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DigiTech Whammy Mods?

#101
Toasted said:
Yeah. Sometimes a 5th is just too much of a stretch, right?
Click to expand...

C'mon Toasted. Sure you can do your own harmonies by playing root & fifth and root & octave, but let me know when you can play root/fifth and bend the fifth up to the octave and back smoothly.

Not to mention playing with different attacks on each string so you can control the volume of each note separately.

Something like [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]. (FYI the whole clip is the same little chord progression. Something I wanted to loop to play over the top of)
 
#103
I've only been around here for about a month, but I can say without a doubt this has been the most impressive thread imo. Its so refreshing to have a company rather small or large actually listen to their customer base. Keep it up please!
 
#104
The moderator (properly) deleted our posting showing all the latest mods. We can't put out a photo and we can't put out pricing information. This is our fault, as we hadn't thoroughly read the rules for manufacturers.

Anyone else can put up a photo that is on another site, you just can't promote yourself, which we understand.

Because it might not be clear with our post missing, we just want to answer your earlier questions by letting you know that we have figured out how to make both high and low variable pitch limiters, high and low presets, and could make a preset that limits both the high and the low on the Octave Down>Octave Up setting so you could have a 4th down>5th up harmony (someone mentioned that as another cool Bass Whammy setting that isn't on the Whammy 4) or any other combination. We haven't put a dual preset in our prototype Whammy 4 because we ran out of room!

We also put together an external footswitch that can bypass both pitch limiter controls (there is both a high and a low one). It jacks in the top right side of the box with any 1/4" stereo cable, but could be put on the lower left in place of the Footswitch Mode Select Jack.

All the feedback here has been a tremendous help and we would be more than happy to answer more questions and listen to more suggestions, such as a separate unit to house the pitch limiter controls (as we mentioned a few posts ago).

We will get the revised demo video done this weekend so you can see the 8 mod Whammy 4 in action and let us know whether you think it looks done or whether it needs some more work.

Regarding low end tracking, we haven't even tried to crack that nut yet. We are not prepared to say it can't be improved but can't promise anything. Could someone please describe it in more detail? Is it similar to the warble on the high end of the octave up settings (where the resampling causes skipping) or is it a latency issue (where you hear the note shortly after you actually play it), or something else?

Finally, if anyone wants any info we can't discuss on the forum, just send us a private message and we will answer.

Thanks again!
 
#106
MoltenVoltage said:
The moderator (properly) deleted our posting showing all the latest mods. We can't put out a photo and we can't put out pricing information. This is our fault, as we hadn't thoroughly read the rules for manufacturers.

Anyone else can put up a photo that is on another site, you just can't promote yourself, which we understand.

Because it might not be clear with our post missing, we just want to answer your earlier questions by letting you know that we have figured out how to make both high and low variable pitch limiters, high and low presets, and could make a preset that limits both the high and the low on the Octave Down>Octave Up setting so you could have a 4th down>5th up harmony (someone mentioned that as another cool Bass Whammy setting that isn't on the Whammy 4) or any other combination. We haven't put a dual preset in our prototype Whammy 4 because we ran out of room!

We also put together an external footswitch that can bypass both pitch limiter controls (there is both a high and a low one). It jacks in the top right side of the box with any 1/4" stereo cable, but could be put on the lower left in place of the Footswitch Mode Select Jack.

All the feedback here has been a tremendous help and we would be more than happy to answer more questions and listen to more suggestions, such as a separate unit to house the pitch limiter controls (as we mentioned a few posts ago).

We will get the revised demo video done this weekend so you can see the 8 mod Whammy 4 in action and let us know whether you think it looks done or whether it needs some more work.

Regarding low end tracking, we haven't even tried to crack that nut yet. We are not prepared to say it can't be improved but can't promise anything. Could someone please describe it in more detail? Is it similar to the warble on the high end of the octave up settings (where the resampling causes skipping) or is it a latency issue (where you hear the note shortly after you actually play it), or something else?

Finally, if anyone wants any info we can't discuss on the forum, just send us a private message and we will answer.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
They refer to the whammy not picking up the lower notes on the bass.
 
