Boss PS-6 Harmonist
With four intelligent pitch-shift effects and three-voice harmony in one convenient unit, the new BOSS harmonist is here. Harmony, Pitch Shifter, and Detune are some of the effect modes available, as well as Super Bend for realistic pedal-bending effects and wild three- and four-octave pitch sweeps. An optional expression pedal allows you to alter the pitch of your instrument.
The harmony function supports a wide range of interval patterns and is fast and straightforward to use. Using a major or minor key, and setting SHIFT to 3-VOICE, is simple to create rich, three-voice harmony. The PS-6 Harmonist has it all: amazing sound quality, simple operation, and strong pitch effects under one hood.
Features Boss PS-6
- Four effect modes in one stompbox: Harmony, Pitch Shifter, Detune, and S-BEND (Super Bend).
- With customizable key and voicing, you may create two- or three-voice harmonies.
- Super Bend allows for up to four octaves of extreme pitch bending.
- Optional BOSS FV-500L/H or Roland EV-5 is used to change the pitch using an expression pedal.
Boss PS-6 – Higher Sound Quality
The PS-6 harmony shifting pedal is the next generation. The DSP, which is unequaled in power, has considerably enhanced audio quality. You may create exquisite, natural, and simple harmony voicings with the PS-6.
From –3 to +4 octaves, this amazing effect bends pitch across a 7-octave range! Set the Rise and Fall time to your liking. The pedals knob or an external pedal like Roland’s EV-5 Expression Pedal (sold separately) can be used to adjust the bending effect in real time.
The great sound and road-tough construction, consistency, and reliability of BOSS compact pedals have made them famous around the world. The PS-6 incorporates the BOSS pedal design, which is robustly constructed and designed to last decades of harsh use by musicians.
Detune, and Pitch-Shift, 3-Voice Harmony
In each of the following modes, the PS-6 may produce two or three voices: Pitch Shifter, Detune, and Harmony. This will give your guitar tone a richness. The PS-6 enables 3-voice detuning with a little higher and lower pitch added to the direct signal, which degrades the sound in a natural way. Pitch-shifting your note a fifth above and aoctave below can also be useful for arpeggio-style playing, for example.
Using basic operations, manipulate a broad range of effects. All you have to do in Harmony mode is pick a key, decide whether it’s major or minor, and use the SHIFT knob to choose the voicing you want. Each mode’s pitch settings are alternately set by the Shift knob.
Benefits Boss PS-6 Harmonist
When I first got this pedal and tested it though a single amp, I was not thrilled with the sound of the harmonies. (octaves or detune sounded better) However, when I set up the pedal in wet/dry configuration it comes to life much more. I split the guitar signal before the Harmonist using a BigShot ABY and I send the dry signal to amp A and the wet signal to the Harmonist and then to Amp B. I set up the harmonist to pass the full wet signal so its ONLY sending the harmony to Amp B and no dry guitar signal. in this configuration the pedal is a lot more convincing – especially if the signals go into two different sounding amps. Then it sounds much more like two guitars playing in harmony.
- From doubling to actual whammy style octaving, this pedal has a ton to offer.
- You can set the pitch shift to whatever, which is also cool. I find chain location is very important.
- Sample Item #3
- Works with all my guitars (classical, acoustic, electric, 12 string is amazing).
- Can be used as a pitch shifter, a harmonizer (with a range of intervals), and a pitchbender (sort of a digital whammy bar).
- Lots of great sounds and effects.
- Best for experienced players.
- It’s an amazing quality sound for the price
- It does sound a little digital at times and almost like a keyboard or an organ if you tweak the knobs right.
- Very versatile pedal.
- The detune feature is also an added plus to add a little flavor to my rhythm.
Conclusion
The S-Bend feature is very fun. You can get Whammy pedal effects that Tom Morello made popular, as well as whammy bar style dives if you have a hard tail guitar. The Detune feature offers a great chorus style shimmer and depth that you might hear on Van Hagar albums. I enjoy the Pitch Shifter feature to do several effects, such as a 12 string emulation, or octave down effect like Ritchie Blackmore or Prince would engage in some solos. You can even emulate certain keyboard solos patches with the octave up and some volume swells. The Harmony feature is great if you enjoy Boston, Iron Maiden, or Yngwie Malmsteen, among others. The only issue I would warn anyone about is you have to play with placement in your signal chain. Many of the harmony effects sounded best to my ears after a distortion pedal, into a clean amp, or in the effects loop, if you have one.
One note I have about this pedal is that I should not be daisy chained. It needs isolated power or else you will get some strange sounds in addition to it’s few digital quirky sounds that it already has. I like it’s sometimes quirky digital sounds myself and I think those things are fairly well hidden in the mix of a song anyways.
I love that this pedal splits hard left and hard right on certain setting when run in stereo. This comes in very handy when recording and some of the newer and much pricier harmonizer pedals on the market do not do this. The detune is amazing. I prefer it to most chorus pedals and to the dimension setting on my MD-500.
The s-bend feature is also amazing, just needs a little practice to be used in tasteful manner. This pedal may seem complicated at first but is really very simple and can do so many things, especially when in conjunction with other pedals.
Having the PS-6 is like having a Digitech Whammy, Eventide Pitchfactor, and EHX MicroPOG in one pedal. Is it as good as any of the above? Not even. However, for the price point and versatility it’s pretty damn great! For studio work, this probably wouldn’t cut it for me. But, if you play live and want to save some pedalboard space, you can’t go wrong with this!
