Some effects work almost exactly the same for violin as they do for guitar. Autowah is an excellent example of an effect that is very different.
Last time, we discussed how a wah pedal is a sweepable band pass filter. The center frequency of that filter is determined with a foot pedal.
Autowah is also a sweepable band pass filter but the center frequency is controlled by the volume of your instrument. Quiet = heel down. Loud = toe down.
Guitars have a strong attack with an exponential decay. They have very little control over the envelope of their sound. Violins have total control over the sonic envelope. Autowah is an extremely powerful expressive tool for us.
In this video, we’ll talk about how autowah works. Then in a linked video, we'll interview jazz and rock violinist Josef Nadj (also a professor at Berklee College of Music) about how he uses autowah in his music.