Auto-wah for active basses? Mooer?

[Crater]

Remember to use a bright tone on the input of an envelope filter or autowah, otherwise when the filter opens up there's no treble there! A light OD can add upper harmonics too. Also, if you play with a light touch you may want to raise your pickups up closer to increase the output a bit.

 

[Wasnex]

Excellent info; thank you! Gives me a lot to think about. I will have time to go plug in later, and will check out some of these points.

At present, I am plugging directly into the Mooer, so no compression involved.

I had not considered the scenario of the Sensitivity being set too far, such that the filter stays open and thus no wah. Nor had I thought of the Tone control as determining where the wah happens (high vs low frequency). I have noticed some dark, murky sound, as you described. I don’t yet quite get it, in terms of understanding the description of the impact of adjusting the Q.

thanks for your time in giving me this input to consider and digest!

If the sound remains dark and murky, it suggests the sensitivity is set too low. I am leaning towards the idea that your pedal is faulty. I do agree with the idea of placing some sort of pedal before it, so you can hit it with a bit hotter signal. But it should work just fine with just bass, pedal, and amp/DAW. You could also try bumping up the tone controls on your active bass to send a hotter signal to the Mooer, rather than using a pedal.

Here is a Bass SWAW demo that may help.

I believe this pedal has the same controls as your pedal, but some of the names have been changed.

Resonance on SWAW = Q on Mooer
Bias on SWAW = Tone on Mooer​

This video does a good job of describing the controls and demonstrating how they work. The SWAW sounds considerably different than MOOER, but maybe viewing the video will help you understand how the controls should work bit better.

 

[Feral Feline]

I got the impression it is the sound. One of my local stores describes the bass setting as "drops the filter one octave down and is good for guitar as well if you want a darker sound".

Thanks again.


PS: Great thread, I'm learning tons.

 

[el murdoque]

I've tried the Mooer Sweeper for a bit. It's supposed to be the bass envelope filter. I had more or less the same issues you describe. Swapping the Sweeper for a SolidGoldFX FunkZilla solved much of that.

The problem as I experienced it in general with Envelope filtering / AutoWah effects on bass is that you want to play the note with the filter open to start on a big impact, with the filter closing afterwards to create the effect. A natural low bass note coming from your electric bass guitar needs a lil' time, though. So the note starts, and in the moment it should develop fully, the filter sweep has already begun, killing it before it can unfold. My personal remedy is massive compression or using the help of a synth pedal or an octaver to get that heft right at the beginning of each note, so the filter actually has something it can close on.

 

[Zbysek]

At present, I am plugging directly in to the Mooer Envelope Filter. I have tried three different active basses: G&L, Lakland, and Music Man StingRay (and have also tried a passive US Fender Jazz). So it would seem to me that the output level of the bass into the pedal should not be the problem. Or am I missing something? Thanks!

I had not considered the scenario of the Sensitivity being set too far, such that the filter stays open and thus no wah.

The idea behind my suggestion was to rule out the possibility that all of your basses have low output signal which is unable to trigger the wah effect.

Generally, envelope filter effects are triggered by peaks in your signal. If the signal is weak, there are no signal peaks strong enough to trigger the effect.

I agree that likelyhood of four different basses all of them having low output signal is rather low, though...

 

[Rolling Thunder]

The 3Leaf Proton is a fine envelope filter (aka Auto Wah) and of course there's the C4. Good luck in your search. I might be so bold to claim that bass players are as picky about their filter pedals as guitarists are with OD/Fuzz pedals.

 

[bassdood]

If the sound remains dark and murky, it suggests the sensitivity is set too low. I am leaning towards the idea that your pedal is faulty. I do agree with the idea of placing some sort of pedal before it, so you can hit it with a bit hotter signal. But it should work just fine with just bass, pedal, and amp/DAW. You could also try bumping up the tone controls on your active bass to send a hotter signal to the Mooer, rather than using a pedal.

Here is a Bass SWAW demo that may help.

I believe this pedal has the same controls as your pedal, but some of the names have been changed.

Resonance on SWAW = Q on Mooer
Bias on SWAW = Tone on Mooer​

This video does a good job of describing the controls and demonstrating how they work. The SWAW sounds considerably different than MOOER, but maybe viewing the video will help you understand how the controls should work bit better.

Thanks! I will check this out. I have been tied up for a while and not able to get to my gear. Wow, lots of great info here.

 

[bassdood]

I've tried the Mooer Sweeper for a bit. It's supposed to be the bass envelope filter. I had more or less the same issues you describe. Swapping the Sweeper for a SolidGoldFX FunkZilla solved much of that.

The problem as I experienced it in general with Envelope filtering / AutoWah effects on bass is that you want to play the note with the filter open to start on a big impact, with the filter closing afterwards to create the effect. A natural low bass note coming from your electric bass guitar needs a lil' time, though. So the note starts, and in the moment it should develop fully, the filter sweep has already begun, killing it before it can unfold. My personal remedy is massive compression or using the help of a synth pedal or an octaver to get that heft right at the beginning of each note, so the filter actually has something it can close on.

Thank you. I will try putting something in front of it, to see what impact that may have.