NED : Eventide Pitchfactor

[Hellbat]

Ever buy a pedal without trying it?

I did and I now know the feeling of the term "buyers regret". I guess I was expecting too much out of it or something. As a straight harmonizer, it loses in tracking capability to to my Boss PS-6 pedal that came in at around a 3rd of the price. Also, for a $500 pedal they can't throw in a fucking $5 USB A-B cable? How about you use a mini USB connector that everyone has 19 of laying around their house then?

Anyways there are some good sounds on tap in the box and it's very deep and will require a lot of exploration, but I can't help but feel I would have been better off with the Modfactor for my playing and sounds.

My favorite effect so far is the super lush chorus you can get out of it. Some of the subtle delay/harmony effects can be good in textural situations. They have a patch that will let you nail Steve Vai's Ballerina 12/24 song, but Steve already did it and played it better than I can so meh.

The biggest disappointment for me is I was expecting polyphony and razor sharp tracking and got neither. This is more of a 'creation' type of pedal that you would use when looking for new textures and sounds than a harmony pedal.

[modelseriesman]

Just wanted to be the first to beat RacerX to .... "Buyer's Remorse")

[VitaminG]

I've bought pedals without trying. Thanks to YouTube, I can usually check out demos & reviews before laying any cash down. Between that and checking forum discussion for pros & cons, haven't been let down by anything so far.

Have you heard anyone get the sounds you want out of the Pitchfactor? Could they be in there somewhere and you just haven't unlocked them yet?

[Hellbat]

Oh there is probably tons of sounds on board that I haven't explored. I have tried a bit to find some good youtube tutorials that show how to set up different sounds but most of them tend to focus on just stepping through the presets. The chorus in it is one of the best I've heard so I like it in that respect.

To be honest I didn't really do my homework on this one too much, I just bought it on name and reputation. Next time if the store doesn't have the pedal I have researched and know I want I'll just walk out.

Part of my problem for the harmonizing on it is you still have to have a good understanding of music theory and you have to follow the scales you've configured it for. And I'm a hack so I'm not good at staying in the box.

Build quality is awesome. I love that it's stereo and I can run it line level in my 11 rack's loop wich does give the 11r some harmonizing capability that isn't built in. To really take advantage of all its features though you need an external 3 button footswitch and expression pedal.

[wilkinsi]

I've heard the PF out-performed by Strymon. I've found the diatonic shifters suck, even in the Eclipse. I'd sooner use the harmonizer in my Boss GT units or the multishift algorithms in my Eclipse. The PF has the microshift algorithm, which should have the same effect. And try spending more time with it.

[Hellbat]

Oh, I'll be spending more time with it. I'm keeping it. Even if only to serve as a reminder!

[wilkinsi]

Just to make you feel better, Eventide are bringing out a new product at namm. Its been suggested it could be a pedal

[VitaminG]

after searching around online this morning, it seems other users say the tracking is excellent, although they also recommend using it after distortion. The old "purest signal for best tracking" doesn't seem to apply, with most suggesting to run it later in your path rather than first.

[mr426]

Forgive me if Im wrong, but dont ALL harmonizers require you to know the key and scale and stay in them to be effective? By the way I use an Eventide Timefactor and it is DEEEEEP. Its the best delay I have ever used, but not intuitive at all

[Hellbat]

after searching around online this morning, it seems other users say the tracking is excellent, although they also recommend using it after distortion. The old "purest signal for best tracking" doesn't seem to apply, with most suggesting to run it later in your path rather than first.

The 11r loop lets me move it around in the signal chain to try it before/after distortion and other effects which is nice. I didn't really try it to see the difference in tracking though, just the sounds coming out.

[Hellbat]

Forgive me if Im wrong, but dont ALL harmonizers require you to know the key and scale and stay in them to be effective? By the way I use an Eventide Timefactor and it is DEEEEEP. Its the best delay I have ever used, but not intuitive at all

Yes, and this one has a "learn" functionality where you play a chord and it figures out key and scale that could make it much more intuitive for me once I figure out how to use it.

The boss pedal seems to track legato/bendy stuff a little better in my experience. The Eventide does seem to track the shreddy stuff that's played clean and without vibrato a little faster, but I'm not a shreddy guy.

[wilkinsi]

Forgive me if Im wrong, but dont ALL harmonizers require you to know the key and scale and stay in them to be effective? By the way I use an Eventide Timefactor and it is DEEEEEP. Its the best delay I have ever used, but not intuitive at all

As I said earlier, its the diatonic shifters that have the glitching.

[mr426]

Ive had some form of harmonizer for years, but never really used one. I can get a cool sound out of em.HAHA

[Shawn Lutz]

pretty sure thar is the pedal that Pete has that died when upgrading the firmware.

[Hellbat]

Well, I safely made it through the firmware update on mine so I don't have that problem. That would have 100% made it a return if it happened to me.