How Many People Are Using A Virtual Capo in "Real" Applications

TheloniusJ

TheloniusJ

Experienced
One of the bands I play in tunes down a full step for all songs. Currently I keep two guitars set-up and tuned for that, but have been considering using standard tuning and dropping the tuning with a virtual capo. I'd love to hear personal experiences from anyone who has done this in a real gig situation.

I have a preset set-up this way that I use for practicing/learning songs. There are definitely artifacts I can hear, but I'm guessing these may get washed out in the larger band context. We play 80s and 90s hard rock / metal so mostly very gainy or processed cleans for everything.
 
I had been making use of VC for a song or two every couple of months. As far as 4 semitones DOWN. A few times, 1 or 2 semitones UP. There are some slight artifacts but it gets lost in the mix, no problem.
I recently bought a DigiTech Wammy to do this instead. Primarily I wanted to free up the pitch block for other uses, but also, it does it better than VC.
 
geetarplayer said:
I had been making use of VC for a song or two every couple of months. As far as 4 semitones DOWN. A few times, 1 or 2 semitones UP. There are some slight artifacts but it gets lost in the mix, no problem.
I recently bought a DigiTech Wammy to do this instead. Primarily I wanted to free up the pitch block for other uses, but also, it does it better than VC.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the perspective. I actually have a DigiTech Whammy also and had thought of using that if needed, but right now I'm not using a pitch block in that band (I may if we decide to push stereo signals) and my main presets are only at about 70% so I have the CPU to spare. I was using the Whammy with one of my other bands and have managed to replace all of that functionality with the pitch block already, so will probably keep doing that. The two units seem to have about the same amount of glitchiness.

Anyway, thanks again. Good to hear a confirmation that the artifacts are mostly lost in the mix.
 
I use (mostly) one semitone up.
We are transitioning in writing our own stuff from E to Eb, so in order to get the „old“ songs running I use the VC.
I found out I need different Pitch Tracking settings depending on the sound (clean „off“, crunch / higain „fast“ or „smooth“) to get the artefacts down.

Same for one cover where I need to tune down by 3 semitones. All in all there are negligible artefacts, but in a live setting you won’t hear it.
 
I've been using it for years at my gigs without anyone ever commenting on it other than how cool it was that one switch would take care of it.
 
We do a song in different keys depending upon the vocalist so I use the VC from +1 to -4 and it sounds just fine in the mix. I set the 'Pitch Tracking' to 'OFF' and adjust the Tracking parameter to get the balance of quality vs latency that sounds best to my ears.
 
moerker said:
I use (mostly) one semitone up.
We are transitioning in writing our own stuff from E to Eb, so in order to get the „old“ songs running I use the VC.
I found out I need different Pitch Tracking settings depending on the sound (clean „off“, crunch / higain „fast“ or „smooth“) to get the artefacts down.

Same for one cover where I need to tune down by 3 semitones. All in all there are negligible artefacts, but in a live setting you won’t hear it.
Click to expand...
Awesome. Interesting about the tracking settings. I'll have to explore that a bit.
 
JoKeR III said:
We do a song in different keys depending upon the vocalist so I use the VC from +1 to -4 and it sounds just fine in the mix. I set the 'Pitch Tracking' to 'OFF' and adjust the Tracking parameter to get the balance of quality vs latency that sounds best to my ears.
Click to expand...
I'll look into this. Thanks.
 
I dropped a Stratocaster 12 semitones down w/ the VC in ordered to rec bass on a few tunes earlier this year… Not sure if that’s real enough?
 
I use it often to go up 1/2 step. We are typically tuned down to Eb for our shows but have 6-7 songs that we play in 440. It works great. In a mix at volume, I hear no issues or artifacts and don't get any glitches. Set up on an IA switch with the block set to scene ignore. I've also used it up to +/- 3 a couple times and no complaints.
 
Admin M@ said:
And who's using a real capo in virtual situations?
Click to expand...

Me! No really - I have used an actual capo with my midi guitar and virtual instruments since it was easier to play some jazz keyboard chord voicings (extended and inversions) with open chord shapes. Keyboardists have 8 fingers at their disposal.

Works great for some orchestral stuff too to get the right pitch separation with a down tuned guitar. You can even live play convincing orchestral arrangements with counterpoint using finger picking and open shapes. So an capo can be very useful in a virtual situation :).
 
I use it on stage, generally -1/2 or -1 lower.
From small shows to 5k people shows.

Never had any problem, works really great and the tracking is awesome.
 
My band does '90s alt rock covers so I use the VC a lot. Occasionally down to a full step, but mostly -1/2. IMHO it works perfectly. Clean or dirty. I tweak my VC presets a bit but not much. I love it. No issues and the tracking is great for live situations for sure.
 
I've got a cover band in which we tune 1/2 step down. I hate to lose the pitch detune on the FM9, but the 1210 does the "wet trick". Nobody notices except when I turn on and it's disabled haha
 
I used it for awhile but it's not the best sound compared to retuning the guitar. Since there's only one pitch block I'd rather use that for other applications too. It's kind of like a bandaid, you're better off playing guitars set up for that tuning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom