Re: Looking for a pitch shifter pedal

[Mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

At 7:47 PM +0000 11/17/07, Ian Popperwell wrote:
>
>That's really helpful, I will check both oout. Yes, I've been really 
>disappointed with the PS-5 - it's good to hear that it's not just me!

Yeah, it's not just you.  Roland/Boss have this habit of putting out 
new products which are not necessarily an "improvement" over the 
previous model.  Sometimes this results in a new product branch that 
is interesting all on its own.  More often, it merely involves 
rehashing a bunch of stuff in a different way to churn the market and 
generate sales based merely on releasing a "new" model.

In short, I've heard a lot of people complain about the PS-5, while 
praising the older models (PS-3, PS-2).

FWIW, the PS-3 does contain a 'whammy' function, if that's what 
you're after, and can be used with one of the external Roland/Boss 
pedals for control (EV-5, FS-5u/l, etc.).  Obviously, the way it 
degrades with the whammy is different than the way the original 
Digitech degrades.  Try 'em both and see if either has a sound that 
appeals to you.  Also, I may be mistaken, but I thought the Digitech 
Space Station also had some pitch transposition functions.

Still, it sounded like you might be looking for a more high-quality 
unit, rather than one that degrades interestingly however.  If that's 
the case, the floor-unit specification kind of limits you (since most 
of the really good units are racks.  In addition to the TC Helicon, 
there's also a couple of the high-end TC Electronic floor units that 
might give good results (generally, TC Electronic are really good 
effect units overall; lots of people here rave about their higher end 
units).  I've not used any TC Electronic units that do pitch shift, 
so I can't really speak authoritatively here, however.

Don't know of anything Eventide for the floor (yet).  Maybe if 
there's another successor to the Time/Mod Factor series, but who 
knows.

The Alesis Ineko can give some rather interesting results (even 
though it's not strictly pedalboard, it will fit on one rather 
nicely).  I use an Akira, which is the same thing with slightly 
better quality, but rackmount.  It does a very good job and gives you 
a bunch of other effects as well.

Or alternatively, if you're really into completely bizarre, there's 
the Death By Audio Robot. 
http://www.analoguehaven.com/deathbyaudio/robot/  ;)

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