Sonuus Wahoo User manual

Owner’s Manual

Analogue Dual-Filter/Wah

Stomp Box for Guitar and Bass

Version 1.5.0

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 user-

serviceable parts in the Wahoo.

Do not expose the Wahoo to rain, liquids or moisture of any kind. If this occurs, disconnect the

Wahoo from your computer, power supply, and from your musical instrument and remove any batteries then allow the unit to dry out completely before using it again. If any liquid has entered the unit, it may need to be serviced by a sonuus engineer or authorised repair centre.

When the Wahoo has been stored in a cold environment (

environment ( such cases the Wahoo should be allowed to warm up to room temperature before use to ensure any such condensation has evaporated.

Avoid getting anything,

damage to the Wahoo footpedal sensor.

Only use the correct type of power supply (see “Powering the Wahoo” on page 8). The Wahoo

must never be connected directly to mains electricity.

Do not drop the Wahoo or expose it to excessive shock or vibration. This may cause damage to

the electronics inside the unit.

Do not put excessive weight onto the footpedal of the Wahoo. It is designed to be foot-operated,

but not to bear excessive loads. Do not allow your foot to press on the control panel area because this may damage it. The Wahoo has protection bars to prevent your feet from accidentally pressing this area but this cannot provide complete protection—you must still take reasonable care when using the product.

e.g.,

a warm room), condensation can form on the outside and inside of the Wahoo. In

e.g.,

an instrument cable, trapped under the footpedal — this will cause

e.g.,

a car) then exposed to a warmer

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



Set the



LOCK

switch to the locked position (this lets you select presets without worrying about

editing them by mistake).

Connect a suitable power supply: 9VDC,



Select the first factory preset by pressing the  button until F00 is shown on the numeric display.



Tap the footswitch to enable the effect. The footswitch



Rock the footpedal back and forward while you are playing to obtain the classic Wah effect. In the



“toe-down” position high frequencies will be enhanced. In the “heel-down” position, low frequencies will be enhanced and high-frequencies will be muffled.

Next, start exploring other presets using the  and  buttons. There are 100 factory presets labelled as F00–F99, then 100 user presets labelled P00–P99. If you press and hold  or  you can increment or decrement in steps of 10 so you can quickly select the preset you want.

To get started, we suggest you select from the following:

Preset (guitar) Description Preset (bass) Description

F00 Classic wah pedal F03 Classic bass wah pedal

F10 Vocal wah pedal F34 Funky bass envelope

F20 Touch wah (not pedal) F81 Bubbly envelope

F42

F50

F61

Phasor-like dual-filter (Pedal controls tempo)

Stepped (Pedal controls tempo)

LFO

beat, with saw-up

(Pedal controls tempo)

OUT

jack of the Wahoo.

LFO

, arpeggiator-like

USB

or batteries (see “Powering the Wahoo” on page 8).

LED

will light up.

Vocal dual-filter (Pedal controls tempo)

Stepped

LFO

(Pedal controls tempo)

LFO

beat, with funk

(Pedal controls tempo)

LFO

F40

F53

F63

LFO

(low-pass)

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.com/forum

The Wahoo is a dual analogue filter stomp box. It is packed with innovations from the sonuus Research Team.

Analogue signal path with digital control

The Wahoo’s fully analogue signal path is based on vintage synthesizer filters, and gives the warm organic tone that is possible with only analogue electronics. We have combined the analogue signal path with digital control for precision and configurability.

Dual analogue filter design

The Wahoo has two analogue filters, each of which can be configured as low-pass or band-pass and can operate independently in wah pedal, output can be configured to give evolving textures and tonal depths that cannot be achieved with a single filter.

Ground-breaking pitch-tracking effects

The Wahoo uses sonuus’ proven, and highly acclaimed, pitch-tracking technology to create unique pitch-bend and pitch-tracking effects—effects that have never been available before.

LFO

, envelope and pitch-tracking modes. The dual filter

Unique patented InfiniQ pedal sensor

Most wah pedals operate using a potentiometer (a pot) which wears out quickly resulting in the effect becoming scratchy. These also have mechanical couplings which limit fine control and let dirt inside the unit, so compromising reliability.

Some other wah pedals use optical methods which are susceptible to dirt and interference from stage lighting, and these also have mechanical couplings.

For the Wahoo, we designed a brand new type of position sensor, InfiniQ, that allows super-fine precision control with no mechanical couplings. As a result, the pedal control on the Wahoo won’t get scratchy and will never wear out!

For guitar and bass

The Wahoo is designed from the ground up to be perfect for guitar and bass. We know that many musicians play both instruments and don’t want to compromise when an effect is designed for the

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. You don’t need to restrict your creativity to guitar and bass!

