Pitch - Virtual Capo Sound

22 frets

22 frets

Experienced
My covers band has recently started experimenting with tuning down to Eb to ease some of the strain on our aging vocal chords. My initial thought was, no problem, I have an FM9 with a virtual capo. This should be easy. After a couple of weeks of trying various approaches, I have to say I am a little disappointed. Some background. I have two types of guitars. Fender single coils (Strat & Tele) and (PRS & LP) humbuckers. The single coil guitars are longer scale than the humbuckers (I think). I have come to the conclusion that I don’t like detuned guitars whether Virtual Capo or manually tuned down one semi-tone. Here are some of my (perceived?) observations.

Manually detuned guitars play different due to looser (floppy) strings. They sound dark and dull to me. They work better with distorted sound than clean tones. They do sound better to me than Virtual Capo detuned guitars. I hear less waver in the tone and the string sound matches the amp sound. It also seems to me that the single coil, longer scale guitars “sound a little better and closer to the original non-detuned guitar sound”.

Virtual Capo detuned guitars play the same as normally tuned guitars as far as string tension goes, but I notice more wavering and what I call artifacts and phasing in the tone. It is not awful sounding, but definitely not pleasing to my ears. I think I have always been sensitive to unpure tones, so it is difficult for me to get used to so far. The Virtual Capo does offer the benefit of instant tuning and no change in string tension. I also think that I perceive the sound to be slightly better on the full scale single coil guitars than the short scale humbucker guitars when using the Virtual Capo as well. This is a little disappointing because I like playing the PRS the most, but I think it sounds the least pleasing of the four.

Any thoughts from those with more experience? Am I missing something that could improve the sound and playing feel? I have to admit it is easier on the vocal cords, but hard to get used to the sound of the detuned guitars (especially when using the Virtual Capo). Help! 😂😂😂
 
22 frets said:
My covers band has recently started experimenting with tuning down to Eb to ease some of the strain on our aging vocal chords. My initial thought was, no problem, I have an FM9 with a virtual capo. This should be easy. After a couple of weeks of trying various approaches, I have to say I am a little disappointed. Some background. I have two types of guitars. Fender single coils (Strat & Tele) and (PRS & LP) humbuckers. The single coil guitars are longer scale than the humbuckers (I think). I have come to the conclusion that I don’t like detuned guitars whether Virtual Capo or manually tuned down one semi-tone. Here are some of my (perceived?) observations.

Manually detuned guitars play different due to looser (floppy) strings. They sound dark and dull to me. They work better with distorted sound than clean tones. They do sound better to me than Virtual Capo detuned guitars. I hear less waver in the tone and the string sound matches the amp sound. It also seems to me that the single coil, longer scale guitars “sound a little better and closer to the original non-detuned guitar sound”.

Virtual Capo detuned guitars play the same as normally tuned guitars as far as string tension goes, but I notice more wavering and what I call artifacts and phasing in the tone. It is not awful sounding, but definitely not pleasing to my ears. I think I have always been sensitive to unpure tones, so it is difficult for me to get used to so far. The Virtual Capo does offer the benefit of instant tuning and no change in string tension. I also think that I perceive the sound to be slightly better on the full scale single coil guitars than the short scale humbucker guitars when using the Virtual Capo as well. This is a little disappointing because I like playing the PRS the most, but I think it sounds the least pleasing of the four.

Any thoughts from those with more experience? Am I missing something that could improve the sound and playing feel? I have to admit it is easier on the vocal cords, but hard to get used to the sound of the detuned guitars (especially when using the Virtual Capo). Help! 😂😂😂
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I play in a modern country band and have to bounce from E to Eb to F. Having multiple guitars is simply not a sufficient answer. I want to bring LESS and I need backup at arms reach. For my traditional board I've been using Digitech Drop for Eb ($200 to cover like 4-5 songs) and a Capo (G7th, $50 to cover like 4-5 songs).
The virutal capo from Fractal simply works better and tracks better than anything else including the drop.
If you are practing at home by yourself, you will definitely experience wavering no matter what the product, especially if you are playing low to moderate volumes.
But once you are in the heat of battle at gigs all of that wavering, latency, etc. absolutely disappears. Note, I use a real amp as backline and my band is moderately loud and always uses backline + FOH, NOT on IEMS yet, not pure wedges and no backline.

My advice is get used to it, get over it and it will become second nature. The virtual capo with some light setting adjustments is a godsend IMHO.
The ONLY way I would switch is if my singer one day agreed to do all songs in Eb tuning. I would start to tune to Eb.
 
My lead guitar player is pushing hard to go ALL songs in Eb tuning. He plays a Roland (I think) guitar synth so tuning up and down between songs is not an option for him. I will slip on a set of heavier gauge strings and see how that goes. Thanks for the advice guys!
 
