MY SECRET WEAPON - a Digitech Drop review
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- Опубліковано 12 чер 2021
- A sort of review of the unique Digitech Drop. It's not perfect but it's extremely good and can absolutely reduce the number of guitars you take out with you - not to mention being a revolutionary tool in the studio.
Thanks to Stuart Pringle for the drums on the opening demo: stuartpringle.com
Shout me on instagam: jonwrightmusic
Personal website: www.jonwright.co.uk
This is the 3rd review I've watched on this pedal _(because I want to be SURE of what I'm getting into before I make the purchase),_ and I just want to say that this review was hands down *the best produced* review of this pedal. Concise & yet detailed commentary, the perfect amount of audio examples and demonstrations which all maintained solid relevance to the important things we need to know about the pedal, and just the right amount of humor sprinkled in. Not a single second of this video _wasted my time,_ and I am eternally grateful for that. Thank you Jon 🙏
Well I don't know about humour but I'm delighted that you've enjoyed it. Cheers!
The new whammy has this built in. Whammy, harmony, detune chorus, and the detune and octave. One pedal.
@@stevenstrother672 The Whammy 5 doesn't have the drop option per se. The Whammy DT, the previous model, did. Both are hardly "new"
I hope you'll be able to keep putting these videos out, I very much appreciate the content and style. I'm not in the market for one of these, but watched to the end as I didn't want to miss some gem of knowledge that you might happen to drop. Thank you!
I'm going to do my best. Thanks for the encouragement!
What an absolutely amazing review of a great pedal! Answered every question I've had and single handedly convinced me to purchase one for myself :)
Ah great, thanks very much!
Finally, someone who actually plays clean with this pedal - trying to find a review on this thing without some dork playing metal is nearly impossible. Great review. Thanks man
‘Some dork playing metal’ 😂 you got me there! Glad it was helpful
All your videos are just amazing... I can't believe that you don't have 100k subscribers yet. Anyway, I will surely watch all your content as this is both really well produced, entertaining, and full of really well explained information. Thanks for all your work!
Ah thank you man, that's very encouraging!
The definitive review on this pedal, by a country mile.
Thanks man
Bloody happy I found your channel! Just superb production, tongue in cheek (literally in some vids ;) ), entertaining and informative. My new fave channel (even though you’re apparently not Pete Thorn 😮 ). So much so that I’m watching vids on pedals like the drop that I’ve owned and used for years already 😅
Welcome aboard! Am certainly no PT… All time OG pedal demoer. Thanks for watching and saying hi!
such a great review. i appreciate the insight from a professional.
Thanks Christopher, appreciate the comment
Holy damn that into piece was beautiful. Subbed. Just wow. Nice work
I missed this comment. Thank you so much.
That was an incredible demo. And a very high quality video overall. I have a Whammy DT (basically the Drop's big brother) and have tried the pitch shifting capabilities across various guitars. It definitely does a cleaner job for guitars already set in the E standard to Drop C range. Using it on any guitars with tunings lower than that (my 7 strings in drop A and drop F#) does get the job done, but there is a bit more "warble" or weirdness going on with the tone which can sort of be solved by re-EQing to compensate. Not terrible at this point, definitely still useable and not so noticeable when jamming with friends, but just something to keep in mind for those wondering. But using this for a guitar in Standard or drop D going a few semitones down? You're golden.
Not absolutely perfect, but for what it does and the convenience it offers I'd still say It's a great pedal that isn't leaving my board.
Thanks Toby. Cheers for sharing your experience with the DT too. Pretty decent isn't it!
I'm convinced. Can't wait. No more switching guitars or detuning for all the 1/2 step down songs I love to play.
Brilliant review Jon! When you played those leads, I immediately heard David Gilmour !!! (Iconic player of course).
Cheers!
Cheers Markus. You found me out! DG was a bit of a hero growing up
Your channel is freaking awesome. You should have way, way more subs.
Thank you man!
Really really cool intro song, and great video as well!
