anyone managed to get a satisfying Crybaby emulation going ?

  • hey everyone, disclaimer upfront: i'm currently visiting the elders and only took the toaster with me not the expression pedal so i can't really try anything out right now. but there is one thing that has been buggin me ever since i got the kemper but i always forgot to post about it.


    i have a Dunlop Crybaby which i bought i think sometime in the late 80's or early nineties. at some point i swapped the switch for a true bypass switch (i'm the kind of guy who ALWAYS forgets to unplug the jack so pretty much everytime i wanted to use it the battery was empty, that pretty much was the only reason i went for the true bypass so i can still play even with an empty battery) and nowadays i have a power supply so i could stop polluting the planet with empty 9V batteries. I'm not a pedal nerd so i don't know if that particular model is special/different or if the true bypass mod changed sth.


    thing is when i dial up the crybaby preset of the wah stomp it's not even close to my old baby, the range, the sound, the attack all feels completely wrong. at one point i spent a day trying out all the other kemper wah presets and playin with the dials and just couldn't get anywhere i liked with it (to be fair i've never been a fan of any other wah than the crybaby). when i plug in the real baby it's instant bliss, despite the crappy mechaniscs of the foot pedal. i have this really nice korg XVP20 expression pedal for the kemper and i love it as a volume or morph pedal but i just can't get any wah going that i dig. i'm tempted to get one of these crappy mission kemper pedals cause it looks similarly cheap as the crybaby mechanics .. maybe it's just muscle memory habit that's the problem or the fact that i've been playin with it for 30 years and am so honed in to the sound and feel of that particular pedal.


    i'm gonna look into this a bit more when i'm back home after the holidays but before i forgt again i thought i'd post it here to see if there is someone else with old crybaby syndrom to see if it's even worth tryin. also since i only play at home and i have the crybaby i love it's a bit of a non issue but just out of intellectual curiosity i'd thought i'd ask if anyone managed to get a convincin crybaby to work on the K.




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    free you mind and your ass will follow …

    Edited once, last by stickman ().

  • The mechanical feel of the pedal is a big part of it, in my experience, though I too didn’t find a wah preset that I instantly loved. I also come from crybaby/Vox wahs, and it wasn’t until a user posted a Satriani cover and shared his wah settings that I was happy enough. There is still a slight discrepancy for me, but I think some of it is down to the slightly crackly old pots, noise and distortion of my old wah pedals. I went through a bunch back when I toured; they always sounded best right around the time they gave up the ghost, then I had to break a new one in all over again. Back then, first thing I did was I always unscrewed the brace keeping the treadle pole on the pinwheel, to adjust the heel position so that it enhanced the third harmonic on the low E string, then it was good to go. I can never quite set the parameters to hit that sweet spot in the Kemper.

  • ... it wasn’t until a user posted a Satriani cover and shared his wah settings that I was happy enough.

    Same here, Sammy. The second I heard it I knew I had to ask his permission to include it in the community collection.


    For stickman in case he hasn't heard or used it yet, the Preset's called "Nick Badr - Smth" by nicosssb (Nicolas Badr). The "Smth" part of the name refers to the sound.


    Zip download of the Preset collection:


    Here


    His clip Sam and I referred to:


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  • hey cool guys, many thx. good to know i'm not alone in this and not imagining things. the vid sounds good although still a bit far off from what i'm after but it doesn't sound 'wrong' like the crybaby preset and much closer to what i like. damn now i wish i'd taken that expression pedal with me ^^




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    free you mind and your ass will follow …

  • FWIMBW mate, I've always found digital emulations to be harsh-sounding. The Kemper's was the first digital wah I'd ever heard that didn't.


    Sure, if you narrow the peak it's gonna start to sound harsh to those who don't like that sort of thing, but even when used like this, the Kemper's wah is much-smoother than all the modellers I'd tried previously (all L6 up to and including the HD500, Digitech Genesis and 2101, Behringer and many others who's names escape me).

