Owner’s Manual Analogue Dual-Filter/Wah Stomp Box for Guitar and Bass Version 1.5.
Owner’s Manual Safety — read this first! Important safety information. Read the following information carefully and keep all instructions for future reference. ! Do not open any part of the Wahoo case other than the battery compartment. There are no userserviceable parts in the Wahoo. ! Do not expose the Wahoo to rain, liquids or moisture of any kind.
Owner’s Manual Quick start This manual is a comprehensive guide to the Wahoo. To start using it as quickly as possible, follow this short guide. Please refer to the rest of the manual for detailed operating instructions. Connect your guitar/bass to the IN jack of the Wahoo. Connect your amplifier to the OUT jack of the Wahoo. Set the LOCK switch to the locked position (this lets you select presets without worrying about editing them by mistake).
Owner’s Manual Welcome Thank you for purchasing a sonuus Wahoo. Like all sonuus products, the Wahoo is the culmination of ground-breaking innovation and considerable technical expertise. We are delighted that you have chosen to purchase a sonuus Wahoo and we anticipate that it will greatly enhance your music making. This manual is a comprehensive guide to the Wahoo but if you have any questions, we offer attentive customer support via our on-line user forum: www.sonuus.
Owner’s Manual higher or lower frequencies of these instrument: the range of the Wahoo parameters can perfectly match guitar and bass, and you can save and switch between instrument-specific set-ups. Of course, the Wahoo can also be used on other instruments such as keyboards.
Owner’s Manual Using the Wahoo In the rest of this manual, we cover everything you need to know about the Wahoo from how to connect it to your rig, to how to power it and how to delve in and create your own presets. Consult the photo of the Wahoo shown below to familiarise yourself with the controls and displays.
Owner’s Manual Connecting the Wahoo The simplest way of connecting the Wahoo is between your guitar and amp: connect the output of your guitar to the input (IN) of the Wahoo. Connect the output (OUT) of the Wahoo to your amp’s input. When using other effects in your signal chain, there is no right or wrong effect order— experiment to see what you can do, and be creative. Typically, time-based effects such as reverb and delay are placed after the Wahoo so that these effects are applied to the Wahoo’s sound.
Owner’s Manual Powering the Wahoo The Wahoo can be powered by batteries, by a 9V DC power supply (neither of these is supplied), or by USB. Select one of the following: • • • insert 4 AA batteries (alkaline can be used, but we recommend rechargeable NiMH batteries) into the battery compartment in the base of the Wahoo. WARNING: observe correct polarity! plug the output of a 9V DC power supply into the port labelled DC on the back of the Wahoo.
Owner’s Manual Note that if this LED is flashing, it means the Wahoo is in foot-operated preset selection mode (see page 11). Footswitch LED Off: Effect is completely bypassed (the Wahoo has no effect on your sound). On: Effect is active and the Wahoo will affect your sound. Flash: Foot-operated preset selection mode is active. The bypassed/enabled state of the Wahoo does not change in this mode but remains in whichever state it was in before this mode was activated.
Owner’s Manual Your Wahoo is now ready to play. Select different presets and experiment with the wide variety of sounds that are possible. For pedal effects (F00–F19), as you play move the footpedal in time to the music to create the wah sound. For envelope (touch) effects (F20–F39) the wah effect is controlled by how hard to play. For LFO (auto) effects (F40–F59) the filters will move on their own, but the footpedal can be used to control their tempo between preset limits.
Owner’s Manual Foot-operated preset selection buttons and the save button was described in “Selecting a factory Preset selection using the preset” on page 9. There is an alternative method of preset selection using the footswitch and the footpedal. This has been specially designed to make it easy to change presets when you are gigging. Using this method, you don’t have to bend down and select presets using your hands.
Owner’s Manual Creating your own presets You can create and store up to 100 user presets on the Wahoo. The steps for creating a preset are straight-forward. Creating and saving a user preset Ensure that the LOCK switch is in the unlocked position. Starting from any preset (factory or user), adjust the Wahoo settings using the LEVEL, FILTER and MODE knobs to get the desired musical effect. These settings are discussed in detail later. Save the preset. Press the save button.
Owner’s Manual Setlists A setlist is simply a list of presets that you want to use in your “set” during a performance. The setlist feature of the Wahoo lets you define which presets you want to use and makes all other presets unavailable. This way you can easily move between your desired presets without getting lost (the Wahoo has a lot of presets!). To use the setlist feature you must use the Desktop Editor, available free from: http://software.sonuus.
