Pod HD500X Harmonizer Fluttering sound?

[count_chocola]

Hello, 

I am using a Pod HD500x and I use the harmonizer  with the mix at max like a pitch shift to play in lower or higher tunings without tuning my guitar.

Recently the harmonizer has been making a noise similar to turning it off and on very quickly and going in and out of tune. 

This will happen for about 2 seconds before it fixes itself and goes back to the tuning it is supposed to.

Does anyone know why this occurring? 

[phil_m]

The pitch effects aren't polyphonic, so if you're trying to play more than single note lines with them, you'll run into tracking issues, and you'll get those sort of artifacts.

[pianoguyy]

I've found the 'warbles' to be true of every device that isn't a dedicated pitch shifter. 

 

But, I will point out - 

Based on your wording - 'harmonizer'. 

 

If you are using the smart harmony, a guitar that is not in tune - truly spot on tuning - will go bonkers. An A432, as example, won't be recognized as either A or Ab, so it won't know what note to harmonize it to. 

 

The warbles happen less with the octave and glide effect. 

 

As to why it only started recently - what changed on your end? 

A new guitar. A new pickup. Changing the volume knob from 7 to 8. 

Are you using it on a new patch, where maybe it is last instead of first. 

Any number of variables can change how it reacts. 

[hurghanico]

The POD pitch effects are not declared as polyphonic (as mentioned in a previous post) but they are not strictly monophonic either.

Strictly monophonic effects (there are some in the POD), even if desired, cannot produce more than one note at a time, and if the input signal is a chord they get confused as to which of the notes of the chord to process, with the result of having sudden and unexpected note changes and other oddities.

As far as POD is concerned, if the input signal is a chord the pitch effects still produce a chord at the desired pitch, certainly the result is not as excellent as that one would be obtained with external dedicated pitch effects declared as polyphonic, but the result is acceptable in many cases.

 

TIP:
If you simply need to transpose a song to a different key you should use the pitch shifter (not the harmonizer) and put it at the beginning of the chain.

The harmonizer is useful instead to create a second melodic voice parallel to the original one (eg to play part of the solo in Hotel California) but with all the notes taken from the same key/scale you are playing that song.

 

The difference between the pitch shifter and the harmonizer is that the former shifts all the input notes by the same number of half steps, thus changing the key of a song if you use the FX in a fixed way (ie not as whammy bar FX tied to the pedal),

while the latter creates the notes of the second parallel voice so that they remain in the same key/scale (that you must specify in the FX settings) you are playing the song.

 

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help and useful tips

[count_chocola]

Thanks Guys! most of this anomaly occurs while playing jazz tunes on a clean setting so its probably the polyphonic thing that's the issue.