The Wow Thing
A quirky, Lo-Fi spatial effects processor that’s a secret weapon for huge-sounding guitars. It’s also great for enhancing the stereo space of your mixes and creating warmth and bottom.
$19.99
A little plastic box that made speakers sound bigger.
The Original WOW Thing was $20 and made cheap speakers sound more spacious and full. It achieved this effect by using radical equalization and some bizarre psychoacoustic processing using delays and phase. It worked, but it was weird and quirky. Definitely NOT a pro-audio device... until a major rock engineer discovered that it did amazing things to guitars when he recorded one of the most influential and successful metal albums on the planet. The WOW Thing became the secret sauce on many iconic albums.
An industry secret, now a plug-in.
Dan Korneff managed to buy a WOW Thing fifteen years ago and it became a staple of his guitar processing. However, he wanted to use it on background vocals and reverbs, and the original boxes are hard to come by. So he recreated it and now it's available as a plug-in.
Think of WOW Thing as an acoustic hug: anytime you want a sound to stretch beyond the confines of the normal stereo field, the WOW Thing is the thing.
If you’re looking for freaky Lo-Fi mystery, the WOW Thing is your cheap plastic friend, now in convenient plug-in form.
Add space, bass and chaos
Simple controls make it easy to add spaciousness to your stereo tracks: Just turn up the WOW knob.
Any stereo source fed through the WOW Thing moves out beyond the speakers. At extreme settings, the WOW Thing adds so much psychoacoustic movement and confusion that it can actually make you feel motion sick! It's that extreme an effect.
TrueBass is a low-frequency enhancement that adds depth and rumble to your tracks. Add just a touch to thicken a sound, or crank it up for unique low-end effects.
Beyond the Original
It wouldn’t be a Korneff Audio plug-in if there weren’t extra things to tweak.
Click on the nameplate to “lift off” the cover and access options that weren’t on the original unit.
Choose from two different WOW effects. Select TYPE 1 for the sonics of the original tabletop unit, or TYPE 2 for the enhancement algorithms of the obscure SRS Megawide rackmount unit.
The Korneff Audio WOW Thing also has selectable frequencies for the TrueBass processor. Use this to tailor the low-end response to suit your material and mix. This feature alone makes the Korneff Audio WOW Thing much more versatile.
Perimeter Audio loves The WOW Thing
Short video but with good attention to details and workflow.
Troy on The WOW Thing
Troy Clemens is a new creator, and we’re honored that for his first review video, he chose the WOW Thing
I had heard about this Randy staub trick years ago and it’s a literal cheat code for wide and big guitars ( and and any instruments and mixes . Steal of a price as well.
It's a very good plugin, I use it mainly on Tom's…
Adds a lot of beautiful width
Definitely worth trying on guitars - and anything else that you want to "perc up" a bit 😉
Such an accurately named plug-in! Double track your rhythm guitars, hard pan them left and right, send to a stereo bus, load this plug-in on the bus and say “WOW!” Instantly makes them sound huge, and I like that you can adjust it slightly if you want it a little brighter or tame some harshness. […]
Amazing tool! Initially treated it like a chorus effect, but it also adds so much throaty rage to rhythm guitars! 🤘🏻
Definitely weird and capable of creating a sound that I’ve never heard another plug-in make. I love it on guitar but it’s also sick on anything you want to widen/thicken. 🤙🤙
An impressive plugin it makes my electric guitars sound larger, fatter and stand out in my mixes. I’m a professional musician and sound engineer I worked on more than 90 internationally sold AAA Videogames and now the WOW Thing is staying on my mixing template for acoustic and electric guitars
This is a fun plugin that can do some pretty interesting and different things to audio. Use it on busses or individual tracks like synths to really get them to stand out in the mix. The plugin is easy to use and sounds unique. Give it a try!
The WOW thing does a WOW thing, for lack of a better term. It spreads...it thickens, it's just way cool. I am so glad this plug in was created.
WOW !!!
I'n just the short period of time I've had The WOW Thing, it's made it onto just about every guitar or keyboard track in my work. I'm still experimenting with different ways to use it, and actually find that I really like some of the phase tricks that can be done with it for effect […]
I like it - I use it on reverb and FX buses mostly, a fun & easy way to get those all important effects to become a bit more audible
I use it on every mix, most of the time on guitars, sometimes in keys…great little plug that does its own thing!
A super tool to get a track to pop in a tight mix!
Having 2 of the original units, the sonic character of the plugin is very close to the original. I like the flexibility of adding the WOW to any source. 1 unit is less hi-fi than the other unit, I prefer the plugin over the 2nd unit, hands down.
Muito interessante consegui mais largura estéreo e mudou meu som!!!!
Great for expanding stereowidth and adding low end
It´s a great tool. So far, I used it mainly on a stereo-bus with crunchy guitars.It simply sounds great, when tweaked with the right amount of "truebass" and "wow". Great work!
