Featured Artist For August 1, 2022 - @Do_Noise

Who is Do Noise? Well... that is a very good question. To be honest, prior to writing this blog we weren't  so sure ourselves. What we do know about the man is that he does noise, and he does it very, very well. Since way back in the 2010's Do Noise has been creating fantastic pedal demo videos for a number of pedal manufacturers on his Youtube channel, which BTW, just reached the 10k subscriber landmark.

Do Noise is also incredibly prolific in the Neuro Community - he has published tons of killer presets for a wide range of One Series pedals.  A Do Noise preset tends to lean in a more experimental and ambient direction, which always excites us. We love hearing our pedals used to replicate the beloved tones-of-old, but it is always a special kinda thrill when we hear Source Audio gear used in ways that we never imagined, and THAT is Do Noise's specialty.

Do Noise's Current Pedalboard

We recently had the great pleasure of talking with Do Noise and he was happy to tell us about himself and his philosophies on tone and effects pedals along with the inspiration behind some of his most surprising and popular One Series presets. Do Noise's actual name is Emin and he lives in the great city of Istanbul, Turkey. When asked why he started making pedal demos, he said, "Lots of different kinds of sounds together would essentially be noise, right? That was my inspiration and what I wanted to share on my channel; I wanted to put all of these different sounds I was getting in one place. 'Make Noise' was the obvious name choice, but there was already a synth company by that name, so I went with 'Do Noise' instead."

As you might expect from a guy that creates pedal demos, his board is in a constant state of flux, “My pedalboard changes frequently, as I need to move things around for demos and other recordings, but some things don’t change. If I want a stereo reverb, whether for a clear hall or an ambient experimental sound, I go for Ventris. If I want a unique overdrive/distortion I go for Ultrawave.” 

For being a Featured Neuro Artist, we sent Do Noise a free True Spring Reverb.

As we do with all of our Featured Neuro Artists, we sent Emin a free One Series pedal of his choice. He chose the True Spring Reverb. We can't wait to hear what he does with our spring reverb emulation and tremolo pedal. 

So, let's get into the presets. The first collection we need to examine comes from the Ultrawave Multiband Processor. Of all Source Audio pedals, the Ultrawave is the most unapologetically individualistic. It is THE effect to engage when you want to explore completely new and unique sonic terrains. That said, it's no surprise that Do Noise whole-heartedly embraced this pedal.

Ultrawave Multiband Processor Presets:

"Fade In and Slow Down" (9:23 in the Video)

This preset is a great example of DN's tendency to dig way into a piece of gear and explore some often overlook feature (or two). In this case, it's the UW's ability to create swell effects (via the Morph function) and change the tremolo rate without the use of an expression pedal. Do Noise explains: "This preset has everything! Morphing, envelope control, volume swell, filter modulation, tremolo, and some drive of course. The result is a dynamic synthy sound." Basically, the input signal triggers the volume swell with the envelope controlling the tremolo rate. The envelope speeds up or slows down the tremolo depending on the level of the input signal. It's a very smartly constructed preset.

DOWNLOAD "FADE IN AND SLOW DOWN"

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"Signal Failure" (8:44)

How can something so wrong turn out to be soooo right? This sputtery, gnarly tone is pure gold. Emin explains: "The Multiwave Distortion [Source Audio's original multi-band effect] was THE clear hi-fi distortion with amazing note separation. That’s how I initially approached the Ultrawave as well, but as I played around with the editor more, I realized it could also go in the exact opposite direction. This preset makes you fight with the noise gate with some help from the compressor.  It’s amazing to me that a single pedal is both my favorite hi-fi drive and my favorite lo-fi drive."

Making the UW's Compressor "fight" with the Gate is pretty brilliant! Basically, he's got the compressor set so that the overall output level is constantly hovering around the threshold level of the noise gate. Combine that with an already sputtery sounding Diode Gated Fuzz and you've got yourself one very lofi sounding effect.

DOWNLOAD "SIGNAL FAILURE"

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"Ringing" (7:33)

Not everyone knows that there is a Ring Mod effect in the Ultrawave. DN makes fantastic use of the Ring Mod in this preset: "I love ring mods and always wanted to see the Source Audio’s take on it. I made one regular and one “dirty” ring mod and I think they sound great, especially when paired with the Ventris." It helps that DN wrote a killer riff to go with this sound - it's kinda spooky, it's kinda awesome.

