Kudos! The virtual capo is seriously great.

HerrSquid

Inspired
Wandering around youtube this evening, I stumbled across Metallica's recent live "Creeping Death" video. "Heck yeah!" says I, "this'll be fun to bash along to!"

Then I realized they were tuned to E Flat, and no guitars at hand were tuned that low. Being the lazy soul that I am, I slapped a Pitch block into the preset that was in front of me (did I mention lazy?) tuned it down a half step, and went after it.

It was fun! I forgot completely that I was using it, and several minutes after the bash-along ended I was trying to figure out why something seemed a bit out of whack... That dissonance between string pitch and what's coming out of the speakers just doesn't go away.

I remember in the Axe-II days, tuning down with the pitch block introduced some noticeable lag. Based on thrashing along with Metallica down a half step, I think that's gone!

Recommended. Would thrash again!
 
Yup, put it down another semitone for Sad But True. Virtual capo is so convenient when you can't be bothered tuning up/down, you lose a little fidelity but it's worth it when you are lazy like me.
 
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I used to have a digitech whammy DT. Virtual capo and the whammy in the axe fx were so good I ditched it. I always prefer having a guitar physically tuned to the pitch but I'm not gonna setup a guitar with thicker strings/cut nut to play 1 or 2 songs in a tuning thats oddball from my usual playing.

I like to use it to make my D standard guitar in B standard to play along with some Avatar or C standard for some Arch Enemy with cans on. Easy to forgot what your guitar is physically tuned to.

I wish there was a global virtual capo or something, I have a block for it on every preset plus a whammy block. I'd like a 3rd pitch block for some detune lol.
 
I like it enough to use it for low-tuning songs also. The latency doesn't bother me. Plus, when I get to a part in the song, I can turn it off, then play that portion in a transposed, lower place on the guitar, which in certain songs really helps with the fingerings!
 
I’m in Eb, and it is super useful for practicing at home without retuning. And every now and then you get a nice surprise when a song itself is in Eb, you forget the capo is on 😂
 
I like it enough to use it for low-tuning songs also. The latency doesn't bother me. Plus, when I get to a part in the song, I can turn it off, then play that portion in a transposed, lower place on the guitar, which in certain songs really helps with the fingerings!
Damn right. I even have a guitar tech and we still use this for a couple half step songs. I only use it if I need open strings. Some songs are easily played in standard tuning, but it's great because you can learn a song in the real tuning and live, not bother with half step down! Obviously you have to still drop your E for dropped D. Very common in country to be down a half step, but then the next song is back in standard. I use two guitars and capoes and this makes life so much easier. I use the control switch hold on my PITCH switch and it latches even if I change preset, which I still fuck up and then have to play the next song up a half step and then hold in the switch again, and slide back a fret again!!! Whoops, going outside on that Luke Bryan song YIKES
 
damn right, i use it to get 7/8 string metal tones on my 6 string, and people often even miss i m not playing an extended range guitar.
 
Does it also track complex clean chords well? Also when tuning to B? I am on Axe fx II so I never used Virtual Capo. It might save me money for not buying a bariton guitar....
 
Does it also track complex clean chords well? Also when tuning to B? I am on Axe fx II so I never used Virtual Capo. It might save me money for not buying a bariton guitar....
Are you familiar with In The Name Of God by Dream Theater? I've been using the VC to mess around with that song. The clean intro isn't 100% when played on a guitar in std tuning, using the VC down 4 semi-tones. I can't recall if it was latency or artifacts, but I remember hearing something that was a little off, but not much. I'll play around with it again sometime tonight if I get a chance and report back.
 
Does it also track complex clean chords well? Also when tuning to B? I am on Axe fx II so I never used Virtual Capo. It might save me money for not buying a bariton guitar....
Ok, so since I've been mainly fooling around with only the heavy part of that song, which is 97% of it, I didn't really pay much attention to the beginning. It's all arpeggiated, with the notes allowed to ring, and there's definitely both noticeable latency (albeit very slight) and some artifacts. They seem to only happen on certain intervals, probably able to hear it happen twice during that intro. But you can definitely hear it on the very last 2 notes. About a beat/beat-and-a-half after you hit the last note, you hear this "warble." I tried turning off the Chorus, but it didn't matter. I put the Pitch Block between the Comp & Drive on preset #127, Sc7, (which just happens to be the factory preset I'm currently enjoying.) Maybe placing it in a different location would help...? I think you'd have to try it for yourself to see if it'll work for you. Put it this way: I'd certainly play live using it for C-std tuning songs, but if I was recording, most likely not.
 
Ok, so since I've been mainly fooling around with only the heavy part of that song, which is 97% of it, I didn't really pay much attention to the beginning. It's all arpeggiated, with the notes allowed to ring, and there's definitely both noticeable latency (albeit very slight) and some artifacts. They seem to only happen on certain intervals, probably able to hear it happen twice during that intro. But you can definitely hear it on the very last 2 notes. About a beat/beat-and-a-half after you hit the last note, you hear this "warble." I tried turning off the Chorus, but it didn't matter. I put the Pitch Block between the Comp & Drive on preset #127, Sc7, (which just happens to be the factory preset I'm currently enjoying.) Maybe placing it in a different location would help...? I think you'd have to try it for yourself to see if it'll work for you. Put it this way: I'd certainly play live using it for C-std tuning songs, but if I was recording, most likely not.

Ok thanks a lot for testing! Is the tracking and latency improved much since the latest (beta) fw 17?
 
Not sure. Thought I read somewhere that the VC or pitch block was improved in one the last firmwares. Not sure which firmware exactly though.
axe fx 2 pitch block is not comparable to one on 3, axe 3 got major improvements in firmware 12 i think. And now some tracking improvement again in 17beta
So far its been superb for high gain metal pitch shifting for me im on 16.05 , even large shifts, unnoticeable in my case. I donot even feel any latency unlike many people on this forum even at large volumes even if technically there is certainly some small latency, and in a mix in most cases no one can make it out you are using the capo.

there are some flutter issues when pitch shifting clean if you hold chords but still way better than what's on axe fx 2.
 
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