Wah-Wah

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Wah-Wah

Contents Music Production Analysis Index


The wah-wah effect is closely associated with a particular effect on guitar music. Although the effect had been used before the 1960s, its importance as a guitar sound only emerged during the late 1960s. One of the most widely used units is the Dunlop [1] Cry Baby foot pedal [[2]].

A similar effect to wah-wah is produced by an envelope following filter such as those produced by MXR and Musitronics [3]. This modulates the sweep on a band pass or low pass filter, dependant on the amplitude of the signal fed into it. As such, it is possible to achieve a fast changing wah effect which would be impossible to mimic using a wah-wah foot pedal. A variation on this effect is auto-wah, where the sweep is controlled by an LFO, making it modulate at a consistent speed rather than in response to the playing. The envelope following filter is most notably used in funk, commonly on the bass and clavinet.

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Date Track Artist Producer Engineer Label Notes Media Hyperlink
1968 Voodoo Child Jimi Hendrix Jimi Hendrix (Co-producer Chas Chandler) Eddie Kramer MCA Wah-wah at beginning of song Live performance [4]
1968 (released 1969) Cloud Nine The Temptations Norman Whitfield [5] Gordy (Motown)
1971 Theme from Shaft Issac Hayes Issac Hayes MGM (Movie theme) Edited performance [6]
1973 Higher Ground Stevie Wonder Wonder, Margouleff & Cecil Mowtown Envelope Following Filter on clavinet 1995 BBC performance [7]
1975 Chocolate City Parliament George Clinton Cassablanca Envelope Following Filter on Bootsy Collin's bass

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