I always adored simple but effective plugins as an easily confused person. I fell in love with this instant wow effect! It's great stuff to have.
Wow Thing completely hauls ass down the freeway and is the best money I've spent on a plugin in a long time. Sounds great, is way too simple to contribute to the cumulative decision fatigue, and is just a cool story one can have faith in throwing on a track. The only con is that […]
I simply love it great work Guys
Admire plugs that bring something different to the party....instant mojo for your guitar bus, throw it on your bass and it takes rhythmic synth parts to a new level. love this thing!!!!
Such a cool sounding plugin, gives me that Randy staub guitar sound.
Works great on guitar busses for little more width. The bass boost is is great for thickening things up a bit but, it's quite powerful.
WOW (this) Thing is really cool!
What does it do? Does anybody really know? It does something.....I try it on everything....sometimes it does a Wow thing and sometimes it does a Meh thing.....sometimes I don't know it's done a great thing until I turn it off and discover on was a better thing.....WOW Thing....it's a bit of a thing really!
Dan and Luke …this Thing rocks again Great plug !
It really gives you a wow effect it does big change on everything or subtle you decide, all Korneff stuff belongs to my everyday goto tools...and always fun to work with...
Fun plugin that inspires me to do stuff I don't usually do.
I'd hadn't thought that this would be of use to me but find it really interesting to use, often in places you might not expect e.g. busses, fx returns or on instruments I wouldn't have thought about. It can add an unexpected air to the audio and freshen things up spatially. Very inspirational effect!
Love it for subtle widening and tucking in the lower-mids.
The WOW Thing is a treat! I downloaded it during a break in an attended client session and used it the same day when the artist asked if I could make a guitar part be wider and sit further back in the mix. Absolutely amazing! You can really dial it in if you use it […]
It's cheap, and a lot of fun to play with. It invites you to go over the top with all kinds of material, which is an enjoyable process by itself. Then take it down a notch (or blend it with the dry track) until the dry track becomes boring and the effect just adds that […]
Wow
Just Wow! Really great to make things pops out in the mix, sometimes more that widener plugins costing 10x more!
WOW is the proper name for this. Put it in your guitars and immediately can feel an openness that also makes space for other instruments in the middle. What a great trick this is!
It's a literal WOW effect, It adds liveness to any source. I even use it on the Master @ around 40% wet ..right before Puff Puff
It works as advertised. Has ma real nice warm tone. I've used it on a lead guitar track and a couple different horn tracks. I've also used it in parallel on a track that needed "something" it worked pretty good there too. It's a worthwhile little plugin. I am going to it more often than […]
Excellent plugin on every mix.
I don’t know how this thing works but I’ve been putting it on my bass and guitar sub masters on every mix and they just sound better. I try to take it off but I miss it every time. Has worked well on my drum bus as well. Love the number 2 delay setting. It’s […]
It sure as heck is quirky, wasnt really sure if it would be something id used let alone make it a favorite in my plugin list. Well, I was so wrong!!! I am so glad I support Dan and his team @ KORNEFF. I made a smart move! yassss!!!
Great price. Adds a nice mid range bite and subtle body to anemic guitars!
Loving this thing on guitars, synths, reverbs…. You name it!!!
It sounds ridiculous, but I really put it on an electric guitar bus and went “wow”. It’s dope. Great plug-in that does a spacing/fullness thing quicker than separate processors.
I have the hardware wow thing. So glad to have the software version. More adjustability, can save presets, sounds great and I can use more than one instance at a time.
WOW Thing is exactly the type of plugin that I was looking for. Now I put it on pretty much all of my guitars and it does 50% of all the proocessing I need to make them sound thick and wide. The user interface is simple and has everything you need to quickly adjust the […]
This is really a great plugin to use on a guitar group channel (also on drums, but I’m using it mostly on guitars). It adds incredible depth, dimension, separation and fullness. And even a nice sheen on top. Play around with the settings and you’ll definitely find a sweet spot that’ll enhance your tracks and […]
I love using WOW Thing to add excitement to specific sections of my mixes! It proving itself to be such a handy tool!
Two words... hi-hats and percussion magic... WoW!
Quite a cool and unique plugin, it does add width and character to guitar. I've used it on bass as well, it has an interesting effect- a bit more body and presence, but different to the usual colour plugins. Definitely worth having, especially on guitar.
An amazing option in a multitude of situations. We use very few 3rd party plugin's anymore but the WOW is a permanent part of our workflow. We even used it to remove background hiss from old analog tapes while restoring bass oomph(saved hours) Also good stacked. Superior plugin from Korneff!
Amazing plugin! I've used it on all sorts of different guitar tracks and it targets just the right frequencies to get that fat guitar sound along with some additional goodies that make mixing fun again!
Really cool, useful effect on guitars-well worth the price!
Great and easy plugin to put the guitar, vocals or more in front with simple buttons. Used it on my last album. Sounds amazing !
