SRS WOW Thing

[ArthurD]

Hi guys!
I went to a local stage (theater) where I helped some friends with the show sound...
The place had an old Mac, an old Yamaha console, and...
A WOW THING BOX... Yes, that old blue box Randy Staub uses on his guitars!

Holy SHIT!

So, I downloaded my youtube song on his laptop, for some isolated guitar track, split just one peace of the guitars alone (to fit on a floppy disk) and trasfered to a floppy disk.

Next, I played the tiny piece of the song through the MAC and recorded the yamaha output trough his laptop (with the Wow thing), to check its sound.

Here is the result (sorry if I used the youtube mix/mastered song, i didn't have another at the time):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2248618/wowthing.wav

(The first part is the original youtube song, the second is the wow thing on guitars)

Here is the original youtube song:


I made an offer for the box, but he said he wouldnt sell it (even that he never knew about its existence... I shouldnt have told him abaout the box uke: I wish I had more money too)

Cheers guys!

 

[~BURNY~]

Errr, it sounds terrible... I mean the original is cool although a bit plastic sounding for my taste but the processed sound is awful. What is it supposed to do?

Great playing btw...

 

[Heabow]

Errr, it sounds terrible... I mean the original is cool although a bit plastic sounding for my taste but the processed sound is awful. What is it supposed to do?

Great playing btw...

+1

 

[ArthurD]

Errr, it sounds terrible... I mean the original is cool although a bit plastic sounding for my taste but the processed sound is awful. What is it supposed to do?

Great playing btw...

I felt the same way...The cheap hardware is supposed to increase the stereo image, like a spatial plugin... Staub uses it to increase the center space in the mix, to get that ultra wide feeling with guitars and leave a big space for drums vocals and bass.
Maybe I kranked the fx too much, but I only had one chance...

Here is what staub says:
“One effect that I often use on guitars is a small effect box called the Wow Thing that I bought for $20 many years ago.
I’m letting my secrets out here! At the time, I was listening to music on a computer at home, this was maybe in the mid-to-late ’90s, and it sounded really good and super wide. I wondered how it was done, and when I dug into the computer I found this piece of software made by SRS Labs called the Wow Factor. The higher you pushed the slider, the wider the sound got. It really is just a phasing program that makes stuff sound wider, to the point that it may sound outside your speakers. So I went to their web site and bought this small hardware box that cost 20 bucks, and I found that it sounds great on guitars. I will send them to the box using the small faders and spread them out left and right. SRS also make professional spatial effects devices, and I do have one of them, but I find that this small box still works the best for me.”

check the article:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan12/articles/it-0112.htm