This is what I’ve always wanted in a filter, and why I stopped searching once I bought the Aguilar Filter Twin.
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Envelope Filter 2019
- Thread starter OptimalOptimus
- Start date
Over the years, I have had a number of envelope filters. The two I still own are the Emma Discumbobulator V1 and a first version, 3 Leaf Groove Regulator.
Each of them are versatile enough for switching from active to passive to piezoelectric pickups without much tweaking in between. It's easy to get great filter tones from both filters with multiple basses.
The only one I regret selling is the old, EHX Mini Q-Tron in the 'Muff-sized enclosure. That one sounded fat as hell but I couldn't deal with that volume spike at the time. Oh well....
Never bonded with the Maxon AF-9 enough to justify keeping it around. The XO Q-Tron sounded good but I always found myself wishing it was as easy to control as the Groove Regulator. Russian Bassballs was fun but far from versatile in my hands. Boss AW-3 sounded good playing solo but I found it tended to disappear with anything more than bass and drums. It had a nice manual wash with an expression pedal, though.
I don't know much about the envelope filter offerings to the market from the last five years or so, but the Emma and 3 Leaf keep me satisfied with filters in 2019 and likely will well into the future.
Each of them are versatile enough for switching from active to passive to piezoelectric pickups without much tweaking in between. It's easy to get great filter tones from both filters with multiple basses.
The only one I regret selling is the old, EHX Mini Q-Tron in the 'Muff-sized enclosure. That one sounded fat as hell but I couldn't deal with that volume spike at the time. Oh well....
Never bonded with the Maxon AF-9 enough to justify keeping it around. The XO Q-Tron sounded good but I always found myself wishing it was as easy to control as the Groove Regulator. Russian Bassballs was fun but far from versatile in my hands. Boss AW-3 sounded good playing solo but I found it tended to disappear with anything more than bass and drums. It had a nice manual wash with an expression pedal, though.
I don't know much about the envelope filter offerings to the market from the last five years or so, but the Emma and 3 Leaf keep me satisfied with filters in 2019 and likely will well into the future.
I've previously owned the MXR BEF and like others, I found it to only do one thing. However it did that one thing extremely well and at the time it was exactly what I needed. It's band pass only though, rather than low pass. Hence the clean blend. I've also used the DOD Bass Synth Wah, but found the LPF setting to be very bland and it didn't last long. Currently I have an MF101 that I absolutely love, but it's very bulky and this does cause problems on my board. I'd never sell it, but the sound is solid gold. I also use a Source Manta, which is more of a filter lab than a single pedal. Low pass, high pass, notch filters, peak filters, parallel filters, 2 pole, 4 pole, 6 pole .... plus an LFO, expression control, drive. Super flexible. BUT it is tricky to dial in and really benefits from the Neuro Hub and the MIDI control that it adds. One oddball I have is the Malekko Scrutator, which is technically a Bit Crusher /SRR, but it has a 2 pole filter built in that is switchable between band pass and low pass, variable Q, pre-amp and offers expression control over all of the parameters. If space is tight and I don't need an envelope follower, I use that.
FWIW- I still have my Qtron + from ~2000 and basically couldn’t use it live due to the volume jump when engaged. I ended up buying a volume pedal but that sucked to dial in every time I’d engage it as it have to back up when bypassed. Too much foot dancing.
I ended up installing a 50k linear volume pot on the hot side output (from the board to the 3DPDT switch) a year ago and damn I wished I had done it earlier. Was a 20 minute job. Cut wire, solder to 2 sides of the pot, drill a hole in the shell, done. I replaced 2 bad jacks and the FX loop spring bypass (never worked, always had to have a patch cable even if I wasn’t putting anything in the loop) while I had it apart.
Adjusted the pot back so that there was unity gain between the 2 and voila! Dome have to touch it again. Felt sorry for all those sound guys that hated me when I kicked it on for so long.
I’ve moved on to the Source Audio Manta (and the C4 now) but I’ll never sell this guy. 19 years I’ve had this thing, almost always with a Big Muff in the FX loop for extra heavy fuzz options.
- Apr 19, 2001
- 2,302
- 3,047
- Disclosures
- Beta tester Source Audio, demos/reviews of many others
The spectrum filter is gonna win the title this year. Moog got kicked out
I had a few good filters over the years. There are so many to choose from but the ones with to many bells and whistles have sounds that you will never want or ever use. The pedals that sound less digital yet cuts through in live situations and recordings are the way to go. I like vintage or companies that use vintage ideas like Moog and Jam to name a few.
I might have to do this to mine then, I absolutely love the quacks and squelches I can get out of the Q but yeah that volume jump is just inane, I always have a compressor running after it but would have to run it at more extreme settings to tame it.
I'll never sell my Qtron+, even with the 24v bulky power it's worth it. (once I do this mod haha)
So I am going to revise my Favorite and it is now the Source Audio Spectrum. It can sound close enough to any filter that you won't know the difference. And with a MIDI controller you can save up to 128 Presets so no knob spinning on the gig just turn it on and it remembers knob positions too.
Last edited:
rsmith601
Commercial User
- Apr 14, 2009
- 4,461
- 8,356
- Disclosures
- CEO and Co-Founder, Source Audio
This was the ambitious objective! Glad to hear we did it!!!
I ended up with a similar fix. A 500K volume pot in an enclosure run through the qtron’s fx loop has done me well. The Q+ is such a great filter. They really need to update it with a master volume
I like the Earthquaker Devices Spatial Delivery. I keep a Manta on my board too but just for using the hot hand on a few things. The Spatial Delivery is a nice bubbly warm filter. The sample and hold feature is fun too.
The SA BEF Pro replaced my Groove Regulator in 2011 and has remained my go to. Then the C4 was released and for practice Friday, I rearranged the board, to only have to carry one board, and I took the BEF Pro off and put the C4 in its spot. Most likely both will remain, so that if I use a synthy effect with the C4 I can filter it with the BEF. But I also recently began using my Moog Bass MuRF for some more basic filtering where it had been exclusively more exotic filtering. And it works incredibly well with the C4, too. The C4 has Meatball, MuTron, Manta, Moog LPF and OC2 sounds, as well as the ability to add secondary, or tertiary filters to those sounds, or add distortion, or octaves up or down, and through the desktop editor, I can call up the Spectrum presets and tweak those to tailor my sound even further. The only downside is the time it takes to tailor sounds, but it's good to learn that aspect, and once you save the sound you like, you can call it up easily. I don't foresee myself needing to look at any envelope filters for another 8 years, if ever.
I'm more into autowah than filter, so I guess the perspective is a bit different. After trying many (most are listed in my profile), I couldn't help but go back to the venerable Digitech Bass Synth Wah. It can do decent filter sounds and a whole lot of wacky/unusable other sounds, but modes 1 and 2 are where the meat is for me. Granted, this pedal is not everyone's cup of tea, but then filters are such a personal choice.
