ALABS Audio's Orbital Pitch Shifter is a rather unique interval modulator with significantly enhanced movement and ambience
So here is the first more in-depth coverage of the ALABS Audio Adam Adventures Series - starting with the front-of-chain Orbital Pitch Shifter.
Superficially this would seem to be a very straight up (and down!) and straightforward pedal really - but it has a tonne of hidden depths and beautiful fluttery ambient nuance. I tend to think of it as an enhanced Boss PS-6 S-Bend / DigiTech Whammy Ricochet - while it is missing that rather essential Tom Morello style +2 Octave interval - that really would have been the icing on the cake. And I would unhesitatingly swap that in for the Root mode!
While it really is magnificent for how it functions - and despite the fact that it’s missing that kind of essential +2 Octave Interval.
Controls - Rate (Max 10Hz), Detune (+100 Cents L-out, -100 Cents R-out), Dry>Wet Mix, Modes : +Oct / +5th / +4th / +3rd / Root / -3rd / -4th / -5th / -Oct, Glide / Tone knob, Toggle switch : Glide | Momentary / Tone | Latching | ∞ Explore Mode 5s Gesture Control, Footswitch : ∞ + Hold activates Gesture Control for Rate, Detune, Mix, and Tone.
Key Features
- 9 Studio Quality Effects / Modes per pedal
- W.A.V.E. Wizard Audio Virtual Engine
- Analog Dry Through with Zero Latency
- Stereo Output, Mono In (MISO)
- 32-bit floating-point DSP
- Selectable highest quality relay-based true bypass with analog buffered bypass option
- Multi-Function / Multi-Mode Footswitch - including Tap Tempo, Freeze, Expression Ramping etc.
- Infinity '∞' Explore Mode - a 5 second Gesture Control / Expression Ramping of the 4 main parameters of that pedal
- 9V DC [-] 250mA Current Draw
9 Modes
9 Intervals :
- +Oct
- +5th
- +4th
- +3rd
- Root
- -3rd
- -4th
- -5th
- -Oct
Operational Overview
Of course at a basic level this is a Latching and Momentary Pitch-Shifter with 9 different intervals.
How you can manipulate those is what makes this pedal particularly interesting - and especially when you apply the Infinity '∞' Explore Mode - a 5 second Gesture Control / Expression Ramping function - which here targets the Rate, Detune, Dry>Wet Mix and Tone parameters / controls.
The Glide control is also critical - operated with the Toggle switch up - which also puts it in Momentary footswitch mode. The Glide determines the rise and fall time or pitch transition time.
Flip the toggle-switch down and you're in Infinity '∞' Explore Mode - where you can record the movement of those 4 targeted parameters - over a 5 second 'recording' period. The movement is applied accumulatively - so each of those controls is in parallel within the 5 second 'recording' then when you press-hold the footswitch - with the toggle down - it expression-ramps the output in line with whatever tweaking you did, This can be fairly random or more rhythmical - as you wish really.
I'm not entirely sure of what I did - but the output I get from this Orbital is nothing short of marvellous - I've introduced this shimmery ambient flutter - which sounds heavenly and otherworldly at the same time - the below demos both focus on how great a results you can achieve in using the '∞' Explore Mode - it's what sets this pedal apart from anyone else in the same genre.
I thought I was going to be the least impressed overall by the Orbital - while it was the ALABS pedal that wowed me first. I look forward to hearing how creative some people are going to get with this!
I mostly operate in Octaves and 5ths - and all the intervals tune-in pretty fine - with excellent tracking throughout - it's the Gesture Controls and Expression Ramping though that really takes this pedal to the next level.
Weirdly the Orbital is slightly pricier than the other pedals in the range - at $109.99 - as it was a touch more challenging to perfect than all the others!
Read more about the Orbital Pitch Shifter on the ALABS Audio Website.
Buy the Orbital on Amazon.com.
Demos