  • I have a Fulltone Clyde wah since a decade, or two... I love it and never found a way to emulate it thru the Kemper wah. But of course I would be glad if someone succed to found a satisfying setting! Anyone? :)


    BTW Mission exp pedals give a good feel for the wah IMHO.

  • It's hard to know for sure from a photo, but that Korg pedal appears to have a much longer throw than a Dunlop mechanism. I've never had any luck using long-throw pedals as wah controllers. A Mission pedal will put you much closer to the physical feel of a traditional wah pedal. Final sound tweaking is still up to you and others have posted good advice in that area.

  • It's hard to know for sure from a photo, but that Korg pedal appears to have a much longer throw than a Dunlop mechanism. I've never had any luck using long-throw pedals as wah controllers. A Mission pedal will put you much closer to the physical feel of a traditional wah pedal. Final sound tweaking is still up to you and others have posted good advice in that area.

    you might be right, will have to compare when i get back. the Korg is not super long throw, it's just buttery smooth and doesn't wobble around like the crybaby cause it's really heavy and solid metal. also really like the rubber on it, the rubber on my crybaby is long gone and i never bothered to put a new one on cause it works for me like it is.




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    free you mind and your ass will follow …

  • BTW Mission exp pedals give a good feel for the wah IMHO.

    that's what i thought, i think it's pretty close to the mechanics of a crybaby.



    PS: Pick909 love the Ibanez in your profile pic .. Musician or Artist ?




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    free you mind and your ass will follow …

  • that's what i thought, i think it's pretty close to the mechanics of a crybaby.

    They’re exactly the same. I modded a broken old Vox wah with a momentary switch and a TRS Jack to turn it into a Mission EP-1 KP. Cost me just over £5 and has identical feel and functionality.

  • They’re exactly the same. I modded a broken old Vox wah with a momentary switch and a TRS Jack to turn it into a Mission EP-1 KP. Cost me just over £5 and has identical feel and functionality.

    I did the same thing here originally. Problem is that Dunlop / Vox pedals have more mechanical 'slop' than the Mission and won't always remain exactly at heel down when you lift your foot. On a Helix it's possible to adjust the tolerance and avoid having wah turn on. Kemper is very touchy about this and provides no means to adjust the threshold. After fighting with it for a week I broke down and bought the Mission.

  • that's what i thought, i think it's pretty close to the mechanics of a crybaby.



    PS: Pick909 love the Ibanez in your profile pic .. Musician or Artist ?

    You know stickman I'm at the age when your real first guitar become a real vintage guitar! Ha ha ;) I bought it new in 1979 and it is a Musician model. I love this guitar, It sounds fantastic, it has a superb sustain but it's very heavy too!

  • You know stickman I'm at the age when your real first guitar become a real vintage guitar! Ha ha ;) I bought it new in 1979 and it is a Musician model. I love this guitar, It sounds fantastic, it has a superb sustain but it's very heavy too!

    haha, well that explains it .. similar generation here i guess :D i still remember when the MC500 came out, i was stilll a teeny then but already a regular in the local guitar shop here who were cool enough to let me come around after school despite me not having any disposable income to spend. I remember they had the MC in a glass case cause it was ridiculously expensive at the time (maybe it was even a 5000). There's something about that shape and this combination of woods that speaks to me even today. They also had a Yamaha CP70 electric grand (even more ridiculously expensive at the time) which i was allowed to practice on and those two instruments were the stuff of my dreams during my youth. Managed to find a nice CP70 20 years later but never found a good MC.

    Found a ouple of MC500s over the years but since i've waited so long now i'm really picky and want a case queen where the wood grains is just right and not one that has been butchered, moded or refinished.I have an ST300 which is a bit the poor mans MC500 and very similar ... and yeah it weighs a ton like all the Matsumoko Ibanez. All the late 70 and 80s high end Ibanez are amazing guitars.




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    free you mind and your ass will follow …

  • thing is when i dial up the crybaby preset of the wah stomp it's not even close to my old baby, the range, the sound, the attack all feels completely wrong. at one point i spent a day trying out all the other kemper wah presets and playin with the dials and just couldn't get anywhere i liked with it (to be fair i've never been a fan of any other wah than the crybaby).

    need help setting up your Wah in the Profiler? do you own a rare Wah? let me know.