Owner’s Manual Adjusting LEVEL The level parameters apply to the input and output of the Wahoo rather than to the individual filters. Parameter Sub-parameter Range Description drive 0–100 Gain of pre-amp feeding the filters. filt mix 1/2 0–100 Proportion of filter 1 and filter 2 that form output signal 0 gives 100% filter 1; 100 gives 100% filter 2. dry/wet 0–100 Proportion of original instrument signal that is mixed into the output of the Wahoo. out 0–100 Signal level at the output jack.
Owner’s Manual unaffected by the Wahoo filters. 100 (wet) means only the filtered sound is present in the output. This parameter be used to retain some of the sonic character of the original instrument sound. For example, for bass envelope filtering it is common to retain some dry signal to ensure the initial attack of notes is retained. LEVEL output (out). Typically you adjust the output level so there is a good balance between the original sound (when the effect is bypassed) and the effected sound.
Owner’s Manual freq-hi, freq-lo. The cutoff frequency of the filter can be set by entering the value in Hz. The cutoff can range from 10Hz (which is lower than you can hear) up to 4000Hz. Values above 999 Hz are shown in kHz (i.e., 2500 Hz is shown as “2·50”). FILTER Reverse filter sweeps It is simple on the Wahoo to create reverse (inverted) filter sweeps: simply set freq-hi to be smaller than freq-lo.
Owner’s Manual Note that frequencies above the cutoff frequency do not immediately fall to zero. The slope of the curve beyond the cutoff frequency is called the filter roll-off and is a characteristic of the filter. The roll-off is measured in dB per octave and the low-pass filter in the Wahoo has a roll-off of 24dB per octave. The band-pass filter has a roll-off of 12dB per octave on each side of fc.
Owner’s Manual This allows you to have more control and configurability of analogue filters than has ever been possible before. If you select one of the lo curves, the filter cutoff changes more rapidly towards the end of the travel of footpedal towards the toe down position. The hi curves change the filter cutoff more rapidly at the start of the travel of the footpedal from the heel down position.
Owner’s Manual Adjusting MODE The MODE controls of the Wahoo work slightly differently from the LEVEL and FILTER controls described above. Each of the two filters has one mode, selected from pedal, LFO, envelope or pitch, and the mode for each filter can be different. Configure each filter separately, switching between them using the FILTER button. For each filter, press the MODE knob to cycle through the modes, stopping on the operating mode you want for this filter.
Owner’s Manual LFO mode In LFO mode, an internal low-frequency-oscillator (LFO) controls the filter cutoff. The speed of the LFO can be controlled precisely and can even be synchronised with a sequencer using MIDI (“MIDI operation” on page 28). The following sub-parameters configure the LFO. LFO subparameter Range Description tPo -F1 tAP PEd Syn Type of LFO clock: tempo in bpm derived from filter 1’s LFO (only available for filter 2) pedal is used to tap a tempo pedal controls max (bP.h) and min (bP.
Owner’s Manual LFO subparameter dLy PhA Range Description oFF, 0·1–25·0 Delay in seconds over which the LFO “grows” after the LFO is retrigged. Only available if rtG is on. 0–63 Phase: controls the phase of the LFO. For filter 2 with tyP set to -F1, this controls the phase of the LFO relative to the LFO of filter 1. For LFOs where rtG is on, this controls the starting point of the LFO when it retriggers.
Owner’s Manual ta ta r.up r.dn r.up + 2ta + r.dn = 100 100 Using the trapezoid waveform, you can generate a square wave (ramp up = ramp down = 0), a triangular wave (ramp up = ramp down = 50), a saw-up wave (ramp up = 100, ramp down = 0) and a saw-down wave (ramp up = 0, ramp down = 100) in addition to trapezoidal waveforms. triangular wave ta= 0, r.up = r.dn = 50 square wave r.up = r.dn = 0, ta= 50 r.up + r.dn = 100 2 ta = 100 r.up r.dn ta ta 100 100 saw-up wave ta= 0, r.up = 100, r.
Owner’s Manual (PEd), where the extremes of the footpedal position have bpm values bP.h and bP.L; or the clock can be sycn’d (Syn) to external MIDI clock. The tempo is in beats per minute, bpm. The sub-parameters bPM, bP.h and bP.L have a range between 10 and 999. To achieve slower and faster tempos, the div sub-parameter multiplies the value of the tempo set by the tyP clock source.
Owner’s Manual Envelope subparameter Range Description PEd oFF, on Pedal control. When enabled, you can smoothly morph between two envelope filter settings. SEn, Pun, Att, dEC, StE are used when the pedal is in the heel-down position, and SE.h, Pu.h, At.h, dE.h, St.h are used when the pedal is in the toe-down position. Between these extremes, interpolated values are used , ensuring a smooth transition from one envelope setting to another. SE.h Pu.h, At.h dE.h St.