I use the VC to tune up and down for various songs plus or minus 3 semi-tones and no one has noticed any artifacts...although my hamfisted plyaing style might account for some of that. I have the opposite "problem" as my 2nd band insists on playing in standard tuning (even though the singer wants us to detune) and I've mainly played in Eb most of my life. Standard tuning in comparison lacks grunt compared to Eb to ME. I wish the VC was a stand alone block so I could have it in every patch and easily recognize it on my midi pedal in complex patches.
 
22 frets said:
Manually detuned guitars play different due to looser (floppy) strings. They sound dark and dull to me. They work better with distorted sound than clean tones.
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Listen to both of Mark Lettieri’s “Deep: The Baritone Sessions” albums. His work will contradict those statements.



Using a pitch block is useful for a song or a portion of a song. For multiple songs or an entire show I’d convert an instrument.
 
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22 frets said:
My covers band has recently started experimenting with tuning down to Eb to ease some of the strain on our aging vocal chords. My initial thought was, no problem, I have an FM9 with a virtual capo. This should be easy. After a couple of weeks of trying various approaches, I have to say I am a little disappointed. Some background. I have two types of guitars. Fender single coils (Strat & Tele) and (PRS & LP) humbuckers. The single coil guitars are longer scale than the humbuckers (I think). I have come to the conclusion that I don’t like detuned guitars whether Virtual Capo or manually tuned down one semi-tone. Here are some of my (perceived?) observations.

Manually detuned guitars play different due to looser (floppy) strings. They sound dark and dull to me. They work better with distorted sound than clean tones. They do sound better to me than Virtual Capo detuned guitars. I hear less waver in the tone and the string sound matches the amp sound. It also seems to me that the single coil, longer scale guitars “sound a little better and closer to the original non-detuned guitar sound”.

Virtual Capo detuned guitars play the same as normally tuned guitars as far as string tension goes, but I notice more wavering and what I call artifacts and phasing in the tone. It is not awful sounding, but definitely not pleasing to my ears. I think I have always been sensitive to unpure tones, so it is difficult for me to get used to so far. The Virtual Capo does offer the benefit of instant tuning and no change in string tension. I also think that I perceive the sound to be slightly better on the full scale single coil guitars than the short scale humbucker guitars when using the Virtual Capo as well. This is a little disappointing because I like playing the PRS the most, but I think it sounds the least pleasing of the four.

Any thoughts from those with more experience? Am I missing something that could improve the sound and playing feel? I have to admit it is easier on the vocal cords, but hard to get used to the sound of the detuned guitars (especially when using the Virtual Capo). Help! 😂😂😂
Click to expand...
I sauggest you to embrace low tuning and looser, dull strings. VC add a bit of latency and worbly, but nothing that upset the listener in a gig! If the singer wish all songs in Eb, than tune your guitar down, and use higher tension strings. That helps, unease will go away the more you play...
 
I could not find a way to work with VC. I am using an actual capo with much better results.
 
22 frets said:
My lead guitar player is pushing hard to go ALL songs in Eb tuning. He plays a Roland (I think) guitar synth so tuning up and down between songs is not an option for him. I will slip on a set of heavier gauge strings and see how that goes. Thanks for the advice guys!
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I'm not sure why that matters? Guitar synths track whatever pitch you're playing... Maybe something I'm missing?
 
When you say it's not working, is that with the band and regular volume or is that at home? Because if it's at home you may be hearing the strings in regular tuning as you're strumming them at the same time as the sound with the virtual capo, which will sound weird.
 
I've also found that the pitch block works better the lower your overall CPU usage is. If you're approaching the maximum it can get weird. Try it with a sparse preset and see if you notice a difference.
 
I had a Line 6 Variax a while back. The transposer in that worked REALLY well. I can live without the VC, which doesn't work as well. I just run a variety of tunings and string gauges as needed.
 
I use the VC consistently for a song with -1 and -4 tuning, depending upon the vocalist, without any issues to speak of. I turn it off mid way through the song and on the -4 setting, the only thing I noticed was a drop off in the high end so I added a PEQ block with a peak @ 3k (Q @ 1.0, +5dB) and another at 10k (Q @ .9, +10dB), this adds enough to make the difference between the tones negligible. The one thing I've started doing recently is turning the Pitch Tracking off and adjusting the Tracking parameter to get the best results.
 
elvis said:
I had a Line 6 Variax a while back. The transposer in that worked REALLY well. I can live without the VC, which doesn't work as well. I just run a variety of tunings and string gauges as needed.
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I use a shuriken Variax. It’s such a great tool
 
That's odd to me, that you say you're sensitive to impure tones, but you didn't mention how a song sounds played a half step lower. That part affects me much more than how the VC sounds.

If you're going to stay with this, then detune your guitars, and change string gauges. I'm not sure if 1/2 step down, and one size up in string gauge is close enough to the original tension, or how far apart it is, but there are online calculators in which you can compare.
 
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