Adding pitch shifted harmony voices can sound very interesting, but using it too often or too much just makes it sound boring or like a cheap toy. The effect will usually be most dramatic if used only for short passages.
If a voice is pitch shifted higher than the dry signal it will appear brighter, and when bypassing the effect the dry sound will appear dull in contrast. The simplest way to avoid this is to keep a relatively low level on the pitched voices, or pan them away from the dry sound in the stereo image.
The Fixed 1 and 2 Voice sub-algorithms feature a 400ms delay that can be used to delay the pitched voices. When using any Feedback the pitch voice will return to the Pitch Shift block's input and become pitched again. That way you can produce multiple (identical) intervals within just one pitch voice, which is a great source of strange sound effects. Note that the total Feedback for voices 1 and 2 should not exceed 100% in order to avoid internal overflow. Warning: if you use very low Pitch (say -1200 cents) together with high Feedback values (above say 75%), subsonic bass sounds are produced as the low octave sound is sent back to the Pitch Shift's input and is pitched down again and again. These subsonic sounds cannot be heard but may damage speakers (you can see them on a level meter).
The 2 Voice, 2 Octave is included from software version 2.00. It works like the Fixed 1 and 2 Voice algorithm except that it offers twice as much pitch shift. This means that you must use the Value wheel a lot, unless you use it strictly as a whammy effect by linking it to an expression pedal.
When using the Dual Detune for doubling effects the most discrete (but still wide stereo) effects are achieved with very small Detune settings; even +/-0 cents may be enough. By delaying one Voice just a few milliseconds the stereo effect will be increased even more. If a Voice is made slightly sharp it may appear to sound louder than the dry signal, due to a psychological phenomenon. Similarly a delayed side of a stereo image will also appear weaker-sounding, again due to a psychological phenomenon. By delaying the sharp Pitch Shift Voice these two psychological phenomena might cancel each other and the result should be an even stereo effect.
The Dual detune can also be used to produce vibrato effects when linked to an LFO. Make the Link response curve almost horizontal if you want only subtle vibrato detuning. Similar effects can be achieved with the Chorus/Flanger at high speed settings.
The Intelligent Pitch Shifter changes pitch according to a scale's intervals. The G-Force features a number of different scales, plus one global custom Scale that you can define yourself. Among the factory scales the notes in the seven Diatonic scales are identical, except for their different roots: C jonian = D dorian = E phrygian = F lydian = G mixolydian = A eolian = B locrian.
The manual mentions the importance of staying in tune when using the Intelligent pitch shift. This can be achieved by tuning the guitar well, but also by using heavy gauge strings (that will not be bent as easily) and by avoiding deliberate strings bends.
One nice effect is to fade in Pitch Shift voices with an expression pedal. If you link an expression pedal to both Pitch Shift voices but set their Link response curves differently you can get varying mixtures between the dry signal and the Pitch Shift voices as you move the expression pedal. For example, you can set the Link response curves so that the dry signal is heard alone at the pedal's heel position, Voice 1 in the middle and Voice 2 in the pedal's toe position.
If you use an expression pedal to control pitch, make sure that the pedal really stops at exactly the same physical toe/heel positions everytime. If not it may cause the notes at the toe and heel positions to be out of tune.
You can also switch between fixed Voices by changing presets, or by using a midiboard switch in order to move between two pitch voices in the same preset. Every time you press the switch the pitch should then alternate between the Link response curve's end points in a precise manner.
Copyright © 1999-2016 Christian Jacobsson.