Say hello to Brian "TheHook" Williams, our Featured Neuro Artist for the month of June, 2021. Truth be told, this Master of Tone/Synth Bass Guru was shrouded in mystery prior to this article.  The only thing we knew about "TheHook" is that his C4 Synth presets sounded divine. Of course the question on everyone's mind has to be, why do they call him "The Hook?" Well, as Brian puts it, "the bass is always THE HOOK!"

For the past two years, nary a Source Audio bass or guitar pedalboard, constructed  for  trade shows and demo videos, is without a number of C4 Synth presets created by TheHook. And we are not the only ones who love what Brian does with the our pedals - his presets consistently rack up significant downloads and Likes from C4 Synth owners around the globe. Brian is also beginning to build quite an impressive library of Ultrwave Multiband Bass Processor presets. We highly encourage everyone reading to scroll down and check out some of the sound clips of Brian's preset, or better yet, connect your C4 Synth or Ultrawave Multiband Processor (either the standard or bass versions) to the Neuro Editor and try his presets yourself.

Of course, all of our Featured Neuro Artists get a free Source Audio pedal. If you want to learn more about our Neuro Artist Program, follow this link - we are always on the lookout for the next Featured Artist. Brian chose for his free pedal, the EQ2 Programmable Equalizer - we hope it brings him many thumping lows and sparkling highs.

Below you will find a magnificent collection of Brian's most popular presets as well as some of his personal favorites. We hope everyone finds some inspiration in these sounds, either as Brain created them or as jump-off points for creating your own custom presets. Brian remarked, "I always wonder how presets sound to others with different equipment, technique, etc. Keep in mind these were created on bass guitars with active preamps, and typically with compression at the beginning of the signal chain. Although results may vary, the basic building blocks are there to be tweaked for each person's particulars. Good Luck!" 

Happy Spring, everyone! It has been a little too long since our last Neuro Artist Feature. We apologize for the delay, we've been so tied up with the release of the Ultrawave Multiband Processor and Ultrawave Multiband Bass Processor pedals that we had to hit the pause button for a month or two. But the Featured Artist program is back... with STYLE! Sean Murray is a hugely talented musician out of Cork, Ireland. We had not heard his music prior to the day he posted an exceptional demo of the Collider Delay+Reverb back in September of 2020. We were blown away, not only by Sean's excellent tone and guitar playing, he also has a wonderful knack for explaining with crystal clarity the type of sound he wants to achieve, why he thinks it's a useful sound, and how he goes about finding that sound with his Source Audio gear. Sean quickly followed up his Collider demo with a tremendous C4 Synth video. Each video was accompanied with five excellent Neuro presets, and each is available for free download right now via the Neuro App and Desktop Editor. 

We also recommend subscribing to Sean's Youtube channel. His tutorial videos are an outstanding resource for anybody looking to improve their home recording techniques. The channel's audience is growing fast and for good reason - Sean is consistently posting excellent new videos all the time.

Of course, all of our Featured Neuro Artists get free Source Audio pedals. If you want to learn more about our Neuro Artist Program, follow this link. We're always looking for new artists on which to shine our spotlight. Sean chose for his free pedal, a Ventris Dual Reverb, and lucky for us he also found the time to post a great demo video and publish some excellent presets.

One of the things we love most about Sean's approach to demo videos is his emphasis on the essential, real-world applications for each effect. In the following three videos Sean walks us through all of his presets. In each video you will find great ideas on using Source Audio pedals to capture classic tones as well as explore some exciting, new sonic territory.

Happy Holidays, everybody! Say hello to Ross Hoekman, our Featured Neuro Artist for the month of December 2020! If you frequent the Neuro Editor Community tab or Talkbass you probably know this guy as "fivestringgecko," the maker of many, many killer presets for his C4 Synth and Spectrum Intelligent Filter. Ross' Source Audio enthusiasm dates back to the Soundblox 2 Manta Bass Filter. He explains, "My first Source Audio pedal was a Manta, and Will Cady’s videos totally inspired me to add a Hot Hand 3 to my setup. Not long after that, I added a Dimension Reverb and Orbital Modulator. When the One Series hit, I jumped at the chance to try out an Aftershock Bass Distortion and currently, the Source Audio C4 has really grabbed hold for me. I’d go so far as to say it’s probably my “If I Could Only Have One” pedal. Synth, envelope filter, some dirt, and a pretty convincing OC2 sounding octaver... All of my top favs in one box."

Ross is a master of the C4 Synth and Spectrum Intelligent Filter (modded with some fancy-schmancy gold & silver knobs).  We love his presets inspired by bass lines from songs by Primus, Depeche Mode, Dua Lipa, and Above and Beyond. He's also created some excellent presets inspired by classic envelope filter pedals like the EHX Bassballs, Emma Discombobulator, and a groovy little pedal called the Manta Bass Filter. We highly recommend that you read-on and check out these presets. Each one sounds equally fantastic on bass or guitar (with some minor tweaks). 

