Pitchshifting---a blind shootout for your perusal

[BassRHB]

The Whammy DT is a slightly older design than the Drop. My understanding is that the Drop's algorithm was updated from all the previous Whammy iterations. So no, I haven't tried it, and I'm not sure it would be a useful data point. I would love a 2nd gen Drop that went both up and down, and allowed MIDI input for changes and on/off switching.

Thanks!!

 

[wintremute]

What should the order be for these 3 pedals (going from bass, to pedal 1, to pedal 2, to pedal 3, to amp)?

Digitech The Drop
Zoom B3
Boss TU-3 Tuning Pedal

 

[Adamixoye]

What should the order be for these 3 pedals (going from bass, to pedal 1, to pedal 2, to pedal 3, to amp)?

Digitech The Drop
Zoom B3
Boss TU-3 Tuning Pedal

Bass --> tuner --> Drop --> B3 --> amp would be what I would do. Just remember that you're tuning to standard tuning, not your dropped tuning. Or you could flip those two and do it the other way.

 

[GeoKinetic]

Any updates with the release of the TC Electronic Brainwaves? Crazy feature set for such a small pedal.

 

[Adamixoye]

Any updates with the release of the TC Electronic Brainwaves? Crazy feature set for such a small pedal.

Of the pedals in my original post:

• I kept the Drop and sold the Morpheus (basically a direct replacement)
• I sold the Line 6 as I moved on to other things (it was never my primary pitchshifter)
• I upgraded my Pitchfactor to an H9, though again, I use it really for other stuff

I haven't tried any additional pitchshifters. A lot of people swear by the EHX Pitchfork, though based just on features it's not really for pure pitchshifting in the sense I meant when making this thread---it's about harmonization and Whammy-style effects. Every reliable review I've read says that for downtuning, the Drop is much better than the Pitchfork in terms of tone and latency. With the Pitchfork, you get more intervals up and down but you skip some of the ones you get with the Drop.

The Brainwaves looks, based on features, like it's competing with the Pitchfork rather than the Drop, but I don't know enough about it yet.

P.S. Here's one of those Drop vs. Pitchfork reviews:

 

[Vinnie Detroit]

With the arrival of my Digitech Drop, I felt I owed it to myself and everyone to do a test of the various Pitchshifters I now own on my board. These are:

Digitech Drop
Morpheus Droptune
Eventide Pitchfactor (Pitchflex algorithm)
Line6 M6 (Pitch Glide effect)
NOTE: I will randomize the order of these pedals in the clips below.

So, here is why I did. I recorded a bass line with my Infinity Looper and a Beat Buddy. It's a Musicman StingRay 5 with relatively flat EQ on the onboard preamp. I run the Looper first, then into my board.

Compression is applied (Empress Compressor). I didn't make this as uniform as I wanted to, because I just went with my board. So the compression is after the Drop and Droptune, but before the Pitchfactor and M5.

At the end I'm running a B7K with the blend fully CCW (dry, no "color") but adding a little bit of EQ. Then this is into a Beat Buddy, into the USB interface of my guitar amp, into Audacity on a MacBook Pro 15. I attempted some noise removal because for some reason I'm getting noise in my recording setup (which doesn't seem to exist when not recording). I also did some normalization. For something quick and dirty with someone who has virtually no recording experience, I hope the EQ and mix are acceptable.

In addition to the noise, I would like to apologize for any sloppy playing---some parts definitely sound better than others. I did a handful of takes, but mostly I was trying to do something quick in various styles. I start with a riff on the E and A strings, then I go to some root-5th-octave power chords on the A/D/G strings. Then I do some two-note chords with the open A string, including a minor 10th. Then I move to some slap in E, then I go to a riff down into the B string.

For each shifter, I test it at 1, 4, and 7 half-steps down. I have a dry sample for comparison.

Note that the Beat Buddy starts the Infinity loop automatically. This means that any latency you hear compared to the dry sample is real.

Here's the dry:


I'll post the remaining clips in the next posts. Again, remember that A, B, C, and D each represent a different pitchshifter, and it's consistent between 1, 4, and 7 half-steps down. (But randomized and hidden for the moment until I get your blind opinions.)

Please, your votes and comments are welcome!

 

[Vinnie Detroit]

Wow, You really put some work into this. I listen on quality headphones and I definitely hear some differences. two good ones, two not so good. thats my take. Thanks for puttin in the work. V.

 

[Alien8]

this thread deserves to be bumped every once in a while... so bump...

 

[Adamixoye]

If I had the original file I would add the H90!

I no longer have the M5 or the Morpheus. I still have two H9s, the Drop, and now the H90. But the H90 has really replaced all of the above.