Pitch shifting - HD500X? Better than Zoom B3?

[Muzz]

Soooo, I'm in need of a good pitch shifter to allow for some flexibility playing some songs in a drop key (probably only a tone or so), and the Zoom B3 I have, while pretty good at lots of things, is shall we say...wobbly at the old pitch shifting.

I'm looking at a Line 6 HD500 or 500x (sadly I can't afford a Helix), and I wondered if anyone had experience of the Line 6 stuff when it comes to pitch shifting? If it's pretty good, it'll swing the move from the B3 to the HD500 for me.

[Skybone]

I have an HD500x, but I must admit to never having used the pitch shift on it.

It is ace, and the Bass Pack is well worth getting. The effects are pretty good sounding and track well.

I really like it, and it is a really good, affordable alternative to a Helix or other high end modeller.

[Muzz]

Cheers for that - you couldn't give the pitch shift a quick spin, could you? Just to drop D, and see if it's warbly at all? That's be great - I'm actually looking at the Helix HX now, as it's kinda ballpark cost...

[Skybone]

I do have a patch that's harmonised to a 5th up, and an octaver set to an octave down. Great fun, tracks seriously well, no latency and not warbly.

I'll have a shot at the pitch shift later and report back.

[Muzz]

Fantastic, thanks 

[Skybone]

Been having a play around with the HD500x (also have a HD Bean, so had a play around with that as well to compare).

The "Pitch Glide" is the one to go for, setting the pitch at -1.00 gives a seriously good detune effect (so much so, I had to keep checking - headphones on/off, effect on/off), no wobbles detected (in the sound). -8.00 gives the octave, -24.00 and +24.00 give silly extremes. You could have a lot of fun with it. Not sure if you can assign the foot pedal to adjust the pitch, I'd have to dig deeper to check.

Would it hold it's own against a detuned guitar? You would have to try that yourself I'm afraid, but it's convinced me that it should sound good in that situation.

[Muzz]

That's great news, thanks very much; well, given that I'm making do with the slightly warbly Zoom at the moment, I'm sure it'll be an improvement - it's only for one or two songs with the function band, but I've a side project with a band that's been reanimated after 29 years for one final gig next year, and the singist is struggling with the vocals, so we might have to drop the whole thing a tone to do it. Nothing Dave Coverdale doesn't do on a regular basis, obviously, but a good pitch shifter would make things much simpler 😀

Thanks again ...now to find a secondhand one... 😀

[Skybone]

There's usually a few on eBay. I got mine second hand, brilliant investment IMO.

If your singist is having problems in standard, then why not drop the whole tuning to D?

Valid excuse for another bass (honest dear!).