Sean Folk (a.k.a. "flip362") has been plugged into Source Audio for a long, long time. His relationship with our gear actually dates back to the Soundblox days. But it wasn't until we developed the One Series pedals and the Neuro Desktop Editor with its preset sharing technology that we were able to hear all the great things that he was doing with our gear. Before becoming a husband, dad, and  middle school theatre arts teacher in his home state of Texas, Sean studied Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA (also the home of Source Audio). His film scoring chops are pretty evident in all the exceptional sound clips he recorded to demonstrate his presets. We love how Sean dials in tried and true, classic sounds like his "Simple Trem" or "Punk Rawk" presets, but also launches into the contemporary with ambient soundscapes like "Beyond Horizons" or "DreamSphere" for the Ventris Dual Reverb. He's also got a great ear for killer lo-fi sounds like "Bitcrush Square" for the C4 Synth and "Crushed Echos" for the Nemesis Delay. 

You can see that Sean already has a large collection of Source Audio pedals (including one of the original hand-painted C4 Synth beta pedals - #43 of 50!), but we still sent him a complementary pedal as we do with all of our Featured Neuro Artists. Sean requested the EQ2 Programmable Equalizer. And FYI, we are constantly on the lookout for the next Featured Artist, so please keep publishing your Neuro presets with accompanying sound clips (the sound clips are  crucial to reaping a Feature). We want to hear what y'all are doing with our gear!

We asked Sean to share his thoughts on some of the presets he created. He was more than happy to talk with us, so read on and check out some of Sean's presets and find out, in his own words, the inspiration behind each one. 

​We first became familiar with the work of Mark Neary (@markneary1) on the day he published the C4 Synth preset titled, “Chaka Chan.” Mark skillfully used the C4’s Neuro Editor to dial in the funky Moog bass sound from the classic Chaka Khan track, What Cha’ Gonna Do For Me. It was clear from the embedded video that Mark’s bass playing and audio production skills were a cut above. A quick Google search turned up the Mark Neary website and a draw-dropping list of bass and production credits that include the Rolling Stones, Sting, Noel Gallagher, and Adele. To be honest, this impressive resume was not a surprise based on what we heard in the Chaka Khan clip.

Congratulations to Jarrod Taylor (a.k.a. @jbt333). Because of all the awesome Neuro presets and sound clips he created, we sent Jarrod a free Ventris Dual Reverb and made him our Featured Nuero Artist for the month of August, 2020. Jarrod is one of two guitarists from an excellent psych rock out of Oakland, CA called The Chaw. We first noticed Jarrod's work back in April, 2020 during our Neuro Cover Song Challenge. His cover version of “Crying Lightning” by Arctic Monkeys was sensational. Since that time he recorded an outstanding original tune titled, “Down To The Leather,” which was adorned with a wonderful collection of Nemesis Delay drenched guitar lines - each track has a Nemesis preset available in the Neuro Editor. 

We will be picking a new Featured Neuro Artist every month for the foreseeable future, so we urge all of you to keep publishing those cool presets with embedded YouTube or SoundCloud clips! We love hearing what all of y’all are doing with our One Series pedals. Let's check out Jarrod's presets and feel free to hit the download buttons and try any of these sounds in your Nemesis Delay...

​The next few sound clips are the isolated guitar tracks from Jarrod's song "Down To The Leather." Jarrod was cool enough to talk with us about the inspiration and building process of the Nemesis Delay presets he created for each tracks:

@jbt333's Comments on "Vibroctave Carnival": "When I’m working on a recording and something doesn’t feel quite right, sometimes it’s not a part that’s missing, it’s a frequency. In the case of the tune "Down to the Leather" the music felt like it was missing some higher frequencies. Adding an octave up on the Compound Shifter, and giving the effect a Vibrato like quality with Mod and Wow & Flutter, seemed to do the trick. When I first put it on the track it reminded me of an overdriven calliope with an octave on it (hence name "Vibroctave Carnival"). After going back and listening to an actual calliope, I realized it  sounded nothing like the preset. Nonetheless, it’s a super fun patch."

This is not the first time @Quatschmacher (a.k.a Peter Kenney) has been featured on our website or social media pages - he has been making fantastic presets for the C4 Synth for months now. Peter could easily teach a class on how to dive into the C4 Synth's Neuro Editor. We love how he incorporates all aspects of the C4's Editing possibilities into his presets: the sequencers, the harmonization module, polyphonic pitch shifting, monophonic synth oscillators, and more. Here are just a few of our favorite @quatschmacher presets along with his thoughts on the inspiration and creation of each one.