Denmark’s veteran boutique pedal builder Carl Martin released Ottawa, a 3-mode envelop filter powered by an optical circuit.
A redesign of the company’s previous auto-wah, the Ottawa offers deep control over the filters affected frequencies not only through the three-way filter toggle (High-Pass, By-Pass and Low Pass), but also through a Q knob that selects the cutoff resonant frequency and a Tone knob that’s essentially a high-cut filter that works interactively with the Attack to deliver the desired amount of “wah effect” on each new note.
Hear the sound of the Carl Martin Ottawa in the demos below.
The Carl Martin Ottawa is an envelope filter that mimics the sound of your wah pedal without you having to step on a wah pedal and adjust those frequencies manually. Really a great pedal for solo-ing and for rhythm work, whether you are into ‘those’ psychedelic 60’s, or the disco era of the later 70’s, or any other music that requires this unique sound. There are 3 presets which are High, Band and Low Pass filters, adjustments for bandwidth and attack as well as level and tone. Let’s look at these controls….
The Attack knob adjusts the sensitivity of the Ottawa to your style of playing. As the effect is touch sensitive you will find that the Ottawa will respond to your attack on the strings…. from a softer darker wah when you play softly to a more dynamic and dramatic wah (with a higher pitch) when you become more aggressive.
The Attack knob allows you to adjust how sensitive the effect will be for your personal style of playing. The control goes from no effect at counter clockwise to full sensitivity at full clockwise settings.
The Tone knob on the Ottawa, is a high cut filter. With the knob set at full clockwise, you enjoy the full bandwidth of frequencies, so as you turn the knob counterclockwise, you start to filter out the high frequencies. On this effect, the Tone control works interactively with the Attack control, so as you adjust the Attack, you may find that you have to ‘tweak’ the Tone control to achieve your optimum tone.
The Level knob adjusts the overall level of the Ottawa. By adjusting this knob you can match or exceed the bypass signal.
