Auto Wahs/Envelope filters. What are people's thoughts?

Hoof

OK, so while I like a bit of wah from time to time I don't really want a gurt big Crybaby on my board. My foot technique isn't that good either and for the sounds I want (plus a few others) there must be better options out there.

I need it to do a good cocked wah sound, and the Edwin Collins Girl Like You type of thing, plus a decent tracking/responsive auto wah.

Bass Balls/Mutron sounds and any other toys would be cool too. 

The EHX QTron looks interesting. What else is out there?

english_bob

Have a look at the Subdecay Prometheus. Depending on how you set it you can get auto wah sounds, fixed filter sounds including but not limited to "stuck wah" tones and also a sample and hold filter. It's going to take time to get your head around, and if you want more than one sound from it you'll need to do some tweaking, but it's very versatile.

The original Prometheus is out of production (the current Deluxe model is a lot of cash, but a lot of pedal too), but you should be able to find one.

Funkfingers

BOSS Dynamic Filter. 
BOSS Auto Wah
Ibanez/Maxon versions of the same thing
Electro-Harmonix Cock Fight

ironically, in spite of the design brief, the EHX Cock Fight really benefits from the addition of an expression pedal to alter the peak frequency.

fretmeister

WMD Super Fatman
3 Leaf Audio Wonderlove
DOD FX25 (not the 25B)
Maxon AF-9
Emma Discombobulator 

Sporky

To be fair nothing without an inductor sounds like a normal wah - this is why the Morley wahs don't sound "right".

Lots of good envelope filter/autowah suggestions already - I particularly liked the Subdecay Prometheus and the Exar Multiwah (also sold as the Jacques Trinity). But they don't sound like a Crybaby/RMC/Castledine.

ThePrettyDamned

I liked my old Qtron, but it didn't like high output pickups at all. 

The boss ft-2 is excellent. So much fun. 

And the dod FX 25 is also excellent, slightly dirtier sounding almost. Porno in a box. 

ThePrettyDamned

Sporky said:

To be fair nothing without an inductor sounds like a normal wah - this is why the Morley wahs don't sound "right".

Lots of good envelope filter/autowah suggestions already - I particularly liked the Subdecay Prometheus and the Exar Multiwah (also sold as the Jacques Trinity). But they don't sound like a Crybaby/RMC/Castledine.

That's interesting. I like the morley wahs, because they sound more like a huge synth sweep than a wah pedal. Nice to know the technical difference  

JezWynd

After trying a few I settled on the Maxon AF9 Auto Wah. It takes quite a bit of experimentation to get the best from it and you do need to play the pedal to some extent. I found the Maxon doesn't work well with single coil pu's without a boost in front of the it - it needs a hot signal basically, but once that issue is sorted it sounds excellent, the decay is really throaty, sounds brilliant with bass and 6 string.

My other go to is the Boss FT-2 Dynamic Filter. I love this pedal, esp. for bass. I play with fingers and the FT-2 can give me a really pick like attack. It also is excellent for 6 string and works well for a cocked wah effect via the Cutoff control. It has a socket for an expression pedal but I found the sweep a bit too too mild.

The Mad Prof Auto Wah is another really good one, probably the most realistic if you want to genuinely mimic a wah pedal.

The Dod FX25 is an excellent pedal, it has one sound and it's a great one. The FX25B isn't as bad as some suggest, quite useable but slightly lacking the throaty growl of the FX25. While it's a good sound I eventually found it a bit restricting, the controls need to set a certain way to get it to operate, it's another one where you have to play the pedal.

Hoof

Good suggestions there chaps.

After trawling through a ton of YT demos I've realised how much I hate badly played funk (I'm not overly keen on well played funk tbh).

I liked the Subdecay but posssibly a little dark sounding and quite expensive.
The coolest one I've found is the Earthquaker Spatial Delivery but it seems to be more focused on odd noises. Not sure how much use I'd get from it.
I stumbled across the DOD 440 which I think sounded incredible but unfortunately it doesn't seem to do the cocked wah sound from the demos I've seen

I think the winner is between the EMMA DiscumBOBulator V2 and the Boss FT-2. 

