Re: [Harp-L] Octave pedal

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Boris Plotnikov wrote:
<I'd recommend one of the following:
<Electro-harmonix Pith Fork - great! Bunch of functionality besides octaves
<and very reasonable price. My choice.
<Boss PS-6 Harmonist. Bunch of functonality too.
<Electro-harmonix MicroPOG. Too pricey for octaves only.
<possible Electro-harmonix NanoPOG  will work good too (didn't try it yet).

All good choices.

<I'd not recommend you Line6, Digitech or Zoom stuff because they affects
<dry portion of your tone. Possible you will not notice it, but for me the
<difference is really noticeable.

I'm not sure what this means.  Like most pitch shifters, the one built into the Digitech RP provides a control for adjusting the mix of wet (effected) and dry (unaffected) signals.  If you adjust the mix level for the pitch shifter down to zero, you hear the dry tone by itself.

Perhaps you mean that the RP introduces artifacts into the dry signal that are unrelated to the pitch shift?  All I can say is that I haven't heard it.  Regarding the line6, there are videos on my site right now of Boris using his Line6 gear to put multiple pitch shifts into a harmonica tone as a means to creating an organ sound.  I wouldn't have featured those videos if I didn't think they sounded good.  

I tend to prefer Digitechs to Line6 gear because the Digitechs offer great sounds at a much lower price point.  Every digitech RP from the 155 on up offers very solid pitch shifting plus a whole lot of other solid FX in the same box, and the prices start at $100 new. But either Digitech or Line6 offer perfectly respectable performance as a dedicated pitch shifter.  Electro-harmonix pitch shifters are probably the gold standard because of the multiphonic capability, and you pay for that performance. But nobody's ever going to come up to you at a gig and tell you that the pitch shifters on a line6 or Digitech device didn't sound good.

Appreciation for sound is a personal matter, of course, and I don't expect anyone to take it for granted that what I like is what's going to inspire them.  There are recordings all over my site at hunterharp.com of me and other musicians playing through a range of gear. I make a point of describing the gear that's used on every recording, and plenty of the sounds you'll hear came through a pitch shifter.  Check it out and see what you think.

Regards, Richard Hunter