Pitch Fork + Polyphonic Pitch Shift Pedal Review

Pitch Fork+

Honestly, I'm still playing around with this one. It's kind of redundant in my effects collection (racks and pedals), but I like the character and the internal and external configuration options. Some folk will fuss about the note tracking. I kind of like the weird glissando stuff that the Pitch Fork + can do. I've coupled it with an 8 Step Program for some interesting, sequenced… read more rhythm lines. The Pitch Fork+ really belongs at the lead of an effects chain or at least before compressors, wah, filters, overdrive, fuzz, distortion, modulation, delay, and reverb effects. Synthesis pedals are probably okay before the Pitch Fork+. Distortion and compression before the Pitch Fork+ weren't bad if tempered, but I suppose it's a matter of taste. The tonal character of the distortion makes a difference, too. For example, a Sovtek Big Muff and the modern EHX/Sovtek Big Muff Deluxe were a couple choice fuzz boxes after the Pitch Fork+ when one or both of the shifts were below the root note. The investigation continues.

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Worth the Wait!!!

I was super excited when I first heard this pedal was coming out. I love the og pf and this with extra features was sure to be incredible. Out of the box I plugged right in and was able to dial in some really solid tones through some great sounding presets. The capability to create your own triads and blend them just perfectly is really satisfying and with that alone makes this… read more a quality pedal. Sounds great on my keyboards and guitars. I have dialed in some nice sounds ranging from almost upright bass to outer space. I don't even think I have to mention SUBSONIC Bass. I've been shaking my walls. I'm really loving it. After finally starting to read the manual I'm discovering more and more capabilities. Routing two ouputs ads an edge to my live performance/recording. Having capabilities to send different pitches through different effects loops and create some really cool stereo effects. If you can't tell, i love this pedal. You can customize your sounds in so many ways. Fading in and out your sound with fully customizable swells, dialing in cross modulation to take your tone to another dimension. This is really an unbelievable pedal. I'm having a hard time reading any bad feedback because I am blown away by the options. My advice to any neigh sayers would be put in some time and READ THE MANUAL. I know I'm lazy and still haven't gotten thru everything but the deeper I get with this pedal the more options i am finding to add to my live performance and home recordings.

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Tone killer, noise producer, very marginal fx; not for me

to be fair, my hopes were probably too high for this device. i had hoped the addition of the second engine would open up enough possibilities with the x-mod to replace an old lexicon rack that i have (it didn't come close). but the pitch engine itself didn't impress me; too low and and you lose ALL tone, too high and it sounds very digital. having the blend knobs is the best thing… read more here, allowing you to add it as you see fit. watch the video: it does what it says on the tin and nothing else; does not play well with my other gear, especially delay which is crucial to my sound. in addition to being a tone sucker, it's also buffered bypass, so as the other reviewer said you'll need a parallel line to take this out of the mix when not in use. i also found it to be very noisy with my system (running a truetone cs12 to run all the pedals, which is usually very quiet), going into tube compressors then into my soundcard. i can't speak to what it would sound like with an amp but i'm thinking not good things. bottom line is i still love EHX and won't be turned off from them in the future BUT if you're in the market for pitch dropping i'd look at digitech. more expensive sure but they are true bypass.

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Not entirely convinced...

Guilty of trusting sales hype and possible enhanced video I had imagined this would reinvent the wheel. While it seems to sound decent by itself, I am not entirely convinced with overdrives and high gains (after, for proper tracking) that it really out-performs the Whammy DT detune ability and over all tonal quality. But to be honest it has a lot of features and tweaking I am still… read more trying to get a handle on. It is not as digital synth sounding in the upper 8va like the POGs but it is a buffered output platform (which the WhammyV DT is now true bypass) it does have two independent voices which is cool and sufficient lvl balance to mix them. Preset ability is nice plus. Stating it can do 3 complete +/- 8vas is perhaps a reach of tonal quality/tracking and/or musical usefulness. Seems capable of doing some odd cross modulations of voice to voice and a few things I have not got my head around. Not sure if I am happy with the voice quality to be honest, it is much less cost than the Whammy DT and does have two voices instead of one. It can do that momentary switch pitch shifting the Ricochet does. In summary: if you're a EHX pedal fan you will probably like this, if you're a connoisseur of higher end pedal circuits and components and rather skeptical of EHX you might not be thrilled with it. The new Boss Octave 5 is out but I have not tried it, but no presets and one has to experience the std cable pitch tracking to be sure it is not a glitch out burble fest like so many. Things are improving to be sure. Boss certainly has something going w tracking w the recent synth std cable unit. And one wonders if Digitech will have an offering to improve the already good Whammy V DT. I suppose it is asking too much they all don't sound so digital but that is the nature of the beast I guess. Worth trying out but is it not a giant leap away from what I have come to expect from EHX. As w all pedals, the chemistry that happens with all rigs might find you loving it or not, I have a really large board plumbed mainly into a VoodooLab swticher so I can take this buffer out of line. The AUX out is useful to split the signal or send to a tuner. I missed that jack on the Whammy V, anyway, it might float your boat or you might find yourself looking for something a bit more high end. Nice improvements from the std PitchF and a step up to be sure, so bravo to EHX for a nicer featured pedal.

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