TC Electronic Brainwaves - Does it Suck? | Pitch Shifter Demo
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- Опубликовано: 19 мар 2019
- Yes, that is the question - does the TC Electronic Brainwaves Pitch Shifter suck? It's got a lot of great features including TonePrints, but does it do basic polyphonic pitch shifting well? Can it keep up with the Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork? Let's find out!
#AmbientGuitar #EffectPedals #PitchShifter
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Fender Blacktop Telecaster Baritone
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Chords of Orion - Ambient guitar music for the mind and heart.
Bill Vencil - Guitars
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![[Eng Sub] TC Electronic Brainwaves Pitch Shifter guitar effect](/img/1.gif)
Definitely interested in a comparison between the Pitch Fork and the Brainwaves.
Me too. I use the pitch fork exclusively. Unfortunately I had to find it the hard way trial and error. But I love it.
I didn’t like the pitch fork too much . Not what I expected .
i prefer the pitchfork cos the brainwaves has a tiny bit of latency
the pitckfork is instantaneous and it sounds perfect to my ears
Unfortunately, ehx doesn't seem to work with any of the well-known pedal demo channels. The selection of PitchFork+ demos is rough.
Pitchfork is way better
Always excited for a new video!!
I am quite enjoying your explorations with this pedal... so many possibilities!
If you are just looking for octaves, nothing beats the EHX POG!
FINALLY A USEFUL REVIEW! LOVE IT...SUBSCRIBED!!
Always enjoy hangin with ya bud.
Great demo video as usual Bill. A pitch fork vs brainwaves comparison demo would be cool. Thanks!
Great review as usual!
I must be one of the few people who likes when pitch shifters "fail" and sound kind of like a ring mod.
Those kind sound great behind fuzz pedals 🤘
There are definitely a ton of people who like that. Otherwise who’s buying all those pedals?
I purchased the EHX PitchFork on the strength of your review a few years back, and I've been extremely happy with it. It's not a pedal I use a lot. But when the song calls for it, it always comes through no glitchiness, just really good clean pitch shifted sounds.
Great demo as always but I want to comment on how well the new backdrop lifts the overall look without distracting from the content. It's a winner!
Yes!! A comparison with el forko de pitch would be much appreciated. Great video as usual
That’s a really nice test on a pedal. Great video
My favourite video of yours so far Bill. Keep up the amazing work. Love how you showcased the pedal in differents ways which was unbiased. Where can I buy this?
Great demo.
Nice review! Thx!
I am also a giant fan of the P5 pitch shift, sometimes with a tiny bit of octave. My favorite “pitch shifter” is the Source Audio Nemesis delay, set to “shifter” and zero delay. Super clean pitch shift.
The glitchiness is sort of part of the charm of pitch shifters. Pitchforks are excellent. But you probably wouldn't use a Whammy or something if you were wanting a non-glitchy sound.
This sounds pretty fantastic too. Especially with the second voice.
I think Whammy (5) sounds better than this, tonewise. I'd like to try the Boss Harmonist though.
this, i'd love to see a comparison looking for the glitchiest octaver (and why its bluebox)
This was really cool! I really enjoy this guy’s whole manner and playing approach.
Topanga canyon in the 1960s-70s. This guy has a super new age vibe to him
Thx for your honesty. A peoples reviewer👍🏼
Wow... you make that pedal sing !
but then you are THE master of ambient guitar and I LOVE ambient guitar 😌
Hi, and thanks for the demo. I am not a big fan of pitch shifters, but when I saw Hennig demo it I said to myself that sounds cool.
Yes, it has its faults. I don't think I have ever seen or heard a perfect pedal. They always seem to take something away as they give in return. Kind of like friends or my job or life.
Sorry, anyway I dig that smash feature and its chorus is nice and the stereo. You can't go wrong with this pedal in my opinion.
Very pleased. I haven't gotten in to the create your own toneprint thing yet, but for $149 this pedal is well worth it and the best TC has done for a while and yes, sure I would like to see a comparison because while I like EHX a lot they do put out some very thin sounding digital stuff like the Canyon.
I'm definitely interested in a comparison between the PF and the BW!
YES! PLEASE do that! :-)
I completely agree with you!
We need that Pitchfork VS Brainwaves comparison!
Bill, thanks for another superb review! Great sounding pedal, I'm considering to find one. Have you tried it after the delay pedal? I wonder how such combination would sound. Cheers from Brasil.
Bring on the comparison!
I really like that it's an honest opinion review.
Hi Chords of Orion, have tried the pitch shift on Meris Enzo in dry mode. It's really impressive, most pitch shifters just don't do it for me either.
