by HanFastolfe » Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:24 am
I just got my Bit Commander, and I came to ask the same question. It's not a matter of pitch tracking, it does that quite well even with bending.
It's a matter of the Down 1 and Sub circuits seeming heavily gated. My guitar doesn't have the best sustain, but these octaves cut to silence disappointingly soon! The Base and Up 1 are unaffected by this, and it's my understanding that the pedal is part analog and part digi, the issue seems to be with the ?analog? low octave circuits.
I read a different review of the pedal saying it was noisy and the reviewer had to put a gate pedal before it in the chain. Maybe they mod'd the noisier low octave circuits to prevent this? If so, they may have taken it a bit too far. I would love to get the full effect of the signal breaking down into static, I can't think of a musical use of the hard drop to silence. Maybe add trim pots for the gating, if that's what's going on? Maybe there's a lower value capacitor I could swap in somewhere? I know just enough to be dangerous, and don't wanna ruin my shiny new pedal.
I have a Philosopher's Tone coming, and I'm hoping the subtle compression/sustain I want out of it is sufficient to overcome the gating on the Bit Commander. It might let the notes ring longer, but it won't let them decay past a certain point.
I will put some potato recordings on soundcloud or something when I get home tonight, (clean tone) vs (BASE + UP 1) vs (Down 1 + Sub)