Adrian Belew's "Impossible Pedal"

trancegodz

trancegodz

Fractal Fanatic
Adrian Belew uses a Harmony Man pedal or his Impossible pedal.
Here are some videos of him on his Impossible pedal.






How would you do this with the Axe FXIII?
 
trancegodz said:
Adrian Belew uses a Harmony Man pedal or his Impossible pedal.
Here are some videos of him on his Impossible pedal.






How would you do this with the Axe FXIII?
Click to expand...

Couldn't you do this with a pitch block set on virtual capo and set the pattern of pitch jumps with the pitch parameter controlled by the sequencer?
 
Pitch block with the bypass attached to a momentary switch whether via FC or external midi controller. So it's just a temporary jump up of a fifth and the back down.

I think that's one of the most under-utilized aspects of midi controlled gear vs. traditional pedals: a momentary switch can make for great "disruptions" and gestures, while traditional bypass switches "encourage" longer lasting state changes. I've used this for reverse delay settings, extreme flange settings, and delays, when I want a quick burst of "noise" to punctuate a phrase. (clearly I like it)
 
dr bonkers said:
Couldn't you do this with a pitch block set on virtual capo and set the pattern of pitch jumps with the pitch parameter controlled by the sequencer?
Click to expand...
I don't think so because the sequencer would keep running or restart... If we had a step sequencer then yeah.

I would probably just use 2 channels set to the 2 pitches...

There also might be a way to do it with auto engage and a dual voice pitch block using some crafty modifier curve that would alternate between the 2 voices and also turn it on or off.
 
Adrian still uses a Digitech Harmony Man to get this effect live. So he must not have been able to figure out a way to do it in the Axe FX, or maybe he's just used to the feel of the Harmony Man pedal. He talks about it and demonstrates it at 41:00 into this video:

 
unix-guy said:
Not quite... There are 2 different pitches that alternate.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I have tried to do this in the past with my Axe fx 2. I could do it with one pitch and an expression pedal but after a lot of effort I was still not totally happy with the result. Somehow I couldn't get a spiky flawless transition from one pitch to the other like the real pedal has. Hope someone can get it done. But then we have the problem of the two pitches.....

I think it is impossible, just like the pedal. :D
 
Last edited:
this is my fave Belew, and that's mostly recreatable on the Axe

JC120, lots of compression, Big Muff and Flanger

 
Bodde said:
Exactly. I have tried to do this in the past with my Axe fx 2. I could do it with one pitch and an expression pedal but after a lot of effort I was still not totally happy with the result. Somehow I couldn't get a spiky flawless transition from one pitch to the other like the real pedal has. Hope someone can get it done. But then we have the problem of the two pitches.....

I think it is impossible, just like the pedal. :D
Click to expand...

Can't. Help. Myself. Everytime I see your avatar, I go Hamatai!
 
Could you set up a dual pitch block with modifiers so that if an expression pedal is heel down it's one pitch, center it's dry, and toe up it's another pitch? Then you could back-mid-forward-mid to get the effect,
 
IronSean said:
Could you set up a dual pitch block with modifiers so that if an expression pedal is heel down it's one pitch, center it's dry, and toe up it's another pitch? Then you could back-mid-forward-mid to get the effect,
Click to expand...
I think so. Sounds like that is similar to what is what Adrian originally did with the Whammy pedal.
 
unix-guy said:
I think so. Sounds like that is similar to what is what Adrian originally did with the Whammy pedal.
Click to expand...

It sounded to me like what he did with the whammy was just rock it to a pitch, then tap the bypass off and on to jump between normal and that pitch suddenly instead of smoothly. But it was easy to bump the pedal and knock it off pitch accidentally which is why he moved on to a new approach.
 
IronSean said:
It sounded to me like what he did with the whammy was just rock it to a pitch, then tap the bypass off and on to jump between normal and that pitch suddenly instead of smoothly. But it was easy to bump the pedal and knock it off pitch accidentally which is why he moved on to a new approach.
Click to expand...
I think you're right.
 
IronSean said:
Could you set up a dual pitch block with modifiers so that if an expression pedal is heel down it's one pitch, center it's dry, and toe up it's another pitch? Then you could back-mid-forward-mid to get the effect,
Click to expand...

I thought about that too but I think it is not the same. When you have you have your normal pitch in the middle it is very hard to hear that center pitch when you rock your expression pedal back and forth.

Problem I had when trying to copy that pedal is that the Axe fx bypass on and off reaction was not fast enough for this stuff. There is some small latency in the bypass state that makes it hard to nail it.

If someone can manage it or has an idea to make it react faster keep us informed.
 
Bodde said:
I thought about that too but I think it is not the same. When you have you have your normal pitch in the middle it is very hard to hear that center pitch when you rock your expression pedal back and forth.

Problem I had when trying to copy that pedal is that the Axe fx bypass on and off reaction was not fast enough for this stuff. There is some small latency in the bypass state that makes it hard to nail it.

If someone can manage it or has an idea to make it react faster keep us informed.
Click to expand...

You'd have to play with the modifier responses to get something more like a steep S curve than a linear response. Something where you have some tipping points where harmony 1 is only 0-15%, harmony 2 is 85-100%, and the entire range from 15%-85% is normal Then tweak your ranges by feel until it works well.

I'm not familiar with the latency with bypassing in Axe, is there a chance you have some hold functions on your footswitches so it's activating on the switch release instead of the switch press? I could see that making a big difference when pressing it quickly.
 
IronSean said:
You'd have to play with the modifier responses to get something more like a steep S curve than a linear response. Something where you have some tipping points where harmony 1 is only 0-15%, harmony 2 is 85-100%, and the entire range from 15%-85% is normal Then tweak your ranges by feel until it works well.

I'm not familiar with the latency with bypassing in Axe, is there a chance you have some hold functions on your footswitches so it's activating on the switch release instead of the switch press? I could see that making a big difference when pressing it quickly.
Click to expand...

Have tried that. But I was not totally happy with the result. Not so easy to copy that pedal....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom