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Pros:
- Very easy to use
- Intuitive usability
- Natural and organic sound
Cons:
- No battery option
- It will not be able to pick up your sound unless you are well-tuned
What would you do if I told you that there is a perfect pedal out there for those who love messing around with their sonic ingredients? How would you feel if I added that such a unit is affordable and well-built as well? I am guessing you would get excited and start counting money in your bank account. The description above can be suited to many stompboxes out there, but today we are concentrating on the combination of pitch shifting and octave. Though these two are often mixed up, they are different from each other. The former can alter your pitch by semitones, and it feels like you take tiny steps towards fully dropped tunes.
The latter, on the other hand, messes around with the pitch by adding or subtracting an octave. This way the change is so dramatic that you can hear it right away even if you are not that experienced in such stuff. The great thing is, the pedal we are talking about today combines these two and lets you experiment with both to see more precisely, what I was talking about just now. Digitech Drop is an amazing example of how two different yet alike effects can be united in one single body. If you are interested in its features and capabilities, then keep on reading!
Features
Digitech has always been a brand that creates high-quality products. Their pedals usually succeed at creating wonderful sounds and performing for a long time. Drop shares the same qualities and has a versatile feature set as well. It offers 9 different drop effects – here you have the ability to go down by 7 semitones and make meticulous adjustments. But there is more – you can also drop your sound by an octave and play with it in its pristine form, or you can blend it with your original signal for more character and definition.
Each of these effects is visualized with complementary LEDs that show you perfectly what is going on your sound. This way the chances of messing things up are really low, which is wonderful for those who are novices in pitch-shifting and octave effects. Additionally, Digitech Drop has a true bypass switching that makes sure your sound is not affected when it passes through the pedal. You do also have the ability to choose the type of switching: you can employ Momentary operation and emit the effect as long as you press down the footswitch, or utilize the Latching type and tap once for activating or disabling the pedal.
This means that this stompbox will be tailored to your preferences and needs so that you can tweak it the way you want. This puppy can be powered with an adapter that is included in the package (and Digitech recommends utilizing that one specifically). I cannot end this section without mentioning the design of this baby. It is featured in the red enclosure that has an arrow pointed downwards, which is probably perfect considering the fact that everything about this pedal is dropped. All in all, Drop is a simple yet powerful solution to all your pitch-shifting and detuning issues.
Controls
To top all those amazing features, Digitech decided to go with the simplest control layout possible. They have included a single knob, a toggle switch and a footswitch. These three are the only thing you will have to mess around with in order to achieve the desired sounds. You will not need to spend hours scrutinizing manual as everything is perfectly clear even at the first glance. Let’s unveil full potential of Drop and discuss all of its controls.
The encoder I mentioned above is situated right in the top center part of the pedal. This baby is basically the main control here as it lets you choose between the effects. Since its settings are accompanied with complementary LEDs, you will not see any indicators around the pot itself. It lets you go from 1 semitone drop up to a full octave. Then we have a toggle that allows you to choose between Momentary and Latch operation we discussed above. Depending on what your preferences are, you can either press and hold the footswitch or tap it once. Speaking of which, the footswitch either activates the pedal or turns it off whenever you decide to stop employing this fella. As you can see, this is a type of a device that you can just plug in and start playing immediately.
Digitech DROP Sound
The sonic possibilities of Digitech Drop follow the simple pattern that the whole pedal beholds perfectly. It does not color your tone – it simply detunes your sound with the desired amount of semitones. You can go with half steps and see what works best for your instrument, or take it to the extreme and enjoy a full octave down. It performs better if your guitar or bass is in tune, as it tracks everything more precisely. As you go lower and lower, the quality decreases just a tiny bit, but if you keep it in a reasonable range, you will be fine.
Drop has a single job and does not claim to do many different things, thought the ability to go down with up to 7 semitones and even a full octave still gives you quite a good range of possibilities. The octave + dry works wonderfully as well, as it mixes together lowered sound with the original one and brings some initial qualities to the whole performance. When you consider the sonic quality you get here, you quickly realize that this pedal is worth it.
Conclusion
On the whole, Digitech Drop is one of the best combinations of pitch-shifting, detuning and octave effect. It drops your sound meticulously and lets you enjoy those half steps or a full octave. The sonic and build quality is simply wonderful and when you add ease of operation with it, you realize just how powerful this thing is. Get your hands on it, plug it in right away and you will be ready to go low. Good luck!
Click here to view more from 10 Best Octave Pedals.
