Software Wah/Volume

Hi

I have been recording digitally for a few months now (prior to this I just recorded WAV files or raw audio into software that did not allow much in the way of editing. Now I use Tracktion which I find to be easier to use every time I sit down and play with it. However there is a few things that still don't make a lot of sense to me.. One of which is the Wah-Wah and Volume pedal VSTs.. these things can be set to auto-wah or auto-vol.. and even can match up with the bpm.. is that all they are good for? ie. Auto-wah? or is there some way of automating them to make them sound a little more realistic?.. I have a physical wah pedal that I use.. but what about tracks I've already laid down..?

VST wahs are notorioulsy bad, unfortunately... someday someone will create one that really works well but for the time being they are no substitute for the real thing (Amplitube and GUitar rig are good but to get them working well you need to physically manipulate th epedal as opposed to using automation). Auto wah won't get you any of the inflections and subtle nuances that you get from playing it live. Re your recorded material, you could always try routing out as a send effect into your wah pedal on one channel then back in on another. The only problem with that is the placement of the wah within the signal chain - it should not come after the distortion, reverb etc. It should really be the first thing you plug into (unless you have a compressor before it) - from there on to the other effects>preamp>poweramp>speaker. Experiment with it and see if you can get it to work - I have been looking for a plug in for ages that I could assign to a knob on my keyboard to affect wah post recording but nothing has ever sounded good. Let me know if you find anything worth while - even the 'Nigel' plug on my UAD-1 card can't do it so I couldn't imagine it can be done anywhere else yet...