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Wah pedal questions
Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 6:34 pm
by Cochise
Hello. I'm still around, as you can see
At now I'm using an expression pedal connected to my MIDI keyboard/controller to emulate a wah pedal.
Being a very long time since the days i stomped a wah-wah, i can't exactly remember the behaviour of the pedal: does it broaden filter bandwidth (or sweep to high freq) when pushing down, or vice versa?
Moreover, which is the more suitable filter, a resonant lowpass, a band pass or what else? Which filter order (4 pole)?
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 7:30 pm
by garyb
Crybaby wahs work one way, Morley work the other. whatever you like...
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 2:09 am
by tgstgs
dont forget
vintage vibes
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 3:50 am
by dawman
You need SpaceF's Wax S.
Way ahead of the curve. Ask him for the information on it.
I had a cool Voodoo CHild Demo I made using all Modular and Wax S and it semi convincing.
R U Experienced Vibes
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 6:58 pm
by Cochise
garyb wrote:Crybaby wahs work one way, Morley work the other. whatever you like...
I tried both the two ways (inverting wires in the expression pedal). I anyway have a better feeling when the filter closes pushing down.
Which of the two does work this way?
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 7:06 pm
by Cochise
tgstgs wrote:dont forget
vintage vibes
That's a crybaby, isn't it?
Do you use software spectrum analyzer, tgs?
It should be interesting to see some white noise through that pedal...

Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 7:14 pm
by Cochise
XITE-1/4LIVE wrote:You need SpaceF's Wax S.
Way ahead of the curve. Ask him for the information on it.
I had a cool Voodoo CHild Demo I made using all Modular and Wax S and it semi convincing.
R U Experienced Vibes
I'll ask him soon.
Just tried Flexor BP multistage and it sounds very cool especially with humbuckers and lot of overdrive; resonance between 3 and 4, central position for the cutoff, less than a quarter of modulation; I had to slightly reduce MIDI range for the pedal (almost 30 units) to better suit my stomping.
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 11:05 pm
by garyb
forward is a crybaby.
backwards is morley. that's why the morley man looks so cool:

- morley man.jpg (9.32 KiB) Viewed 2831 times
crybaby users lean into the wah when their guitar goes waAAAAH. the morley makes more sense, but most people don't like actually using it and use wahs that work like the crybaby. i kinda like leaning back for wah-face...
i think the morley guy is based on Quicksilver Messenger Service's John Cipollina. he sure looked just like that when he played and he definitely used morleys.

- Cipollina.JPG (4.53 KiB) Viewed 2830 times
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 11:18 pm
by garyb
that is a cool looking one Thomas.
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:25 am
by dawman
I loved QMService, and that SG too.
Cochise.....If you liked the Flexor BP, you can use SpaceF's Inserts inside of the Wax-S and store presets of various Filters. Calling up a certain filter loads instantly, and then the Pedal itself can adjust the resistance, etc.
Very Impressive stuff .
GaryB......
What was the QMSerive song that was real popular, it's killing me as I can't remember the name just the words.
Have another hit, of Sweet California sunshine.....eeww, ah eeww eeww....Drum flam, silence, return to verse....
I want to know......etc. Brainfart starts....
Loved that song.
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:59 am
by Cochise
@Garyb
IMO, for soloing purposes it's just a matter of getting used to the verse; for rhythmic chords, reggae like, i feel the forward closing movement more natural, since it's close to the movement usually done by foot to tap tempo
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:11 am
by Cochise
I actually ended up being definitely confused by wires verse, positive/negative modulation and up or down MIDI range limitation for the controller; but it was late night, plus I was getting noise and bad thoughts background from outside the window activities.
I'll try again on better times to get the setup.
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 10:41 pm
by tgstgs
the pic shoes the colorsound wah/fuzz;
it is the first model that came out;
the switch for the fuzz is below the pedal so you could accidentically switch it on;
they change the design on the later models by doing a hohle in the pedal for the fuzz switch;
this was more popular in the old world in the 70tis;
i did not like the fuzz /too much distordet/ used a chandler tube driver instead
but the wah is much more controlable than on any of the other wahs named here_
i found a nice comparison:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoZTPy0LP40
@gary_
so you prefer this one?
i never used much too heavy weighted too big and the f*. powercable you know;
good vibes
and sorry for a bit off topic
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 10:47 pm
by garyb
that's a cool one too!
eh, the later ones have batteries. when i was at Pro Music Exchange, just about every wah ever made came through the store at one time or another.
no, i'm to lame to properly use one, but the Black Cat was one of my more favorite wahs. i think i have a crybaby and a DOD somewhere...

Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 8:02 am
by Cochise
As for the filters side, after some widening I arranged things this way in Modular
(the patch is based on a CW Poly Filter module)
It's quite an emulation of an emulation, since I wasn't able to find any hardware box to experiment with, but I consider it a good starting point.
I've still got to deepen the stomping direction side....
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 8:07 am
by Cochise
...experienced soloist can easily emulate kind of wah effect just muting strings, though

Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 1:34 pm
by Cochise
Just realized I messed up with 12dB sliders inserting them at the beginning of the chain. Of course this cause saturation before filters but no gain increase
I've replaced the patch with the revised one.
Though in the previous configuration I didn't noticed the unpleasant digital distortion I'd expect

I'v to better check...
BTW laziness apart, phaser2 foot controlled is a must to try
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 1:41 pm
by Cochise
@ Tgs
The yellow one in the Youtube video really rocks.
Probably the emulation I emulated is based on something like the black one...
Pedal response using CW modules is considerably improved in comparison with the model I used (it probably need its own pedal to work right, not a common expression one)
Re: Wah pedal questions
Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 3:20 pm
by Cochise
I'm going off thread, but... I've forget the workaround for preset storage in Modular

; Can anyone please post the link to the related thread, or other info?
...the search tool here is returning an SQL error at now