The 3 Leaf Audio Wonderlove Envelope Filter is an envelope filter pedal, the kind of effect that opens and closes a filter in response to how hard you play. 3 Leaf Audio aimed it at the envelope-controlled filter sound made famous by Stevie Wonder, and built it to work with any instrument through a wide frequency bandwidth, which is why it has found a home with bass players as well as guitarists123. The maker's own press material introduced it as "the next generation Proton and Wonderlove envelope filters", alongside its sibling, the 3 Leaf Audio Proton Envelope Filter4.
Controls and features
The Wonderlove's selling point is depth of control. No Treble's 2012 unveiling listed "Sensitivity, Attack, Decay, Tone, Blend, Resonance, and Boost controls for dialing in your sound"5. Bass Musician Magazine's Jake Wolf, reviewing the pedal in January 2017, described the same layout from the player's side: "It allows you to control the input sensitivity, the attack and release speed, and the resonance level", along with "a global tone knob for sonic seasoning to taste" and "a dry/wet blend knob"2.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sensitivity | Sets the input sensitivity, how hard the filter responds to your playing2 |
| Attack | Shapes the attack speed of the filter sweep2 |
| Decay / release | Shapes the release speed of the sweep52 |
| Resonance | Sets the resonance level of the filter2 |
| Tone | Global tone knob for seasoning the sound to taste2 |
| Blend | Dry/wet blend knob, mixing filtered and unfiltered signal2 |
| Boost | Listed among the pedal's controls in its 2012 announcement5 |
Two features set it apart from simpler auto-filters. The first is the dry/wet blend, which lets you keep some of your clean signal underneath the sweep. The second is an onboard effects loop, reported by No Treble at launch5 and later grouped by Premier Guitar with the pedal's other clever options, "from a wet/dry mix to an onboard effect loop"6. Wolf noted that the Chromatron's FX loop works "much like the Wonderlove's", so the loop has carried across 3 Leaf's filter line1.
Premier Guitar counts 11 controls on the Wonderlove against four on EarthQuaker Devices' Spatial Delivery, and calls the Wonderlove the pricier of the two6. If you want a simpler layout, the Proton is 3 Leaf's more compact take on the envelope filter4.
Where it came from
3 Leaf Audio launched the Wonderlove as an envelope filter pedal, one that many still consider the high-water mark for envelope pedals1. The unit takes the form of a standard pedal, the 3 Leaf Audio Wonderlove Envelope Filter2. Reviewers singled out how much control it gives over the effect: as one put it, "the Wonderlove manages to offer a level of control over its effect that is pretty much unparalleled in the current market"2.
What reviewers said
Reviewers have consistently landed on the same theme: control. Wolf's verdict in Bass Musician Magazine2:
"the Wonderlove manages to offer a level of control over its effect that is pretty much unparalleled in the current market"2
Wolf also placed the pedal in 3 Leaf's history, writing that "3 Leaf launched the Wonderlove envelope filter, which many still consider the high-water mark for envelope pedals"1. Premier Guitar's Spatial Delivery review treated the Wonderlove as the feature-rich benchmark in the category, "packed to the gills with clever options"6.
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Questions
Does the 3 Leaf Audio Wonderlove have an effects loop?
Yes. The Wonderlove includes an onboard effects loop, a feature No Treble noted at the pedal's 2012 unveiling and Premier Guitar later counted among its clever options. Bass Musician Magazine's Jake Wolf described the loop as much like the one on 3 Leaf's Chromatron, letting you place other pedals inside the filter's envelope-detecting path.
How much does the 3 Leaf Audio Wonderlove cost?
The Wonderlove carried a list price of $299, a figure given in 3 Leaf Audio's 2015 press release and repeated in Bass Musician Magazine's 2017 review. When the pedal was first announced in June 2012, No Treble reported a preorder price of $269.
Does the Wonderlove have a dry/wet blend control?
Yes. Bass Musician Magazine's review identifies a dry/wet blend knob among the Wonderlove's controls, which lets you mix the unfiltered signal with the filtered one. That blend, along with the pedal's effects loop, is one of the features Premier Guitar pointed to when calling it packed with clever options.
What controls does the Wonderlove have?
No Treble's 2012 announcement lists Sensitivity, Attack, Decay, Tone, Blend, Resonance and Boost controls. Bass Musician Magazine describes the same set in practice: input sensitivity, attack and release speed, resonance level, a global tone knob and the dry/wet blend. Premier Guitar counts 11 controls in total, against four on EarthQuaker Devices' Spatial Delivery.
Sources (6)
- 3 Leaf Audio Chromatron Review, Bass Musician Magazine, 2019-04-15
- Review - 3 Leaf Audio Octabvre, Wonderlove and Doom Pedals - Bass Musician Magazine, The Face of Bass, Bass Musician Magazine, 2017-01-01
- Rig Rundown: Umphrey's McGee 2015, Premier Guitar, 2015-02-18
- 3Leaf Audio Launches Proton & Wonderlove Filters, Premier Guitar, 2015-10-13
- 3Leaf Audio Unveils Wonderlove Envelope Filter, No Treble, 2012-06-20
- EarthQuaker Devices Spatial Delivery Review, Premier Guitar, 2016-08-17
