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Aguilar Twin Filter is not working out so far.

gary mitchell

gary mitchell

Jul 14, 2008
2,020
1,671
austin texas
#1
I just can't get a good wah sound from it. I put it in front middle back of my chain, my chain consist of a Boss Geb-7 a Dallas arbiters fuzz, a Keeley Bassist compressor limiter, Boss DD3 delay and the Aguilar Filter Twin. I 've have change position of each pedal everyway I can, I have eq the Aguilar I don't know how many ways. When I get a good wah down past the A it's alright but when I go up are to the lower notes it gets muddy, that thing is driving me crazy, part of me is wishing I never bought it. The Boss Geb-7 is awful with it. I need help.
 
#4
You could - if you haven't already - use the GEB-7 in front of the Filter to select certain frequencies that would push the filter to where you like it.
The Keeley may not help if you're compressing before the filter either. I prefer to feed a hot dynamic signal to an envelope filter and compress after.
The dual filters in this pedal might also be fighting each other if you're after a simple squawk sound. The EHX Cockfight or Keeley Neutrino, Monteray or Supermod might be a better fit.
 
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#5
Roland GR 88 said:
You could - if you haven't already - use the GEB-7 in front of the Filter to select certain frequencies that would push the filter to where you like it.
The Keeley may not help if you're compressing before the filter either. I prefer to feed a hot dynamic signal to an envelope filter and compress after.
The dual filters in this pedal might also be fighting each other if you're after a simple squawk sound.
Click to expand...

All good points. I would particularly look at the dual filter settings. If you want the wah sound then start by turning the "down" filter all the way off...it's the "ow" sound that is directly opposite of the "wah" of the up filter and could indeed cancel that out.

The Filter Twin is the first envelope pedal that just sounded good right away to me when I tried it, so there's probably something simple to change here.
 
#7
Dave W said:
If you're trying to get a wah sound from it I'd suggest getting a wah instead.

Filters are a very personal thing. It takes a lot of trial and error to find what you like. If the Filter Twin isn't working out you may want to consider another pedal.
Click to expand...

+1. I've probably gone thru a dozen filters, including the Filter Twin, and I still haven't found one that does what I want 100% of the time. I've got the MXR on my board right now. It's ok, but the search will probably continue. Same issue with modulation. The best modulation pedal I've owned(and it was a pretty good filter as well), was the Strymon Mobius. I've had two of them. Loved the sounds, got tired of the programming. May hafta reconsider since they sound amazing...
 
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#9
Auto-wah, envelope filter, whatever, they’re the same thing. Some just sound more like a wah than others. Of all the filters I’ve tried, the Discumbobulator sounds most like a wah pedal, especially going into an overdrive or dirty amp. It just happens to say auto-wah on the box, but it’s a lowpass filter unlike most wahs which are bandpass.
 
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#10
gary mitchell said:
I just can't get a good wah sound from it. I put it in front middle back of my chain, my chain consist of a Boss Geb-7 a Dallas arbiters fuzz, a Keeley Bassist compressor limiter, Boss DD3 delay and the Aguilar Filter Twin. I 've have change position of each pedal everyway I can, I have eq the Aguilar I don't know how many ways. When I get a good wah down past the A it's alright but when I go up are to the lower notes it gets muddy, that thing is driving me crazy, part of me is wishing I never bought it. The Boss Geb-7 is awful with it. I need help.
Click to expand...

Before you write the Twin Filter off, try plugging your bass straight into the pedal. This will let you know if perhaps the order of your effects are causing undesirable performance.

Could be too much compression. The filter opens off dynamics. If you limit the dynamics too much with your compressor or drive pedals, the filter will not open all the way; so the sound will be dark. Fuzz boxes tend to be highly compressed. I like a compressor early in the signal chain, but with certain types of effects or pedal combinations, it's necessary to turn it off. My board has a compressor at the front and the end which are used only for gentle compression.

