Realistic Wah-Wah Effect

A wah-wah pedal (or simply wah pedal) is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound. Moreover, it mimics the human voice, saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah." The evolution of technology in audio production brought a wide variety of digital effects mimicking the old analog ones, and one of them is also the famous wah-wah effect. One solution I favor the most is the wah-wah effect incorporated in Guitar Rig 5 by Native Instruments. So, in the following tutorial, we will guide you through its interface and parameters, followed by a couple of audio examples. For the purpose of this tutorial, we have made a sequence in the SoundBridge: DAW that contains all the elements of the whole track, including the solo electric guitar riff. So, let's start by adding a fresh instance of Guitar Rig 5 to the channel, which contains the above-mentioned electric guitar riff.

The Interface

Guitar Rig 5 interface houses sections with various effects on its left side. Specifically, the wah-wah effect we will use is located in the "Filters" section. You can engage it by dragging and dropping it onto the central part of the Guitar Rig 5 interface.

The picture above shows a closer look at the wah effect. The Real Wah effect is based on a custom wah-wah pedal that became an instant success when it appeared in the late '90s. Following this further, the upper part of the interface represents the wah-wah pedal and can be moved by the mouse to the left or right. Furthermore, below, we can see the following parameters.

STEREO: Activates true stereo processing for this module.

LP-BP-HP: Controls the mix between the embedded low, band, and high pass filters.

DRY: Controls the dry/wet amount of the effect.

FREQ

MIN: Sets the filter frequency with the slider set all to the left. MID: Sets the filter frequency with the slider at its middle position. MAX: Sets the filter frequency with the slider set all to the right.

RES

MIN: Sets the amount of filter resonance with the slider set all to the left. MID: Sets the amount of filter resonance with the slider at its middle position. MAX: Sets the amount of filter resonance with the slider set all to the right.

VOLUME

MIN: Set the filter level with the slider set to the left. MID: Sets the filter level with the slider at its middle position. MAX: Sets the filter level with the slider set all to the left  

The Result

After briefly introducing the wah-wah effect parameters, let's hear it in action. For this purpose, we have created an automation sequence that follows the guitar riff, as shown in the picture below.

So now we will listen to the guitar riff. First unprocessed, then processed with the wah-wah effect, and in the end, in context with other elements in the mix.

~Electric Guitar Riff - Unprocessed

~Electric Guitar Riff -Processed with Wah-Wah

~Full Mix