Decent Harmonizer?

[Robbiedbee]

I have been looking for a good pedal to play harmonies with.

I have been looking at the Boss PS-5. Are these any good? Is there anything better out there?

Cheers
Robin

 

[joelap]

Re: Decent Harmonizer?

What about the digitech whammy? Get harmonies plus that crazy 2 octave up!

 

[Jeff Dunne]

Re: Decent Harmonizer?

Unfortunately, the tracking on the Whammy blows, and the harmonies really sound like ass.


The best one, besides an Eventide, is the Rocktron Intellipitch. Total bitch to program, though.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Decent Harmonizer?

The PS-5 is much better for harmonies than the older ps-2 and ps-3s. The tracking is pretty decent, and it follows chords pretty well.

 

[oldschool]

Re: Decent Harmonizer?

I have been looking for a good pedal to play harmonies with.

I have been looking at the Boss PS-5. Are these any good? Is there anything better out there?

Cheers
Robin

To play harmonies with a harmonizer you need to know your music theory. I have the first generation Eventide H3000. It's a lot of fun to play with and you can get all kinds of Vai sounds from it but be forwarned that just because a device tracks well doesn't mean that you will sound like your favorite artists. If you just start trying to play 3rds and 5ths or 2nds and 4ths or whatever you need to know what notes in a scale will actually be harmonically pleasing. Otherwise you'll hit notes and even though the Harmonizer will harmonize with it, it may sound awful in the scale.

 

[HamerPlyr]

Re: Decent Harmonizer?

Yep. I don't use one myself, but Eventide is the heat and has been forever.

 

[baritone]

Re: Decent Harmonizer?

I have an old Boss HR-2 Harmonizer. It is an ancestor of the PS-5. It tracks pretty well, but you have to be tuned well for it to function better. On the octave, 5th up, and 4th down settings, it even sounds out chords. But when adding 3rds or 6ths, chords start to glitch, but single-note lines sound out perfectly.

The DigiTech Whammy and the Boss PS-5 have features almost identical to each other, but the PS-5 requires and external expression pedal, which brings the price higher than the Whammy. Both track pretty well, but to me, the Boss was slightly better.

 

[B2D]

Re: Decent Harmonizer?

I have an old Boss HR-2 Harmonizer. It is an ancestor of the PS-5. It tracks pretty well, but you have to be tuned well for it to function better. On the octave, 5th up, and 4th down settings, it even sounds out chords. But when adding 3rds or 6ths, chords start to glitch, but single-note lines sound out perfectly.

The DigiTech Whammy and the Boss PS-5 have features almost identical to each other, but the PS-5 requires and external expression pedal, which brings the price higher than the Whammy. Both track pretty well, but to me, the Boss was slightly better.

For all those recommending the Whammy: Keep in mind that the tracking is rather poor, you'll need a separate power supply, it takes up a lot of real estate, and it's not a SMART harmonizer.

Smart harmonizers are key-specific and will harmonize correctly to the scale/key you set it to. If you set a Digitech Whammy to minor thirds, it'll do a minor third on every note.

Trust me... I've owned two of them.