I would also run the EQ after the compressor. If you run EQ first, the compressor will tend to key off any frequencies you are peaking. The more boost you use the more selective your compressor will get. IMHO, this can sound a bit unnatural but YMMV.
 
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#11
Which filter is best for METAL!!! (You knew it was coming!!!)

Unfortunately, filters are as individual as distortion. One man's trash is another man's treasure...
My treasures:
Invalid Link Removed Studio Electronics - Awesomely complex!
Invalid Link RemovedA simple, small, reliable MuTron, by the guy who created the original. Cannot get a bad sound out of this one!!!

As always, YMMV.

Diego
 
#12
Dave W said:
If you're trying to get a wah sound from it I'd suggest getting a wah instead.

Filters are a very personal thing. It takes a lot of trial and error to find what you like. If the Filter Twin isn't working out you may want to consider another pedal.
Click to expand...

crguti said:
The Aguilar Twin Filter is an Envelope Filter not a Wah.
Click to expand...

So you do realize that a wah and an envelope filter *are* the same thing, right? It is a filter with resonance at its cut off frequency, and set up so that a control sweeps the value of that cutoff frequency. On a wah you sweep the cutoff freq with the foot treadle, on an envelope filter it is swept by an envelope follower circuit that responds to the volume of the input signal. Other than the control mechanism, really the same thing. Now you can have 3 types of filters, but for the most part it is a lowpass filter. Sometimes it can be a bandpass filter, but with those you usually need to mix in some clean to maintain a full sound.
 
#13
OP, definitely try putting the EF before your compressor to get the biggest dynamic range out of your signal. Also try using the Mix control, IIRC, to select only the up-sweep filter by turning it to all the way towards the up arrow.

I will say this, as others have noted, EFs are very personal and different ones sound and respond quite differently. I find the FilterTwin to be a relatively mild, atmospheric filter. Neither of the two filters (the up-sweep and the down-sweep) are particularly resonant, so the filters by themselves are not very wet or squelchy. It does have a nice mild volume boost which helps.

The other issue, about how it is dialed in for only a certain range of notes, is a common problem for EFs and it is two-fold. First, the notes with the most frequency content near the resonant peak of the filter are going to speak more. On the FilterTwin you can only control the frequency bandnwith the threshold, basically opening the filter more gets you up higher in frequency, but that is a crude control. The second part is that most basses do not have an even volume across their range. Since our hearing is most sensitive to mids, in order to sound balanced most basses have a louder low end. So as you move around the neck and across strings the amount you open the filter, for a given threshold setting, will change. If it sounds good low it can be hard to get the filter to move much higher up; conversely if sounds good higher up chances your low notes will slam the filter completely open and you lose the motion that allows you to hear the wah effect.

One other thing can really help: a little, very little, light overdrive. It adds harmonics, upper frequency content, which gives more info for the filter to process. Also many ODs roll off a bit of the lowest frequencies, making your signal a bit more balanced across the neck. You might be able to do this with your EQ as well, but I think it will be difficult to find a single EQ setting that makes both your EF and your unaffected bass sound good.

I find that I have to pick certain ranges to tune the filter for. This is one reason I like to have more than one EF on my board at a time. One is tuned so that it responds better to low notes, I use that for baselines and with the octaver. The other can be tuned for higher up the neck for solos and melodies.
 
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#14
HolmeBass said:
So you do realize that a wah and an envelope filter *are* the same thing, right?.
Click to expand...

Yes. However, they don't always act the same which is why I said that.

I spent a solid year buying/trying/flipping envelope filters trying to find one that sounded and acted like a wah pedal so I could have my wah in a smaller format. I think I went through around 25 envelope filters. I found a couple that I liked but didn't care for most of them.

I strongly prefer having an actual wah to get that type of sound, it's just what I'm comfortable with.
 
#15
Dave W said:
Yes. However, they don't always act the same which is why I said that.