I never dug the glitchy digital sound that these have on guitars. This, despite being pretty good, is no exception I feel.
But the stuff you do with it at 9:26 is pretty interesting
do the comparison man, love to hear it, its easier to decide witch one i'm going to purchase
The Brainwaves VS Pitch Fork? I did a comparison here: ruclips.net/video/tKOQkYrh3l8/видео.html
I remember trying to diffuse those annoying glitchy warble sounds with a stereo chorus depth control. The results varied. The EHX pitch fork has an expression pedal hook up that works great.
Brainwaves vs Pitchfork Please, great Demo !
Nice demo -- the side-by-side comparison with the EHX would be useful.
Thanks for your review, very useful!
Did you notice any lag in the wet signal?
Nice one bill 🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎹🎹 yes get them both together 👍
Would love to see the Brainwaves and Pitch Fork comparison. Can you also throw the Whammy 5 in there? I personally think it might be the best, so I'm interested to see all three side by side!
Really excellent review as usual.
Yes please, do the comparison with the Pitch Fork
Love the groove-dancin’ from 6:10 - 6:45.... ;-)
9:44 or so: "Of course, everything is more interesting with delay." Truer words never spoken.
I'd love to see a comparison video. Don't forget the Meris Enzo, which does really good tracking and pitch shifting!
Hey Rob - what kind of comparison would you like to see? Also, I am interested in trying out the Meris pedal at some point.
@@chordsoforion It'd be nice to hear you talk about them as you use them, and the qualitative differences as they hit your ears. Hard to hear the nuances through the RUclips compression algorithm! (Also how they "feel" to play)
Very helpful demo! Do you put a pitch shifter before or after distortion?
Looks like fun that pedal.
Yes!! a comparison between the Pitch Fork and the Brainwaves.
My problem with pitchshifters, besides the fidelity, is that a pitched up guitar note doesn't sound like a guitar playing a higher note, but instead is sounds like a munchkin guitar. I think the problem is primarily in the transients of the attack. When they're used with a volume pedal and a bit of delay most of the munchkiness disappears.
Agreed on the munchkins. I don't think any pitch shifter I've heard has really solved that issue.
@@chordsoforion Depends on how high up the note is being pitched, I've found that fourths and fifths can work quite well.
But overall I don't think it's an issue that will ever be solved to be honest, people who want pitchshifters in their sound are just going to have to accept the reality of the munchkin guitar and own the aesthetic, working with what the sound can do instead of fighting with it and trying to get it to do things it can't do.
I agree. Now, in DAW software with pitch shifting plugins there's usually a "Formant" control where, if you pitch something up a 5th, it sets the formant down a 5th it sounds much more natural. This is a trick used to create harmonies from a single vocal track. So it would be interesting to hear a guitar pitch shift which is also formant shifted in the opposite direction.
Well, the technology is already available. Try a TC helicon voiceworks or a digitech vocalist. Both units have an adjustable formant control which helps to avoid the "chipmunk" effect on higher pitched notes or the "Darth Vader" character of lower pitched notes. Unfortunally the formant control hasn´t been implemented in guitar effects yet, as far as I know.
Part of the charm? The pitch shifter on my old Lexicon MPX-100 has munchkins for sure, it really changes the sound of the instrument.🤪
HOTONE Harmony Pitch Shifter, for me the best Pitchshifter. Small tiny box, but a great great pitchshifting
Hey Bill. I'm looking at the Brainwaves Pitch Shifter, and I'm really wondering.... can the Mash feature really replace an expression pedal ala Digitech Whammy?
I don't want to do the whole Rage Against The Machine whammy thing. I want to do very slow pitch sweeps over multiple bars, going from unison to a 5th above the note and back again. Probably 16 bars to be honest.
Can the Mash really be used that way?? I'm skeptical.
I hear ya. The pitch fork is the best. The new Meris Enzo can do octaves too, plus a delay. It’s crazy and I’m using it for now. Keep on keeping on buddy! You’re awesome. Thank you.
Great review Bill! A couple of questions: Is it possible to split the harmonies in stereo with the tc software while having the dry sound in the middle? if so, do i need a Y-cable (TRS to dual TS) to get the signal out from the pedal or can i use 2x normal TS guitar cables? Thanks!
Nice reviews! Got a question: does the BW includes same octave features of the Sub n Up? Im looking for an octave pedal but this BrainWave blow my mind off! Cheers from Argentina!
Hi, it sucks as a tremolo dive bomber or I cannot set it up. When dive bombing it loses volume and drowns in the mix. Is there any way to raise volume during pushing down the stomp? Tks!!
