Faking bass - EHX Pitch Fork vs. Digitech Drop (audio compar

[coldbrightsunlight]

That's what I heard in the clips as well.

[whoismarykelly]

I tested both for less drastic downtuning earlier and the difference between them becomes less dramatic when you are only going down a step or two. I still think the Pitch Fork has the edge in terms of brightness and clarity although you do hear a less natural tone on single notes than chords. The Drop is a bit better tonally for single notes only a step or two down but if you play a chord it gets muddy pretty fast. Like playing with your tone knob rolled down.

[11A]

Wonder how the nano pog would compare here?? I must admit I like both from the clip, amazing how far we've come with pedals recently.

[whoismarykelly]

Wonder how the nano pog would compare here?? I must admit I like both from the clip, amazing how far we've come with pedals recently.

Until the Pitch Fork came out I used two Micro POGs in my rig and they sound less convincing because there is always a tiny bit of dry and upper octave bleeding into the signal even if those knobs are all the way down. In order to sound 'right' to me you have to be able to get full wet on the sub octave.

The Drop has been flipped away via Reverb. I have a TC Sub'n'up on the way for the final comparison and I think all the options in the toneprint editor may help make it the superior sounding pedal. Ill probably tweak a toneprint and then post a comparison between the EHX and the TC.

[sergiomunoz74]

Ya speak so well about the pitchfork that I think I might get it to compliment my pitchfactor if indeed its better at pitchshifting than what I currently have going on.

[chrisdermo]

Clearly I'm in a significant minority but the pitchfork sounded horrific to me, the phasey stuff going on up the top is yucky
like when someone records guitar with 2 mics and the phase is all wrong / some sort of whack chorus effect.
Not to say the Digitech sounded great but I'd go for that for sure. I tend to prefer my bass really bottom heavy and kinda dull anyway, and I'd never use it without at least an overdrive after anyway.
I'd be interested in a comparison shifting in the other direction as well.

[whoismarykelly]

Clearly I'm in a significant minority but the pitchfork sounded horrific to me, the phasey stuff going on up the top is yucky
like when someone records guitar with 2 mics and the phase is all wrong / some sort of whack chorus effect.
Not to say the Digitech sounded great but I'd go for that for sure. I tend to prefer my bass really bottom heavy and kinda dull anyway, and I'd never use it without at least an overdrive after anyway.
I'd be interested in a comparison shifting in the other direction as well.

In my rig I'm running the Pitch Fork through a compressor and bass preamp into a full bass rig while a parallel chain going to a guitar rig is active almost all the time. The sound on the top end gives the bass side of the rig definition in practice while using the Drop was just a woofy sludge under the clear guitar. If you were really trying to just do bass by using a guitar and one of these pedals that would be very different and I might choose differently. Probably not though. Once you add compression and dirt to these pedals you see the benefit of what's happening on the top end.

[the _Ryan]

Clearly I'm in a significant minority but the pitchfork sounded horrific to me, the phasey stuff going on up the top is yucky
like when someone records guitar with 2 mics and the phase is all wrong / some sort of whack chorus effect.
Not to say the Digitech sounded great but I'd go for that for sure. I tend to prefer my bass really bottom heavy and kinda dull anyway, and I'd never use it without at least an overdrive after anyway.
I'd be interested in a comparison shifting in the other direction as well.

In my rig I'm running the Pitch Fork through a compressor and bass preamp into a full bass rig while a parallel chain going to a guitar rig is active almost all the time. The sound on the top end gives the bass side of the rig definition in practice while using the Drop was just a woofy sludge under the clear guitar. If you were really trying to just do bass by using a guitar and one of these pedals that would be very different and I might choose differently. Probably not though. Once you add compression and dirt to these pedals you see the benefit of what's happening on the top end.

Could you maybe post a clip of how you use the Pitchfork in your setup? Soloed I thought the Drop sounded more like a bass guitar than the Pitchfork, but it could sound better with how you use it.

[whoismarykelly]

Clearly I'm in a significant minority but the pitchfork sounded horrific to me, the phasey stuff going on up the top is yucky
like when someone records guitar with 2 mics and the phase is all wrong / some sort of whack chorus effect.
Not to say the Digitech sounded great but I'd go for that for sure. I tend to prefer my bass really bottom heavy and kinda dull anyway, and I'd never use it without at least an overdrive after anyway.
I'd be interested in a comparison shifting in the other direction as well.

In my rig I'm running the Pitch Fork through a compressor and bass preamp into a full bass rig while a parallel chain going to a guitar rig is active almost all the time. The sound on the top end gives the bass side of the rig definition in practice while using the Drop was just a woofy sludge under the clear guitar. If you were really trying to just do bass by using a guitar and one of these pedals that would be very different and I might choose differently. Probably not though. Once you add compression and dirt to these pedals you see the benefit of what's happening on the top end.

Could you maybe post a clip of how you use the Pitchfork in your setup? Soloed I thought the Drop sounded more like a bass guitar than the Pitchfork, but it could sound better with how you use it.

Im not sure I could record it effectively with the gear I have on hand. Its more of an in person thing. When the TC shows up maybe I'll record the whole bass chain though.

[OddKnowledge]

I agree that the pitchfork sounds more like someone actually playing bass. For what he plays with that rig, the lack of note separation and clarity on the Drop could just make things a low-end bed of mud pretty quickly.

[Pete]

Based on that clip, I'd say I prefer the Drop.
I have both pedals and love them both though.

[whoismarykelly]

Whelp the TC Sub'n'Up laid waste to the Pitch Fork for my purposes with its myriad adjustable EQs and other parameters in the Toneprint Editor. Was able to set up for separate EQ chains to make the bass guitar sound as realistic as possible.

1. Cut 25Hz on the input by 5db with a low shelf to improve tracking
2. Boost 1K on the input to add brightness and clarity from the source
3. Boost 3K after the pitch shift to emphasize pick attack and retain some of that bass guitar string noise sound
4. Boost 400Hz after the pitch shift to give the bass punch and fullness.

Then I was also able to change the Sub 2 control into a drive control for the low octave to give it a tubey warmth before it hits the compressor. Cant wait to hear much improved bass tone on tour next week!

[Iommic Pope]

Nice!
Get some live footage when you guys are out and post it man!

Also, do you run a preamp pedal into the preamp of your bass amp, or straight into the power section?

[Timv]

I just got a sub'n'up and have only played with it a little but figured you would probably get it to work better for you then the others you've tried.
I have a micro Pog also and the subnup seems to track better and not have that high pitched artifact on the octave sound as much. And the TonePrint editing is awesome, especially with an iPad when I can make adjustments live and hear them immediately. And it was cheaper than the ehx stuff.

Whelp the TC Sub'n'Up laid waste to the Pitch Fork for my purposes with its myriad adjustable EQs and other parameters in the Toneprint Editor. Was able to set up for separate EQ chains to make the bass guitar sound as realistic as possible.

1. Cut 25Hz on the input by 5db with a low shelf to improve tracking
2. Boost 1K on the input to add brightness and clarity from the source
3. Boost 3K after the pitch shift to emphasize pick attack and retain some of that bass guitar string noise sound
4. Boost 400Hz after the pitch shift to give the bass punch and fullness.

Then I was also able to change the Sub 2 control into a drive control for the low octave to give it a tubey warmth before it hits the compressor. Cant wait to hear much improved bass tone on tour next week!

[whoismarykelly]

Nice!
Get some live footage when you guys are out and post it man!

Also, do you run a preamp pedal into the preamp of your bass amp, or straight into the power section?

I use a Darkglass B7K into the input of my bass amp.