Sporky

ThePrettyDamned said:

Sporky said:

To be fair nothing without an inductor sounds like a normal wah - this is why the Morley wahs don't sound "right".

Lots of good envelope filter/autowah suggestions already - I particularly liked the Subdecay Prometheus and the Exar Multiwah (also sold as the Jacques Trinity). But they don't sound like a Crybaby/RMC/Castledine.

That's interesting. I like the morley wahs, because they sound more like a huge synth sweep than a wah pedal. Nice to know the technical difference  

I liked the Morley I had for much the same reason!

IIRC most of the autowahs and envelope filters use a state-variable filter, which is essentially three op-amps with caps and resistors to give simultaneous low pass, high pass and bandpass outputs (a fourth op-amp adds notch with some topologies).

On the other hand a "traditional" wah does a weird thing where at heel down it's a low-pass filter, through the sweep it's a variable frequency band-pass and at the top it's a high-pass.

As usual, GeoFex has excellent articles on both:

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/wahpedl/wahped.htm

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/ecftech/ecftech.htm

JezWynd

Hoof said:

I stumbled across the DOD 440 which I think sounded incredible but unfortunately it doesn't seem to do the cocked wah sound from the demos I've seen

I think the winner is between the EMMA DiscumBOBulator V2 and the Boss FT-2. 

The DOD is okay, I've had a couple, the recent rerelease and the eighties one. Very much a one trick pony and takes away a lot of your bottom end. That said, if it's a sound you like, it's a nice pedal and v easy to dial in.

The Emma and the FT-2 are very different pedals, I haven't tried the Emma but listening to videos it sounds a lot more flexible than the FT, which is quite restricted in its abilities. That doesn't mean the FT is no good, it's one of the few pedals that I think of as essential but it's worth bearing its limitations in mind. IMO of course.

Grunfeld

Every once in a while I play a stage too small to fit a board and a wah onto.
And that's when I add the...
Mooer Funky Monkey.

I really hate the way that Joe Punter doesn't notice I'm "cheating". 

The Mooer is a good little unit. 

Kebabkid

I've always thought that the ones in the Zoom units were pretty good. Having just done the firmware upgrade for the Zoom MS-70 CDR and inherited quite a bit from the Zoom MS-50 including the various filter effects, they're good and tweakable and you'll find a cocked-wah sound in there and more.

Either unit are around £50 used plus you get all the other fx and a tuner to boot.

pintspiller

I had a Boss AW-2. All I used it for was Nutbush. I sold it on.

ICBM

Bear in mind that if you need a cocked-wah sound, most normal auto-wahs and envelope filters won't do that - they don't have a static setting where you can adjust the frequency. The Boss AW-2 and FT-2 do, not sure about the newer AW-3.

It's also worth mentioning that the AW-2 is prone to picking up hum, since it does use an inductor.

viz

ICBM said:

Bear in mind that if you need a cocked-wah sound, most normal auto-wahs and envelope filters won't do that - they don't have a static setting where you can adjust the frequency. The Boss AW-2 and FT-2 do, not sure about the newer AW-3.

It's also worth mentioning that the AW-2 is prone to picking up hum, since it does use an inductor.

Also, obviously, sprung wahs like the Morleys are difficult to keep half-cocked, but then on the other hand you can stamp-pump them and they spring back for you. 

Hoof

ICBM said:

Bear in mind that if you need a cocked-wah sound, most normal auto-wahs and envelope filters won't do that - they don't have a static setting where you can adjust the frequency. The Boss AW-2 and FT-2 do, not sure about the newer AW-3.

It's also worth mentioning that the AW-2 is prone to picking up hum, since it does use an inductor.

Yeah that's why I've narrowed it down to the Emma DiscumBOBulator or the FT-2. There have been a couple of others that have maybe sounded a bit better but have lacked some features and sounds that I was after, for instance the DOD pedals or the EDQ Spatial Delivery.

The cocked wah sound is important to me, when I actually bring my Crybaby out it's usually what it gets used for but everything else to do with its size, weight, noise and effect on the bypassed signal means it's just too much of a comprimise for what I want from it.