11 Best Wah VST Plugins 2024

Many a guitarist would consider wah an essential effect. Not just for funk, disco, soul, and R&B, but also for blues, rock, metal, and beyond.

A wah pedal will give you the most control, but there is a time and place for software wahs, especially when you don’t have the budget, time, or skill for anything else.

In this guide, we look at the best wah VST plugins.

FilterFreak by Soundtoys – Best Overall

Soundtoys’ FilterFreak is a versatile, high quality classic resonant filter style effect that’s capable of delivering everything from wah-wah sounds to wide resonant LFO sweeps.

FilterFreak is the perfect solution for guitar, bass, drums, synths, vocals, and more. Add some fatness, funk, sweep, and more.

With FilterFreak, you can either use one or two filters in series or in parallel. You also get four modes (high pass, low pass, band pass, band reject) with two to eight poles, seven analog saturation types, Rhythm Editor (for creating rhythmic filter sequences), Shape Editor (for creating your own LFO shapes), and more.

FilterFreak is one of the most flexible filter plugins out there. It isn’t specifically a wah effect, but it’s more than capable of producing those types of sounds, and of course, many more. It’s our best overall selection because of its sound quality and versatility.

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Blue Cat’s Axiom by Blue Cat Audio – Best Premium Option

Wah isn’t exclusively the domain of guitarists, as many a synth player and bassist has benefited from the effect as well. That said, comprehensive “guitar workstation in a box” multi-effects solutions like Blue Cat’s Axiom come with all the essentials, including amp sims, effects, and yes, of course, wah.

We will be looking at multiple solutions like Blue Cat’s Axiom throughout this guide, and admittedly, they are all getting better and cheaper. As with anything, the right solution for you will depend on your needs.

But to offer a bit of an overview, Blue Cat’s Axiom features an amp sim, two parallel amp simulation channels, 44 effects, several Blue Cat modules (Hot Tuna, Re-Guitar, Destructor, and Late Replies), impulse response loader, thousands of presets, and more.

Given that it’s basically five plugins in one, Axiom’s premium price seems justified. If a wah is all you need, this isn’t the one, but if you’ve been looking for a viable multi-effects plugin for guitar, you should see this one in action.

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EFEKTOR WF3607 Wah Filter by Kuassa – Best Budget Option

Kuassa has convenient guitar effects plugins for just about every situation you can think of. Here we have the versatile but compact and simple EFEKTOR WF3607 Wah Filter, a wah filter that takes you back to the early days of experimentation and discovery.

With EFEKTOR WF3607, you get access to six types of filters – CB (Dunlop Cry Baby), VG (Vox Grey Wah), AX (Vertex Axis Wah), MulP (Mu-Tron Low Pass), MuBP (Mu-Tron Band Pass), and MuHP (Mu-Tron High Pass).

Most wah pedals have relatively few parameters you can tweak, but this is where virtual effects have certain advantages. With EFEKTOR WF3607, you can adjust the pedal position, range, Q, level, amount, attack, and release, in addition to the filter mode.

This effect also comes with bypass, stereo linking, and can be used alongside a MIDI expression pedal.

Overall, EFEKTOR WF3607 Wah Filter sounds great and is very affordable to boot. It’s our best budget selection, and very close to our best overall as well.

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MFilter by MeldaProduction

MeldaProduction’s MFilter is an evolution of their MEqualizer. What’s different is that MFilter comes with four global modulators that can be used to create sweeps, wah like effects, and more. The filter, however, goes well beyond what you would typically expect from an effect like this.

MFilter comes with a continuously adjustable oscillator shape, four global modulators (that can modulate any set of parameters), seven filter types per band (high pass, low pass, band pass, high shelf, low shelf, peak, notch), advanced editor, tube saturation, and much more.

The video below offers a fantastic overview of the possibilities this effect makes available.

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Uhbik by u-he

Uhbik refers to u-he’s superb but relatively lesser-known effects bundle.

