How do you drop your pitch a half or whole step?

The issue I have is that I'm currently jamming with a mate who is playing drum & bass/techno type stuff and some of his tracks I'm in tune with and others I'm maybe 20-30 cents out. I could tune accordingly for one track on a second guitar, but still be out the slightest bit on another track, it's really frustrating!! My main axe has a floyd bridge too, so I think my only option would be to bring a second guitar with a fixed bridge and tune on the fly per track. Or....maybe it's just a good excuse to buy a 3rd or 4th guitar ;)
 
I'm playing in a cover band made up of old dudes, meaning we have to lower the pitch sometimes so we can hit the notes vocally. If open strings are involved it is difficult to transpose. When people are on the dance floor I don't have time to retune or change guitars or my crowd will walk off the floor. I have been using a Morepheus Droptune which sounds OK 1/2 step down and is usable a full step down if you are using distortion. I don't think it sounds good but it is usable. It sounds artificial just like the 3 Variaxs I have owned. I thought if the Fractal could function the same as the Morpheus I could eliminate a pedal of my pedalboard. I have a Tronical Tune on my Les Paul and it works pretty well but still takes 30 seconds by the time you push enough buttons. Also, I prefer my PRS Swamp Ash Special and there is no Tronical for PRSs. Thanks for the help on this. Now I need someone to tell me how to get a downloaded block into my blocks library on Axe-Edit.
 
Dr Buds said:
The issue I have is that I'm currently jamming with a mate who is playing drum & bass/techno type stuff and some of his tracks I'm in tune with and others I'm maybe 20-30 cents out. I could tune accordingly for one track on a second guitar, but still be out the slightest bit on another track, it's really frustrating!! My main axe has a floyd bridge too, so I think my only option would be to bring a second guitar with a fixed bridge and tune on the fly per track. Or....maybe it's just a good excuse to buy a 3rd or 4th guitar ;)
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Use software to change the pitch of the drum/bass tracks (without changing the tempo).
 
I have two guitars with Tronicals on them now (my Les Paul and my Suhr Strat) and it works really well. Obviously not as quick as pressing a button but no latency or artefacts either. Plus the look on peoples faces when they see the Tronical in action is worth it every time as well :)
 
kelso1 said:
Use software to change the pitch of the drum/bass tracks (without changing the tempo).
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Only issue with this is he uses CDj's and he's pretty old school - very limited knowledge of technology! I'd have to convince him to buy a laptop and load his whole collection onto it, then download the software - could be very difficult! Plus, this is just something we do for fun once a month or so, I'm not sure if he'd go to all that trouble.

If it didn't interfere with the way he mixes two tracks together I could maybe get him to adjust the speed at which he plays a given track and bring the pitch up or down that way.
 
Axe-FX can transpose low B to low A but it is a bit wonky. Depending on the complexity of the material you could probably get by for one song. I only have one guitar and it has a floating term so the ability to use the pitch block to play along to tracks (Jimi Hendrix or Slayer anyone?) is cool. I can also see using it to sit in on practice with mates that might be doing drop C or whatever. For recording or live I'd prefer another guitar but if you absolutely can't spend the money or borrow another guitar the pitch block can handle some material live. Low B to low A is quite challenging though. It sounds more natural in the mid range, to me anyway.
 
I've always had trouble using the pitch shifter to tune down 2 steps.

We have a song in our repertoire that is Drop-C in the chorus, so I have to use the pitch shifter there. It's fine live just playing chords when I don't notice the latency due to the snare and cymbals, but on palm mutes, the delay makes it unplayable.
 
'"Simeon's Trick" does help somewhat with perceived latency. But I agree, emulated pitch-dropping is not an ideal solution.

