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Boss envelope filter?

The old yellow Boss FT-2 is a killer! IT IS AN ENVELOPE FILTER, and it shares nothing in common with AW-2 or AW-3 pedals. Those are auto whas.

The FT 2 is pretty rare today, as it was suddenly discountinued in the late 80's, but you can grab one at a decent price on Ebay, they pop up pretty regulary over there.

It sounds like no other envelope filter IMO. Makes me think of Donald Duck on LSD, very crying tone and nice sweep. Personally, I found the controls very nice: sensitivity / Cut off frequency [high - low] / Q / Up - Down - Manual modes. The Down mode is amazing, makes me freak out the funk, just pure dirty and liquid sound a la Chamelon by Herbie Hancock. The input for an expression pedal such as the Roland EV 5 is also a nice feature , as it allows you to use the pedal as a real wha. Works great on bass !

Edit: just saw this auction on the Bay. That's a nice price, go for it!

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Wait, what's the difference between an auto-wah and an envelope filter?

Oh no, it's that question again! :eek:

Here's a quote from a recent thread asking that very question:

abark000 said:
An autowah, is precisely that an automatic wah. It wahs at either a specific amount for every note or at a specific rate and doesn't react to dynamics or attack. The MXR M188 is an example of this effect.

A envelope filter is voltage controlled. In laymans terms, it react to your playing. Plucking the string harder opens the "envelope" more, giving you more effect. With certain settings, playing softly wont open it at all. Dub artists use this to give them a huge, pillowy bass tone. Envelopes are dime a dozen. EHX makes 3 or 4 different ones. There are also a ton of older DOD models.

In short, envelope filters are responsive to your playing and an autowah isn't.

These two posts were found in this thread after a quick search of the word - autowah. They explain it a little better than I could.

Hopefully, that helps. :)

I'd link to the thread it came from, but it was a bit turbulent. :hmm:
 
Thanks Boo.

What about envelope filters that call themselves auto wahs? I have an Ibanez AW-7 that while called an auto wah is most definitely envelope controlled.

If this is truly the case, the Boss T-Wah and AW-2 & AW-3 (now called a dynamic filter) are all envelope filters and qualify.
 
There's no standard to define one from the other, which is very frustrating. But, the word "envelope" definitely implies a signal amplitude controlled filter.

The AW-2 and 3 have a foot in each camp - they have two basic modes of operation, one oscillator controlled and the other envelope controlled.