DigiTech HarmonyMan

Since then DigiTech have become very prominent in this niche sector, thanks to a succession of stand-alone and rackmounted models, each employing constantly refined technology intended to make the harmony production process easier. While this user-friendly policy has proved quite successful, a certain amount of musical knowledge has always been necessary to obtain optimum results. This is because until recently harmonies were determined by manually selecting the correct keys and scales, which meant that most intelligent pitch-shifters were primarily designed for use with MIDI-equipped keyboards. These units allowed players to add appropriate vocal harmonies, but didn't make life easy for guitarists wishing to beef up their singing in a similar fashion.

A major change occurred in 2007 via the arrival of DigiTech's Vocalist Live 2 and Live 4 pedals. These allowed six-stringers to easily create accurate and authentic harmony voices simply by strumming suitable chords while singing the melody. However, neither these nor earlier harmonisers met the needs of guitarists who wanted the same benefits for soloing. Until recently, these needs have usually been met by much simpler stomp boxes, which mostly provide fixed-interval harmonies with accordingly restricted application. But now DigiTech's smart principles have been employed for purely instrumental purposes in the form of the HarmonyMan. This suitably titled stomp box supplies a menu of multi-voice effects made possible by the company's exclusive musIQ note detection and chord recognition technology. In simple terms, this uses the chords played prior to a solo to select the most suitable accompanying harmonies, adding various options of one or two parts to the original lead line, while other pitch-related effects are also provided.

A centrally mounted Harmony Key display forms the focal point of the control section, comprising an array of LEDs arranged in elliptical, 'circle of fifths' formation partnered by adjacent musically related keys. With musIQ in operation, this feature confirms the harmony key automatically selected by the most recently played chords and accordingly updates choice as these change. With musIQ switched off, the final manual key is displayed instead and used to dictate alternative scale-based harmonies.

Over on the left are two rotary selector switches, each independently governing the choice of two intelligent pitch-shifting modes (Triad-Centered and Scalic) and these move to best match chord patterns being played, while Fixed (chromatic) and Detune are less flexible alternatives. Accompanying display windows show all the selections and options for each voice include third or fifth harmonies above or below the original, an octave up or down, double-octave drop, unison tuning, a shift of 12 semitones in either direction and four detuned variations.

The original signal and the harmony voices can be blended in any proportion via the Mix pot, while two touch-buttons govern musIQ on/off and Store functions. The latter provides memory locations for four user presets and these can be recalled using the relevant Memory Select footswitch. This is also employed to manually set the correct key and scale, instead of using the automatic musIQ option. The process involves strumming a chord while keeping the footswitch depressed. This method also mutes output at the same time and is therefore ideally suited to songs that start with a solo.

The other switch is Harmony On/Off, with 'off' being true bypass. Holding it down operates the onboard tuner and with this engaged the Voice 1 display window indicates the appropriate note, while a row of LEDs shows sharp or sharp status.

Respective volumes can be balanced via the Mix pot. With this fully on, only the harmonies are audible and musically these sound a little odd in isolation, although their aural quality is impressive, as is accurate signal-tracking ability. Using a more sensible setting creates very convincing end results, as the additional voices blend very well with the real thing. The memory function allows the progressive addition of a second harmony, building a solo via a layered effect that's instant Brian May.