Eventide
PitchFactor Review
by Johnny Matthews - PedalboardPlanner.com
Initial Physical Impression
Upon opening the box of the Eventide
PitchFactor review unit that I got today, I pulled out what is my
first practical experience with any of Eventide's products. The
unit has a decent heft at just over 2 lbs. Not too heavy, but at
the same time having a well built feel to it. The footprint size is
actually smaller than I expected, taking up about as much room as 2
standard BOSS pedals wired up side by side. So you are not going to
lose a ton of pedalboard real estate with this unit.
The 11 knobs have a decent tightness
to them that offer a bit of resistance while turning. I like this,
knowing that just bumping them probably won't throw off a setting.
Pressing one of the 3 foot-switches on the device came as a
surprise when they produced a slight internal connection noise and
not a hard click. One thing I don't like is a pedal that sounds
like you just hit it which a hammer each time you engage the
pedal.
The 1/4" jacks are on the top side
of the pedal rather than the left and right sides, with stereo ins
and outs. There is also a jack for an 'Aux Switch' and expression
pedal. There are a couple of switches on the top side that allow
for adjusting the input level(guitar or line) and the output level
(amp / line). There is a USB 'B' style jack on the back as well as
a center positive 9VDC, 1200mA plug. The right side of the unit has
2 MIDI jacks for 'In' and 'Out/Thru'.
Upon power up, I see that the LEDs
are not too bright (which seems to be a trend these days, if an LED
is too bright, it’s hard to look at on a dark stage.) There
is also an LED display screen made up of 6x30 LED dots for
displaying information about the settings of the device. The dot
matrix display seems like it would be very readable in a low light
stage setting.
First Sounds
I love to tinker. So the first
thing I do when trying out a pedal is just start turning knobs, and
there are plenty to turn on this unit! Scrolling through the
effects list gave me some interesting sounds to play with. I was
especially interested in the "HarModulator" and the "HarPeggiator"
modes. So with a little trial and error I dialed up some cool
sounds, but it quickly became apparent that I needed to peruse the
manual to gain some insight on how to run this box
properly.
Presets
The unit comes with 100 presets
stored in banks of 2. When in 'bank mode' the bank is increased
using the right foot-switch and then once the correct bank is
located, the left foot-switch engages the bank#:1 and the middle
switch engages bank#:2. This was certainly not intuitive, but once
I read it in the manual it was not a problem to understand. There
is a way that if you are not using all 100 presets that you can
limit the amount of banks you need to cycle through. I would
imagine this would be helpful once you set up the pedal to match up
to a set list and you only need a dozen or so preset
sounds.
When any unit comes with presets, I
find that checking out the sounds it comes with can give a pretty
good overview of the unit. This is generally a good idea, because
most companies (if they are smart) are gonna make their presets
sound as good as the unit can sound.
A relatively quick run through the
presets shows that there are many usable settings and shows off the
wide variety of effects available.It is pretty easy on the
PitchFactor to dial up a preset and then start hacking away at it
giving it new settings (and then re-save if desired). From standard
harmony and octave settings to detuned echos, chorus type effects,
synth tones, arpeggiations, and special effects, this pedal really
has the goods.
Effects
In each effect mode, most of the
knobs slightly change function to be in context with the current
effect. The manual is pretty clear about their function in each
mode, so I won’t run down how to change the settings (that is
what your manual is for!) One thing worth mentioning though
are the effects that support a given musical key (Diatonic and
Quadravox), use the middle footswitch as a ‘Learn’
mode. Hold down the switch and play a note. That note becomes the
root of the new key, very handy.
Lets take a rundown of the effects
modes that are available. I’ve chosen a preset for each
effect that shows off a little of what it can do. The presets are
unaltered from the default settings.
My sound examples are with an
American Special Telecaster through the PitchFactor into a Crate
V33-212. Some other pedals are used in a few examples and are
listed by the sound samples. In each sample I play a little with no
effect first for reference.
Diatonic
In this mode you can control 2
extra pitches. Each one with a delay time before starting. You have
control over what Key you are playing in and what scale you are
playing (Major,Minor,Dorian,Phrygian,
Lydian,Mixolydian,Locrian).
