By the way, this is an excellent deep dive into the trem section of the Ultrawave. It explains the block very effectively:

 

[rsmith601]

Something new every day.
Today my C4 won’t connect to Neuro via phone nor computer.

Sent to the team

 

[OneNut]

Something new every day.
Today my C4 won’t connect to Neuro via phone nor computer.

Try deleting the pedal from the app and add it again. It won't affect the presets but this is what I have to do all the time to get my Ultrawave to connect.

 

[logdrum]

This has been my experience and I am not alone. Also, I believe I said that I struggle to get any useful sounds from the pedal NOT that there are NO good sounds in the UW pedal. The compressor is great. I liked it so much I bought the Atlas. Maybe it’s me, the pedals complexity, or the lack of useful documentation as echoed by many but the fact remains that I struggle with this pedal. Before you say it I have reached out to SA tech team for help and they are all great folks and they want to help... still I struggle with the UW. Victor didn’t answer when I called so here I am.

It’s fine if you take issue with what I am saying; however, I am a paying customer that feels a little put off by your response. While the UW is quite groundbreaking in many ways it is difficult to use (for me) and as everyone knows usability is the cornerstone of any product.

FYI-I have never responded like this before to any post and I am not trying to flame SA. I really like the Company (Spectrum, C4, Atlas, and yes the UW all purchased). I wish your SA continued success as I feel your company is quite innovative albeit a little tone deaf.

I understand your frustration. Yeah the UW is the kitchen sink + the wood shed combined crammed into a Boss - like form factor. The designer Bob Chidlaw is a modular synthesizer player so the product design and purpose is from that mindset. In modular synthesis, modulation has a source and a destination and there is always the interplay of frequency filtering, signal modulation and time shifting.

When the reviews and product introduction came out, I knew it was going to be difficult product. They called it UltraWave LAB and that to me denotes a product that is for experimentation and the frustration that comes with it. It may fail in sales, or acceptance, but it will be a classic in the years to come. Just the single tremolo alone beats the offerings from Empress or Strymon. I think the support staff cannot answer all the possible use cases. Corner use cases are very hard to predict and to come up with a viable solution when it presents itself.

Regarding connectivity, this begins with using good cables and proper cable relief and interference protection measures on the part of the consumer. Then there is the myriad of OS to deal with and what other 3rd party software is in that system . Then the connectivity protocol itself. If all they are doing is using USB as a MIDI interface, then MIDI itself is a very old technology that does not have error correction and redundancy built in. Testing is very expensive. When I was in San Diego, my company had a cellular modem division (now mostly sold) and the validation budget was almost as high as the development budget. Having said that, I have only experienced connectivity issues with the Android app and I think it is due to the OTG adaptor I used or when I have my company work profile is on, which adds a paranoid level of security checks. Also the plainer your Android like a Pixel, there is less intrusion from the OS.

We as musicians are not really into complex non intuitive things. So yeah the UW may not only be frustrating but an expensive paper weight.

When you create a preset in the UW and other SA pedals you need to put yourself in the mindset of creating a pedal. You have 4 knobs and possibly an expression pedal and a flexible stereo in/out . With this in mind, define what sound you want to achieve. Then write down all the parameters that are involved that have to deviate from the default state. What are permanent, what can be auto modulated (LFO), what will respond to input frequency and playing dynamics (envelope generator) and what needs to be controlled physically by the 4 knobs that you are limited to and what the expression pedal can control ( they allow you to control 3). If you write and chart this down and go through the process it is less frustrating. But who has time to do this?

Even for me who has dabbled in modular and wave synthesis, a firmware and automation engineer day job, and doing Sound Design and film score type music as a hobby find that design approach overwhelming and tiring some days because we just want to play music. Yeah we can window shop the community presets. But what will work for you and is that preset exactly matching the sound in your head and the adjustability that you need.

If you just treat the UW as a fantastic tremolo pedal as Tripedal has clearly demonstrated, I think it is an amazing bargain for what it offers. Just curate 6 of presets he has in the community and call it a day and do not ever plug the pedal into Neuro again.

The Atlas compressor I have is exactly that. 6 compressor presets and beats any compressor I have. 2 years and I have not deviated from those and I have only connected it to Neuro for a firmware update. Works for the different gigs and basses I have.