Cheers! Thanks for having a watch
Love the honesty, I have one, and had the same experiences
Thanks for confirming
Genuinely interested to hear what other guitar players think of the Drop. As I said, other than the odd bit of very minor wobble with polyphony at extreme settings and with the lowest possible notes from a guitar in standard tuning - and this is nothing I’d be bothered by in a live setting - I’m so so impressed by this pedal. Cheers guys 👍
I was, like many others, looking for a pitch shifting pedal. First I had the Digitech Harmony Man, which is a good pedal, then tried out some (cheapo) pedals like the mooer pitch box and the donner harmonic square - I had to sell ALL of them.
After watching LOTS of YT videos about the Drop, the EHX pitch fork and the EHX Slammi i decided to buy the drop.
Et Voilà - the drop delivers. The more you down tune, the more the highs get cut - but in a natural way, like guitars tuned to e standard sound sharper then guitars tuned down to b or a (I compensate this by turning up the gain or the highs on my preamp). Of course very extreme settings sound not that good anymore. Still don´t know if the EHX pedals are good, but if you want a pedal like this, get the drop. I can´t stand bad tracking and latency - I love the drop, it´s doing what i want absolutely flawless.
I've had one on my board for a few years now, it's been great. As stated in the vid, it is a little power hungry compared to most pedals its size. It can/will be noisy with a hum if you go cheapo with power supplies and use any gain whatsoever, so get something that's switch mode. Side note, whether you get this pedal or not, ANYONE with a pedalboard should have a switch mode power supply. I'd highly recommend anything by Cioks. I have an Cioks 8 slaved to a DC 7 powering 17 pedals and do dads controlled by an ES-8 (also powered by the Cioks) with 0 hum.
Great video Jon, my 1st time seeing your channel. I prefer to play in D, do tune a full tone down, Eagles tunes I often need to transpose a 4th or 5th down just to be able to sing so this might be very useful. Subbed and liked thanks 👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks for subbing! Perfect for that
Great video Jon! So im trying to vision using this live... do you just bend over and turn the knob to change the transposition?
Yep, exactly!
Very nice and clarifying video. You definitely convinced me to buy this "secret weapon".
But I have one doubt:
With a 6 string guitar, if I want to go down to standard A, would it sound better by lowering the Drop to 7 semitones (with the guitar previously in standard E) or would it sound more natural/powerful by just 5 semitones down with the Drop (in this case with the guitar tuned in standard D)?
Thank you.
I've been thinking about your question. I don't know the answer to it for certain but I think using the Drop for a smaller interval and having a guitar that's tuned lower WITH CORRECT STRINGS/SET UP for the lower tuning, would be the way to go.
Agree w everyone here: Your demo writing & production are top! But I think you ruled it out for me bcs I play archtop swing rhythm and I'm concerned about that acoustic bleed-thru. also, all the demos I've seen use distortion, which certainly camouflages any flaws in the transposing/tone. I'm playing clean 3 or 4-note chord swing rhythm w a few riffs but have to transpose down for a horn player and it's making life hell to find chord voicings that aren't too flubby on the bottom strings or too chirpy high up the fb. Think playing Eb to Ab. Thoughts?
It REALLY depends on levels. You'll need to drown out the acoustic sound. If I were in your shoes I'd probably work on finding voicings at concert pitch. If you're transposing down a 5th or up a 4th (or whatever) you'll still potentially be in the realms of flub and chirp. Curious to hear what you're doing.
This is a fantastic video 📹 👏
Thanks David! x
I'm so left out...hahahahaha...Will be getting this now! Thanks for e greatest bestest review man.🙂
Ha! Hope it's working out for you, you're welcome!
We use the same pedal in the band. It's a life saver for quick key changes. If the singer suddenly needs to drop the key... 🤣. Sounds pretty good, for rhythm and lead parts, no complaints. I had one guitar constantly tuned down for this band. Long story, learned all the songs in original key, and last minute learned it's all tuned down by a half step... 🤦🏻♂, normally I learn the songs in the necessary key, but here did not work out this way... Super helpful in this situation, now got that guitar back to standard tuning 😀. Never went extreme with it, normally we use it half or whole note down.