Owner’s Manual Pitch subparameter Range rEF bot Ctr toP FrE −99–99 Description Pitch bend reference: defines whether the starting point of a bend is (only available if tyP is bEn): bottom centre top Frequency: pitch tracking frequency offset (tone). (Only available if tyP is trA) The pitch mode can be set to either pitch-track or pitch-bend using the tyP sub-parameter. These innovative effects use sonuus’ unique, highly acclaimed, pitch detection and tracking technology.
w n Owner’s Manual cutoff frequency be nd do freq-hi nd be ref = top nd be up wn do ref = centre -semitones Top Tip: 26 be nd up ref = bottom freq-lo note centre frequency +semitones Pitch tracking is optimised for different instruments. You can choose the instrument setting in the custom settings (see “Custom settings” on page 30) to select between guitar, 4-string bass and 5-string bass.
Owner’s Manual Creating vowel sounds To create convincing vowel sounds, you need to use both Wahoo filters working together to produce the characteristic frequency components of the desired vowels. The table below shows typical cutoff frequencies that can be set on each filter to obtain each vowel sound. Note that these values are approximate and are a good starting point. From here you can adjust the frequency and Q of each filter and experiment to see what sounds most vowel-like to you.
Owner’s Manual MIDI operation It is possible to control the Wahoo with MIDI input or to use the Wahoo as a MIDI controller. For example, the footpedal always sends 14-bit expression controller messages on MIDI channel 0 so you can use the Wahoo to control synthesizers. MIDI can also be used to synchronise LFOs to your sequencer to ensure their tempo matches that of your song, or to automate preset selection.
Owner’s Manual input (from computer to Wahoo) MIDI MIDI Chana message Description MIDI sync clock MIDI Song position N/A Used when LFO is in MIDI sync (Syn) mode. omni Selects the preset to be used. Operates on the currently selected bank (factory or user). Use Bank Select controller message to switch between factory and user banks. Program Change Program Change Controllers MSB LSB Bank Select #0 #32 omni Selects factory (0) or user (1) preset bank. (Factory: #0=0, #32=0.
Owner’s Manual Custom settings Further configurability of the Wahoo is possible through custom. This lets you change the setup of the Wahoo to suit your own instruments or personal preferences. For example, you can adjust the display LED brightness to a very low level to prolong battery life or to suit working in a darkened studio. The custom settings are different from all of the other parameters: they affect the Wahoo’s set-up, not the set-up of the current preset i.e., they are global settings.
Owner’s Manual Custom subparameter P.En Default Range Description oFF Pedal enable. Allows you to enable the effect by moving the footpedal. If set to oFF then this feature is disabled. on The effect is enabled when the footpedal is pressed to the toedown position. The effect must be turned off using the footswitch. o.
Owner’s Manual User modifications of the Wahoo For the avoidance of doubt, opening any part of the Wahoo other than the battery compartment will always cause your warranty to be invalid. However, we realise that musicians sometimes make the minor modification of reducing the footpedal travel by sticking a piece of rubber under the front (heel position) of the footpedal. If you do this, you will need to follow the pedal calibration procedure below (page 33).
Owner’s Manual Pedal calibration Pedal calibration lets you configure the how much of the travel of the footpedal controls the effect. Normally you won’t need to do this but if you make modifications such as limiting the travel of the Wahoo by sticking a rubber stop under the front of the footpedal, then this calibration will be useful. Enter calibration mode by simultaneously pressing and holding the FILTER button and the MODE knob for 4s until CAL is displayed.
Owner’s Manual Firmware updating To support new features and to make it future-proof, firmware (internal software) of the Wahoo can be upgraded. To update the Wahoo firmware you will need to download the latest firmware file (.sfu) and Firmware Updater software (which includes an instruction manual). The updater software is available for both OSX and Windows. To access these files, you need to register and create a user account at the following web site: register.sonuus.
Owner’s Manual Special key presses Mode Filter calibration: enter save and exit cancel and exit Pedal calibration: enter Key Presses Simultaneously press and hold FILTER button + FILTER knob for 4s until CAL is displayed. Press save. Press and hold save to cancel. save and exit cancel and exit Simultaneously press and hold FILTER button + MODE knob for 4s until CAL is displayed. Press save. Press and hold save to cancel.
Owner’s Manual Factory Preset Number Description F80– F89 Bubbly. Envelope follower with two filters. F90– F99 Mix-up. Combinations of different modes. Some exotic and strange.
