Edge and MXR M-129 Pitch Transposer

[Edge_Orchestra]

MXR M-129 PITCH TRANSPOSER:

Interesting beast, that unit. I spent the weekend watching various YouTube clips with this very cool piece of gear.



Yes, it might be more associated with Big Country and their trademark Celtic sound but The Edge had one is his arsenal - at least for a bit around 1984/1985

* NOTE: Not a pic of Edge's rack



I've heard rumours that it was used for 'A Sort of Homecoming'. (Another question to ask Mr. The Edge at some point).

I wonder what other songs that it might have been used? Anyone have any insight?
I bit more on the MXR Pitch Transposer and other MXR rack units:
Dunlop Blog » MXR 40th Anniversary: The Rackmount Era

Video clip Big Country style use of the MXR Pitch Transposer:
https://youtu.be/ODAxAZMYRz8

I'd love to have a chance to play around with one of these. U2 use or otherwise, seems in interesting unit.

 

[Mack_Again]

is it really true that Pitch Transposer is basically a pitch shifter? thats what I read from somewhere online. So off chance, I feel like that unit was used for shimmer in conjunction with whatever reverb unit he had in the 80s?

 

[Edge_Orchestra]

is it really true that Pitch Transposer is basically a pitch shifter? thats what I read from somewhere online. So off chance, I feel like that unit was used for shimmer in conjunction with whatever reverb unit he had in the 80s?

Pitch Transposer = pitch shifter. (Harmonizer)

It had four preset knobs. Looks like those could be altered some.

I suppose that it could have been part of the UF tour shimmer.

 

[BB Mac]

info From One two Testing Magazine Jan 1985 'the edge speaks'

MXR Pitch Transposer
Four programs octave above and below
seventh above and below

the picture below i got from the net asked for
permission to use it. you can see the mxr
in the rack during the Unforgettable fire tour


i seen Big Country in a small venue a good few years
back bruce watson was using the mxr pitch unit..
Big country also used Korg SDDs at one point too

 

[Edge_Orchestra]

Another fun fact...

Trevor Rabin (Yes) also used the MXR Pitch Transposer on 'Owner of a Lonely Heart'.

Seems 1982-1985 the M-129 was A popular unit.

Again, I've not played one but if sure like to try one.

I wonder if there is a pedal equivalent?


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Muad'zin]

Mullet Edge.....

It's good he started to wear hats soon after.

As for the M-129, it was probably king for a while, until something better came along. Then it became a one trick pony must have for those who had become to depend on it, like that Big Country guy. It seems like a fairly simple harmonizer by today's standard. To answer what modern day pedal could do what the M-129 did I'd probably have to know exactly what the M-129 did. Octave above and below and seventh above and below seems very doable for pedals like the Boss Harmonist.

 

[Mack_Again]

There are so many octavers/harmonizers/whammys to choose from these days. It's good time that we are playing guitars at this time.

 

[Edge_Orchestra]

I think I've found a potential answer - in pedal form.

TC ELECTRONIC SUB N UP.

TC Electronics Sub n Up. Awesome pedal. Poly (useful for Magnificent style POG tones - could possible nail the 'seagull' sound in 'Beautiful Day'), tone prints (that can be downloaded from their manufacturers site or made by you with their editor) and classic Boss style Octaver mode.

The Poly mode seems to get near Big Country tones too.

List is $129. Prymaxe.com has been offering 17-20% off coupons (I go mine at 17% off/approx $105) make this an affordable piece of gear that covers loads of sonic territory. ProGuitarShop.com usual has 15% off by using the code: Pedal15. So there are plenty of ways to get one and with a decent discount.

That said, even at $129, I don't thing you'd be disappointed.

I've had a mere ten minutes with mine and I'm in love. Fun stuff!


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Muad'zin]

Yeah, I have my eye on one of those too. Looks like a POG killer. Everything the Micro POG and Nano POG can do, and more, for less!

