pitch shifting a Grendel Drone Commander

[Warpsmasher]

Awesome clips are awesome

Pitchfactor is indispensable, get one at all costs. The only other thing I'd recommend would be a vocoder of some sort...Electrix Warp Factory, Electro-Harmonix V256, or any number of Korg devices...

[mengenlehre]

Pitchfactor is indispensable, get one at all costs.

I'm a teacher.
In Italy.
"At all costs", to me, sounds just like "gniweng7eorg87esntgutgpwe8"

steko, you don't have a video of yourself messing around with the Grendel and the Pitchfactor, do you? One in which it is clear how you operate the machines.
You know, just to make sure that is exactly what I want before forking out 2/5 of my next monthly salary.

(the 8 step + ring thing combo would be significantly cheaper, plus I would get a sequencer, but I'm still trying to figure out how it would work)

[steko]

No videos sorry. But it's rather straightforward. I almost let the drone commander play on its own a sequence i Like, then I tweak the pitchfactor because it allows to add melody with the harpeggiator and quadravox. Since you can set your scale and the pitch of your note, it is pretty easy to get what you intend. The pitchfactor is a very powerful tool. Splash the cash of italian administration with no hesitation !

[Derelict78]

Yeah spurge with the PF. I was hesitant at first. I mean $500! Who wouldn't be, but it's so much more than a pitch shifter or harmonizer. REALY great delays mods and sweet verb too.

[fiddelerselbow]

What about those old 80's rackmount autotuners? I read in a thread on Gearslutz that one of the dudes from NiN used one with a theremin live on stage. An Antares ATR1 specifically, there's one up on ebay for 160 quid.

[mengenlehre]

What about those old 80's rackmount autotuners? I read in a thread on Gearslutz that one of the dudes from NiN used one with a theremin live on stage. An Antares ATR1 specifically, there's one up on ebay for 160 quid.

now, that's another interesting idea: trying to nail the correct frequency by turning the Grendel OSC, and having an autotuner center it precisely - is this what you meant?
I read (here) that to use the ATR1, you can either use one of the musical scales provided, create your own by the simple expedient of turning on or off each of the notes in the chromatic scale until you get what you want (notes that you don't want processed can be bypassed individually by placing an asterisk beneath the note name). That's good: I may just turn off everything except the 4 or 5 pitches in my piece. 3, as I'm thinking about blues
On the other hand, the same review also states that: because the ATR1 relies on pitch tracking, it can't work on complex mixes or ensemble voices, and even a solo voice can resist tracking if it includes very breathy, non-pitched sounds. Though there's little that can be done about ensemble sounds, the ATR1 does include a Sensitivity control that makes it a little more forgiving when difficult-to-track breathy sounds are being processed.


ok, recap

1. Eventide Pitchfactor
PROS: proved to work and yield gorgeous results
CONS: 3 weeks of bread and onion based diet to afford it;

2. Electroharmonix 8 Step + Ring Thing
PROS: once set-up, hands are available to be used on guitar; not so-pricey; one of them is a nice little sequencer I would end up buying anyway, sooner or later
CONS: still have to understand how well it would work and how to operate it;

3. Antares ATR-1
PROS: I'd actually play the Grendel;
CONS: will it work?

[Deltaphoenix]

Electroharmonix 8 Step con-piece of crap with uncomplete firmware. The one I bought was Dead on arrival, I returned it and never looked back.

[fiddelerselbow]

What about those old 80's rackmount autotuners? I read in a thread on Gearslutz that one of the dudes from NiN used one with a theremin live on stage. An Antares ATR1 specifically, there's one up on ebay for 160 quid.

now, that's another interesting idea: trying to nail the correct frequency by turning the Grendel OSC, and having an autotuner center it precisely - is this what you meant?
I read (here) that to use the ATR1, you can either use one of the musical scales provided, create your own by the simple expedient of turning on or off each of the notes in the chromatic scale until you get what you want (notes that you don't want processed can be bypassed individually by placing an asterisk beneath the note name). That's good: I may just turn off everything except the 4 or 5 pitches in my piece. 3, as I'm thinking about blues
On the other hand, the same review also states that: because the ATR1 relies on pitch tracking, it can't work on complex mixes or ensemble voices, and even a solo voice can resist tracking if it includes very breathy, non-pitched sounds. Though there's little that can be done about ensemble sounds, the ATR1 does include a Sensitivity control that makes it a little more forgiving when difficult-to-track breathy sounds are being processed.


ok, recap

1. Eventide Pitchfactor
PROS: proved to work and yield gorgeous results
CONS: 3 weeks of bread and onion based diet to afford it;

2. Electroharmonix 8 Step + Ring Thing
PROS: once set-up, hands are available to be used on guitar; not so-pricey; one of them is a nice little sequencer I would end up buying anyway, sooner or later
CONS: still have to understand how well it would work and how to operate it;

3. Antares ATR-1
PROS: I'd actually play the Grendel;
CONS: will it work?

Yeah that's what I meant. In the thread the dude mentions that he sets it to a specific scales and a specific number of notes and plays the parts that way. It'd work out a lot cheaper than the eventide, cause at that price you'd be better off buying a Moog Minotaur or something. I think it'd work, but if its gonna be a worry to you, might as well get the pitchfactor. I'd say the Antares would take a while to flip too.

(Also I just spotted in B/S/T somebody is selling a pitchfactor for like $350!

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=36406)

[echodeluxe]

woah

[tjlong]

I can understand the need to pitch a drone synth. I sometimes play a sleepdrone and/or a glamour box in a band setting and getting it in pitch with, say, a bassline, can be tricky. i put little sticky markers on the synth and then fine tune using a guitar tuner before the song and just tune by ear to get right. its not 100% spot on but it works. Of course this means the synth drones along in that pitch throughout the song. Changing pitch on the fly is not practical. Kinda also defeats the purpose of a drone synth which is to..well, drone. the thing i like about the sleepdrone is that you can set each oscillator to the desired pitch and just "play" the volume pots, fading each oscillator in and out to create a simple melody - kinda like playing musical glasses.
i run the separate oscillator outs into different effects - delays, bitcrushers, etc - and it sounds pretty cool.
For playing actual lines, i use a regular synth with a keyboard (a DE2 or minitaur). i mean, for the price of additional gear to pitch the drone synth, I could get a pretty decent keyboard synth with more oscilators, filters, envelopes, etc.