Absolutely brilliant, and more importantly, a joy to use.
The Wow Thing is great secret weapon plugin to get a little something extra out of your track. Simple and intuitive layout. Love it.
It's ok. Seems to act more like a high end eq boost. It's usable, but I wouldn't say, "WOW".
Subtle, yet noticable, and quite effective; careful though -- you'll be tempted to use it on al lot of stereo tracks, but effect strats to disappear if used on too many. Recommended.
Simply Amazing!!!
Does the Randy Staub thing on heavy guitars. Cool on drums and synths, a little goes a long way. Great plugin!
The new Wild & Crazy Wow Thing is as quirky as it bloody gets, I have no idea what it's doing but i really like it. As with all my Korneff Plugins, it offers something that's a little different & a little twisted and i really like that. Thanks again for yet another great musical […]
This was immediately one of my favorite plugins, and I have a lot of plugins. I am a huge fan of sweeteners and wideners, and this does both. This makes guitars sit in the mix in a way I never achieved before. Lovely stuff.
I love the width it adds to my guitar buss! Adds some nice high end sheen as well. The mix control is wonderful to have!
I used this on a stereo electric guitars buss and absolutely loved the effect, from it's subtlest tones to more extreme settings! It's my kind of candy, baby.
simply stated....WOW!!!! My new go to tool for width and girth on buses, especially guitar and, synths and drums. So much going on under the hood in this little plugin! BRILLIANT!!!
It does not work on everything, but when it does, it is just great.
I have been waiting a long time for this one. It does what it is meant to do (and all in the box) try all the settings I find they work together somewhat. This one was an instant buy You wont be disappointed and is a better shedspreader
An amazing update to my guitar bus. Adds just the right amount of extra width and depth! I love it. Thanks, guys! You rule!
Wow! What a thing! Acoustic guitar became fuller but still fit in the mix. I put on vocals to get more body with nice smooth top end. Great on drums and bass too! My favourite plugin for an extremely reasonable cost. All their plugins are great.
Really useful tool, makes individual elements in the mix stand out, Drums, Bass, Synth, whatever. Essentially two knobs to dial in the amount of punch and width, it works.
It adds glue and punch to the master bus, but it works as a magic box on drums, guitars and synths!
WOW! Absolutely transformed the depth of my guitars.
This is an awesome plugin. I watched the episode of Dr. Bob when he premiered it and immediately went and purchased it. The wideness it delivers is some secret sauce to be used on every recording!
good for stereo image.
Ummm....it's awesome! It's great if you're looking for that widespread effect, but honestly it's become my new favorite eq. Yes, I know it's not an eq, but trust and listen for yourself.
This thing isn't just for guitars! It's way more useful than that.
This is a super fun plugin to make guitars and synth go WIIIIIIDEEEEEEE! Killer job as always!
Pretty funny, but I don't get it to my regular mixing routine. Perfect for fast mixes 🙂
Plugin maravilhoso! Não só limita... Ele satura e é muito completo. As concorrentes vão precisar correr atras agora...
Just awesome - WOW!!
Excellent plugin which is unlike other effects in this category.
This Thing is amazing. I got my guitars to where I want them. Wide and heavy. Good job guys!
Wow! Impressive.
Interesting spatial fx on the audio
I can't activate it because there is no offline mode to accomplish this.
Makes your guitars sound huge and expansive. Best plugin ever.
WOW THING I THINK I LOVE YOU
I really like the sound of it, and it makes some things sound original in a way. There's some quirks I still can't put my fingers on, like it wont make the same effect of I use in on an aux on 100% with stereo input (somehow it seems it will only take mono input). […]
Whenever you have guitars that sound meh, use this plugin to make them go wow! And also: Don't buy this plugin. Ever. It got me addicted and I'm here to warn you. SO. Now you can make an informed decision.
Help! (I need somebody) I'm became completely addict to this devil Wow "thing". I had used it for a mix on any instrument for a french's traditional music trio which is a huge sacrilege in the traditional music rigid world. But it's damned works!! I use only the "bass" on the individualy tracks (violin, diatonic […]
Since I purchased this it's been permanently sitting on my guitar chain. It gives another life to guitars that I haven't been able to achieve through the use of other plugins. Been experimenting with it on synths and it's pretty sweet too.
Nice little thing!
This plugin is amazing! It's being placed on guitars, bass, drum bus. It's simple to use and makes an very audible difference. A little goes a long way.
This thing is a strange thing. It makes it sound better but it's hard to describe what it does. Well deserved name though: Wow!
Korneff Plugin Licensing
Software Based
Four Activations
Connections
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS: The Wow Thing
Minimum System Requirements
- Intel, AMD or Apple Silicon i5 quad core processor
- 4GB of RAM
- Mac OSX 10.14 or higher
- Windows 7 & Above
- Screen res: 1024 x 768 or higher