Exactly! That’s the best use of it for me really - for gigging and depping covers playing it’s a bit of a cheat code …
Have you compared it to the Digitech Whammy Ricochet?, the ricochet seems to have better tracking and attack on poly mode so it sounds more natural, it doesn't go down in 1 step increments but it sounds great on the pitch settings it has
I haven't done that comparison, no. Overall though. Digitech's pitch shifting is as good as it gets IMO
I laughed at the Pete Thorne reference, strangely enough the first video of his that I saw was for the Digitech Freqout, which I bought on the strength of his review. Hmmm… might be looking to add a Drop now after this…
I’m glad that entertained someone. Pete is the man. I like the Frequout! It’s not QUITE right, but it does a thing and sounds cool. How are you getting in with it, can I ask?
As you say, it does a thing, esp. if you want predictable control over the moment feedback comes in, it can really sweeten those sustained notes. I’m not quick enough to change settings mid solo, so I have to decide which ‘type’ of feedback beforehand and stick with it, the momentary switch makes sense in this case though I think. Years ago I had a Jackson dk2s - the ‘s’ was the sustainiac in the neck which was tremendous fun! I probably overused it ( as you would!). Again, it had it’s limitations, but to have the feedback/overtone on demand particularly at low volume or a quiet stage, very useful. Sadly parted with the Jackson (sheds a tear) but was always on the look out for something to do a similar job, so the Freqout does admirably.
Deciding on the type of feedback is the bit I find hard! I wish there was a ‘random’ setting… the sustainiac sounds great and of course, it it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing…
The first 15 seconds of video and I can see your good on this. One more subscriver!
Ah that's nice!
🔥🔥🙌🏼🙌🏼
🙏
Would love to hear your thoughts on the Electro Harmonix pitch fork pedal
I do have the Pitch Fork, but have hardly used it. Maybe some day.
@@JonWrightMusicTV my other guitarist uses the drop and I use the pitch fork. The only advantage to the pitch fork for me is I tune the guitar to eFlat and use the pedal to adjust up or down. The drop only goes down. There are more options to the pitch fork but I rarely if ever use them. It does what I want how I want. If the drop works for other people and yourself that’s awesome. There’s no right or wrong.
That's the way yo make a video! New sub, cheers!
Thank you mate!
i just got the Katana MK2 and the pitch shifter almost sounds like a chorus...put it right after the guitar so (GUITAR>mod(Pitch Shift)>>Booster>>EQ>Delay>Reverb>Speaker) its unusable for chords are anything other than playing power chords. Sad to see the Kemper was not great either. The neural plugins have spoiled me there the gold standard in my eyes. Drop D definitely seems worth it i just need 1 or 2 semitones down for live playing. Interested to see pitch shift on a quad cortex. Thanks for the info
Glad it was useful. Yeah it seems to be the kind of processing that can be done either really well or really poorly!
How's the latency?
The Headrush MX5 at our rehearsing room becomes spongy and laggy with loss of volume. Very frustrating to play.
The Fractal Audio FM9 I use at home cannot be faulted. No latency or colouring.
You look at the price of these two and you quickly figure which one should stay safe.
We play all sorts of metal through different tunings. Only 2 guitars being used, Standard E and drop C#. From there I can pretty much get all I need.
So is the Drop worth it and latency free?
Hmm. I don't know the numbers. It's hard to tell if the slight softening is a result of lower pitch or a latency-related. It's going to be a judgement call for you (which I imagine you've already had to make). Be cautious with the C# tuning though - the lower you get the less good the pith shifting is.
@@JonWrightMusicTV Thanks. I tried the Digitech Drop and noped. Ended up getting a Fractal FM3. My bother immediately noticed the unmistakable improvement, both in sound quality and absence of latency issues.
Sadly, this stuff is out of reach for most people due to cost. I know own a Fractal FM9 for home, and an FM3 for the rehearsal room. It's a lot of money.
How do you set the pedal to open G tuning .
It doesn't do that
I am in love with this pedal to the point that even if i stop playing guitar and sell everything , i will still keep this pedal useless as it will be at that point !
