This Week In Neuro: July 16 - 29

Welcome back to another installment of This Week In Neuro!  This week's unofficial title is: These Weeks In Neuro, as we're taking it two weeks back to recover from a summer slump.  Well, not really...we at Source Audio have been busy working on a couple new and very exciting projects...more details to come.  We've got some supersized numbers this week, and a couple of surprising front runners in the New Presets category.  Read on for a deep data-crunching dive and our Editor's Picks section, which yet again sees the C4 Synth taken into new, unexplored territory, including a Dua Lipa cover and some crispy lo-fi vinyl tones. 

This week's de facto "double feature" gave us some neat statistics (for all you data nerds out there).  Of 71 new presets over this two week span, 18 of those were for the C4 — a whopping 25%!  This week saw a bunch of new Nemesis presets, from folks who are clearly getting the most out of their delay!  A surprising 3rd place podium finisher was the Kingmaker Fuzz with 8 new presets, a newcomer to This Week in Neuro's Top 5. 

This week, we had an incredible stat: 356 new Neuro accounts were created.  To all our Neuro newcomers, thanks for checking out what we're all about!  New users = new creators = new presets = new sounds.

"Lofi" - C4 Synth - by @dalo

I didn't believe it until I plugged my guitar in and downloaded this preset for myself, but yes — thanks to @dalo, the C4 Synth pedal can now do lo-fi.  Check out this preset to hear a wicked convincing vinyl "crackle and skipping" emulation.  Even our most advanced creators here at the Source Audio head offices can barely wrap their heads around how this preset was created, but essentially @dalo is using 3 voices here.  Voice 1 is a gated fuzz Sine wave, pitched 3 octaves down and set very low for the vinyl crackle.  Voice 2 is another Sine wave pitched 3 octaves down, with considerably more Tremolo to create the "skipping" effect.  Voice 3 is where most of the "dry" tone comes from, and it is a direct input signal sent to a bandpass filter which is modulated by the LFO.  In all cases, the LFO is a sine wave + sample & hold. 

nikopappas · "Lofi" C4 Synth preset

DOWNLOAD "LOFI"

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"Soft Focus 2" - Nemesis Delay & Ventris Dual Reverb
​- by @flip362

I just love it when I can strum some chords, then step on a couple of pedals, and the chords instantly jump out and sound gorgeous.  That is the feeling that our pal Sean (@flip362) is evoking here with his pair of "Soft Focus 2" presets for the Nemesis and Ventris.  Subtle drum echo from one of the Nemesis's mullti-tap Binson engines combines in such a heavenly way with a diffuse Shimmer effect from the Ventris. 

SeanFolk · Soft Focus 2 Preset

DOWLOAD "SOFT FOCUS 2" for NEMESIS

DOWNLOAD "SOFT FOCUS 2" for VENTRIS

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"Dua Synth Bass" - C4 Synth - by @ultrakcy

​Yes!!! Our friends at Ridin’ Bass (our South Korean Distributors) created this excellent C4 Synth bass preset inspired by the bass line for the Dua Lipa track, “Don’t Stop Now.” The bass on the original track has a fantastic sound that moves back and forth between a punchy electric bass and a multi-dimensional synth bass. In the original track, you can hear the synth bass come in at about 0:25. This preset uses an expression pedal assigned to the MIX control to fade in the synth sound, but if you don’t have an expression pedal, you can easily get the effect by simply bypassing and engaging the pedal. In this preset’s demo clip the C4 makes its entrance at around 2:38 – it’s quite dramatic. The preset combines two Square Wave oscillators, a Saw Wave oscillator and the dry signal, all going into a 2-Pole Low Pass filter. It’s a super-punch effect that is a nice hybrid between a natural and synth bass sound.  It sounds pretty great on guitar, too.

DOWNLOAD "DUA SYNTH BASS"

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"Under the Chorus" - Lunar Phaser - @theupriser

​Just in case you forgot, the Lunar Phaser can also produce chorus and flanger effects. The truth is, our Lunar Phaser, Gemini Chorus, and Mercury Flanger all have interchangeable effect engines, so If you own one of the pedals, you essentially own all three. This preset features a beautifully subtle chorus effect inspired by the Boss CE-1 chorus pedal used on the Red Hot Chili Peppers track, “Under the Bridge.” I don’t think John Frusciante used the chorus effect on the entire intro, but we used it throughout the clip, because why not(?)… the chorus preset is, after all, what we’re demoing. In addition to the “Under the Chorus” Lunar preset, we used a compression preset from the Ultrawave Multiband Processor to really capture the vibe of the original riff. We’re not sure, but we’ve heard that Frusciante used an MXR Dyna Comp on the original track. The Ultrawave compression preset is called “SnapAttack Comp” and it was created by @dickjonesify.

Source Audio · Lunar Phaser: "Under the Chorus"

DOWNLOAD "UNDER THE CHORUS"

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"Mr. Meatbox vbog" - Kingmaker Fuzz, C4 Synth, & EQ2 Programmable Equalizer - by @vandalbacon

"Mr. Meatbox vbog" is a three-preset box set presented by @vandalbacon.  Listen to this one with headphones!  "Mr. Meatbox vbog", as the name so clearly suggests, is a bombastic multi-pedal preset that comes in three parts: the Kingmaker Fuzz, the C4 Synth, and the EQ2.  Download all three below for the full Meatbox experience.  

The Kingmaker's explosive fuzz tone is doing the heavy lifting here, pummeling the listener with a cranked "Octave Fuzz" tone.  The C4 is aiding by adding in a meaty sub-octave (no pun intended), and the EQ2 is sculpting the tone further by adding even more low-end, scooping the lower mids, and subtly boosting the upper range.

Plaster & Dirt · DIRT 0004.WAV

DOWNLOAD "MR. MEATBOX VBOG" FOR THE KINGMAKER

DOWNLOAD "MR. MEATBOX VBOG" FOR THE C4

DOWNLOAD "VBOG MEATBOX" FOR THE EQ2

That's all for now — thanks for tuning in.  If you like this content and want to be a part of it, don't be shy about adding your presets to the Neuro Community!