Transparent-true-bypass

True-bypass means that the effect is completely switched out of your signal chain when bypassed to preserve the integrity of your guitar/bass signal. This is typically done by mechanical switches but these cause clicks or pops when switching.

For the Wahoo, we designed a silent-switching true-bypass circuit so you get the benefits of truebypass without the associated switching noise. What’s more: if the power to the Wahoo is interrupted, the unit will automatically switch back to the bypassed state so you don’t lose your instrument’s signal.

Stage-ready

The Wahoo is designed to be ideal for gigging on stage:

• Heavy-duty cast aluminium case that will stand up to years of heavy use.

• The pedal won’t decide to get scratchy just before a crucial gig!

• Variety of power sources: any polarity 9V for maximum convenience, batteries.

• Foot-operated preset selection.

•

LOCK

switch to prevent accidental changes to settings or presets.

Presets

The Wahoo comes ready-to-play with 100 factory presets which include traditional wah effects, touch-wah, bass envelope filters, auto-wah, bubbly funk, vocal sounds and extreme synth-like special effects. Without making any adjustments, the Wahoo is ready to play, straight out of the box.

The 100 factory presets is just the starting place! By tweaking these presets you can explore different sounds and create your own effects—there are 100 user presets where you can store your own set-ups.

USB

and high-capacity AA

www.sonuus.com

We recommend that you visit our web site and register your new Wahoo. This is required for direct warranty support. Once you have registered, you have access to firmware updates and you can opt to receive updates and news from sonuus:

To get assistance or to share your experiences with other Wahoo users, register on our user forum:

www.sonuus.com/forum

In the rest of this manual, we cover everything you need to know about the Wahoo from how to

footpedal

footswitch

LED

numeric display

up/down buttons

save/cancel button

filter select button

level knob

filter knob

mode knob

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

Using the Wahoo

Cancel an edit / selecting preset mode

If you move or press a knob or touch the mode and enter Preset Edit mode. (Now the buttons won’t let you select presets.)

The button named save has dual functionality. When held for 2s, it acts as a cancel button. This lets you undo any preset editing you have done and takes you back into Preset Select mode.

FILTER

button, the Wahoo will leave Preset Select

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 ( 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.

When using distortion, the effect of connecting this before or after the Wahoo are very different. When distortion is used after the Wahoo, the effect can be quite subtle, and any noise from the Wahoo can be enhanced (particularly with high-gain distortion effects). When distortion is placed before the Wahoo, the Wahoo is able to shape the harmonically-rich signal from the distortion to get more sonic variation. This also has the advantage of not boosting any noise produced by the Wahoo.

You can also connect the Wahoo to the effects loop of your amp: connect the output of your guitar to the input of your amp, then connect the “send” of your amp to the Wahoo IN, and the Wahoo back to the “return” of your amp. Depending on your amp this can give rise to excessive noise if the signal level in the effects loop is too small. If you try this, it is best to set the effects loop level to +4dBu if you have that option.

OUT

) of the Wahoo to your amp’s

OUT

of the

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. The 9V DC power supply that you use should be capable of providing 500mA and have a 2·1mm centre pin connector. Note that the Wahoo has been designed so that either polarity (tip-positive or tip-negative) can be used.

• plug a

Note that there is no problem if you connect all three power sources at once. The DC supply takes priority, then needed and allows you to connect via

USB

on the back of the Wahoo. If a

cable connected to your computer or a

USB

hub is used, it may need to be a powered hub to ensure it

can provide enough current to the Wahoo.

USB

, then the batteries. This ensures your batteries are not drained when they are not

USB

without using

USB

power supply into the port labelled

USB

power when a DC supply is present.

USB

Top Tip: If you are using the Wahoo on stage, use a DC power supply and batteries. That

The Wahoo is switched on when you connect

way, if the DC power supply is pulled out for any reason, the Wahoo will switch to batteries and you will, in effect, have an un-interruptible power supply.

USB

or DC. When running from batteries, the Wahoo is switched on when an instrument cable is connected to IN. To prolong battery life, disconnect the cable from IN when the Wahoo is not being used.

Enabling and bypassing the Wahoo

The main footswitch

When this output (

LED

OUT

). This connection is known as a true-bypass connection because in this state none of the Wahoo electronics are connected to the signal which keeps your original guitar/bass signal as pure as possible.

When this

LED

(filtered) signal.

The effect is enabled and disabled by briefly pressing the footswitch. Alternatively, when the footpedal is moved to the toe-down position, the effect will automatically enable. This emulates the behaviour of a classic Wah pedal which has a footswitch placed under the footpedal. Note that this feature can be turned off using the custom settings (page 30).

