Pitch shifting instead of tuning?

[SawdustRecordings]

Hey guys,

me and my band are currently writing new songs and we plan to have some lower tuned songs in our new live set. As we don't want to tune our guitars within the set, and we don't have the possibility to get on tour with 6 guitars, we thought about an alternative. Then pitch shifting came to my mind. Is it possible to pitch shift a guitar signal completely (max two half tones) with a stomp pedal? Has anyone ever done that? Really want to hear your suggestions...

Thanks!!

 

[bryan_kilco]

Probably, with the right whammy pedal. Won't sound as good as a downtuned guitar though.

 

[The Unavoidable]

The Axe-fx has a feature that allows you to pitch down alot.

 

[Skinny Viking]

You should be able to get away with it if you use a quality pitch shifter. A guitarist I worked with years ago did just that when playing with us cause he only had one guitar and played in 2 bands. We tuned to C# and the other band tuned to E

It doesn't sound completely natural but in a live setting any weirdness would probably be masked anyway. Best bet is to go to a music store and try one (or a couple) out and see if you can live with it

 

[Fr0zen]

Morpheus Droptune is actually pretty good for this. I have an Axe FX and the droptune, and feel the droptune is even better!

 

[dcb]

 

[Scottxx]

I use the pitch shifter in Overloud TH-2. Is pretty decent!

 

[OneDaySky]

Morpheus Droptune is actually pretty good for this. I have an Axe FX and the droptune, and feel the droptune is even better!

Thx for advice man Never heard of it until now

 

[Pxz]

The morpheus is incredible good for this .

 

[SawdustRecordings]

Thank u so much for your help!! Gonna give the morpheus a try, though it's pretty expensive. =/ Especially when you need three of them to drop the tuning within the whole band!

 

[exoslime]

you can also use a capo, downtune to the lowest you need, and then use the capo for the higher tunings..

 

[DanLights]

I do the capo method cause my band is in D but I´m also doing covers that are mostly in E. It can work, but it should be annoying if you only have a couple downtuned songs and the rest are in the higher tuning

 

[arv_foh]

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/DigiTech-Whammy-Pedal-Re-issue-Control/dp/B0002E3G82[/ame]

not sure how well it works...

 

[Cheesebone]

I don't know if you've checked out the new Line 6 Variax guitars, but they've got some awesome features for exactly this kind of thing. I've never played one but I hear they are actually very good guitars as far as how they feel (which is obviously gonna be very opinion based, but a good guitar is a good guitar).

 

[Morgan C]

I don't know if you've checked out the new Line 6 Variax guitars, but they've got some awesome features for exactly this kind of thing. I've never played one but I hear they are actually very good guitars as far as how they feel (which is obviously gonna be very opinion based, but a good guitar is a good guitar).

The new ones might be better, but the old ones are complete and utter shit.

 

[LeSedna]

you can also use a capo, downtune to the lowest you need, and then use the capo for the higher tunings..

What are those machineheads ? They are horrid but I believe they're special ?