Shouldn't there be a Pitch block?

Demious said:
I know that, in theory, I can put the VP in front of the AM, but the single input on the AM and stereo input of the VP, make it kinda obvious how it's 'supposed to be'. It keep messing with my head if I dont follow the logic in my mind. :P
And yes, I do need 4 blocks post, by the way... 2 parallel for Leon Todd's SPX chorus, followed by delay and reverb.

I've put my Plethora X1 in front of the AM, now. I had to drop a pedal to make space, but this works and the Plethora Sub&Up has this really cool Hammond-like effect, I like very much.

Still, I hope that Fractal drops a pitch block in a future update
Click to expand...
Just read this today and noticed that you commented "I know that, in theory, I can put the VP in front of the AM, but the single input on the AM and stereo input of the VP, make it kinda obvious how it's 'supposed to be'."
Well you could use the SPDIF out from the VP4 to the SPDIF in on the AM4 and get stereo in from the VP4 effects including the Pitch Block. Just a thought in case you hadn't considered this method?
 
I sometimes wonder how guitarists could be creative in that uninnovative period from, say, 1950 to 1990. In an era when there was no pitch shifter. How many beautiful songs and evergreens could have been created. Just imagine what the Beatles or Led Zeppelin could have achieved. And Brian May wouldn't have had to play countless overdubs that he NEVER used live. But somehow their concerts were still fantastic.

No, seriously. The AM4 doesn't have a pitch block, and it doesn't need one. If I need one, I'll use the FM3/9 or AXE FX III. If I ever need a guitar half a tone lower live, I always have one ready. It's useless for open tunings anyway, and ultimately, any sound that is pitched higher feels strange.

If the AM4 is part of a complex pedalboard, then such a tool will also be found there. Be it the famous red one or, even better, the VP4. The latter can be integrated via S/PDIF.
If it is used as a standalone device, the user has already determined that they do not need a pitch block. I myself do not need it live.
The dual detune for the corresponding 80s sound is nice, but for many it fails due to the lack of a stereo setup. And when I make recordings, these effects are added afterwards. Then you can also use a plugin.

The amp sound is the most important thing.

The same applies to a looper, by the way. The AM4 does not require one. 😇
 
Last edited:
Rayos said:
I'm curious...

What would you use the pitch block for?
Transposing songs?
Click to expand...
Pog dual octaves, and transposing For Sunday morning gigs,
Advanced whammy -2 and 0 for virtual slide guitar, I use that a lot!
I would be happy with just the slide trick.
 
In a perfect world the DSP in the AM4 would run at 1 THz and consume 1 mW of power. Unfortunately the world is far from perfect and compromises must be made.

I still think it's amazing we packed all that we did into it with a 13W power envelope. The power design for the product was one of the biggest challenges.
 
Funny how old some of us feel when we were all excited about the AM4, then started seeing all the complaining that this one effect (Pitch) wasn't included, and had to research/look up why so many people use it. If a song is tuned down and our band covers it, we just play it in standard tuning.

I have been in bands before that did one or two tunes in Eb, but we just tuned down or had a back up guitar in that tuning. We do one song in Drop D now, but that's a single string adjustment pre-song.
 
FractalAudio said:
In a perfect world the DSP in the AM4 would run at 1 THz and consume 1 mW of power. Unfortunately the world is far from perfect and compromises must be made.

I still think it's amazing we packed all that we did into it with a 13W power envelope. The power design for the product was one of the biggest challenges.
Click to expand...

The engineering is impressive and from what I've seen the UX goes a long way in helping less sophisticated users enter the Fractal ecosystem. If, however, you give a mouse a cookie then he'll want a glass of milk to go with it. Such is life.

Since the primary concern is DSP headroom I'd be remiss to point out that having a diet Pitch block with less-intensive algorithms would be a nice consolation prize for people asking. As a layperson I'd imagine that Whammy and Detune are an order of magnitude simpler than VC et cetera (which, **EDIT, has been super useful for me in the past doing songs in C tunings). Lots of players just want to play Satriani/Rage solos or do the hair metal 80s double track thing a la Van Hagar - not having polyphonic shifting is perfectly reasonable. Hell, remove modes and just call have Whammy and Detune blocks to keep people from getting confused.

Or maybe I'm completely off the mark and there's not enough juice - just my $.02. Been a user since the Standard days and will probably buy one soon to replace my FM3 in an effort to simplify.
 
Last edited:
alexjplant said:
The engineering is impressive and from what I've seen the UX goes a long way in helping less sophisticated users enter the Fractal ecosystem. If, however, you give a mouse a cookie then he'll want a glass of milk to go with it. Such is life.

Since the primary concern is DSP headroom I'd be remiss to point out that having a diet Pitch block with less-intensive algorithms would be a nice consolation prize for people asking. As a layperson I'd imagine that Whammy and Detune are an order of magnitude simpler than VC et cetera (which, **EDIT, has been super useful for me in the past doing songs in C tunings). Lots of players just want to play Satriani/Rage solos or do the hair metal 80s double track thing a la Van Hagar - not having polyphonic shifting is perfectly reasonable. Hell, remove modes and just call have Whammy and Detune blocks to keep people from getting confused.

Or maybe I'm completely off the mark and there's not enough juice - just my $.02. Been a user since the Standard days and will probably buy one soon to replace my FM3 in an effort to simplify.
Click to expand...
The thing is though unless we know the algorithm they work with and it requirements and limitations it hard to say that a separate block or a pitch block “lite” is even and option
Perhaps it still has to use the same pitch detector and that requires other resources that will impact other functions like gapless switching , controllers etc

If you have been working with Fractal stuff for years you know Cliff , he will pack in everything he can .

People have been asking for dual pitch on the FM9 for years as well so I have got to think there is a reason why it won’t run smoothly or you know as well as I do it would already be implemented like tons of other complex features have
 
I can already hear the complaints if a pitch block is added- “I’m getting a warble effect”, “there’s some weird noise when I use it”, etc. It took awhile to get some people satisfied with the pitch block on the Axe III and that has more under the hood to work with. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to get it satisfactory to some on here with the limited power of the AM4.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom