Source Audio UltraWave (One Series Multiwave distortion)

[fretmeister]

One of the stock sounds is a great normal drive sound. A bit tubey in character, but without the woofy-ness that some valve amps get in the lows.

I was really surprised by it - I bought it for the silly sounds, but it is now my main drive pedal too.

[Osiris]

7 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

One of the stock sounds is a great normal drive sound. A bit tubey in character, but without the woofy-ness that some valve amps get in the lows.

I was really surprised by it - I bought it for the silly sounds, but it is now my main drive pedal too.

 

That's what I was hoping to here. There's not too many videos on YouTube showing the pedal off, and those that do tend to focus on some of the more off the wall sounds the pedal can produce, which are pretty cool but not really of a lot of practical use for me. But if it can do a capable valve-like drive then along with the other options on tap it becomes a very attractive option 🤔

[Quatschmacher]

22 minutes ago, Osiris said:

 

That's what I was hoping to here. There's not too many videos on YouTube showing the pedal off, and those that do tend to focus on some of the more off the wall sounds the pedal can produce, which are pretty cool but not really of a lot of practical use for me. But if it can do a capable valve-like drive then along with the other options on tap it becomes a very attractive option 🤔

There’s a UK TB user called GMC (I think he may be on here too but under a different name) who has got right inside this pedal and produced a lot of “normal” drive sounds, modelling them after various pedals. Worth checking out his presets, which mostly include clips I think. 

[thisisswanbon]

TL:DR - Waxing lyrical about a pedal that is hugely misunderstood after FINALLY gaining an understanding and coaxing some great drive sounds out of it (YMMV).

 

Zombie thread revival and long post incoming... but I've had an absolute epiphany with this pedal over the past few days and there's just not a lot of positivity documented so thought I'd spread some love.  The Ultrawave seems to generally be met with apathy or negativity, and I think it's maybe just misunderstood (poor marketing campaign being a big factor maybe?)

 

I had one of these about a year ago, wrote it off as digital nonsense and sent it back (worst pedal I've ever owned was mentioned a few times).  Ended up re-ordering a few months ago after little luck finding a good gated fuzz and remembering @Quatschmacher had some great mastotron style patches on the community.  Downloaded these, and thought if nothing else this covered the price of admission.

 

After some board shake ups I was tempted to move it on, but after seeing the poor re-sale value and limited board space thought I need to stick with it.  Turns out; with a lot less effort than expected, you can get some great NORMAL drive sounds!  The trick is that you don't NEED to use all of the EQ options and band splitting options available; keep it simple!  There's a drive appendix on the Ultrawave page, which details all of the drive engines and what they're best at... and this went a long way to my understanding changing.

 

My pedal now has the following, where previously I hadn't even bothered to change the stock settings (bar 1 anyways).  All custom patches except where credited

 

For a very specific Kasabian Clubfoot > Chemical Brothers Block Rocking beats mash up we do.

Circle - Mono > stereo > mono Drive, Fuzzy on one "side", trebly TS style the other (Clubfoot)

Circle alt - Clean, heavily compressed mid/treble heavy (Block rocking beats)

 

General drives

Triangle - Tube drive, fairly dark with a bit of clean mixed in

Triangle Alt - Tube/TS style drive mixed with a bit of clean

 

Synthy fuzz

Square - @Quatschmacher Mastotron gated fuzz patch

Square Alt - Lower gain version of above to feed solo'd octave into

 

That's a lot of functionality and saved board space from a pedal I've previously written off twice.  I don't tend to dabble in the crazier aspects and pitch tremolo etc, my C4 covers my synth requirements.  I think the problem is that the pedal was pushed heavily on it's crazy off the wall features (I remember basstheworld.com saying they were asked to showcase the crazier elements) when really it should've been pushed as a utility pedal with infinite tone shaping abilities should you need them.

 

I'm happy to share my patches if anyone is struggling with this pedal and scared to move it on, I'll see if I can get some audio samples if anyone cares, and I'm happy to offer any limited experience that I have if anyone desires (although I think this post has exhausted that!)

 

If you made it this far then thanks for reading!

 

 

[Quatschmacher]

20 minutes ago, thisisswanbon said:

TL:DR - Waxing lyrical about a pedal that is hugely misunderstood after FINALLY gaining an understanding and coaxing some great drive sounds out of it (YMMV).

 

Zombie thread revival and long post incoming... but I've had an absolute epiphany with this pedal over the past few days and there's just not a lot of positivity documented so thought I'd spread some love.  The Ultrawave seems to generally be met with apathy or negativity, and I think it's maybe just misunderstood (poor marketing campaign being a big factor maybe?)

 

I had one of these about a year ago, wrote it off as digital nonsense and sent it back (worst pedal I've ever owned was mentioned a few times).  Ended up re-ordering a few months ago after little luck finding a good gated fuzz and remembering @Quatschmacher had some great mastotron style patches on the community.  Downloaded these, and thought if nothing else this covered the price of admission.

 

After some board shake ups I was tempted to move it on, but after seeing the poor re-sale value and limited board space thought I need to stick with it.  Turns out; with a lot less effort than expected, you can get some great NORMAL drive sounds!  The trick is that you don't NEED to use all of the EQ options and band splitting options available; keep it simple!  There's a drive appendix on the Ultrawave page, which details all of the drive engines and what they're best at... and this went a long way to my understanding changing.

 

My pedal now has the following, where previously I hadn't even bothered to change the stock settings (bar 1 anyways).  All custom patches except where credited

 

For a very specific Kasabian Clubfoot > Chemical Brothers Block Rocking beats mash up we do.

Circle - Mono > stereo > mono Drive, Fuzzy on one "side", trebly TS style the other (Clubfoot)

Circle alt - Clean, heavily compressed mid/treble heavy (Block rocking beats)

 

General drives

Triangle - Tube drive, fairly dark with a bit of clean mixed in

Triangle Alt - Tube/TS style drive mixed with a bit of clean

 

Synthy fuzz

Square - @Quatschmacher Mastotron gated fuzz patch

Square Alt - Lower gain version of above to feed solo'd octave into

 

That's a lot of functionality and saved board space from a pedal I've previously written off twice.  I don't tend to dabble in the crazier aspects and pitch tremolo etc, my C4 covers my synth requirements.  I think the problem is that the pedal was pushed heavily on it's crazy off the wall features (I remember basstheworld.com saying they were asked to showcase the crazier elements) when really it should've been pushed as a utility pedal with infinite tone shaping abilities should you need them.

 

I'm happy to share my patches if anyone is struggling with this pedal and scared to move it on, I'll see if I can get some audio samples if anyone cares, and I'm happy to offer any limited experience that I have if anyone desires (although I think this post has exhausted that!)

 

If you made it this far then thanks for reading!

 

 

Nice to hear some positive comments about this. It is a much misunderstood pedal indeed. I tended to just use it in single band mode most of the time. 
 

I did move mine on a few months ago as I wasn’t really using it. I don’t really use much distortion and I personally find that having almost infinite options gives me option paralysis. I am finding I get more musical satisfaction from gear that is more restricted in scope so that it either pushes me in a certain direction or forces me to problem solve to get around limitations. It’s the same with synths for me; I prefer something with a limited feature set that allows me to get to a sound quickly and not get distracted by endless tweaking possibilities as it leaves more time for me to come up with musical ideas.

 

It is a fantastic pedal nonetheless, but one that my ageing brain finds too much.