#110
Re the Whammy 4 bass tracking issue:

When you play the low E and A strings on a pitch shift setting, do the notes come through unchanged or do they not come through at all?

Or is this just an issue on the harmony settings?

Also, what happens on the harmony settings - does the harmony note fail to show up or does the signal cut out completely?

Are there any settings on your bass that make the problem better or worse, for example when you have the high end rolled off, does that make the problem worse?

Do different types of pickups track better than others?

When you have this problem, is the Whammy 4 the first effect in your signal chain or does it follow some other pedal(s)?
 
#111
Ok. I run the WH4 first in my chain. I use a jazz bass with single coil pickups. Basic info there...

When moving down the next in harmony settings, eventually the pedal has trouble tracking them. The notes are still produced, but they are warbly. By the time you make it to the E string, it becomes super glitchy. It is still present, but not quite as bad, in pitch shift modes.
 
#114
So after testing:

In harmony modes, the volume of your bass seems to have little to no effect. What warble was there on the E-string is just as present with the volume rolled back (both on the solo'd neck and bridge pickups of my jazz). The tone also seems to have little effect, but slightly more so than the volume. The warble fades, but so does a lot of the presence of the note that the Whammy produces. Pretty much the same results (minimal effect) on pitch shift modes.
 
#117
i have an active schecter stiletto extreme and although i never got to try it with the wh4 before i sold it (the wh4 that is), i do find that the bass whammy warbles a fair bit less then with my passive sx cobra, the cool thing about the bas whammy is the intensity control at higher intensities you get less warble and little more zing but at too high you get a bit of overdrive (but its still cool :P)
 
#118
What exactly is tracking for you? I mean people have been using this term for almost every imaginable problem when a guitar only pedal is to be used with a bass, even for analog ones :D

Basicly, a pedal is considered to track well when the latency of the pedal is considerably low and can be ommited. Latency can be described as the very short moment of time (usually measured with miliseconds) between hitting a string and actually hearing it coming out of the pedal; given the instrument was muted before the initial plucking. While volume and tone controls may have an effect on latency, the main problem with the WH-4 is that the lower frequencies usually fall short of the triggering treshold of the pedal. In other words, it takes time for the pedal to process the E string, as the frequency range of it presents problems.

Now, it's either a filtering issue that some of the low content is filtered before the signal hits the pedal OR more likely the eprom software isn't capable of sampling (or comparing) the extended range of a bass.

On the final note, it also doesn't track well with a guitar..
 
#119
We finally have a revised video and info page ready for you to check out which demonstrates the lower and upper pitch limit controls, lower and upper presets, external bypass footswitch, and mode select footswitch:

http://www.moltenvoltage.com/whammy_mods.html

We look forward to hearing your comments on our latest demo video and whether you think we answered all your questions.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We spent a number of hours trying to improve Whammy 4's bass response which we confirmed is very poor.

Here is what we found:

1) The problem has nothing to do with Whammy's ability to digitally sample the bass. If that were the case, the bass notes would never be pitch shifted. In this case, they appear sporadically. Microcontrollers are more than capable of sampling 41 hz (the frequency of the low E string on a bass).

2) The bottom strings of the bass are well below 60hz which is the frequency that AC comes out of your wall (50hz overseas). Whammy runs on AC power. In all likelihood the designers went to great lengths to filter out as much 60hz hum as possible and in the process trashed the Whammy's bass tracking ability. They did this because any 60 cycle hum in the audio chain would appear pitch shifted in the output signal which would have sounded awful.

We tried bypassing and swapping all sorts of input filter components but it didn't make a difference. We DID find a few things that make a BIG difference

- Playing with a harder attack or pick makes it track MUCH better.

- Playing with distortion in front of Whammy makes it track consistently well.

Based on what TimmyDX said about the Bass Whammy having an intensity control, the most likely solution (other than playing like Sid Vicious) is to use some sort of preamp/eq in front of the Whammy, ideally one that boosts frequencies below 80 hz. 80 hz is the frequency of the low E string on guitar which tracks consistently well.

We hope that helps. If we find out more, we will let you know.
 

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