LED

shows the status of the Wahoo effect.

is off, the effect is completely bypassed and the input (IN) is directly connected to the

is on, the signal is passed through the Wahoo and the output (

OUT

) is the effected

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.

Selecting a factory preset

There are 100 factory presets in the Wahoo. They configure the Wahoo into a variety of set-ups, from traditional wah to sonuus’ unique pitch tracking filter effects. A summary of factory presets is at the back of this manual (page 35).

The Wahoo has two modes: Preset Select mode and Preset Edit mode. By default, it is in Preset Select mode and the display alternates between the 3-character preset name and the preset number: either F00 – F99 for factory presets 0 to 99 or P00 – P99 for user presets 0 to 99.

If the display does not periodically show F/P00–99, then to enter preset mode do the following.

Enter Preset Select mode

If the display is not showing a factory or user preset (F00– F99 or P00–P99), the Wahoo is in Preset Edit mode: exit this mode by pressing and holding the save button for 2s.

Alternatively, slide the Select mode when locked).

LOCK

switch to the locked position (the Wahoo is always in Preset

Once the Wahoo is in Preset Select mode, select a preset using the  buttons. A single press on either button will increment/decrement the preset number by one. If you press and hold either button, the preset number will increment/decrement in tens.

Top Tip: Envelope effects have been designed for an instrument with a standard output

level. If your instrument has an unusually high or low output the presets may not sound correct— either too responsive or not responsive enough. Use the custom SEn parameter to adjust the sensitivity of your Wahoo (see page 30).

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. See “Factory presets” on page 35 for a summary of the factory presets.

While you are playing, you may accidentally bump a switch or button which will take you into Preset Edit mode. To prevent this, and stay in Preset Select mode, you can slide the locked position. Alternatively, just re-enter Preset Select mode as described above.

LOCK

switch

LOCK

switch to the

On the back panel of the Wahoo there is a slide switch labelled

LOCK

. When this switch is in the locked position, the Wahoo is in Preset Select mode and none of the parameters can be edited or saved: the only thing that you can do is change between presets. If you try to make a change when locked, LoC is shown briefly on the numeric display.

Top Tip: When the Wahoo is locked, you can quickly move between presets using the

LOCK

mode is ideal for gigging, when you want to switch from one preset to another but be sure that

you won’t accidentally make changes to your set-up. When the

LEVEL

knob.

LOCK

switch is in the unlocked

position, you can tweak the Wahoo settings and save new presets.

Top Tip: When the Wahoo is locked, the

the configuration of the preset. For example, if both filters are active, and 2

LED

be lit.

s will be lit. Similarly, if the effect is pedal-controlled, the pedal

FILTER

and

MODE LED

s will light dimly to indicate

FILTER

LED

will

Owner’s Manual

Foot-operated preset selection

Preset selection using the  buttons and the save button was described in “Selecting a factory 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.

Preset selection using the footswitch and footpedal

Enter preset mode by pressing and holding the footswitch until the footswitch The time you have to hold for has a default value of 2s, however this is a custom parameter that you can change (see “Custom settings” on page 30).

To increase the preset number, put the footpedal in toe down position (the  button flashes to show that the preset number will increase) then tap (press and release) the footswitch the desired number of times until you reach the preset number you want. To decrease the preset number, move the footpedal to heel down position (the  button now flashes) then tap the footswitch until you reach the preset you want.

When you have reached the preset number you want, you can play and even change presets while playing. However, while in preset select mode you can’t enable or bypass the effect: to do this you have to exit preset mode by pressing and holding the footswitch until the footswitch time to enter it.

LED

stops flashing. The hold time to exit preset mode is the same as the hold

LED

flashes.

LED

Preset selection with the footpedal in effect on/off mode

When the footpedal is configured to be in effect on/off mode (setting the custom parameter P.En to o.Lo or o.hi — see “Custom settings” on page 30) the method described above is replaced by another method. In this case, the footpedal is not used and foot-operated preset selection is always active. In addition, the footswitch is no longer used to enable/disable the effect.

Like the method described above, the footswitch is used to increment or decrement the preset (the direction being shown by the flashing of the  or  button on the footswitch (default press time of 2s) will toggle the direction of preset selection.

Note 1: In foot-operated preset selection mode, you can only step through the presets one at a time (not in tens as you can if you use the  and save buttons). We therefore recommend that for a gig, you make sure that you save the presets you want to use close in number to one another.

Note 2: In foot-operated preset selection mode, you can still use the   buttons as normal to select presets, and to increment/decrement in 10s if required.

LED

s). A long press

+ 25 hidden pages

Sonuus Wahoo User manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual