Morpheus Droptune Pedal - Does it work with bass?

[thebrig]

Does the [b][i]Morpheus Droptune Pedal[/i][/b] work with bass?

Anyone got/tried one?

[winterfire666]

i too would be interested to know if this works, (damn those pesky singers who cant quite manage 1 track at the right key, makin me bring a load of bass everywhere!!!)

[joeystrange]

I looked into them once. Didn't try one out but I chatted to a guy in a shop who said they track bass really badly.

[OzMike]

I don't think it's an analog 'tracking' style pedal - if it can process the signal with multiple notes at the same time, then it's a DSP pedal that's doing some real-time slicing / stretching of the input signal, like a POG or similar.

Now, whether the processed signal sounds good is another thing, however I'd be guessing it does the pitch shifting more or less perfectly, probably with some slightly strange phasing-type artifacts.

Need to try one myself.

[Pete Academy]

I tried one in our shop. It was crap with bass. The Digitech Whammy DT claims to work for bass.

[Kevin Dean]

I've got one & it doesn't really work it has too much of a delay on low notes .

[Guest bassman7755]

[quote name='Kevin Dean' timestamp='1368305145' post='2075600']
I've got one & it doesn't really work it has too much of a delay on low notes .
[/quote]

Yeah thats kind of inevitable ,the problem is the amount of time it takes to recognise the original pitch so that you know how much to shift it by - a complete waveform cycle of a bottom E is nearly 25ms.

[dand666]

Just found this, anyone trued the DigiTech whammy DT?

Or the Morpheus Capo pedal?

[mcnach]

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1368357114' post='2075986']
Yeah thats kind of inevitable ,the problem is the amount of time it takes to recognise the original pitch so that you know how much to shift it by - a complete waveform cycle of a bottom E is nearly 25ms.
[/quote]

Could the input be transposed internally an octave or two for pitch detection then?
Is that really the reason for the delay in pitch recognition on low notes?

[BassTractor]

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1405127380' post='2499096']
Is that really the reason for the delay in pitch recognition on low notes?
[/quote]

Without necessarily understanding the question correctly, I'll try:
In a tone, first you have an attack "phase" with probably reduced harmonic content, and, depending on the instrument and the way it's played, this attack can be pretty useless for picking up the first harmonic of the tone. Often possibly 10 to 30 ms in length, but I'd not be surprised if we're talking 50 to 100 ms in some cases.

Then, when the tone settles, and the first harmonic can be sampled in one way or another, the time needed by the nature of things normally goes up with the wavelength. One way around this is picking up the second or fourth harmonic, and another way is a form of smart prediction (of which I have not heard later developments - for all I know it may have been a dead end).
From what I understand both of these ways around require more advanced electronics, as well as processes that risk needing too much time anyway.

Finally, there's the speed of the electronics in either case at any rate, which was a major drawback in the early days of octavers, but I'd guess it's less of a problem now.


I'll be happily corrected and updated on this.

[Dave_the_bass]

My experience is that it worked excellent with my setup.

Didn't find the delay to be an issue, but the whole band used them so we were all delayed by the same amount.

The only reason I got rid of mine was that I left the band that it was being used in and I was only using the octave effect. Sold the droptune and bought and octamizer.

Rather than a droptune pedal; if your headstock is big enough you could just fill it with Hipshot X tenders. Get the double stop leavers and you can have both half and whole step detuning with no electrictrickery.

[mcnach]

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1405148437' post='2499125']
Without necessarily understanding the question correctly, I'll try:
In a tone, first you have an attack "phase" with probably reduced harmonic content, and, depending on the instrument and the way it's played, this attack can be pretty useless for picking up the first harmonic of the tone. Often possibly 10 to 30 ms in length, but I'd not be surprised if we're talking 50 to 100 ms in some cases.

Then, when the tone settles, and the first harmonic can be sampled in one way or another, the time needed by the nature of things normally goes up with the wavelength. One way around this is picking up the second or fourth harmonic, and another way is a form of smart prediction (of which I have not heard later developments - for all I know it may have been a dead end).
From what I understand both of these ways around require more advanced electronics, as well as processes that risk needing too much time anyway.

Finally, there's the speed of the electronics in either case at any rate, which was a major drawback in the early days of octavers, but I'd guess it's less of a problem now.


I'll be happily corrected and updated on this.
[/quote]


what I meant and phrased very poorly was:

if a guitar's low E can be detected ok, and a bass' low E cannot because of the lower frequency... what would happen if I passed the bass signal through a... [* penny drops]

forget it. It was late last night. I was talking about something that might work on a pre-recorded signal, where you can speed it up to transpose everything one octave, or two, so that the note is detected more quickly, and use that to process the signal.

Of course, live, you don't have the ability to "play back faster" , so you can only use a standard pitch-shifter, which has to detect the pitch in the first place, and we're hitting the original problem, again.

Kids, remember: tired brains spout even more silly things than a rested one.

[BassTractor]

Better watch it though.
If your brain gets any more tired, before you know it you'll end up on BassChat.


[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1405165494' post='2499310']
Of course, live, you don't have the ability to "play back faster"
[/quote]

As to tracking frequencies, I'd guess you're right, but...
Well... actually...
Erm...
OK then, I'll let you in on a secret:

My main reason - or rather: my only reason - for playing ultra fast live is that by doing it this way, each and every note I play is not fully developed, as only the attack phase is coming out before I already play the next note.
This way, none in the audience will detect it if I were to play a weak note in an improvisation once in a while.
I know, I know, weak notes are not very likely to happen at all, but still: when you're a professional, you're a professional...

BTW, incidentally, word has it that one Maurice "Morris" De Bevere was in the audience once in 1945 or 1946 - don't remember exactly, and reportedly had expressed feeling "inspired" (his words, not mine) by my performance...
Idunno. I prefer remaining modest, and not giving it another thought...