I spent a solid year buying/trying/flipping envelope filters trying to find one that sounded and acted like a wah pedal so I could have my wah in a smaller format. I think I went through around 25 envelope filters. I found a couple that I liked but didn't care for most of them.

I strongly prefer having an actual wah to get that type of sound, it's just what I'm comfortable with.
Click to expand...
One thing a wah can do that is difficult or impossible with an EF is a filter that very slowly opens as a note decays. Or have the filter move at a different rate from the notes you are playing. But the basic “quack” sound of a resonant filter moving through frequencies is something common to both effects.

But the suitability is totally in the details, I get that. I own or have owned well over 20 EFs and they are all different.

I also don’t think OP was trying to get his EF to sound like a wah pedal per se, he was just describing the sound of the moving filter as “wah” as opposed to “quack” or some other onamonapaedic word.
 
#16
I just got my Filter Twin yesterday and out of the box realized I needed some tutorials. I found some pretty good demo videos to help me get some awesome sounds. I was running my MIM Precision with aggie 4p-60 Labella flats w/foam tone rolled completely off and couldn't get any "action" out of the pedal. Turn the tone up to full or half and plucked behind the pup and found the magic. Check out this demo... the first setting he's using is "wah?" What I like about the FilterTwin is that it doesn't seem to color your bass tone. It's like an auxiliary pedal to use along side any other pedals you might want to use to alter you tone. I'm sure there is a reasonable wah sound in there. If I find one I'll let you know.. .
 
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#17
gary mitchell said:
I just can't get a good wah sound from it. I put it in front middle back of my chain, my chain consist of a Boss Geb-7 a Dallas arbiters fuzz, a Keeley Bassist compressor limiter, Boss DD3 delay and the Aguilar Filter Twin. I 've have change position of each pedal everyway I can, I have eq the Aguilar I don't know how many ways. When I get a good wah down past the A it's alright but when I go up are to the lower notes it gets muddy, that thing is driving me crazy, part of me is wishing I never bought it. The Boss Geb-7 is awful with it. I need help.
Click to expand...
The 1st of many variants is the output and eq of your bass. I think the filter twin is a very sensitive pedal, prol best with passive jazz type bass (less midrange than P), most of my basses would blow it up, maybe not the low imp. Jack Cassidy...that bass changes all effects, so I have some I just use with it. Finding true love with your first envelope pedal is as rare as marrying your HS gf, but then you never get to try a Bass Micro Synthesizer or 30 other filter pedals.
 
#18
I have found since playing with the pedal for a while, I have fallen in love with it. I am not so much of using it for a wah and I have stop trying. But i have found I can get an awesome sound from a smooth low sound , a sound I have been looking for and hearing in my head for a long time. But it has made some of my other pedals , seem useless for me. I was using 6 pedals plus a TC tuner.. I am going to church today using just the Aguilar filter, Keeley bassist and Boss DD-3 delay and the tuner but i don't count the tuner as an effect. I am using my Jazz bass which is loaded with EMGs JV52s, I haven't tried p bass fretless on it yet, or my Lakland 3tbs hollow body.. All my basses use flatwounds strings. At church I use an older SWR 350 head and SWR 410 which i really like, but it belongs to the church. Here I use my amp which is a MarkBass Jeff Berlin 151p. But I got to tell you I love my sound now best I have had in along time. Getting rid of the Boss GEB-7 and the TC Electronic Chorus, and my Fuzz pedal which a guy made for me, and its cool sounds like an old Dallas Arbiter I will use it on my guitar rig with my Tele and Rivera.. They were right when I quit trying to use it as a Wah, I found the sound and I may just stick with the 3 pedals.
 
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#19
Well this sucks , I loved the pedal and the sound I was getting, but the band the whole band hated the filter twin and the way it sounded. We all worked with it but they said my sound was a lot better without it. Now I again thinking about trading it off for something else, they said it was up to me. But we have been playing together 10 years now and I want to keep harmony between us..
 

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