Dive bomb/ whammy bar effect without pedal?

[Chalky]

Hi, before recently buying my H9 I used to use several PS6’s, one was set at the ‘S-bend’ to get the dive bomb sound emulating a whammy bay being pressed down… it was a very usable effect for hardtail guitars…my question is can this effect can be emulated on H9 WITHOUT using an expression pedal

[camn]

Yep. Easy.

I do it with the pitchFlex patch and the Hotswitch, mapped to an aux switch..

You can define the time it goes down, and the time it takes to come back up when you release even.

[Chalky]

wow thanks for that, it’s good to know you can do it, although I am not an expert yet at using the Hotknob, could you give me just a little more guidance on how to set this up? I have a Barn 3 switch which is presently my UP/DOWN switching. Really grateful for this!

[Chalky]

ok, I can see how it all works in the PitchFlex algo on my Mac, and I can make it work from the Mac by pressin gt he Flex button in H9Control on the screen, but I cant see how to assign that ‘software’ Flex button to the ‘hardware’ H9 switch … I have read the H9 Control manual on this but still can’t get it … can you guide me on that? 

[gkellum]

Chalky wrote:

ok, I can see how it all works in the PitchFlex algo on my Mac, and I can make it work from the Mac by pressin gt he Flex button in H9Control on the screen, but I cant see how to assign that 'software' Flex button to the 'hardware' H9 switch … I have read the H9 Control manual on this but still can't get it … can you guide me on that? 

You can assign the Flex button to an aux switch but not to one of the switches on the H9.  To assign it to an aux switch in H9 Control, click on the pedal button in the bottom menubar of the app, go to Aux Switch Mappings, and go to Performance Switch.  There you can assign the performance switch (in this case Flex) to a particular aux switch button.

[Chalky]

Thanks so much… ok, did that, and although I do get one of the switches on H9 mirrorring the Flex switch, I also notice that as I activate that switch, H9 changes the programme, and I dont really want that to happen. I am using a Barn 3 accesory primarily to enable UP/DOWN, what I was hoping is that I could assign the FLEX function to be activated via the (now redundant) Tap switch. But I cant seem to get that. Oh, and while i’m at it, the ‘dive’ I am looking for needs to last more than the 2 seconds afforded by the PitchFlex algo, is there another also that might offer this? Sorry, i’m a newbie. 

[gkellum]

Chalky wrote:

Thanks so much… ok, did that, and although I do get one of the switches on H9 mirrorring the Flex switch, I also notice that as I activate that switch, H9 changes the programme, and I dont really want that to happen.

Well, it sounds like you have two actions assigned ot the same aux switch.  Double check if anything is assigned to the "Increment preset", "Decrement preset", "Increment and load preset", or "Decrement and load preset" actions, and just unassign it by "assigning" that action to None.

[brock]

Adding to Greg’s reply above:

Chalky wrote:

… Oh, and while i’m at it, the ‘dive’ I am looking for needs to last more than the 2 seconds afforded by the PitchFlex algo, is there another also that might offer this? …

You *could* go with an expression pedal, and control the sweep time manually.  I believe that you can plug one into your Barn3 (3rd Aux switch input).  It’s not a particularly smooth or easy option.  That has as much to do with the ear’s sensitivity to pitch changes, as it does expression pedal resolution & throw travel.

A smaller pitch interval – 2 or 4 semitones – is more controllable than, say, sweeping an octave or two.  (You effectively get a finer sweep resolution – for a given pedal throw – over a shorter distance between pitches.)  The same can be said for pitch shifting with an expression pedal using any of the appropriate algorithms.

Something to try with your Aux switch:  Use a negative SHAPE value, and double your intended pitch destination.  For example, if you want to dive down -1oct, set the TOE A/B values down to -2oct.  The negative SHAPE will ‘curve’ the pitch shift; slowing it down for the 1st portion of the sweep.  Again, it’d be difficult to ‘nail’ the exact -1oct down point.  But it will audibly ‘extend’ the 2.00S limits on the GLISS parameters.

Here’s a little more info about the SHAPE parameter:  https://www.eventideaudio.com/comment/29495#comment-29495

[Chalky]

Thanks to all for their input on this. I don’t think I’m going to be able to replicate the dive that the Boss PS6 can achieve, but your comments have made me dig a little deeper into this amazing piece of kit, so thanks for that!

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