boss hr-2 harmonizer question ?

[peedenmark7]

recently picked up a boss hr-2 harmonizer to try and duplicate live some recent studio work...

gotta say I'm not real impressed... its hooked up correctly but reminds me of the old boss micro rack rps-10 pitch shifter which to me tracked with a slight delay against the dry signal as well as adding gobs of noise/distortion to the mix.


I really dont want to jump back into bed with a rack unit like digitech rp-2120
and was hoping to keep this very simple ...

anyone have any advice/tricks for using this unit ,before I toss it off my pier ?


thanks !

[nandrewjackson]

harmonizer pedal

I have one of these. I think. Is is the one with the second input, I can't remember what the second input jack is called. Is it blue? anyway,

It doesn't work that good. Your tuning has to be spot on at 440 (and good intonation too) and any bends that you do will throw it off a bit. this pedal has a bit of delay on fast lines, but not so noticeable with slower melody work. It works better if you split your dry signal and send it to that second input. the second input helps the unit track exactly what notes you are playing, because it's an intelligent pitch shifter, unlike the digitech whammy pitch shifter, or another boss shifter unit. You can run your distortion or chorus or whatever into the main input, and if you are splitting it and sending a dry input into that other input it will work better.

Of course, if you have the other boss harmonizer pedal that I'm not talking about, then forget about all of this b.s.

I tried using mine a lot, but the delay in the shifted note was just ridiculous. Then I just used it as an octave pedal, it tracked that pretty quick.
hope this helps

nandrew

[lerxstcat]

The second input is called detector, and you're supposed to send it a signal that will always be clean so it can detect a clean on-pitch signal. A distorted signal makes it less accurate and slow as it hunts fior the fundamental tone.

I didn't have the problems you're describing with mine when I had it and I always put it first in line from my guitar, maybe that's why.

[peedenmark7]

I do run the pedal first in line... well second ,as I run a boss fa-1 in front of everything for a little kick in the signals ass.... I havent built the new board yet,,, but do run 6-8 other boss effects from time to time.....
I was told on the phone by a roland tech on monday, that as long as you run it first in the chain, that the detector input is not necessary... which I found strange as all I've read online says use it...
I am waiting for a boss J-5 multi jack thats on its way..to hide inside my current board for the intended purpose of sending a clean direct signal to this pedal, before sending this thing to oblivion....

I guess my main hassle with this thing is all the damn noise and distortion it adds to the mix, especially when using it for a dual harmony or combined with the dry signal for a 3 part harmony..... when used without distortion its still not clean ,as it still throws noise into the mix ,and thats using it with no other pedal....

when run with distorted signal wholly sh!t it, it sounds like an alley cat fight.

I am using it with a master volume '70s marshall straight in, so I would have to imagine running any or a bunch of pedals pregain is gonna make a heck more noise than if it was post gain or looped...
I ran it through one of my marshall jubs, but didnt use the loop... [old habits are hard to break]but will try that asap and am hoping for a little cleaner result.

its a good replacement for the boss rps-10 micro rack pitch shifter/delay I ran back in the mid '80s for a faux 12 string effect... but hardly worth the money I paid.

I just dont want to get back into a programable rack unit... theyre a pain in the ass and unless you loop them, its nearly impossible to get the volumes adjusted correctly from patch to patch..

any of this make sense ?

[Twisteramps]

Best way to use it is to have it *after* the distortion if you're using a drive channel, but have the detector input come off a clean signal. I used an extra output on my strobostomp tuner to go into the detector and then put it after overdrive/wah, but before chorus/delays/reverbs.

Pete