The C4 Synth Revives a Dance Club Banger from the 90s!

A fun and unexpected moment recently overtook our Instagram. Guitarists Tyler Larson (a.k.a. “Music Is Win”) and Jared James Nichols shared a highly entertaining segment from their new podcast, No Cover Charge (great podcast, BTW), where they reacted to a user-created C4 Synth preset called “Pony.” This classic preset has been popular among the Neuro Community for a few years now. It was originally created by long-time Neuro Community member @annette in an effort to recreate the iconic bass sound from the 1990s club classic of the same name by R&B legend Ginuwine. It’s an outstanding preset that—after the initial shock of the first note—quickly inspired Jared to lock into a relentlessly funky groove. Check it out...

But the story doesn't end there... a few days later Jared and Tyler revisited the preset during a full-on jam session with podcast guest, Marty Schwartz. Who would have guessed that the "Pony" preset sounds killer as a lead tone?

The posts caused quite a stir on Instagram! In its wake we saw some great posts from other musicians using the “Pony” preset in their own rigs. Here is a great post from @jaymfunkneosoul, totally rocking that minimalist Timbaland production style.

The “Pony” preset has lived many lives over the last couple of years. As mentioned, it was originally created by @annette, but it has since been downloaded, tweaked, and republished time and time again. It’s also one of the presets that has been successfully recreated for the Spectrum Intelligent Filter, further cementing its staying power.

While these versions share several common elements—notably the use of a Gated Fuzz to achieve that aggressive, velcro-style fuzz texture—the real key to capturing the “Pony” sound lies in the filter design. At its core is a Low-Pass, Peak, Peak filter configuration. It’s actually a combination of three different filter elements, each moving at its own rate and in its own direction. That complex filter movement is what creates the signature vowel-like effect, evoking something close to a human voice—albeit a gritty, growling voice pulled from deep in the back of the throat.

We have also recorded some great clips with other vowely sounding filters available in the C4 Synth. Here are a couple of examples. The first is a fantastic preset called "sayDIE" created by @dickjonesify. This preset uses the "Triple Peak 4" filter combined with some major triad harmonization applied to the a pair of Saw Tooth oscillators. 

Here is another classic C4 Synth preset. Inspired by the main melodic line from “Da Funk” by Daft Punk, this preset was created by @natenavarro. This one combines two different filters run in parallel: the "Bandpass 1" and the "2 Pole Low-Pass." Our friend George from the Boston band The Ghouls delivered an amazing cover of “Da Funk” using this preset, perfectly showing off its character and feel.

Don't ever stop making those presets, Neuro Community! Fresh inspiration often comes from channeling the artistic expression of our fellow musicians. Together as a community we are pushing each others' art and music forward into new and exciting places.