AFIII Axe-FX III Pitch block vs Digitech Drop

hippietim

hippietim

Axe-Master
Here's a quick demo comparing the pitch block of the Axe-FX III and the Digitech Drop pedal. They're both pretty darn good. For the demo, I had the Drop in a loop out of convenience to go back and forth easily.



I then hooked the Drop and the Axe-FX III up with a Lehle ABY box so I could record the Drop, Axe-FX Pitch block, and Axe-FX unprocessed at the same time.

This is the Low E string:
Low E Drop.PNG

This is a C chord:

C Chord.PNG

The patch is attached and this is what it looks like:

Drop Demo Patch.PNG
 

Attachments

  • Drop Test.syx
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Thanks for posting this. The Drop sounds noticeably better to me. How does the latency compare between the two?

Austin
 
Thanks for the comparison. Is this at stock settings? Did you try adjusting anything to improve it?

Looks like the latency is better in the 'III' than the 'II' (and the 'Drop' pedal), but the 'warbling' when playing chords hasn't seemed to improved?

It would be awesome if Cliff could figure out what's going on in that 'Drop' pedal and match or beat it.
 
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Moke said:
Thanks for the comparison. Is this at stock settings? Did you try adjusting anything to improve it?

Looks like the latency is better in the 'III' than the 'II' (and the 'Drop' pedal), but the 'warbling' when playing chords hasn't seemed to improved?

It would be awesome if Cliff could figure out whats going on in that 'Drop' pedal and match or beat it.
Click to expand...

Agreed would love to see a Drop pedal with. No issues
 
merlin17 said:
Would the wobbling go away if you increase the tracking time?
Click to expand...

Actually, descreasing the tracking value yields better results for me. When I reduce it to just under 1 I get better results when I drop a 4th. Any lower and I get some odd almost delay like artifacts. Somewhere between 2 and 3 seems to work best when I go up a minor 3rd or more.
 
hippietim said:
Here's a quick demo comparing the pitch block of the Axe-FX III and the Digitech Drop pedal. They're both pretty darn good. For the demo, I had the Drop in a loop out of convenience to go back and forth easily.



I then hooked the Drop and the Axe-FX III up with a Lehle ABY box so I could record the Drop, Axe-FX Pitch block, and Axe-FX unprocessed at the same time.

This is the Low E string:
View attachment 46564

This is a C chord:

View attachment 46566

The patch is attached and this is what it looks like:

View attachment 46563
Click to expand...

thanx tim!
 
Moke said:
Thanks for the comparison. Is this at stock settings? Did you try adjusting anything to improve it?

Looks like the latency is better in the 'III' than the 'II' (and the 'Drop' pedal), but the 'warbling' when playing chords hasn't seemed to improved?

It would be awesome if Cliff could figure out what's going on in that 'Drop' pedal and match or beat it.
Click to expand...

When I play chords that involve 4ths, 5ths, and octaves there is no warbling with the Axe3. It is the introduction of 3rds where the warble becomes noticeable. It is more pronounced in different positions and different strings. Major 3rds are a little more noticeable than minor 3rds. This is not too shocking since these same intervals are the hardest things to have sound in tune on a guitar. If you strum an open A chord you can here the slight oscillation between the G and B strings - this is what appears to be getting exaggerated by the pitch block on the Axe. The Drop pedal handles it a bit better.

I currently use the Drop pedal with my AX8 rig. In rehearsal my signal path is Cord - Drop - AX8 - CLR and I do not feel any latency with the Drop kicked in. Live my signal path is Shure wireless - Drop - AX8 - Presonus mixer - CLR. I don’t feel any latency until I kick in the Drop pedal. It’s no big deal but I can feel it at that point. The wireless and Presonus are adding three more digital conversions live.

When I recorded the samples I was using my headphones. Using headphones, I could feel the delay with the Drop which was in a loop on the Axe3 for recording the audio demo. When I recorded the clip to show the latency, I used an ABY box so the Drop wasn’t penalized by two more digital conversions.
 
Would love to ditch the Drop pedal. But I did some AB testing and the drop has the edge for me. Not a huge difference, but the drop sounded a little better. To be honest, I did not spend a lot of time trying to dial i the AXE3 pitch block. I may try this again at some later point.
 
bdrepko said:
Would love to ditch the Drop pedal. But I did some AB testing and the drop has the edge for me. Not a huge difference, but the drop sounded a little better. To be honest, I did not spend a lot of time trying to dial i the AXE3 pitch block. I may try this again at some later point.
Click to expand...

If you have any kind of grit or modulation on the tone the artifacts are not distinguishable to me. With full on dirty tone I can’t tell at all. So for me, the dramatically lower latency of the Axe III makes it the easy choice.
 
hippietim said:
If you have any kind of grit or modulation on the tone the artifacts are not distinguishable to me. With full on dirty tone I can’t tell at all. So for me, the dramatically lower latency of the Axe III makes it the easy choice.
Click to expand...
I definitely will have to try it again as the lower latency was not apparent to me.
 
hippietim said:
If you have any kind of grit or modulation on the tone the artifacts are not distinguishable to me. With full on dirty tone I can’t tell at all. So for me, the dramatically lower latency of the Axe III makes it the easy choice.
Click to expand...

That sounds about right to me, I didn't hear any artifacts on the dirty part. Although on the clean part right b4 it dropped 2 1/2 steps, I noticed warble on the first part (Axe) and hardly any on the second (Drop). What tuning was the dirty part in?

Thanks for taking the time to put this all together :).
 
gigawatt said:
That sounds about right to me, I didn't hear any artifacts on the dirty part. Although on the clean part right b4 it dropped 2 1/2 steps, I noticed warble on the first part (Axe) and hardly any on the second (Drop). What tuning was the dirty part in?

Thanks for taking the time to put this all together :).
Click to expand...

The dirty part was a whole step down.
 
Any updates on any success with this?

Because I need to figure something out for very low tuning parts. I can't buy a 9 or 10 string becsause those are obnoxiously wide to try to hold.

Has this matter been mastered yet in the Fractals? Or do I really need the Whammy DT pedal?
 
RackAddict said:
Any updates on any success with this?

Because I need to figure something out for very low tuning parts. I can't buy a 9 or 10 string becsause those are obnoxiously wide to try to hold.

Has this matter been mastered yet in the Fractals? Or do I really need the Whammy DT pedal?
Click to expand...

Not sure what you think is missing. The Virtual Capo mode in all the current Fractal units is very capable. From a practicality standpoint, the Fractal Virtual Capo wins every time. From the sound quality standpoint, there is no clear winner to me. The Fractal sounds better sometimes and the Digitech sounds better sometimes. Neither are flawless but both are very good. Unless you have to play something 100% clean from your bridge pickup with lots of dissonant chords ringing, just pick one and go with it.
 
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