The names of the effects aren’t exactly inspired, but you’ve got Uhbik-A (ambience / reverb), Uhbik-D (delay / echo), Uhbik-F (flanger), Uhbik-G (granular pitch shifter / phase vocoder), Uhbik-P (phaser), Uhbik-Q (equalizer), Runciter (filter), Uhbik-S (frequency shifter / sideband filter), and Uhbik-T (tremolo).

These are all excellent effects, but you’ll want to explore each of them in your own time. The one that’s of greatest interest to wah seekers is Runciter, which is more than just a resonant low pass filter.

This filter features parallel high pass, low pass, and band pass outputs, input overdrive, and brickwall fuzz. From sweeps and chaotic filtering to classic wah and more, Runciter is a streamlined and easy to operate plugin bestowing incredible power to its users.

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Make Me Scream by W. A. Production

W. A. Production’s humorously named Make Me Scream is a really cool two-stage saturation plugin. With four distortion types, four timbre modes, additional tube preamp module, transient follower, and frequency filtering, you can achieve some sick sounding saturation and distortion effects with this baby.

The envelope follower is what makes a wah like effect possible. This dial will make the effect react to the transients of the input, which will give you a rhythmic wah.

Make Me Scream is a highly capable tool for an array of instruments and genres – especially electronic music. From muted tones to destructive high frequency distortions, your tonal options are many and varied with this affordable saturation.

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DeeQ by Venomode

Venomode’s DeeQ is a single-band dynamic EQ filter that works automagically, adapting the EQ (frequency, gain, Q) to the envelope or external sidechain. This specialized EQ can carve out some space in a mix, produce creative wah like effects, and everything in between.

DeeQ also comes with sidechain detection and mid / side modes.

This is a very simple and easy to use VST plugin. If you plan to make EQ filtering a part of your workflow and don’t have a tool that can do the job yet, then DeeQ is worth a look.

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Blue Cat’s PolyVibe by Blue Cat Audio

The colorful Blue Cat’s PolyVibe takes after classic vibe pedals, complete with wah / vocal, chorus, phaser, and rotary style effects. While the effect is perfect for guitar, it’s well worth trying on other instruments, like organ, and even vocal tracks as well.

PolyVibe takes things a step beyond the original filter designs, giving you the ability to alter the shape and motion to create your own modulation effects, and there’s even a stereo option (where even most modern vibe pedals are mono).

If you want to sync the modulation with your tempo, this functionality is built right into PolyVibe, and you can take advantage of the built-in Tone Maps to find presets and create new effects.

Altogether, Blue Cat’s PolyVibe features three filter modes (classic, reverse, phase), swing, stereo width, LFO sync to host, an array of presets with a preset manager, MIDI control with automation support, MIDI learn, customizable user interface, smooth bypass, undo / redo, and more.

Blue Cat’s PolyVibe will take you back to the 60s within seconds with a very authentic Uni-Vibe style effect. But with a bit of tweaking, you can dial in any shade of psychedelia or funk. Well worth considering if you love Jimi Hendrix and David Gilmour.  

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Sigmund by D16 Group

D16 Group’s Sigmund is no ordinary delay effect. It comes with four independent delay units with their own set of parameters, along with several modules independent of the feedback loop – multi-mode filter, overdrive, and amplitude modulator.

The delays can even be routed using nine different topologies, which means you can connect the delays with each other in just about any way you can imagine.

If that wasn’t enough to wrap your head around, Sigmund also comes with multiple modulators, including LFO, envelope (with a Transient Detector), and peak follower, which is what allows you to create wah style effects.

Sigmund comes in handy as an insert effect for an instrument or bus channel, or as a send effect. It works not just as a delay but also as a filter, tremolo, distortion, and limiter. And depending on your settings, you can achieve chorus, flanger, spatializer, and mastering / bus dynamic processor style effects as well.

So, in summary, Sigmund comes with four independent delay lines, multimode filter, overdrive, pre and delay times for each line, tempo sync, tap function, selectable channel mode (L+R or M+S), stereo spread, and three modulator types with LFO, tempo sync, six invertible waveforms, stereo phase shift, ADHSR envelope, and peak follower.

You also get MIDI retriggering and transient detector for LFO and envelope, nine routing topologies, mixer, master limiter, 300+ factory presets, preset browser, advanced MIDI learn, parameter mapping, and more.

While it’s not a wah effect exclusively, if you’ve ever wanted to do cool things with delays, this is the plugin you need.

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BIAS FX 2 Standard by Positive Grid

Positive Grid’s BIAS FX 2 Standard is another popular guitar multi-effects plugin. There are also Professional and Elite editions, depending on the functionality you require.

BIAS FX has a reputation of sounding amazing and being configurable to the nth degree. It includes a huge array of amps, racks, effects, and presets, along with Guitar Match, looper / recorder, dual signal path with multiple splitters, and much more.

Of course, its large library of effects includes wah, alongside spring reverb, tube compressor, tri-chorus, and many more.

It’s overkill if wah is the only thing you’re after. But it’s a great plugin at a great price point if a multi-effects guitar plugin would complement your workflow.

Learn more: Plugin Boutique

Amp Room by Softube

Softube’s Amp Room was obviously created to compete with the likes of BIAS FX and Blue Cat’s Axiom. Of course, we have yet to see Softube do anything halfway, so naturally it’s a product worth exploring if you’re considering a guitar multi-effect VST plugin.

Designed with guitar and bass in mind, Amp Room’s feature set is everything you would expect it to be and more – amps, cabs, pedals, mics, FX, utility modules, IR loader, and 260 presets, just for starters.

Yes, of course there are wah effects, including Softube’s Whastena Auto Wah.

With a multi-effect like Amp Room, customizability is the name of the game. So, it’s not something you should buy for the wah alone. If you’d like to gain access to limitless guitar tones, then Amp Room or something like it is what you’ve been looking for.

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What Should I Look For In A Wah VST Plugin?

Too many options? Can’t decide? Need a little help making it to the finish line? No problem, we’ve got you covered, because in this section, we look at the main criteria you should consider when shopping for a wah VST plugin. They are:

• Sound quality
• Features
• Budget

Now let’s look at each.

Sound Quality

We have no doubt that a great sounding wah is what you’re after.

Sound is a little subjective, though, so you’ll want to take some time to listen to every plugin you’re considering. Watch the videos. Listen to the audio clips. Check out anything you can get your hands on. Choose a plugin that will work well for your projects and you won’t go wrong.

Features

If you want a wah and nothing more, then EFEKTOR WF3607 Wah Filter is an excellent option.

If you want an all-around killer filtering tool that also does wah, then FilterFreak is where it’s at. It’s very versatile.

And if a comprehensive guitar multi-effects solution is what you need, Blue Cat’s Axiom, BIAS FX, and Amp Room all have their merits. These are also the most versatile options for guitar tones in general.

There are several other “in between” options featured here – filters, EQs, saturations, delays, all of which do wah to lesser or greater degrees. These are super cool if you’d like to augment your mixing plugin arsenal.

Exploring features through these lenses should serve you well.

Budget

You don’t need to spend an arm and a leg to purchase a wah VST plugin. But if you plan to buy multiple products, it would be good to remember that the cost can add up fast.

While you’re welcome to browse as you please, we don’t recommend going into debt for any purchase. So, please consult your budget before buying and spend responsibly. This will ensure that you fully enjoy your new VST plugin.

Top Wah VST Plugins, Final Thoughts

Wah can be used in a variety of creative ways. From the percussive attack of funk guitars to filtered guitar solos, it comes in handy in a variety of situations. What can you create with wah?

Having come this far, you should be equipped with everything you need to know to purchase your first wah VST plugin. We hope you have a blast and do let us know how it goes!