The Fuzz-Wah plug-in emulates classic wah wah effects often used with a clavinet, and it adds compression and fuzz distortion effects as well. The name wah wah comes from the sound it produces. It has been a popular effect—usually a pedal effect—with electric guitarists since the days of Jimi Hendrix. The pedal controls the cutoff frequency of a bandpass, lowpass, or—less commonly—highpass filter.
The Fuzz-Wah interface is broken down into the following sections.
These buttons determine the signal flow of the Fuzz-Wah effect. Click Wah-Fuzz or Fuzz-Wah to choose the desired flow.
Note that the Fuzz-Wah plug-in features an integrated compression circuit. The compressor always precedes the fuzz effect. When Wah-Fuzz is selected, the compressor is positioned between the wah wah and the fuzz effect. When Fuzz-Wah is selected, however, the compressor is placed first in the signal chain.
This group of parameters controls the tone and behavior of the wah wah effect.
In addition to using MIDI foot pedals, you can control the Wah Wah effect with the Auto Wah feature, which continually performs a filter sweep across the entire range. See Using the Fuzz-Wah.
These parameters control the integrated distortion and compression circuits. The compressor always precedes the Fuzz effect.
The following section provides practical tips for the Fuzz-Wah parameters.
The Wah Wah effect can cause the output level to vary widely. Turning Auto Gain on compensates for this tendency and keeps the output signal within a more stable range.
Switch Auto Gain to on.
Raise the effect level to a value just below the mixer’s clipping limit.
Make a sweep with a high relative Q setting.
Switch Auto Gain to off, and repeat the sweep.
Important: Make sure to set a conservative master output level for your host application before trying this. Failure to do so may result in damage to your hearing or speakers.
Common MIDI foot pedals have a much larger mechanical range than most classic Wah Wah pedals.
The sweep range of the Wah Wah filter is set with the Pedal Range parameters. The highest and lowest possible values reached by a MIDI foot pedal are graphically represented by a gray bracket around the Pedal Position slider (the slider represents the current position of the Wah Wah pedal).
You can set the upper and lower limits of the range independently by dragging the left and right handles of the slider bracket. You can move the entire range by dragging the center section of the slider bracket.