News:

Forum may be experiencing issues.

Main Menu

Digitech Drop

Started by madbean, September 18, 2014, 01:03:15 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Valid

The digitech Drop seems to stay more true to the timbre of whats being transposed. In general I think the EHX pitch pedals sound more synthetic i don't mean it in a negative way though.

Maybe another way to look at it, Digitech Drop is a realistic transposer and PF is more an add on or substitude harmonizer.
Therefor, everyone should have both!!!!


Ballarhaf

madbean

I did manage to arrange an exchange of the Drop for the Pitch Fork. Not sure when I will get the Fork. Hopefully, it will work out...the Drop is pretty great. But, I can't help but love some of the added features in the Fork, ya know.

selfdestroyer

Quote from: madbean on October 17, 2014, 11:56:37 PM
I did manage to arrange an exchange of the Drop for the Pitch Fork. Not sure when I will get the Fork. Hopefully, it will work out...the Drop is pretty great. But, I can't help but love some of the added features in the Fork, ya know.

Just ordered one for myself and Rej today. Now we're in for the FedEx waiting game.

Cody

GrindCustoms

Quote from: selfdestroyer on October 18, 2014, 12:05:38 AM
Quote from: madbean on October 17, 2014, 11:56:37 PM
I did manage to arrange an exchange of the Drop for the Pitch Fork. Not sure when I will get the Fork. Hopefully, it will work out...the Drop is pretty great. But, I can't help but love some of the added features in the Fork, ya know.

Just ordered one for myself and Rej today. Now we're in for the FedEx waiting game.

Cody

8)
Killing Unicorns, day after day...

Building a better world brick by brick:https://rebrickable.com/users/GrindingBricks/mocs/

madbean

The Pitch Fork came yesterday and I spent about 20 minutes on it. Here are my thoughts:

Good:
Tracking is pretty well perfect. I could not get it to glitch so far.
Pitch accuracy seems very good.
The dual mode is very cool...part of the reason I traded the Drop.
There does not seem to be much latency at all...probably less than the Drop which was not bad itself.
The Detune sounds great. Much like the Whammy.
The latching mode for the switch is a win.
30mA draw...I mean, c'mon!

Not so good:
The two and three octave up/down is pretty useless for me. Once the octaves up get that high they are basically cartoons. But, that's not surprising---I expected that and it's not a feature I was counting on. I would prefer to have had two extra pitch options than the two/three octave up/down like flat 3rd, 5th or natural 7th. The two and three octaves down do not translate will enough on the AC4, but it's just a 10" speaker. Maybe through the AC15 15" they will be a bit more prominent.

Overall, I think the end quality of pitch shifting is not quite as natural sounding as the Drop, but I cannot do a side by side comparison. The Drop was really pretty great for shifting the entire pitch down on the guitar. The Fork is also good, but perhaps slightly less natural. Not enough to bother me...after all mostly I will use this for an effect not a replacement tuning.


Other thoughts:
I have not tried the expression pedal input yet.
The Blend knob is singal through left, blended in the middle, and effected signal right. If I had my druthers, I probably would have made independent volume controls for the dry and wet signals. Or, maybe switches since the output is unity. But, that is minor.
So, for $130 this is pretty well a no-brainer if you can accept the limitations. I can see this taking a permanent place on my board unless I get a POG or HOG someday.

drolo

Quote from: madbean on October 24, 2014, 01:18:42 PM

Not so good:
The two and three octave up/down is pretty useless for me. Once the octaves up get that high they are basically cartoons. But, that's not surprising---I expected that and it's not a feature I was counting on. I would prefer to have had two extra pitch options than the two/three octave up/down like flat 3rd, 5th or natural 7th.
Perhaps you can build a preset expression box where you can define CV voltages for the desired intervals :-)

raulduke

Had mine for a couple of days and have had a quick play around with it.

First thoughts:

Pros: -> The tracking is good and as Madbean states there are no nasty glitches.
        -> Using an expression pedal is GREAT fun for dive bombs, pitch squeels etc. etc.
        -> Latch mode could have some great experimental applications.
        -> Bass/baritone pitch drops sound great with fuzz/distortion.
        -> There is plenty of flexibility with the up, down and up+down modes available.