DOWNLOAD "RINGING"

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“Eerie Bells” (11:46)

Can't argue with the name of this preset - it sounds like bells and those bells certainly sound eerie. The Ultrawave's Octave Foldback effect is doing much of the work in this preset - it's an incredibly unique sound.  Do Noise talked about getting the most out of this preset: "The octave modes of Ultrawave are great for soloing but they are also capable of these bell-like sounds. This preset sounds amazing with a big reverb like the E-Dome from Ventris." 

DOWNLOAD "EERIE BELLS"

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“Random Modular Sequence”​ (13:45)

Sometimes simply jumping into the Neuro Editor and aimlessly moving controls can yield great results - it can at least get the creative juices flowing. That was the case in Do Noise's creation of this preset: "This preset is the result of just randomly trying things out. When I arrived at this state of the preset I thought 'This sounds like something that would come out of a modular synthesizer.' Even the workflow is very similar! Someone should try this hooked up to MIDI Clock with other synths and drum machines!" 

Two things really bring this preset to life. It is a 10 step Multiband Tremolo pattern combined with a very extreme LFO shape. The Ultrawave gives you immense control of the tremolo shape with LFO parameters like Attack, Release, On-Time and Shape. DN has all of these controls turned either all the up or all the way down - the result is an almost instant attack with a steep release slope. That is how this tremolo gets its bouncing, percussive effect. ​

DOWNLOAD "RANDOM MODULAR SEQUENCE"

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Ventris Dual Reverb Presets:

"Pumping Shimmer" (4:46)

The Ventris Dual Reverb offers14 different reverb effects with the ability to simultaneously route any two-reverb combination in parallel or series. Given these capabilities, it's no surprise that Do Noise found some amazing sounds.  The "Pumping Shimmer" preset uses the Ventris' much loved Shimmer engine combined with ModVerb. Do Noise explains: "Shimmer is a great effect to add some pad synth texture underneath the dry signal. I wanted some movement in the pad and sent the Shimmer into Modverb (set to sawtooth wave). The result is a nice side-chained synth sound with tap tempo for the rate."

DOWNLOAD "PUMPING SHIMMER"

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"Constant Reverses" (0:44)

There are a number of reverb pedals that offer reverse reverb, but not a lot of them have a diffusion control like the one on the Ventris. The Ventris' Diffusion knob can be turned way down to the point that the effect no longer resembles reverb. DN took advantage of this capability with this preset: "Reverse reverb on Ventris has multiple decay shape options that expand the possibilities of the engine. Setting it to constant with low diffusion creates scattered delays that sound like something between reverse reverb and granular delay."

DOWNLOAD "CONSTANT REVERSES"

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“Spring Delay” (7:55)

Pre-Delay is a very useful feature in the Ventris. What Pre-Delay does is create space between the dry signal and the first reverb reflections. Used subtly it helps your dry signal from being consumed by an overly aggressive reverb effect, but when you turn the Pre-Delay up to extremes, it can create something similar to a delay effect. Do Noise talked about how he used Pre-Delay: "The Pre-Delay feedback makes it possible to create multiple repeats of the pre-delay. I used it with True Spring mode to create “spring reverb repeats”. Could Spring Delay be a new type of delay?"

DOWNLOAD "SPRING DELAY"

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C4 Synth

"C 7th Chords" (2:29)

The moment we've all been waiting for. Of all the pedals in the One Series line, the C4 Synth easily has the most published presets. Why? Because the options are limitless. Do Noise swung for the fences in this demo video, and crushed it. DN's "C7th Chords" preset is a Source Audio favorite - we rarely build a demo board or do a C4 Synth demonstration without using this preset. It's spectacular. Do Noise talked about it: "C4 is a “mono” tracking synth but it certainly isn’t limited to monophonic sounds! All 4 voices, the pitch shifter and the harmony block are utilized to make this preset which generates 7th chords from single notes. Use with stereo modulation and reverb (Mercury and Ventris in my case) for a huge stereo sound."

DOWNLOAD "C 7th CHORDS"

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"Dancing Filter" (8:23)

We have seen some confusion about the C4 Synth, so let us clarify. When generating pure synth sounds, the C4 Synth is a monophonic synthesizer, meaning the pitch detector can only decipher one note at a time (no chords!). Yes, there are some polyphonic guitar synths out there that don't require a special pickup, but the truth is you cannot generate a signal as robust and pure with polyphonic pitch detection as you can with monophonic pitch detection. This is one of the big reasons that the C4's synth effects have so much depth and "mojo."  That said, the C4 does have some polyphonic voices available that, though they are not 100% pure synth tones, will generate some great synth-like effects. Do Noise's "Dancing Filters" preset is a great example of this: "C4 has several synth voices but I love using all the other “modules” to create different kinds of synthy sounds. Here the upper octave and the sample rate reducer add lots of harmonics which contribute to the synthy sound and also make the filter movement much more pronounced."​

DOWNLOAD "DANCING FILTER"

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“Octave Sequence Bass”  (0:33)

Many great presets have been created with the C4 Synth's programmable 16 Step Sequencers. This sequencer preset is one of our favorites. Do Noise told us about it: "An easy to use sequenced synth bass with the Control 1 assigned to Rate. This is another preset that would work really well when synced to other gear with MIDI Clock."