Have you tried the TC SubNUp? Got one a year ago and to be hones, the polyphonic mode tracking is pretty tight, I had no issues with tracking at all
Would be interesting to hear just the wet channel from the delay getting pitch shifted. I'd like to see what that can do with chords or a melody that is in time with the delay.
what delay you use in this video? it sounds great.
What about subtle WIDE stereo shift up a few cents on one side and a few cents down on the other? Does it do that and is it smooth ?
Have you checked out the Morpheus Bomber pitch shifter yet? It's pretty cool, but I'm not sure how it does later in the chain.
Have you tried the (now discontinued) Pitch Bay by Earthquaker?
Just got this and I feel it produces the best sounds with distortion. Just rounds out the wonkiness so only the good sounds shine through.
Hi Bill. I've noticed that my pitch shifters (boss.digitech) track better before the compressor. No idea why? Maybe this could help your tracking probs?☺
And now we have the new Boss OC-5 in the mix. I'm curious how these compare.
After a lot of time trying to find out how to get Eb tuning (half step down) with this pedal, realized some things:
1) It loose a lot of gain/volume
2) It loose a lot of high frequencies
3) There is a kind of "delay" (as a second note) that is really annoying.
I tried a lot of different settings os Softclipper section but could not fix it.
Right now I think my cheap Mooer PitchBox does this job MUCH better.
Can you help me?
I like that tuning.
But what if i want my guitar harmonized in tritones....come on...there's musical applications for that! right? RECLAIM THE TRITONE!
Might be possible with toneprints maybe?
As an owner of a Brainwaves pedal, I can confirm that one could set both Custom pitches to tritones, using the TonePrint editor.
I wish TC would make a volume/filter pedal with customisable range, swell curve etc. via toneprint. So you could dial your volume swells,or wah sounds for exapmle, just right for your taste and your gear. Seems like something that's missing from the market as of now.
Jimi Hendrix has entered the chat
@@chiefbucknell plans for making every note a maj7 chord incoming.
Yes, could you please side by side compare the EHX PF vs DT DROP, with same ambient sounds… or any kind of genre really. Your playing is great
I may have a bad memory but I remember the HOG/HOG2 being better at tracking polyphonic sounds than the POG/PF/BW (and whammy of course) am I wrong ?
This seems like a great pedal :o
I was wondering if with the tone print app it was possible to "make a sawtooth" wave shape to get those gameboy-ish sounds at 2octave up?
8 bit sounds are usually square waves though. Maybe just get a fuzz that can give u squarish tones.
NES has triangle wave not gameboy. You better look for triangle fuzz with octave
The sawtooth wave contains all the harmonics, I am not a sound designer but I guess it's a bit harder to get that right in an 8 bit sampling so that's why you'll find the square/pulse wave instead, as someone mentioned.
You should review some Earthquaker Device pedals ! I recently tried an Avalanche Run and it was absolutely wonderfull.
this video made me buy it, not gonna lie
I actually got the TC Electronics Brainwaves on my wish list. And I think a comparison video of the EHX Pitchfork and the Brainwaves would bea great idea. You should do it
I think I will!!
Chords Of Orion If/when you do compare the two, I’d like to request that you compare using an expression pedal with the Pitchfork vs. the Mash switch on the Brainwaves. 🧠 Thank you! (I’m glad to see you trying the Brainwaves, after you demonstrated the Quintessence in the past 😃.)
And ya should also demo the detune mode on the Brainwaves
After trying a dozen different pitch shifting pedals, without a doubt the EHX Pitch Fork is my favourite. It has very little of that warbly/glitchy sound thats all too common with pitch shifters, and the note it produces is much fuller sounding than most other pedals. Some pedals produce a very thin octave, where as the pitchfork retains a lot more bottom end.
Agree. It's the best. This TC pedal is so thin and metallic sounding. The EHX is bright - but also thick af.
Hello! Nice demo. You just forgot the smartshift IPS 33 from Digitech, the best harmonizer i know at this time.
Every use the EHX HOG 2? It's a beast . . . nice demo Bill . . .
I have tried it at a store yesterday and I could hear a noticeable latency in the pitch shifted sounds, was it just that unit? I usually use a whammy ricochet and it doesn't have it as much as this. I really wanted to like this pedal. Can someone share their experiences with it?
