Need a harmonist pedal!

[jeffgnr90]

Hey folks, so I'm in the market for a harmonist pedal of sorts. I have a line 6 m9 and love the harmonist effect it comes with, especially with the expression pedal. The tracking is great and everything, but I'm looking to downsize from the M9 eventually. I also need the ability to add what is either a 9th or 10th interval for a song my band plays, I forget which exactly.

Boss stuff seems reasonable, and I saw a behringer one also. Can't really afford to go the expensive route, eventide or H9. Any suggestions? I am contemplating just downgrading to a line 6 m5 and using it for the harmonist feature and other filter effects towards the front of my signal.

 

[Supercollide]

I've had the behringer harmonist pedal over a year and still not managed to avoid it sounding very fake and 'plasticy' on the harmony settings, bass or guitar so I'd recommend avoiding that one.
Fortunately for me the detune and whammy functions have made up for the harmony function so I still use it.
The Boss pedal it copies has a much more pleasing sound to the harmony.

 

[jeffgnr90]

I've had the behringer harmonist pedal over a year and still not managed to avoid it sounding very fake and 'plasticy' on the harmony settings, bass or guitar so I'd recommend avoiding that one.
Fortunately for me the detune and whammy functions have made up for the harmony function so I still use it.
The Boss pedal it copies has a much more pleasing sound to the harmony.

Cool good to know, thanks for your response.

 

[Ranger Nessy]

I've always liked the Behringer US600 - in reality you ideally shouldn't expect an affordable digital harmonist pedal to sound like a natural sounding replica of your instrument when in 3rd up etc. mode (it's arguably hard to truly obtain this even with higher end gear). For me it sounds very good and tracks well, especially with distortion - you can tell it's digital tonally, but it works. I have read other comments suggesting tracking is poor, but your instrument needs to be tuned to A 440Hz standard pitch, and it won't do polyphony - neglecting these 2 factors will cause poor (or non-existent) tracking. It seems to have a little bit more difficulty lower down the bass register when tracking - though that's often the nature of trying to harmonise very low notes. I'd say it's definitely worth a try at least, IMO. If you can't try beforehand they are very affordable, so no great loss if you need to resell.

I haven't tried the Boss PS-5 / 6, but generally (and IME) Behringer circuits do accurately replicate the pedal they're copying, but there are likely to be exceptions to this. Obviously build quality is lower, hence the price.

 

[Oneirogenic]

The bass whammy harmony settings has both a 9th setting and a major 10th setting.

 

[jeffgnr90]

I've always liked the Behringer US600 - in reality you ideally shouldn't expect an affordable digital harmonist pedal to sound like a natural sounding replica of your instrument when in 3rd up etc. mode (it's arguably hard to truly obtain this even with higher end gear). For me it sounds very good and tracks well, especially with distortion - you can tell it's digital tonally, but it works. I have read other comments suggesting tracking is poor, but your instrument needs to be tuned to A 440Hz standard pitch, and it won't do polyphony - neglecting these 2 factors will cause poor (or non-existent) tracking. It seems to have a little bit more difficulty lower down the bass register when tracking - though that's often the nature of trying to harmonise very low notes. I'd say it's definitely worth a try at least, IMO. If you can't try beforehand they are very affordable, so no great loss if you need to resell.

I haven't tried the Boss PS-5 / 6, but generally (and IME) Behringer circuits do accurately replicate the pedal they're copying, but there are likely to be exceptions to this. Obviously build quality is lower, hence the price.

Interesting, yea Ive tried the behringer bass overdrive and it's really nice actually. Kind of convinced me not all behringer pedals are "bad". I might just bite the bullet and try it. I'm a fan of the one with the m9, so as long as it's something comparable to that I'm cool with it.

 

[jeffgnr90]

The bass whammy harmony settings has both a 9th setting and a major 10th setting.

I've heard great things about the whammy, and it's not too far outside what I was looking to spend. I figured out that what I need is indeed a 9th interval (octave up from a major 3rd) too. I'll look into that bad boy a little deeper.

 

[Supercollide]

I haven't tried the Boss PS-5 / 6, but generally (and IME) Behringer circuits do accurately replicate the pedal they're copying, but there are likely to be exceptions to this. Obviously build quality is lower, hence the price.

I'm normally a bit of a behringer fan (well) and the harmonist is still very good for it's £35.00 price (and then there's all the other functions it does do brilliantly on top of that (SWEEEEEEET DETUNE!)) but, the boss sounds far sweeter on the harmonies. While I don't regret buying the behringer I do wish I'd researched a bit more before purchasing as the boss is far more musical sounding and the whammy seems so too.
That said the (non-intelligent) harmony function on the behringer guitar x v-amp sounds awesome and that remains one of the main reasons I've not passed that pedal on.

jeffgnr90 Try if you can before you buy but I suspect if you do you won't pick the behringer.

 

[jeffgnr90]

I'm normally a bit of a behringer fan (well) and the harmonist is still very good for it's £35.00 price (and then there's all the other functions it does do brilliantly on top of that (SWEEEEEEET DETUNE!)) but, the boss sounds far sweeter on the harmonies. While I don't regret buying the behringer I do wish I'd researched a bit more before purchasing as the boss is far more musical sounding and the whammy seems so too.
That said the (non-intelligent) harmony function on the behringer guitar x v-amp sounds awesome and that remains one of the main reasons I've not passed that pedal on.

jeffgnr90 Try if you can before you buy but I suspect if you do you won't pick the behringer.

I've compeletely forgotten this detail, but I never use the smart harmony on the M9 either. So I've got some thinking to do.

Still opeb to other people's thoughts, experiences too!

 

[Oneirogenic]

Just out out curiosity, is it possible to play your 9th harmonies without a pedal? I understand it may difficult or impossible but it might be worth a shot.

 

[jeffgnr90]

I've tried, and it won't work. I could play the 9th intervals down the octave but it wouldn't be the same.

 

[jeffgnr90]

Here's a link to the song. About 2/3rds of the song is with the effect.

 

[jeffgnr90]

I'm silly lol... The interval is actually a 10th

 

[Nephilymbass]

I've owned the bass whammy, it was pretty cool. I never really got good at playing the expression pedal.which is a skill in itself imo.

From the sounds of your original post why not consider a m5. It would be downsizing. The difference between the m5 and the m9 is you can only do one effect at a time, and the m5 doesn't have a looper. But all the effects are the same quality.