  • haha, well that explains it .. similar generation here i guess :D i still remember when the MC500 came out, i was stilll a teeny then but already a regular in the local guitar shop here who were cool enough to let me come around after school despite me not having any disposable income to spend. I remember they had the MC in a glass case cause it was ridiculously expensive at the time (maybe it was even a 5000). There's something about that shape and this combination of woods that speaks to me even today. They also had a Yamaha CP70 electric grand (even more ridiculously expensive at the time) which i was allowed to practice on and those two instruments were the stuff of my dreams during my youth. Managed to find a nice CP70 20 years later but never found a good MC.

    Found a ouple of MC500s over the years but since i've waited so long now i'm really picky and want a case queen where the wood grains is just right and not one that has been butchered, moded or refinished.I have an ST300 which is a bit the poor mans MC500 and very similar ... and yeah it weighs a ton like all the Matsumoko Ibanez. All the late 70 and 80s high end Ibanez are amazing guitars.

    I bought mine, believe it or not, for only $500.00 brand new in a closout sale. Most people were interested in Gibson and Fender stuff then I saw this beautifull Ibanez!... While I played it a lot during all those years it is still in excellent shape and, apart frets dressing, it is all original! Don't even know the value of these guitars but it is still my favorite especially for classic rock tone!

  • You should achieve the same sound with the „Cry“ preset.

    Set the Mode to „On“ in case you don‘t want the auto-engage.

    Check in the System or Pedals menu, that your expression pedal sweeps through the whole span.

    Otherwise press „Calibrate“ and sweep.


    You will probably have to increase the „Volume“ of the „Cry“ preset to match the gain, when the wah is engaged.


    Tell us your results.

  • Hi Monkey_Man, The Satriani-clip in your post #3 sounds great. Is this wah-sound available in the profiler or is this a non available home made stomp by the user Sambrox is talking out and to which he only shared his wah settings? I'm not sure if fully understand what's in his post #2.

  • ... it wasn’t until a user posted a Satriani cover and shared his wah settings that I was happy enough...

    Sam used the Preset that I'd programmed for the wah collection after getting the settings from Nick and publishing it with his kind permission. Technically Sam may have created his own Preset from Nick's settings, as could anyone, because AFAICR the settings were shared in the wah thread as per my request. I simply programmed the data into the Kemper, named it according to the convention I devised and outlined in post #3 of the thread, and added it to the zipped collection. Whether Sam programmed it himself or downloaded the updated collection at the time is a moot point; the result would've been the same either way.


    I explained the basics in my post:

    The second I heard it I knew I had to ask his permission to include it in the community collection.


    For stickman in case he hasn't heard or used it yet, the Preset's called "Nick Badr - Smth" by nicosssb (Nicolas Badr). The "Smth" part of the name refers to the sound.


    Zip download of the Preset collection:


    Here

    I then shared the clip you liked.


    If you read post #1 in my Wah-Settings thread you'll see that the notes provided for Nick's Preset are as follows:


    Editor's Note:
    Nicolas posted a clip of his playing Joe Satriani's Love Thing with his preferred (for this song) flavour of Cry Baby Wah. I was impressed with its smoothness, and Nico very-kindly agreed to share it upon my request. You can view the clip and thread Here. He says that the signal chain used in the clip was Comp--->Boost--->WAH.


    You can programme the Preset yourself from the settings provided in post #1 or download the Preset collection from post #2 where it's to be found as "Nick Badr - Smth".


    So, as for your question:

    Is this wah-sound available in the profiler or is this a non available home made stomp by the user Sambrox is talking out and to which he only shared his wah settings?

    No, it's wasn't included in the factory Presets back then, although it may be now, possibly with another title, 'cause AFAIK 12 Presets from the collection were added to the factory set as part of the OS8 update.


    To be safe / sure 'though, you might as well download the collection from post #2 in the wah thread. Link in my signature.


    HTH, mate. ;)