Mad Professor Snow White AutoWah: clips from da hips

As promised in the post your pedalboard thread, here are some clean bass clips of the SWAW. For these clips, I'll be playing my HS Stingray, through my pedalboard, into a firewire interface, then into Garage Band, and then out to the world via the internets. My pedalboard looks like this:

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Signal path is --> FEA Dual Band Comp (I split the signal here at 250 Hz, with a slight shelving boost below that point) --> (Zvex Box of Metal [highs] Aguilar Octamizer [lows]) --> Xotic X-Blender (used to remix the signal) --> EQD Grand Orbiter --> MP SWAW --> tuner -->. This lets me keep my low-end clean when I turn on the hate box, send only low frequencies to the Octamizer, and I can stomp off the highs as a sort of instant thump button (it's like having a tone knob on my Stingray, weee!)

For clip the one, I play fingerstyle, first clean, then with the SWAW on and using it in a traditional envelope filter fashion, then a little slower, using the touch responsiveness to get more wah-like sounds out of it, then slower still, for even more expressiveness. The settings on the SWAW are close to what you see in the pic up there: Sensitivity at 10:00, Bias at 7:00, Resonance at 2:00, Decay at 3:00.

For clip the two, I slap (poorly), first clean, then with the SWAW. I backed off on the Decay, to about 12:00, on this one.

For clip the three, I bypassed my highs, so all you hear is 250 Hz and below. I play cleanly, then with the SWAW, settings the same as the first fingerstyle clip. I also have this clip with no drums. This is mostly to show the low-end response.

Dirty clips!

Dirty clip one is SWAW into my AGRO, set up for overdrive. I play clean, then dirty, then noodle a bit with the SWAW on.

Dirty clip two is the Box of Metal into the SWAW. I play clean, then dirty, then noodle a bit with the SWAW on.

It's called an auto wah, but it is voltage controlled aka touch-sensitive.

Yeah, its sweep is more focused in the midrange, which gives it a throatier sound, instead of the quack of most envelope filters. I know it won't be what everyone is looking for, but I love it, because I hate the quacky envelope filter sound, about as much as I hate working a treadle.

I've already packed my junk up for the night, but I'll try to record a dirty clip tomorrow, with the SWAW before and after the Box of Metal (and maybe the AGRO, set up for lighter dirt).

That doesn't surprise me, as it is an odd beast; it doesn't really sound like a typical envelope filter, as it is tuned like a wah, yet it is touch-sensitive, so it doesn't operate like a wah. That in itself makes it niche, and I wouldn't expect the typical guitarist to have a lot of use for it, simply from a comfort/familiarity standpoint. Having said all that, it's pretty flexible and well thought-out, and can be very expressive with a little acclimation. It took me a little time, but I went from, "hmm..." to, "uh, yes please?" pretty quickly.

Dirty clips added bump.

I've owned a 440 before, and while the mid-range voicing is there, the sweep and response are very different between the two of them--the "buWAAOOOOOW" of the 440's sweep and the way the attack of the note seems to get swallowed up when the envelope doesn't fully open, as opposed to the SWAW, the sweep of which changes depending on your attack, from a quick, sharp "bwap" to a smooth "bwaaaw," but the attack of the note still comes through, and its decay doesn't drop into that deep hump. In other words, I find them pretty different in use. Due to that mid-voicing and more reserved resonance, they both play well with dirt, though.

fourstringdrums said:

I just ordered one of these, the blue version with the gtr/bass switch. I'm surprised more hasn't been said about it here. I'll have it tomorrow.

Click to expand...

Doesn't sound like a Mu-tron, so it flies under the radar. It's one of the only envelope filters I've ever really liked (the Chunk Systems Agent 00Funk is still my favorite), but I'm more of a Wah person, so I like filters that can cop that vibe.