😂
Gotta have it.Pitch Shift at least.this looks to be the best too,but a used one is as much as a car payment.ANYBODY KNOW OF A PRACTICE AMP OUT THERE WITH PITCH SHIFT..
Maybe the Mooer pitch pedal on a budget? It's not going to sound as good as the Drop though, I'm pretty sure...
I got a floating bridge guitar which i couldn't just tune down to anything i wanted cause it would then tune right back up and also ruin the bridge. I got that pedal and my life got so much easier
Right? So many Eb records we can easily play along to with this!
@@JonWrightMusicTV not only eb, i can finally try to play dream theater songs that are A# standard
@@uriattias675 Rather you than me 😂 Good luck!
Is it just my pedal then? On the high strings G b e, i get like a harmonic background noise 😢 wondering if its a faulty pedal, much more noticeable in e standard on #1 so takes it to half step down, please shed some light on this for me as i sent mine back today for exchange but not sure whether to refund and leave it 😢
Hey I’ve got the same issue on mine. I got it about a week ago. Did you send it back and did that fix your issue? I’m debating if I need to send mine back.
@trevorclaudson9677 hey, sadly replacing it did not resolve the issue I exchanged mine for another and it still had that tinny mono type echo/robotic sound, but I don't have an interface or anything and from what I can gather people with an interface setup and tweaked to work alongside rocksmith have no issues, where as people like myself who is still new to guitar etc, I just use the rocksmith cable into the pedal and then to guitar.
Hope this helps you mate! But ita a lot of money for a pedal that sounds sub par if you ask me, I've learnt to tune naturally down from e standard to Eb standard/halfstep down/e flat then use pedal from there, it does the job but I expected better performance to be honest
Hey thanks for the reply! I was really struggling to figure out what was wrong with mine. It turns out, what I was hearing was the sound of the strings on my guitar harmonizing with the drop tuned sound coming out of my amp. I was able to confirm this was my issue because I ran it through my looper pedal and didn’t hear the harmonies. I also plugged some headphones in and cranked up the volume. Once again - no harmonies. I was really shocked at how loud my string sound is coming off my guitar because I felt my amp was decently loud, and I could still hear it.
@trevorclaudson9677 no worries mate! I know how frustrating it can be and not being replied to etc...glad you managed it! I sadly don't have a looper pedal either :( but I may run it through ear phones and see if that solves it, but the sound I'm hearing is from my speakers not my guitar 😩 I'm fairly sure of that as I've tried other guitars too and same result :( any ideas???
So I was confident the sound I was hearing was coming from my amp too until I tried the looper pedal. One thing you could do is to try using headphones and really cranking up the volume. If it’s coming out of your amp, you’ll hear it in the headphones too. If it’s string noise, you won’t hear it.
Another thing you could try is putting your ear right next to your amp while plucking your guitar. That way you’ll only have amp sound in one ear and string noise in the other. That may help.
A third option is to record something you play on your phone. Put your phone right next to your amp and stand far away while playing. When you play back the video, you should only be hearing amp sound and that’ll isolate if the harmony is string noise or bleeding into your amp.
I play a lot of "chug" guitar... the latency really ruins the attack. It's nice on clean stuff though.
Surely the latency and attack are not related? I'm not saying the pedal doesn't affect the attack, but I can't see how the latency has anything to do with it.
After the Pete Thorn joke i went on to the next video about this pedal..
I Have decided not to purchase this pedal because although it seems to be great, I was considering using it mostly with an acoustic guitar. I wasn't taking into consideration the blending of the real Sound of the guitar and the Sound of the pedal. It might be really annoying using it while I'm singing. I think i'll buy a cheapest model to use it ocasionally with my Electric guitar. Thanks for pointing at that issue!
I’m glad that was useful for someone. It’s not the sort of thing you immediate think of
Eventide rules over everything out there.
What’s Eventides compact, sub-$200 ruler for this function?
What no one bothers to tells you is that this horrible for an acoustic electric with piezo under saddle.
I just found a video where he's using an acoustic and it works. Mad Man Music is the channel. At the end of the video. It sounds good. Have to use headphones so you don't hear the acoustic actual tuning.
I bothered to tell you...
En hindi language
:-)