Preset 1.1 (Storyteller)
Quadravox
Much like the diatonic, but this mode lets you control up to 4 voices
Preset 7.1 (Banjo Strummer)
HarModulator
This mode gives you 2 chromatic pitch shifters to play with, plus modulation and time
delay.
Preset 2.1 + a Suhr Riot Distortion Pedal (Trance Octaves)
MicroPitch
This mode lets you adjust the 2
voices in cents rather than in chromatic or diatonic steps. This
provides access to some lush chorusing and vibe type
effects.
Preset 14.1 (NiceChorus)
H910 / H949
These are models of Eventide's original pitch shifting boxes. The pitch shifting is in a feedback
loop, so the repeats can have an arpeggiated sound.
Preset 3.1 (Echos of 910 Past)
PitchFlex
This mode lets you use the middle button or an expression pedal to shift between 2 pitches. In the
example, when the pitch shifts suddenly up, I’ve pressed the
‘Flex’ button.
Preset 17.1 (-1 Octave)
Octaver
This gives you 2 sub harmonies and can add octave FUZZ and filter effects.
Preset 28.1 (ThroatyBass)
Crystals
From the manual, this effect uses "twin reverse pitch changers with independently adjustable delays
and feedback with added reverb". Which means you can get some pretty spacey effects.
Preset 4.2 (Classic Crystals)
HarPeggiator
This effect is addictive to play with! Dual 16-step arpeggiators for pitch,rhythm and effect. It has
a long list of built in arpeggiations that are really cool. I could lose a week of my life playing with this one effect.
Preset 5.1 + Visual Sound Double Trouble Overdrive (Hypernotes Arp)
Synthonizer
This effect creates a synth tone based on the note you are playing. Attack, decay, wave-form and
filter are adjustable.
Preset 5.2 + Visual Sound Double Trouble Overdrive (Motorbike Lead)
MIDI / Expression / Aux
I did not have the wherewithal to test the MIDI capabilities and other external control features of
the unit.
According to the manual, it can be
used for loading presets, going into bypass, to activate the
Flex/Learn button, change parameter values, set the tempo for
presets, use the PitchFactor as a tempo source for other MIDI
units, use the PitchFactor as a MIDI controller for other devices
and import and export settings to a computer.
Many settings can be controlled with
an external expression pedal, and it is particularly useful in flex
mode (Think whammy pedal).
Also a 3 button external foot-switch
can be added and either duplicate the 3 buttons on the unit or
assign 3 other functions to them.
Software
The PitchFactor has a USB port on
the back. This port will let you upgrade your unit as Eventide
releases new software. So theoretically the device never is 'out of
date'. There is also a program called "FactorLib" that allows you
to manage your preset library via your computer. Also being a
programmer myself makes me curious what else I could do with this
type of connection to my pedal.
Drawbacks
The biggest drawback of this unit is
the price. with a list price of $579 and a street price of $499,
this is not a pedal you pick up to just ‘play around’
with. This price point does make this pedal somewhat inaccessible
to some players, which is unfortunate due to how powerful it
is.
The bank mode selection is in the up
direction only. meaning if I have all my banks enabled and
I’m on bank 3 and want to go to bank 2, I have to scroll
through 50 banks to get there, or reach down and use the encoder
knob to dial backwards. I realize this is a function of only
having 3 switches, If you add the external switch option,
you can set one of those to do a patch down. So if you are
using just the pedal, and you are using a
lot of presets in a show, you better be running this via MIDI or
have them programed in the perfect order.
Conclusion
It appears that Eventide has created
quite the panacea for your pitch needs. Most of the pitch related
effects you could want are in this box. At around $500 this pedal
is certainly more pricey than most pitch pedals out there, but I
think you have to look at this pedal (as well as all the pedals in
the ‘Factor’ lineup for that matter) as a one at a time
multi-effect pedal. So if you are in the market for a singe
pitch effect, this may be a little too much for you, but if you are
in need of a high quality pitch related toolkit, then this may be
the box for you.
For more information about the PitchFactor, you can find it at Eventide's
website.
Product Disclaimer: This Pitchfactor Review unit was
returned to Eventide after this article was written.