Pitch block - Axe-Fx II Wiki

There have been talks in the past about adding a dedicated "droptune"mode to the Pitch block. That would be nice.
 
yek said:
'"Simeon's Trick" does help somewhat with perceived latency.
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I tried it in the past with mixed results. It works quite good for chord play but, it doesn't really help on palm mutes or fast 16ths. The problem is that the ADSR needs a high treshold to trigger properly, which effectively requires you to play less dynamic. In the end, I always turned it off again just using the pitch shifter.
 
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javajunkie said:
I was speaking of the tuning gears on my guitar. I would rather bring another guitar than use a pitch-shiftier. It just doesn't work for me most of the time(any pitch shifter that I've tried).
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Agreed, the latency kills it for me. I found there is only one song so far that I can get away with using the pitch block for a full step down (aerials - "system of a down"). Because the playing is pretty straight forward it seems to work, but it still takes some getting use to. It actually sounds pretty believable.

Overall I would agree to just bring another guitar in that tuning (add a few more songs in that key to make it worth your while). The technology is getting very close, but just not ready for primetime yet (IMHO).
 
It seems that Cliff is working on a new pitch shifting algorithm that supports formant pitch shifting (post from 26th april 2014):
FractalAudio said:
It's on the to-do list [formant pitch shifting]. Busy with some other projects at the moment.
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Maybe this will also improve the other pitch shifting models. So keep your hopes up!
 
javajunkie said:
I was speaking of the tuning gears on my guitar. I would rather bring another guitar than use a pitch-shiftier. It just doesn't work for me most of the time(any pitch shifter that I've tried).

There is no CC assigned to the Key parameter
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I've done the whole "tune the guitar different via the box" thing with my VG-99 / hex pup..
provided that you can't hear your guitar acoustically it works ok [headphones, or simply enough volume]..

the prob though is that the police do not understand or sympathise that your excuse for the volume was that your guitar is tuned concert, but you're pitch shifting to C-Standard, and that it's soooo off putting when you can hear the strings against the drop tune..
and then they start giving you all the crap about "this is the X time this week... blah blah.. handcuffs.. cell.. etc"
yaaawn.... I was just sooo not listening
 
javajunkie said:
Never again for me after owning the Dark Fire. It spent more time being repaired than being played and the tuner freaked out on me one time, the string breaking actually scratched by bottom eye lid. They wound up not have parts for the thing after sitting at Gibson for 3 months. The finally just gave me a new Standard Plus Top instead.
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Agreed. Similar experiences with a robot and the tuner freaking out - winding up until my high E snapped, and doing it rather quickly.
 
Simeon's trick sounds really interesting.. I'll definitely be trying that tonight! I've heard positive things about the Morpheus DropTune and the Mooer Pitch Box pedals, but if they're anything like the Whammy IV's droptune function, count me out! I guess I'll just keep hoping Cliff figures it out. Maybe that'll be part of the next update! Fingers are crossed!
 
javajunkie said:
I was speaking of the tuning gears on my guitar. I would rather bring another guitar than use a pitch-shiftier. It just doesn't work for me most of the time(any pitch shifter that I've tried).

There is no CC assigned to the Key parameter
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I know you were. I'm actually sort of weirdly impressed that you thought I was serious. See, it was a joke because the AxeFx is so flexible I was implying it could assign a CC# to the guitar's tuning keys. But, of course we ALL know that's physically impossible. It had nothing to do with the pitch shifter or key in the musical sense. Sigh... the trials and tribulations of having a dry sarcastic sense of humor on the internet.
 

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Hey

Yeah sadly there will be latency and artifacts ,if you drop your tuning for pitch shifters. I drop my tuning for few songs ,three and half step down. I notice its little bit tricky to get rid off ,those two elements tone quality artifacts and latency. I was use Whammy DT backing days ,for drop tunings a lot. And get close almost same results whit Axe pitch shifter i use these tricks ,(Mono feature) will kill some of those tone quality artifacts. And (track adjust) will kill your latency.

-Use mono feature for pitch block
-Put track adjust 2.0-3.0 (or try find to sweet spot ,what works best for you)
 
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