MFX Pith Shifter working like a tremolo

Started by ArrudaCamara, December 14, 2015, 12:30:37 PM

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ArrudaCamara

Hello There.... I previously had a GR 30 and a 33. Two days ago I bought a GR55. Awesome Box of Effects. My idea was to replace all my pedalboard with this machine. SO far I was pretty happy with it, but the pitch shifter disappointed me a lot.... I turned all of the Block off and left only MFX on with pitch shifted selected (Coarse -2; fine 0; delay; 1ms feedback 0; and mix 0D/100W). Also turned the PCM sounds and GK off (only left the normal PUs on). The guitar tunes down do D, but when I strum a chord it feels like there is a Tremolo effect with it.... the further I move the coarse (les suppose -7) the faster this tremolo gets....  The other pitch shifters work fine, but none of them changes the regular PU´s pitches.... question is: is this the regular behavior of this effect? Besides that, everything seems to work perfectly..... Thanks for your help!

sixeight

Some of the MFX effects are not that good. A good pitch shifter would take up all the processing power of the GR55, so it is limited, like most pitch shifters are in guitar processors with limited resources. The problem in this case is, that the GR-55 can do too many other things.

Elantric

#2
When the GR-55 was first released - it was priced lower and was represented to be a new "entry level" jack of all trades product for both guitarists and bass players new to the GK 13 pin hex PU world.

Remember the VG-99 was still $1499 in 2011 and the GR-55 was $698 with PU (or $600 with no GK-3) during the first 18 months. Then in Fall 2012, the GR-55 with GK-3 price was raised to $799.

Its a powerful unit, but in 2015 its certainly not the best representation of Roland/Boss DSP guitar processors.

Litesnsirens

I will see if I can replicate this.  Maybe you could upload the patch?  I never use the pitch shifter except as a harmonizer.  For a drop tuning I would just use a modelled guitar tone and use the alt tuning.  I've had good success using the pitch shifter as a harmonizer, but because it doesn't have smart harmonies, I've had to use 2 different settings such as -4 and -5 controlled by the expression pedal to make up for the fact that it won't follow a scale.

ArrudaCamara

Unfortunatelly i just bought the pedAl and sent my computer to service... I am still not using floorboard. But the patch is pretty simple.... Turn everything besides the regular pickups and MFX block off and set it as if you would tune the guitar to D (coarse = -2, mix 0/100. Everything else goes to zero - or 1ms in case of feedback).
When I strum a chord in the guitar it is tuned two steps down but it also sounds like there is a tremolo turned on.... please, confirm if it sounds like that....
My main idea for the gr55 is to replace all my gear with something lighter and smaller... I normally played with a bunch of stompboxes and a tube amp, but im getting old and tired of carrying everything all the time... The. I decided to also buy a midi system so that I could play other sounds... Do you guys recommend other multi effects instead of GR55? Maybe GP10 would do the trick?

sixeight

You should use a COSM guitar with alternate tuning instead of the mfx model. That will give much better results as hex processing is involved.

ArrudaCamara

I understand that. What I want to make sure is that the pitch shifter in MFX is working as it should (poor) and the pedalboard is not with some kind of anomaly.... Mainly because I would like to use the GR 55 with my non hex guitars and there is no other pitch shifter that works in them but this one...

Litesnsirens

Have you modded your GR-55?  Where do you intend to plug your non-hex guitars into the unit?

ArrudaCamara


Litesnsirens

So you mean uninstalled?  or you plug a longer 1/4" cable from a non GK3 guitar into the GK3 that is installed on another guitar. 

ArrudaCamara

Either way I can use a regular guitar with the GR55. Were you able to replicate the issue?

ArrudaCamara

Hello There... I just managed to save the patch in the computer... If you guys could load it to your GR and tell me if it sounds like there is a tremolo in the D tuning, that would help a lot..

admin

#12
Quotepitch shifter.g5l (359.51 kB - downloaded 0 times.)
Thats a very large file - and suggests you have uploaded your entire GR-55 user bank

please read the "GR-55 - How to save and upload patches" thread  here
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=3260.msg61198#msg61198

ArrudaCamara

I read one patch (3-1) from the GR55 and saved it. There is just one configuration that is preset 3-1 in the file. It is named pitch shifter....

admin

#14


It does open - provided the user navigates to patch 3-1

suggest skip the factory Roland GR-55 patch librarian and
use Gumtowns GR-5 Floorboard Editor's "Save As function


all explained here

GR-55 F.A.Q.

https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=3137

* Gumtowns shareware GR-55 Floorboard Editor: (essential)
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=2951.0

GR-55 - How to save and upload patches" thread  here
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=3260.msg61198#msg61198

ArrudaCamara

Did you check if the patch sounds like there is a tremolo turned on?

gumtown

The Pitch Shifter issue has been discussed on may forums, not only in the GR-55 but also many other Boss/Roland multi effects units (like the GT series).

A good description was "polyphonic confusion", pitch shifter does not lend itself to be a very good polyphonic effect.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

ArrudaCamara

I m reading floorboard tutorials.
I m talking about the monophonic pitch shifter. I looked everywhere and havent found anything but one topic that wasnt clear about this issue. There is no polyphonic involved. If you can, please, just upload the patch "pitch shifter" to the temporary memory of the gr55 to check if it sounds like there is a tremolo in the sound.....

gumtown

#18
Quote from: ArrudaCamara on December 14, 2015, 12:30:37 PM
but when I strum a chord it feels like there is a Tremolo effect with it....
I suspect the pitch shifter is monophonic, which is where I heard the saying "polyphonic confusion".
Quote from: ArrudaCamara on December 15, 2015, 06:35:02 PM
I m talking about the monophonic pitch shifter.

My GR-55 is currently packed away amongst my 'show haulage' stuff somewhere.
Next time it surfaces, I will put the GR-55 to one side try it out.
Free "GR-55 FloorBoard" editor software from https://sourceforge.net/projects/grfloorboard/

Litesnsirens

I haven't had time yet .. busy at work .. But I am off tomorrow ... I will try the patch out and report back.

Elantric

My 2 cents -

Why use the clobbered pitch shifter when you have the far more capable COSM Guitar Alt Tuning available?

ArrudaCamara

My intention with this topic is to know if this (in my opinion) weird behavior is expected from the gr55, of if mine has a problem...

Litesnsirens

i'm going to say that based on the fact mine does the same thing it's a limitation of the device.  I've checked and there is nothing else in the chain that can cause this

ArrudaCamara

Thanks for telling that. It makes me haply and sad at the same time. It is strange that such an expensive product has a weird behavior like this. Anyway, thanks a lot for telling me that despite the behavior, my gr55 has no problems...

Litesnsirens

The pitch shifter is one of the few things that I would change on this device.  Not for lack of quality but for lack of being able to set intelligent harmonies.  It does the job as intended well, I don't think that it was ever intended to do polyphonic drop tunings. 

The fact that the unit will do this with the modelled guitars most admirably and that there is no 1/4" input and I guess also that fact that it is never mentioned anywhere in the literature/manuals suggests that the pitch shifter wasn't designed for this use. 

I think it was worth a shot to be as innovative as you were to test this theory in the event that it did work, but that it didn't is no slight on the machine itself.