The One amp vs Two amp Harmonizer debate

[pipelineaudio]

Back in the day, in the event we didn't track two parts and instead used a harmonizer ("a" is pretty silly as really there was only one at the time), it was almost always put on the recording after the amp chain (which often meant some kind of weird speaker artifacts, sometimes in the amp's effects loop before the cabinet. Nowadays, the wisdom seems to be to use the modern harmonizer stuff before the amp, and to use two amps. Easily doable in the Helix setup, split the signal, put another amp on the split signal with the harmony block before it. No goofy speaker artefacts.

But really, I keep making these A/B things I can hit on a snapshot and if its the same amp in both paths, I can just about null them out. I do seems to get less goofy glitch things on the dual amp setup, but its at a point where even the dual has enough glitch that it would have been gross anyway. Either way requires proper technique

Maybe there's something to be said for the sound of two different amps on the harmony, but I really suspect I'm just blowing a lot of the Helix's DSP for a possibly 1% gain

What say the hoi polloi?

 

[Diary Of An Axeman]

I use the harmonizer on my pedalboard to have the root note and a 3rd up, for two part guitar harmony.

But with my MIDI setup, I use a CC Messaging to activate my rack units harmonizer to push a 5th down w/ the root note on one side and a 3rd up w/ the root note on one side in the stereo field, thus after CC activation, I have an option of having three guitar part harmony.

Experiment, you'll find the perfect combination with your gear.

 

[burningyen]

IME the bigger the pitch shift interval, the weirder things get. So I don't hear much benefit to a dual amp setup for 3rds, but it makes more sense for 6ths. Also, it's worth messing with delay and further shifting the shifted signal a few cents to make it sound realer.