Cons: -> The latency is quite noticeable (which is to be expected to be fair).
         -> In isolation the pitch shifting is not particularly 'natural' sounding (again to be expected).
         -> Due to the latency and tonality of the shifting, I wouln't really want to use this pedal for an automatic 'drop tuning' if I was playing in a band.
       
Overall, for the cost I am well happy with mine, and I think it is something of a bargain for the versatility it offers.

blearyeyes

I saw that demo a little while ago. It has been doggin me ever since...
Crap, gotta have it. Now you guys are all buying them..yea that's it, it's all your fault!  :o

Can't wait to open it up and take a peek inside.
Wonder what an 8 string will sound like through it.....
Wish I could play my 8 string worth a damn.

selfdestroyer

Quote from: blearyeyes on October 27, 2014, 10:24:46 PM
I saw that demo a little while ago. It has been doggin me ever since...
Crap, gotta have it. Now you guys are all buying them..yea that's it, it's all your fault!  :o

Can't wait to open it up and take a peek inside.
Wonder what an 8 string will sound like through it.....
Wish I could play my 8 string worth a damn.

There are gut shots over at FreeStombox and as you would expect its all full of DSP goodness.

Cody

Govmnt_Lacky

Quote from: selfdestroyer on October 27, 2014, 10:31:45 PM
There are gut shots over at FreeStombox and as you would expect its all full of DSP goodness.

The DSP is not the mountain to climb. The proprietary code is the bugger  ::)

selfdestroyer

Quote from: Govmnt_Lacky on October 27, 2014, 10:35:41 PM
Quote from: selfdestroyer on October 27, 2014, 10:31:45 PM
There are gut shots over at FreeStombox and as you would expect its all full of DSP goodness.

The DSP is not the mountain to climb. The proprietary code is the bugger  ::)

True Dat!

Cody

RobA

Quote from: Govmnt_Lacky on October 27, 2014, 10:35:41 PM
Quote from: selfdestroyer on October 27, 2014, 10:31:45 PM
There are gut shots over at FreeStombox and as you would expect its all full of DSP goodness.

The DSP is not the mountain to climb. The proprietary code is the bugger  ::)
I have a couple of AU's that I wrote that do pitch shifting up and down on multiple splits of the audio. The algorithms for this are really pretty easy. What I'm still surprised by is that they can do this with 30mA of current. I need to know what's inside this thing.
Affiliations: Music Unfolding (musicunfolding.com), software based effects and Rock•it Frog (rock.it-frog.com), DIY effects (coming soon).

kothoma


RobA

Quote from: kothoma on October 28, 2014, 02:24:18 PM
http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25224

Analog Devices Blackfin ADSP-BF592
Hmm, that makes the 30mA number a bit suspect. The parts are low power for sure, but according to the spec sheet, even running it at 100MHz at the lowest voltage setting would have the current use for the processor alone at about 30mA while not doing much of anything.

Was there any information on the AD/DA converter(s)?

Has anyone actually measured the current draw for one of the pedals? I'm guessing more like 50-100mA. If that's the case, it's still pretty good.

It would be an interesting processor to play with, but their development environment prices kill any thought of that for me.
Affiliations: Music Unfolding (musicunfolding.com), software based effects and Rock•it Frog (rock.it-frog.com), DIY effects (coming soon).

raulduke

Quote from: RobA on October 28, 2014, 03:53:22 PM
Quote from: kothoma on October 28, 2014, 02:24:18 PM
http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25224

Analog Devices Blackfin ADSP-BF592
Hmm, that makes the 30mA number a bit suspect. The parts are low power for sure, but according to the spec sheet, even running it at 100MHz at the lowest voltage setting would have the current use for the processor alone at about 30mA while not doing much of anything.

Was there any information on the AD/DA converter(s)?

Has anyone actually measured the current draw for one of the pedals? I'm guessing more like 50-100mA. If that's the case, it's still pretty good.

It would be an interesting processor to play with, but their development environment prices kill any thought of that for me.

I woulnd't put it past EHX to be a bit optimistic with their quoted specifications.

30mA is probably the quiescent, rather than full operational, current.