Digitech drop with Axe

[ChrisCG]

So Im going to picked up a Digitech drop pedal, and I'm wondering should this go in the front of the axe or the loop? I'm thinking front because you want it to drop everything but I have never used a pedal with my axe before so I don't really know.

 

[Saki]

Yep, put it in front. It will do a much better job tracking your sound when it's as clean as possible.

 

[Callan]

Mine is in front, so I don't have to worry about updating patches to suit.
Works great for me.

 

[The_Kid]

Curious about this pedal...do you get the same feel when its engaged...I've always had an issue with the guitar resonating an E, but an Eb is coming out and it seems to disconnect the guitar from the live sound...which I why I just stopped using the pitch block in this way.

 

[Bodde]

Mine is in front, so I don't have to worry about updating patches to suit.
Works great for me.

Yes this. Just put it in front. That is the best place to put anyway for most stuff and the best tracking and also that means no hassle with putting an effect loop block block in every preset.
How do you think the Digitech drop compares to the pitch shifter in the Axe fx?

 

[chris]

Curious about this pedal...do you get the same feel when its engaged...I've always had an issue with the guitar resonating an E, but an Eb is coming out and it seems to disconnect the guitar from the live sound...which I why I just stopped using the pitch block in this way.

how loud are you when doing this? stage volume? bedroom volume?

 

[Callan]

[..]
How do you think the Digitech drop compares to the pitch shifter in the Axe fx?

For me, I find the Drop much better. There is a latency I can't shake with the pitch shifter in my AX8 - I can't comment if the AxeFX is any better, but I've read they are the same.
With that said, they are different tools for different uses.
Ie: with the drop, I can't have one preset set to D and another to Eb, without making a manual change on the pedal.
Also, with the Pitch shifter, you can go up, add delay, control the mix, etc. - all per preset.

Curious about this pedal...do you get the same feel when its engaged...I've always had an issue with the guitar resonating an E, but an Eb is coming out and it seems to disconnect the guitar from the live sound...which I why I just stopped using the pitch block in this way.

As Chris alluded to, you do need to get your volume up loud enough so you can't hear your guitar acoustically.
When playing at bedroom levels, it can drive me a bit crazy at times - I hear it on the higher notes more and it really puts me off.
I get around this by using headphones/IEM's (or cranking the volume)
It's never an issue for me in a full band setting, and sure beats lugging around multiple guitars

 

[Rexgtr]

I'm guessing the Digitech Drop pedal is the more compact stripped down version of the Whammy DT.
I personally found no difference between the AxeFx pitch block and the Digitech. I chose to add the Whammy DT to my pedal board to have a dedicated pedal for adding whammy/transposing and freeing up CPU power for other things.

You can transpose beyond a whole step but it starts having a digital hiccup.

I purchased Steinberger guitars equipped with transposing tremolos called trans trems, I hardly use them after buying the Whammy DT and find I mostly use transposing from E to Eb, D or Db. In the mix you don't notice its being done digitally (maybe a bit)

 

[AndrewKirkland]

should of bought a momentary footswitch or expression pedal from moog, and assigned it to a pitch block lol. I have a harmonist and realized it was useless compared to the pitch block in the axe fx. You can even have two pitch blocks and do very odd combinations like have two digitech whammy or harmonist pedals.

 

[The_Kid]

The 'disconnect' I was referring to was at a gig, with a stage monitor, in regards to getting harmonic feedback, or the guitar resonating E, but sound coming out Eb, it doesnt complete that 'loop' between guitar and stage sound...I just notice a difference in feel when I've used the pitch shifter in that way.

Not saying you can't use it...just feels different.

 

[Holland]

I use The Drop in FXloop so I can use it in different ways.
1. When I need tuned down guitar I use the FXloop block with The Drop (set to desired tuning) at the start of the grid
in front of everything in that preset. (one chain In-to-Out on the grid)
2. When I need a clean bass sound (1 octave down/no dry) for a unisono riff with my distorted guitar I use another preset
in which I splitt my incoming dry guitar signal to a second chain with now the FXloop block in it ( w The Drop set to -1oct)
if needed followed by [bass]amp and compression. So my guitarsound chain goes to out 2 and the bass sound chain goes to out 3.
This way I can choose any guitar and bass sound and mix/level them any way I like. It's like a two amp setup that doesn't merge and with one of them containing an FXloop block with The Drop bass sound.

Yes, instead of the FXloop with The Drop you could use a pitch/detune block from the Axe FX but
I just like the sound of the Digitech Drop more.