This can be a double edged sword though, sure you’re dream sound is closer than ever before, but by the same token you really have to know what you’re looking for in order to avoid drowning in limitless potential. What does that all have to do with a Wah pedal you ask? Well it turns out that British effects maker Sonuus is using the vehicle of choice to revitalise the porn soundtrack staple for the modern player in the Wahoo Wah/Filter pedal.
Boasting years of experience at various other companies, the engineers behind Sonuus are keenly focused on unhindered innovation through technological advancement. Their other products are MIDI compatible and the team has poured their combined knowledge into making as robust and user-friendly machines as possible.
The Wahoo is an attempt to exhaust the length and breadth of filter and expression pedal based sounds. They looked to an extensive collection of analogue synths for the inspiration behind their faithful renditions of much loved envelope, LFO, step and various other filter patches. The wah side of the CPU is a veritable catalogue of voicings – covering everything from 70s Crybaby sweep to ultra-modern, self-oscillating and resonant vowel sounds. There are 100 factory patches worth of possibility for you to explore before you even get to the user presets and to be honest you’d be hard pressed to need much more. You can sculpt just about every aspect of the sound from high and low frequency ceiling and Q rate to wet/dry amounts to oscillator tempos; even to the point of setting an auto-wah to ONLY attach itself to bent notes as you play them. Not only that, but there are two filter engines to mould independently of each other, so the possibilities are literally endless…twice.
Setting and saving everything is easier than with most workstation style rigs and you also have the option of sculpting sounds on your computer via the USB port, meaning that usability is as high as it could possibly be. It also doesn’t stray too far from the essential goal either. None of the sounds have that ‘cool, but what would I ever use that for’ novelty factor that wastes room on too many units. The patent pending expression pedal design is stiffer than some but smoother and more reliable than any I’ve tried, and with no string to replace or grease in the cogs it is as low maintenance as it is thoroughly road ready.
It’s an understandable impulse to try to be everything to everyone, especially where sales are concerned, but in an era where the tonal horizon is wider and farther than ever, it’s a task that few live up to. However, the Sonuus Wahoo is as close as they come to being that be all and end all for wah and filter fanatics.