Does anyone know if you can set up this pedal to be an octave up, then a fifth up JUST for the octave up ? I want to run this on bass as a power trio, and kind of want this to mimic a power chord guitar above the bass
damn this thing actually sounds pretty good
sounds pretty decent.
not sure if any one said this but the Line 6 Hx & Helix products aren't polyphonic....yet :P
Kind crimson vibes at 9:27
Great review! Have you tried pairing tone shifters with Neunaber Immerse?
Yes - I have several performances here on the channel. Here's an example: ruclips.net/video/OJu2S7hPLCM/видео.html
I think the shifts are one of the puzzle pieces that integrate creatively with other effects, and a balance of wet/dry allows the dry to be featured, but bits and pieces of shifts can be controlled in/out. Since I have zero experience with pedals, I can only imagine how an expression controller would be applied to the TC.
Anyone know of a good Polyphonic Pitch Shifter that has the size of like the TC Electronic Mini Sub N Up? Looking for something that just does octaves but won't take alot of retail space on my board
Interested in sbs comparison with ehx pitch fork. Would consider replacement due to the stereo feature. Did you place it before or after the dirt? Thanks
I would agree and would a comparison. While the stereo function is cool not sure I would use it. One of the things I do with the pitch fork is I have it very early in my signal chain. Before distortion. This way the distortion is on the pitch shifted signal. So maybe a comparison of both.
Hello, do you think the Whammy DT pitch shifting sucks as well?
Yes please pitch fork VS. Brain waves 🙏
Here ya go! ruclips.net/video/tKOQkYrh3l8/видео.html
What about the ‘organizer’ pedal from the guys who do the hummingbird pedal?
Sometimes I think we have a kind of 'law of diminishing returns', with the constant production of pedals that do exactly the same thing as the last, just with a prettier case. I have the EHX Pitch Fork, and it knocks spots off any other Harmoniser/Pitch Shift pedal around...in my humble opinion...though the Eventide H9 Multi-Effects sounds pretty cool, too! :) If I had the money, I would love one of the original rackmounted Eventide Harmoniser H910 or H949s.
9:50 that reminded me of the thunderplains theme on final fantasy X
you're absolutely right, that theme is so dope
Any pedal you know that gets close to an MXR Pitch Transposer?
Let's see a shootout between PitchFork + Whammy V + Brainwaves
Is the tracking good on drop tune function on this please ?
Question.....the original pitchfork goes 1, 2, then 4 pitches and skips the 3rd....meaning, if I am in A, and I keep dialing the pitch key up, it will go A#, B, then C#......Will this pedal allow me to hit the 3rd, or C, note that the original pitchfork doesn’t????
That riff at 8:00 is meaty enough to start a butchers.
It works pretty well for me.
Bill I think it does not suck. And I’ve already seen the comparison with the TC unit. What I like here is that you’re using the brain waves as kind of a harmonizer without actually selecting a key signature like you have to do with harmonizer pedals. I posted a question about using the TC electronics Harmonizer and its polyphonic pitch shifting capabilities.
Yeah the question was how good is the TC electronics pitch shifting. Like can you do what you’re doing with the brainwaves unit in this review? Chords, 7th chords, etc. apply the same chords and approach only to the TC electronics pitch shifting section or function. Do you know what I mean? Anyway love your videos thanks!! 🤘🤘👍
it's got some warble, but it's at least stable and kinda nice sounding?
I have one of these (and they are a bit pricey). Does it suck? No, but it does depend on what it's being used for. I freely admit my interest is not so much with guitar, but with modifying sound signals from other sources, some analog, others not. Part of my seemingly fanatical passion is to use this with various synth modules, some of which are polyphonic. A big part of making this work more effectively is the signal conditioning before it's fed into the Brainwaves. That does take a bit of fanageling and adjustment, but once set up for the particular sound source, it does work remarkably well.
Anyway, nice demo, as always, well articulated with sound musical knowledge.
What do you think about the boss PS-6?
Hi. Can it be used like a Digitech The Drop? I'm looking for a pitch shifting pedal which sounds good with hi gain channel (only 1 or 2 steps down, altough 5 steps would be great O.o). I heard that The Drop sounds great but I would like an ability to pitch shift up (and maybe some funny features). Ricochet looks amazing but sadly it can't drop single steps... and whammy is too big -_- :D
Technically you could by turning the mix all the way to wet, however, I don't think it sounds very natural. IMO, the pitch shift is better suited to blend in with the original guitar sound.
This is one of those pedals that are good for a song or 2. I’ve fallen for that trap before.
Great video sir~! Just found your channel and I think it's *swell*! (see what I did there), very inspiring. Cheers~!
Is there any Pitchshifter without fuzzy garbage when you play more complex chords with a fifth up?
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