* Are you going to continue not providing a power adapter, or at least a 6' USB cable, with these pedals? It was very frustrating not having everything I needed to start playing with the pedal supplied on the factory box. I've not personally purchased any other expensive pedal that requires a somewhat unusual power source not include a power brick or wall wart power source. And 500ma power sources aren't necessarily on hand.
Currently, we have no plans to include a power adapter. This is to keep the cost of the unit down. Adding a universal power supply adds more cost, requires larger packaging, increases shipping costs. And we feel customers would rather have the Wahoo available at lower cost, particularly since it can use most standard power supplies. 300mA supplies will work fine as long as you don't set the LED intensity to maximum -- but for certfication purposes we have to rate it to the maximum possible, hence 500mA.
Including a USB cable may be an option for the future though. We do include a USB cable with the i2M musicport, for example.
* Is there a way to assign the expression pedal to sweep beat divisions when using MIDI CLOCK? This would be a common dubstep type use.
Not yet, but this has been requested a few times. It's something we will look at for a future update.
* Is there a way to assign the expression pedal to sweep beat divisions when using TAP TEMPO? Not sure how that'd possibly work since you're already using the expression to tap the tempo.
I imagine that might be hard to make useable -- it might start changing tempo when you don't want it to!
* What is the PUNCH control when setting the unit to envelope? This is seen on the current Mac editor app. The value changes, though the knob doesn't seem to visually change position, and there's no obvious audible effect. I didn't quickly find anything about it in the user manual.
Punch was added in a firmware update, so isn't described in the paper manual, but is in the downloadable pdf manual. This is an extract from the manual:
"Pun lets you accentuate the filter response to new notes by providing a boost in sensitivity but only for new note edges, thus making it easier to create punchier, more dynamic sounds. This effect is most obvious with low values of SEn and dEC."
As you found, the older version of firmware you had didn't support this, so it didn't work.
Automatic firmware version detection and updating is something we have thought about and we may look at in the future.
However, I could not use the Editor to update my firmware. I would connect via USB, the Editor detected my device and could edit patches, but when I chose to update the firmware the Editor hung and the device simply reported UPD but nothing happened. I had to download and use the dedicated Firmware Updater which worked without issue. And now the Punch feature in the Editor works correctly.
It sounds like you didn't have the Firmware Updater installed. On OSX, this also needs to be in the same folder as the editor before the update will work. It should have given you a message to tell you why it had failed, telling you that the updater app couldn't be found. Did it not do this? Now you have this installed, if it's in the same folder as the editor, future firmware updates should be seamless.
The firmware updater updates all Sonuus products, not just the Wahoo, that's why its a separate application.
In Update mode, the editor cannot recognise the Wahoo. This is by design. After you run the Firmware Updater and close it, it will reboot the Wahoo into normal Mode and the editor will see it again.
Here's a quickie sound clip that uses a P bass, BOSS RC-2 loop so everything's getting the 100% same input, gated fuzz, then I demo a Chunk Systems Octavius Squeezer, Zoom B3 M-filter, then the Sonuus Wahoo using the patch above. Any suggestions for getting the Wahoo closer to the Squeezer would be great. I totally realize every filter sounds different and they don't all perform the same.
I am literally just back from MusikMesse in Germany, so haven't had a chance to look at this in any detail. But, here are some quick thoughts for you:
(1) make sure you have a fast decay set, this will ensure the filter can fall as quickly as the input signal falls.
(2) use (as you have found) a "lo" filter response curve. Try lo-9 to lo-5, something around there.
(3) Use the new punch feature. Set punch high, and set sensitivity low. This will let the initial note attack push the filter to a high point, then it will decay quickly because the level of the envelope driving the filter will be lower (sensitivity is low).
(4) keep the attack fast (set to 0).
So, a combination of these should let the filter rise higher, quickly, and also decay quickly too, so it is more responsive to fast playing.
Don't play with the master sensitivity and the patch sensitivity to try and get this, because these are essentially the same thing. The master sensitivity applies a global scaling to the patch sensitivity so that the same patches can sound similar on instruments with different input levels. Best to set the master to 0, as your starting point. Keep the patch sensitivity low, but increase punch to get the contrast between the note attack and the post-transient decay.
