Most pedals that offer a latching mode also have a momentary mode, where the effect will only be active so long as the footswitch is held down – this is obviously a very expressive option. The next most common control is a latching footswitch, where actuating the footswitch instantly shifts the input pitch to the target pitch and keeps it there until the pedal is disengaged. The Whammy is controlled by a rocker, like you'd find on a wah pedal, but that's far from the only control on offer… Yes! So your next decision when choosing the best pitch shifter pedal for you will be over how the pedal actually works. Do I need to think about control when choosing a pitch shifter pedal? Although pedals like the Whammy and Pitch Fork primarily are for shifting the pitch of your guitar, they can also operate as harmonizers. Or that's what we think, anyway.īesides how glitchy it sounds, whether it has a harmony function is a useful question. The Whammy sounds like a warble, the Boss sounds like the envelope of a flute, and the EHX sounds a bit like a bitcrush, with a clinical edge. But if you're playing in a math-rock band and are looking for melodramatic two-octave pitch jumps, a glitchier pitch shift would suit you better – and we have you covered in our picks for the best pitch shifter pedals in this guide.Įvery manufacturer's pitch shifting technology has a different character and different artifacts that make up its tone or timbre.Īs a general rule, polyphonic pitch shifter pedals that can accurately shift more than one note tend to be less glitchy but, again, your playing style and artistic goals are as relevant here as the tech 'under the hood' of the pedal.Įvery manufacturer's pitch shifting technology has a different character and different artifacts that make up its tone or timbre. If you're using the pedal to drop-tune your guitar, for example, you probably want as clean a sound as possible. With modern technology, it's now possible to get much cleaner-sounding pitch shifting without the digital artifacts, but some players prefer the glitchier sound for artistic reasons. Obviously, the result was still a glitchy, strange sound – the correct note, yes, but in a mangled, digitized form. As soon as digital delay pedals came along, it became theoretically possible to repitch a note by messing with sample duration, but it took some time to iron out the bugs. Find out more about how we test.Įven though there have been analog octave pedals since the 1960s, the pedal that started the whole pitch party was the glorious Digitech Whammy.

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Best octave pedal vst