ADA Depot - A Forum To Support Users of ADA Amplification Gear
Non ADA Gear => Effects => Topic started by: Soloist on February 11, 2016, 12:06:42 PM
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I picked up a Digitech Drop pedal today.....WOW this thing rocks! No more having to take a bunch of axes to a gig for different tuning set ups. I can now take 1 axe and a back up and that's it. Plus no more spending hours to down tune a Floyd rose. I hear NO artifacts in the tone. Very impressed to say the least! :thumb-up:
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Looks nice just checked it out on YT. :thumb-up:
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That thing would be WAAAY handy for practicing cover tunes. Lots of (old) bands tuned down a half step.
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That thing would be WAAAY handy for practicing cover tunes. Lots of (old) bands tuned down a half step.
Exactly what I was thinking!
The only issue I have found is when it's engaged I notice a 1 - 2 dB volume level drop, but that's a minor fix.
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Yep I've thought on getting one for covers too.
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ok so after monkeying around with this thing for a while I noticed some settings are too muddy. :facepalm:
I guess I will have to create different patches on my pre's and cut out a lot of bass to make this sound the way it was intended to, or at least the way I want it to. What a pain in the a$$!
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I think this is a bit normal,if you lower the pitch you will get lower freq's so more bass freq's.
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I agree, however if I use a guitar with dropped tuning w/o the pedal it's not as muddy :dunno:
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Well that's partly coz it's real and not a digitised sample fed through an algorithm on a small(ish) backplane bus. The processing required and backplane width (>128bit (not 32 or 64bit)) to lower/raise the pitch in real time and still sound reasonable is not trivial, if you combine it with the direct signal it's kind of usable, sounds like an effect (which in some ways it is), but if you "replace" the signal with the changed pitch, that's a whole new story. There's this whole misnomer thinking once it's digital you can do what you like to it and all will be fine :banana: dsp rules (not), it's crap, yes you can do lots of things (with "varying" quality), and it has its place, but apart from all that, you have a frequency/vibration under your finger which is now different to the output.... not good IMHO.
Not trying to poo poo the idea, and great tool for working out songs etc and special FXs but if you need guitars in different tunings, then set them up like that and use them. I understand the convenience factor, but you'd need to spend allot of $s to get something to digitise the signal and change pitch and still sound good/real.
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I agree, however if I use a guitar with dropped tuning w/o the pedal it's not as muddy :dunno:
How much lower are you going? 1 full step? 2? 3???
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It sounds good when only going down 1/2 and whole step. Anything lower is when it gets muddy. So I guess I can use it for those 2 tunings and bring another guitar tuned for anything lower. It still blows away any other detuner I have ever tried. Most other detuners are single note, that's their limitation. This one does multiple notes/chords (polyphonic) which is what I want.
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Is it such a big difference the pedal vs real detuning?
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Is it such a big difference the pedal vs real detuning?
Unfortunately yes. With real drop tuning I can use the same amp presets unless you go crazy and detune a whole octave or something. For just a half or whole step not much difference. Not enough that any of the drunks in the bar would notice anyways. :lol:
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Mmm strange :???:
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Mmm strange :???:
My response as well!
Today I will take one of my presets copy it to new location. Drop the bass out completely. Engage the pedal and tweak until satisfied.
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Or you could ditch the pedal and buy 4 extra guitars 8)
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Or you could ditch the pedal and buy 4 extra guitars 8)
+1 :thumb-up: , make it real.. :whoohoo!:
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Have a look at the Electro Harmonics PitchFork pedal. To my ears, it sounds quite good down to some 3-4 stops down and 1-1½ stops up.
Alas, one overall problem with most of such things is the tracking speed.
Changing pitch of course involves tracking, that is, deriving info on the frequency fed into it, and this part could use some improvement.
Else, get a Digitech TSR-24S (low price, much overlooked device) or an Eventide 7000 or higher ;)
EDITED: Forgot that doing fixed pitch change through a song is tricky, as the programmed pitch change of course will change when changing presets :facepalm:
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Or you could ditch the pedal and buy 4 extra guitars 8)
Ha..Ha the wife would love that! :nono: 4 more, I have 4 now(it's a shame they just don't understand)
Jackson Dinky Pro tuned standard
Ibanez RG tuned 1/2 step down
ESP tuned full step down
Jackson Soloist tuned 2 steps down
I was trying to not have to lug 4 axes around. Oh well, I was thinking of dumping off a few preamps for some others, I'll just add the pedal to list of gear to sell off.
but speaking of more, I did pick up a Mesa fifty/fifty stereo tube power amp today. Looks like the Carvin will be my back up.
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Interested to hear your reaction to the mesa 50/50 vs DCM200. Similar journey to mine in some ways where I've gone from B200s to TS100, although that was coz the B200s was farting on one channel (which I've now fixed so time to build a new rig >:D ). I suspect the mesa will go very well.
It is a shame they don't understand, particularly as you still need a tele, a strat, a LP, a SG, maybe an Anderson LoL. Oh and a V :thumb-up:
Tracking is definitely part of the issue, my IPS33 smart shift has a distortion loop so it tracks from the direct guitar output then applies it to the distorted signal. But the processing involved with DSP to get it to sound really good is phenomenal. The eventides were very good IIRC.
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I hooked up the Mesa today, fiddled with it for a couple hours.
First impression is I need to chage out the tubes in it. This yahoo has tired Groove Tubes in it...Yuck! I have 4 brand new matched Mesa STR-440 Reds sitting around, looks like they are going in tomorrow. So it's kinda hard to give it a proper review until I do that.
Secondly, this is going to sound strange but, with the Mesa the Drop pedal isn't as muddy :dunno:. The only reasoning I can figure out is because the Mesa has more upper mid sizzle to it. Actually all my patches are now lacking in low end. I have the presence on the Mesa at 2. Not a big deal, it's an easy fix. I had the bass set low on my Pro Q to keep the farting to a minimum with the carvin, now I can open it up! :metal:
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Are you running the DCM200 with the eq enhance button in ? as I suspect that will boost the bottom and top end like a loudness control and could part of the reason for the muddiness.
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No, enhanced eq is off.