Digitech Whammy Ricochet

DIGITECH
119
OCTOBER 2016 GUITARIST
VERDICT It won’t be for everyone, but it’s great way to
add some ‘out-there’ sounds to your arsenal
VERDICT A good alternative if you don’t need the
treadle: instant Whammy effects in a simple package
If you want to expand your
guitar sound beyond the norm
rather than just enhance it,
there are few better places to
look than a synth pedal. Boss’s
recent SY-300 was a revelation,
but it’s a large pedal and £579
is expensive for those who just
want to dabble. No worries,
though, because for anyone
looking to get synth capability
in a small footprint pedal at a
reasonable price, there’s the
DigiTech Dirty Robot.
The Dirty Robot’s footprint
is achieved by the use of three
dual-concentric knobs, so even
though it looks like a four-knob
pedal you get seven adjustable
parameters for tweaking. The
pedal provides two distinct
toggle switch-selected synth
voices: V1 is straight envelope-
style synthesis, while V2 offers
vocal formant synthesis as with
a talk box. That basic voice
can be altered in its flavour by
The distinctive foot-controlled
pitch-shifting of DigiTech’s
Whammy has attracted many
famous users. The Whammy,
though, is a rather large pedal.
But it needs that surface area for
its controls, so a smaller version
wouldn’t really be viable…
unless you lose the treadle!
That’s exactly what DigiTech
has done with the Whammy
Ricochet, where you set the
amount and speed of the pitch-
shifting with knobs instead,
and trigger it with a footswitch.
The Ricochet offers pitch
changes that can go up or down
a 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, octave or
two octaves, plus a setting that
offers an octave mixed with the
dry signal. A dual-concentric
Ballistics knob determines the
speed of the shift, with one
knob to set how fast the pitch
initially changes and another
one setting the speed at which it
goes back to normal.
the variable Drift knob that
morphs between Sub, Octave
and Square waveforms – Sub
adding solid bottom-end girth.
You have the option of just how
much synth signal to mix with
your dry sound with a Mix
knob, which can go from dry,
through blends that are great
for adding growly funk to bass
lines, to fully wet. There’s also a
MOD knob to add chorus that’s
very effective in opening out the
synth signal to be more choir
than solo voice.
The other controls deal with
the typical synth frequency
sweep you can trigger with your
playing. There’s a Sensitivity
knob that sets how hard you
have to play to trigger it, Start
and Stop knobs to set the range
of that sweep, and a Time knob
that sets the time it takes for the
The change is triggered by
the footswitch, which has two
modes. The first is ‘momentary’
– the pitch changes while your
foot is on the switch, but reverts
to normal when you take your
foot off. The second is a latching
mode ( just like any normal
effects pedal) – the pitch can
change and stay until you hit the
switch again.
The speed and the direction
of transition of the pitch is
shown on the Trajectory LED
ladder. You can set that speed
at minimum to get a pitch-shift
that is instant or set it longer
to hear the pitch-bending
transition – the maximum is
about eight seconds.
There are two ways to use
this. One is to call up drop
tunings or a virtual capo: down
an octave to play bass; down,
sweep to move through that
range, once triggered.
The controls take a bit of
getting used to, but the manual
offers some starting points
such as the voicebox sounds in
Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer
and Gary Numan’s Cars synth.
You can dial in chewy vowel
sounds and fat analogue-style
synth lead sounds to compete
with keyboard synths, even
replicating their ‘modwheel’
effects – a continuous press
on the bypass footswitch adds
cool performance vibrato to
the synth sound. Being able to
trigger a filter sweep with your
playing dynamics adds even
more performance versatility,
making this a cool resource for
expressive soloing that plays
just like a guitar – but sounds
nothing like one. [
T C ]
say, a 5th to emulate a baritone;
or up with the Octave&Dry
setting for faux 12-string
sounds similar to those found in
DigiTech’s Mosaic pedal (which
is fine to add chime and jangle
where needed). The other is
more for ‘Whammy’ effects
where you want the bend in
the pitch to be prominent –
Dimebag-style octave and
double octave squeals thrown
in with the momentary switch
during solos, perhaps.
It works seamlessly and
sounds like one of the larger
Whammy units, so if you’re
happy for your Whammy to be
confined to switching between
two pitches, the Ricochet is for
you. For those who want finer
control over the pitch change
in real-time, there are still the
treadle-equipped versions. [
TC]
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Synth pedal
FEATURES: True hardwire
bypass, mono and stereo
operation, StompLock to hold
knobs in place, hook and loop
pedalboard pad
CONTROLS: Mix, Modulation,
Drift, Start, Stop, Sensitivity,
Time, V1/V2 toggle switch,
bypass footswitch
CONNECTIONS: Standard
inputs 1 (mono) and 2,
standard outputs 1 (mono) and 2
POWER: 9V DC adaptor
(not supplied), 75mA
DIMENSIONS: 67 (w) x 112 (d)
x 51mm (h)
Sound Technology
01462 480000
www.digitech.com
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Pitch pedal
FEATURES: True bypass in
Latching mode, Classic
and Chord modes
CONTROLS: Ballistics Control
(Shift/Return), Pitch Control,
Range Switch (Up/Down),
Momentary Switch (On/Off),
bypass footswitch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input,
standard output
POWER: 9V DC adaptor
(not supplied) 235mA
DIMENSIONS: 73 (w) x 120 (d)
x 44mm (h)
DIGITECH DIRTY ROBOT £119
DIGITECH WHAMMY RICOCHET £142
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GIT412.peds_digitech.indd 119 9/1/16 12:42 PM