Clunge Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Righto, first post here and all that shizzle! I have two things left on my checklist of sonic capabilities I still requite from my pedal board, one being a really fat fuzzy sound and the other being able to shift up one octave and retain the original as well as accurately as possible. Now, I've been looking around to a very limited degree and come up with just these options so far: - Whammy (bass or guitar version) - Boss PS (2/3/5) I've heard mixed opinions about all of them and the fact that the PS-3 has delay as well is another tempter but what I'd like is a run down of the best tracking/most accurate pitch-shifters on the market (that work well with bass of course!). I guess my budget will be around £125 max but I'd really like to pay a tad less than that (eBay will help I'm sure). Any discontinued pedals that would fit the bill are welcome too, as long as they can be got hold of. I have a Boss OC-3 at the mo as well which I really like but it doesn't offer that +1 sound I need. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonlord Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Well, can't really help with the pitch shifting, but I was looking at fuzz pedals lately... check out Prescription Electronics' Depth Charge and Malekko's B*assmaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 *cough* ps-3 *cough* hey clunge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 I'm on the side of the Digitech whammy, it's not natural sounding, but the sound it has is bloody lovely, i love the way it sounds and i'd choose it over any other pitch shifter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clunge Posted May 31, 2007 Author Share Posted May 31, 2007 Hehe, hey Kev - just thought I'd poke around on here for more opinions . And tbh Ant, as good as the Whammy is, I'm really not that keen on getting one as I don't actually plan to use the expression at all and it is a rather huge pedal, I'm preferably looking for a compact pedal as I'm trying to keep my board as small as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tayste_2000 Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 As long as you're not using an active bass this is a very fat fuzz [url="http://myselfalone.com/tayste2000/ToneFactorOmega.mp3"]http://myselfalone.com/tayste2000/ToneFactorOmega.mp3[/url] I'd also go for a Whammy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegas_hooker Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Boss ps-3. Ive had the fortune of playing all 3 and compared to the others, its sound sits just right with your tone and its not like a NASA computer to operate. They go for silly money nowadays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clunge Posted May 31, 2007 Author Share Posted May 31, 2007 The PS-3 is what I've been looking at predominantly tbh, the fact it offers delay too would be quite useful. And also, thatks for the fuzz suggestions but I'm going to look into that once I've sorted out a pitchshifter . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 ye mate id go for the ps-3 do NOT be tempted to pay stupid money for a bass whammy, they just aint worth it far as bass fuzz goes, id go for the chunk systems brown dog, if i ever get rid of my fuzz probe, thats what id get Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clunge Posted June 1, 2007 Author Share Posted June 1, 2007 Yee, the Bass Whammys are hideously expensive and from what I've heard, not really worth the money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 well, the bass whammy uses the IVL chips so it sounds better than the current reissue whammy, it has the 5th up/1oct up harmony setting but doesnt have the 2oct up setting (which is sexy). If you want it and like the sound, then i reckon it's worth the money. I wouldnt buy it just to play Tool covers like a lot of people seem to do though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clunge Posted June 1, 2007 Author Share Posted June 1, 2007 Hmm, well to be perfectly honest, it's the size thing again. How accurate is the shifting of a whammy/bass whammy in comparison with say the PS-3 or PS-5 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 obviously the whammys beat the boss's usually seriously tho, i dont advise you get the whammy, from what i can see you wouldnt justify the space it takes up on a board, if your only gunna use it for octave up. try and get hold of a unibass, best octave up for bass there is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Unibasses are big too, and i wouldnt say it was the best octave up for bass, it sounds fake too (which i like, but still) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joegarcia Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 I have a PS-5 which I quite like. For bass I usually only use the -1 octave and 'trem arm' settings though. Love the trem arm going down an octave right at the end of a song on the last distorted and sustaining note. I wish it could track lower though. It doesn't usually go much further down than A. I realise you shouldn't really need it when playing that low but a few songs with my band start high then rapidly alternate between high and low strings. It sounds awesome when I'm playing high strings but when I'm down low it sounds messy due to wobbly tracking. Also there is a very slight cut out I think when you step on it so quickly jumping on and off it in the middle of sections doesn't work too well. Considering getting an EBS octave just for the octaves and keeping the PS-5 for the trem but it seems a bit much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clunge Posted June 1, 2007 Author Share Posted June 1, 2007 How well does the PS-5 deal with +1 octave, particularly with a bit of distortion or fuzz? (signal going into the PS-5 first of course). That's how I'd be using it predominantly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 If you're going to shift +1 octave you'd be best off putting the shifted path through some kind of eq to take the tinniness off the sound and boost the mids a little to make it sound more natural. I've created a uni-bass patch on my MPX-G2 that I only *just* managed to get right after about 12 months of messing about with signal paths, eq settings and routing. It's a load more convincing when I eq the dry signal path to give the bass more at 2.5-3.5 Khz (depending on the bass I'm using) and 120Hz leaving the distorted, shifted signal with nothing below 250Hz and nothing above about 1Khz with a slight peak somewhere between 500 or 600Hz. It all fits together nicely in terms of the frequency spectrum and both paths can be heard clearly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joegarcia Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 [quote name='Clunge' post='10731' date='Jun 1 2007, 07:42 PM']How well does the PS-5 deal with +1 octave, particularly with a bit of distortion or fuzz? (signal going into the PS-5 first of course). That's how I'd be using it predominantly.[/quote] Dunno really. Have tried it briefly once and it sounded pretty good. Will try and try it properly at next practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_says Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 [quote name='BassManKev' post='10580' date='Jun 1 2007, 02:50 PM']obviously the whammys beat the boss's usually seriously tho, i dont advise you get the whammy, from what i can see you wouldnt justify the space it takes up on a board, if your only gunna use it for octave up. try and get hold of a unibass, best octave up for bass there is[/quote] The unibass is bigger than the bass whammy. I'd try and find a bass whammy if you can, but if the price goes over £240 or so, leave it unless you're maniacally desperate for one. Pitch shifting is inherently always a bit sh*te, but the bass whammy can do a lot more than the unibass and the boss ps series. Ultimately, 90% of the time pitch-shifting on bass is a bit of a gimmick. So you'd probably best off putting the money toward other uses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alun Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 If you're just after the pitched up note and not too worried about getting swooping sounds ala Whammy pedals, the Electroharmonix POG gets my vote as the most realistic tone I've come across so far. Cheers, Alun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toasted Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 [quote name='Ant' post='10217' date='May 31 2007, 09:58 PM']I'm on the side of the Digitech whammy, it's not natural sounding, but the sound it has is bloody lovely, i love the way it sounds and i'd choose it over any other pitch shifter.[/quote] +1. I really wouldnt use anything other than the Whammy for pitch shifting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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