DOWNLOAD "OCTAVE SEQUENCE BASS"

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“Dirty 6th” (4:32)

To be honest, this preset kinda scares us, but it's fantastic. DN used the C4 Synth's Harmonizer capabilities to stack a 5th AND a 6th on top of the root note. Just an FYI for the music theory challenged, a root, 5th, and 6th played together is kind of a strange chord. Especially when you play a bunch of them in a progression. Throw in some FM Synthesis (yep, the C4 can do FM Synthesis) and things get very, very disturbing.

DOWNLOAD "DIRTY 6TH"

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Collider Delay + Reverb

“Can in a Dome” (5:24)

This is a relatively straight forward preset, but WOW, Do Noise's clip sounds beautiful. DN talked about the combination: "I love Source Audio’s Oil Can and E-Dome engines and combining them was one of the first things I tried with the Collider. Oil Can adds a gritty texture and E-Dome puts everything in a huge space."

DOWNLOAD "CAN IN A DOME"

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"Broken Shimmer" (2:37)

We didn't necessarily design the Collider to do lo-fi, but DN found a way. He talked about the process: "Tape delays are great substitutes for chorus and vibrato (or sometimes even better!) when they are set to minimum delay time and high mix. I swapped the effect order in this preset so that the shimmer is going into a tape delay set to minimum delay time and full wet mix, basically adding tape warble and texture to the dry signal and the shimmer. I also posted a variation that uses the Oil Can instead of Tape, called 'Broken Shimmer 2'."

DOWNLOAD "BROKEN SHIMMER"

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Mercury Flanger

"Unstable Flanger" (3:05)

It's just a flanger, you can't pull anything unexpected out of a flanger, right? Wrong!! Do Noise took the Mercury Flanger in some very unexpected directions. He told us about this preset: "As the name suggests, this flanger doesn't have the constant cyclic swoosh effect. The movement has a random feel and it also has a very interesting stereo image."

DOWNLOAD "UNSTABLE FLANGER"

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“Envelope Chorus/Flanger” (3:39) and “Envelope Phaser” (4:42)

Sometimes you want to let your flanger or phaser modulation do its thing all by itself, sometimes you want take total control of modulation - enter the Mercury's envelope follower. Do Noise talked about using the envelope's ability to relieve boredom; "All effects in Mercury are envelope controllable so naturally I made an envelope controlled preset for each. They are quite interesting, especially if you are bored of regular modulation effects."

DOWNLOAD "ENVELOPE CHORUS/FLANGER"

DOWNLOAD "ENVELOPE PHASER"

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Nemesis Delay

"LoFi Half Speed" (1:22)

​​We're going way back to the early days of the Source Audio/Do Noise relationship for this one. DN reminisced about this preset: "One of the first presets I shared. Deaftone FX on Instagram made me aware that the pitch shifter in the reverse engine works differently than the Shifter mode. It works like a sampler so changing the pitch also changes the time/length of the delay buffer. Setting it to -1 octave results in repeats played back in half speed. Amazing lo-fi vibes!"

DOWNLOAD "LOFI HALF SPEED"

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"Scattered Crystals" (0:10)

A beautiful use of the Nemesis' Helix engine. The Helix pushes your delay repeats up an entire octave and also reverses them - the effect is quite mystical sounding. Do Noise creates a nice effect here by setting the Delay Time relatively short and turning up the Feedback, causing the backward repeats to burst out in a way that sounds more like magical pixie dust than a traditional delay effect.

DOWNLOAD "SCATTERED CRYSTALS"

That is all for now. Huge THANKS to Do Noise for working with us on this blog and for creating so many fantastic presets. We highly recommend you download some Do Noise presets and see where they take you creatively.  Keep in mind, we're always looking for the next Neuro Artist, so keep publishing those presets and don't forget to embed Soundcloud clips or Youtube videos (Here are instruction on embedding sound clips). You may be our next Featured Artist. Enjoy the rest of your summer!!!