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Envelope Filter: Weird noise?

343 Salty Beans

343 Salty Beans

Jan 24, 2006
905
4
#1
I recently got an MXR bass auto Q, and I love the thing. There's only one problem. When I'm doing fingerpicking classical guitar-style, There's this 'schwish' behind the 'schloop' of the filter. I don't think the filter is picking up background noise from my bass or anything like that, my rig is pretty darn quiet at the moment. But it's a strange sound and I don't know what to do about it.

I love the filter for funky stylin' and slap, but the noise makes the thing harsher when I'm just doing light chord picking. Is this normal...can I do anything about it?
 
#3
My suggestion is to check your cables for shorts, check your battery or power supply, try different settings on your pedal, and if all else fails give Dunlop/MXR a call.

I'd asume that the swishy noise that you are hearing is the sound of the envelope in up drive being opened too much. In up drive the sweep of any given envelope to my ears can go from closed or almost closed - down in the mud (you could play any note and it would all sound the same, muddy) to almost all the way or all the way open - what I will call a cat-fight in a box (hissy noises along with the note being played). I don't personally own a Bass Auto Q, but if there is a control that varies how much the envelope aspect of the pedal will open, try turning it down a bit. Hope this helps a bit! :D
 
#4
I used to play one of those pedals and it sounds to me like you're hitting the thing too hard so the filter opens to far... it doesn't have a simple sensitivity control so it's not an easy fix unless there's a trimpot for sensitivity (I don't remember). But with certain basses I used to get the same thing.

I do remember putting a jumper somewhere on the board which would turn off the oscillation that the effect decays into if you've got a spare jumper around somewhere.

Also, if you're playing the next note without letting the first note end with this pedal, if I remember correctly, the filter may just keep going without catching the second note, if that makes sense.
 
#5
Sounds like you've got the blend knob turned up.

The blend knob on this pedal isn't what everyone thinks it is...It blends between the filter sound, and the auto wah known as the "shimmer" mode. Does the swoosh move in time with the pulsing LED? If so, this is your problem.

Turn the Blend knob all the way to the left and that will turn off shimmer mode. You can control the amount of clean & wet signal with the volume control.

Cheers, hope this helps.
 
#6
No, it's not the LFO shimmer I'm talking about...it happens while the filter sweeps, and it stops when the filter stops.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I don't think it's under warranty any more...I'll try moving it around in the chain, etc., to see if that helps.
 

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