 

[Edge_Orchestra]

Yep. And if you check Prymaxe's Facebook page for coupon codes, you can get it even cheaper.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Mack_Again]

Damn I was about to post, "wait can't POG varieties do that job? Or Boss harmonizing pedals?"

 

[Muad'zin]

The POG only does octave +/-, not the seventh above and below. Neither can the TC. A Boss harmonizer pedal should be able to do all I think. As can probably a Whammy. There is however the question of how well the MXR tracks. It's probably not as good as the POG and POG varieties, but that's probably why to the MXR users it has its own particular charm and why they consider it absolutely essential.

 

[Mack_Again]

So in the 90s and afterwards, does he use Whammy, POG(original unit with big-as-hell casing) and other various rack mount units do pitch shifting, right?

 

[Muad'zin]

Well, he did have that huge ass Eventide H3000 in his rack at that time. As a harmonizer it should have been able to do any pitch shifting that he wanted. But as far as I know he seems to have only used it for shimmer.

 

[Mack_Again]

But the thing is that those Eventide Harmonizers, old and new, do all kinds of things that are not harmonizing; they do have tons of delays, modulation a, reverb, cool ambient sound, etc. so I somehow assume that those Eventides isn't really for harmonizing in Edge's rig. I may be wrong, thou.

 

[Muad'zin]

Edge stuck 2 huge ass AMS delays in his rack, just for shimmer. They're not small units. 2U, maybe even 3U in size. He seems like the kind of guy who would put a H3000 in his rack just for that Crystal Echoes patch.

 

[Mack_Again]

Also he carries around 1 Axe-Fx just to emulate his TC2290...... Yeah that sounds efficient. But I hear that Axe fx can hit computational limits pretty easily so it might not be too ridiculous not to set up his 4 Axe-Fx like that, though.

 

[Muad'zin]

I've yet to meet a modeler which didn't run into computational limits if you keep on piling the effects. Amps, delays and cab sims do pile up cpu power rapidly. They all advertise that you can play up to X effects at once but in practice you have to be creative.

Of course, if I had 4 Axe FX I could run half of my normal pedal chain on the one and leave the more CPU intensive delays and cab sims on the other. As for Edge not being efficient, well, he can afford to. He's got money to burn and people to carry out his every whim. He has his own personal assistant in Dallas and an army of peons to do the heavy lifting. That does remove a lot of the constraints that most guitarists are under.

 

[Mack_Again]

I realized that Edge doesn't use delays within the Axe-fx which contains "central" or essential sounds; they are in separate Axe-fx ( like one dedicated to emulate TC) or even Korg delay pedals. also I think he has axe-fx dedicated to shimmer as well? So it kinda makes sense for him to let 4 Axe-fxs do different jobs to avoid hitting limits in their processing power. That would probably make it smoother to do preset changes and things, I assume. I hear that most shops recommend using scene changes (slight parameter changes) rather than preset changes to prevent interruption in sound when switching over.

To go back to original stories, I'm sure now he does almost all the pitchshit-ong to Axe-fx or Whammy 1. You know, the better and more flexible unit than old MXR unit?

 

[Muad'zin]

I don't think he has 4 Axe FX's each doing a separate thing. One or two has to be a backup in case of failure of the others. That has always been his MO. He has always stuck multiple key units in his rack (3 SDD3K's, 4 TC2290's, 2 A3's) as the road can be quite punishing on gear. All the major artists do this. It's logical as pedals tend to be built for punishment as they get stomped on a lot. Rack gear on the other hand is meant to be stationary in studios. You put it in a live rack, in a truck, on stage, off stage, in a truck again, night after night, it will have a high probability to break down.

 

[Mack_Again]

What I say is that he does seem to let 4 Axe-fx units to divide up their jobs. Surely one (or 2) will cover essential sounds but others can be back up or somehow only emulating TC delays.

Their gigs at iHeart fest and Dreamforce/corporate sellout gigs are coming up so I guess we'll see about his "new" rigs