Wah help - it changes the sound

enc.ny

enc.ny

Member
Noob question, but can't figure it out myself.

I have a boss fv-500h expression pedal connectected to extern1.

What I am trying to do is - just insert a wah box in front of everything, but when I do that it changes the overall sound of a patch slightly, I can hear that 'wah' is there, though I didn't press the pedal yet. That is also true if I bypass wah block completely.

At the same time there's autoengage parameter in wah settings which I thought will turn on wah effect only when pedal is pressed? ...

My question is: how to insert the the wah block in front of the whole chain so it DOES NOT change the sound in any way and engage it only when pedal is pressed? I assume that is possible?

Also - does it turn off after some time or how does it work?

Thanks.
 
Sounds like you have the percentage for it to engage set wrong and even though it is supposed to be bypassed, it is engaging because the position to engage percentage is not set properly.

You have to set engage to a certain percentage so that when you start moving the pedal, it will engage after that percentage of the sweep has been passed. I'm not sitting in front of mine yet so I can't recall the settings off the top of my head, but I am sure others will chime in to help. I use auto-engage on mine and it is the best thing since sliced bread. I have it set for heel down as off, others use it as toe down is off. Once you pass back to the resting position, the wah cuts off. Some people use spring loaded pedals so they always return to the heel down/off position on auto-engage. I like having the cocked-wah sound sometimes, so spring loaded isn't for me.

Edit: I believe mine is set to engage at 5%. Check to make sure your settings don't say 0% because that would indicate that the pedal is always engaged.
 
and auto off also possible? the on is indeed working. but with gsystem i loved that it switched off automatically after not using for 1 second (or a different time value). auto engage works fine indeed.

oh i see its related to wah position. i will give it a try...
 
>Edit: I believe mine is set to engage at 5%.

You mean it has to be all the way down (or up) and then on 5% it will turn on?

The problem is (as I hear) the wah changes the sound simply if it's in the chain, doesn't even matter if it is bypassed or not.
 
Probably related to the auto impedance setting on the input. The wah pedal will have a different input impedance than an amp block. Try forcing an impedance value and see if that resolves it.
 
Did you callibrate your pedal? Have you tried the wah-block in a factory-preset? If that works you could copy the settings from the 'factory-wah' to y in your own wah-block and find out where the diffences are. That way you know what to do next time... Should be an easy fix.
 
Hellbat said:
Probably related to the auto impedance setting on the input. The wah pedal will have a different input impedance than an amp block. Try forcing an impedance value and see if that resolves it.
Click to expand...

Yup, that would be my guess as well.
-
Austin
 
Auto impedance is based on the first engaged block, so adding a bypassed wah shouldn't change the impedance.

enc.ny said:
The problem is (as I hear) the wah changes the sound simply if it's in the chain, doesn't even matter if it is bypassed or not.
Click to expand...

Can you post a preset or screenshot of the layout, and/or a recording demonstrating the difference in sound?

Are you looking at Axe-Edit, the front panel layout menu, or both? Axe-Edit won't reflect changes from auto-engage, so it's possible for a block to appear off there while it's really on. Try closing or pausing Axe-Edit if currently using it, and see if the wah is on/off in the front panel layout menu.
 
enc.ny said:
Noob question, but can't figure it out myself.

I have a boss fv-500h expression pedal connectected to extern1.

What I am trying to do is - just insert a wah box in front of everything, but when I do that it changes the overall sound of a patch slightly, I can hear that 'wah' is there, though I didn't press the pedal yet. That is also true if I bypass wah block completely.

At the same time there's autoengage parameter in wah settings which I thought will turn on wah effect only when pedal is pressed? ...

My question is: how to insert the the wah block in front of the whole chain so it DOES NOT change the sound in any way and engage it only when pedal is pressed? I assume that is possible?

Also - does it turn off after some time or how does it work?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

If you have the auto engage set up, the wah block will work when the pedal is in the "on range". The block can be bypassed in the chain and it will still work in the "on range" since that is the mechanism you choose to turn it on with.
It will not turn off after a certain amount of time, it will turn off when the pedal is not in the "on range".
Most would set the engage range at 5% or 95 % depending on whether you want it to turn off in the fully up or down position.
Assuming that is all set up to your taste, you then need to make sure the pedal has been calibrated with the AXE-FX to make sure it can reach that threshold. The Knob on the fv-500h can also keep you from reaching the off range if not set up and calibrated correctly.
 
RockDog said:
If you have the auto engage set up, the wah block will work when the pedal is in the "on range". The block can be bypassed in the chain and it will still work in the "on range" since that is the mechanism you choose to turn it on with.
It will not turn off after a certain amount of time, it will turn off when the pedal is not in the "on range".
Most would set the engage range at 5% or 95 % depending on whether you want it to turn off in the fully up or down position.
Assuming that is all set up to your taste, you then need to make sure the pedal has been calibrated with the AXE-FX to make sure it can reach that threshold. The Knob on the fv-500h can also keep you from reaching the off range if not set up and calibrated correctly.
Click to expand...

BTW I am not new, as my profile might imply, to the Axe-Fx as I have had an Ultra since 2009
 
Thanks for everyone's replies. Think I figured that - placed started to about 5-7% and when the pedal in ">" position it seems like it doesn't change a sound anymore.

Interesting, how people are using wah in FD: in ">" position, or in "-" position? What the way to get the full range in either?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom