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Envelope Followers
This page contains audio samples and brief description of diverse envelope follower pedals. This page is not intended to be a thorough and deep analysis of each of these pedals, but might help you get a overall view of what different pedals sound like in the same environment with the same input sample. The samples are recorded straight through a Line6 Pod XT, so no amplifiers, microphones or studios were used. Therefore, the samples will not give the best achievable sounds that can be achieved from each of these pedals, but since all are in the exactly same environment a comparison can be made.
Hopefully you find these useful and interresting, any comments & suggestions are warmly welcomed!
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BOSS - FT-2 Dynamic Filter
Versatile envelope filter from the early eighties, made in Japan. It has controls for the sensitivity, the cut-off frequency and the Q-factor of the resonance peak. It also has an additional mode used together with an expression pedal to control the filter manually similar to a wah wah pedal.
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Sensitivity 
Cutoff freq 
Q 
Mode 
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Sensitivity 
Cutoff freq
Q
Mode
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BOSS - TW-1 T Wah
The T Wah ("Touch Wah" on the earliest units) is the first envelope filter pedal released by Boss in the late seventies and was manufactured from 1978 until 1987 in Japan. It is an easily controlled unit which features controls for the sensitivity and the resonance peak. It also has selectable drive direction (up/down). Warm, organic and juicy sound.
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Sens
Peak
Drive UP
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Sens
Peak
Drive DOWN
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CORON - FUNK BOX 95
Funky and snappy sounding japanese envelope filter from the late seventies to early eighties. Coron effects pedals (most like made by Maxon) were initially close copies of MXR pedals before switching to more generic looking japanese effects in the mid eighties.
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Intensity ,
Shift
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Intensity
Shift 
(Spaceship settings)
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ELECTRO-HARMONIX - BASSBALLS
The Electro-Harmonix Bassballs is a very unique sounding twin dynamic filter with two sweeping filters, with resonant frequencies engineered into the full range of the bass guitar's strongest harmonics.
It also features a Fuzz option for harmonic enrichment. As the name already implies, the Bassball's prime application is the bass guitar, although it works nicely with guitar as well.
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Range
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Range (Distortion on)
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ELECTRO-HARMONIX - DOCTOR Q
The Doctor Q pedal was first manufactured 1976-1983, later reissued in 2001. Funky envelope filter with control for sweep range and a switch to select between bass/guitar voicing.
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Range
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Range (Random sample)
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ELECTRO-HARMONIX - Q-TRON
The Q-Tron was introduced 1997 and manufactured until recently in the USA. It is a very versatile envelope filter featuring low-pass, high-pass and band-pass filters as well as a mix mode. It has controls for the Peak and the Gain of the filter and has a separate normal/boost mode for added dynamics. In addition it has a switch for the direction of the sweep (up/down) which offers a whole new dimension of sounds achievable from this unit. The different filter settings offer a wide variety of warm sounds with smooth signal tracking.
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Peak
Gain
Mode Mix,
Range Lo,
Drive Up
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Peak
Gain
Mode HP,
Range Lo,
Drive Up
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Peak
Gain 
Mode BP,
Range Lo,
Drive Up
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Peak
Gain
Mode LP,
Range Lo,
Drive Up
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Peak
Gain
Mode BP,
Range Hi,
Drive Down
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ELECTRO-HARMONIX - mini Q-TRON
The mini Q-Tron is a battery operated smaller version of the Q-Tron and has been manufactured from 2002-present, now to be replaced by the new nano series equivalent. It features low-pass, high-pass and band-pass filters and controls for the sensitivity and the Q-value of the resonance. Although not as versatile, soundwise this unit is quite close to it's big brother giving the same fullness and warmth.
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Drive
Q
Mode BP
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Drive
Q
Mode LP
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Drive 
Q
Mode HP
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LOVETONE - MEATBALL
This things must be one of the most versatile envelope filters available. It features
controls for sensitivity, attack, decay, range (can be used to fine-tune the frequency response and create subtle effects), resonance and dry/wet signal blend.
It has numerous filter options (high, low, and band-pass filters and four selectable filter frequency ranges) and selection of Up and Down response curves, different triggering options etc...
In addition to the huge amount of controls, the Meatball offers an effects loop (works excellent with e.g. octaves and distortion, or it can be used for external trigger facility) as well as expression pedal connections (e.g. to create wah-type effects).
It definitely requires some time to master the Meatball with it's plethora of knobs that all in a way interact with each other, but its possibilities are endless. Two short samples will not even scratch the soundscape of this box, but anyway, here you go.
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Sens.
Attack
Decay
Colour
Intens.
Blend
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Sens.
Attack
Decay
Colour
Intens.
Blend
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MXR - ENVELOPE FILTER
Very smooth and organic sounding vintage, made between 1976-1983 in the USA
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Threshold 
Attack
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PIGTRONIX - EP1 Envelope Phaser
Although this pedal is not only an envelope follower, we'll include it in this comparison, since it actually has a quite nice envelope tracking capability.
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Sensitivity
Sweep
Resonance
Intensity
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SYSTECH - ENVELOPE FOLLOWER
Smooth and warm sounding envelope follower made by Systech (Systems and Technologies in Music Inc.) between 1975-79 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA.
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IMAGES
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SOUND SAMPLES
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Clean sample
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Envelope Decay
Envelope Drive
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(Random sample #1)
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(Random sample #2)
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BACK
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