The 2 pitch change effects of the Motif ES at their default settings, one per row. Every column uses one scale from top to bottom, so anything that looks bigger, faster or brighter in one row than in another really is.
In plain terms: read across a row to get one effect's character, read down a column to compare them all on one quality. Click a column title to sort by it; click a row to open that effect's controls. Under the board: each effect's controls setting by setting, then 4 detailed charts, closed until you open them.
Pitch Changeclick a row for its controlsThe effect's tone at its default settings: bass left, treble right; above the line is boosted, below is cut.+1 = the same on both sides (sits in the middle), 0 = unrelated (wide), below 0 = opposite. The mark is 0.
sort by:
Pitch Change 1
Tone
Left against right
+0.94
Pitch Change 2
Tone
Left against right
+0.95
Controls, setting by setting
One sheet per effect. Every tested setting of a control sits next to the others on the same axes, with the default setting drawn as a thin line inside each cell, so a small difference between two settings is two neighbouring cells, not two screens.
ring colour: barely changes the soundchanges it a lot▬ first 200 ms after a click▬ tone against the default
Pitch Change 1every control, every tested setting
Each row is one control. Its ring is its travel, coloured by how much the sound changes along it. To the right, first every tested setting of that control overlaid (its tone against the default, low setting cyan to high setting amber; ▶ play steps through them one at a time and marks the matching cell), then one cell per tested setting: on top the first 200 ms after a click (thin line = the default setting), under it the change in tone against the default (flat = no change; above the line = brighter at that pitch).
Initial Delay
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
echo tail T30 8.83 → 0.00 s
Pitch
all settings together
low → high
0
22
44 · default
66
88
lowers everything below ~89 Hz by up to 31 dB
DryWet
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
lowers everything above ~8.8 kHz by up to 33 dB
Output Level 2
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
modulation depth 0.15 → 0.51; also changes output level by +5.5 dB
Pan 1
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
decay time 0.02 → 0.02 s; also modulation depth 0.58 → 0.35
Pan 2
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
stereo width 0.37 → 0.17 by raw 63, then stereo width 0.17 → 0.36 by raw 127; also modulation depth 0.35 → 0.52 by raw 31, then modulation depth 0.52 → 0.35 by raw 127
Output Level 1
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
raises a band around 63 Hz by up to 14 dB (~0.5 octaves wide)
Feedback Level
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
echo tail T30 6.31 → 5.01 s
Fine 2
all settings together
low → high
0
28
57 · default
85
114
raises a band around 5.4 kHz by up to 6 dB (~0.5 octaves wide)
Fine 1
all settings together
low → high
0
28
57 · default
85
114
raises a band around 5.8 kHz by up to 5 dB (~0.4 octaves wide)
measured as
Feedback Level
-0.342 → -0.256 dB per repeat
Fine 1
20.8 → 20.9 Hz LFO rate
Fine 2
20.9 → 20.9 Hz LFO rate
Initial Delay
0.546 → 0.513 s T30
Pan 1
-4.11 → -7.38 dB L/R isolation
Pan 2
-7.93 → -7.38 dB L/R isolation
Pitch
24.4 → 18.7 Hz LFO rate
What each control does in physical units, from the probes made for it: the line is the reading as the control goes from its lowest setting (left) to its highest (right), and the numbers under it are the reading at those two ends. Each cell has its own height scale.
two controls together
Pan 2, with Pan 1 low / high
one changes the other
Feedback Level, with Initial Delay low / high
one changes the other
Pan 1, with Pitch low / high
one changes the other
Pan 1, with Initial Delay low / high
one changes the other
Pan 2, with Pitch low / high
they simply add
Pitch, with Initial Delay low / high
they simply add
Pan 2, with Initial Delay low / high
one changes the other
Every pair of controls that was recorded at all four corners (each at its low and its high test setting). A cell is what the second control does to the tone, bass left to treble right: cyan with the first control low, amber with it high. The two lines lying on each other means the controls simply add; lines apart means one changes what the other does. The pairs furthest apart come first. On an effect that moves by itself some of the gap is the movement caught at a different moment.
Pitch Change 2every control, every tested setting
Each row is one control. Its ring is its travel, coloured by how much the sound changes along it. To the right, first every tested setting of that control overlaid (its tone against the default, low setting cyan to high setting amber; ▶ play steps through them one at a time and marks the matching cell), then one cell per tested setting: on top the first 200 ms after a click (thin line = the default setting), under it the change in tone against the default (flat = no change; above the line = brighter at that pitch).
Initial Delay
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
echo tail T30 8.80 → 0.01 s
Pan 2
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
modulation depth 0.77 → 0.17
Pan 1
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
modulation depth 0.77 → 0.17
Pitch
all settings together
low → high
0
22
44 · default
66
88
raises everything above ~5.1 kHz by up to 30 dB
Output Level 2
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
modulation depth 0.21 → 0.67; also changes output level by +5.7 dB
DryWet
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
lowers everything above ~9.4 kHz by up to 30 dB
Feedback Level
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
echo tail T30 2.30 → 8.87 s
Fine 1
all settings together
low → high
0
28
57 · default
85
114
lowers a band around 102 Hz by up to 14 dB (~0.5 octaves wide)
Output Level 1
all settings together
low → high
0
31
63
95
127
raises a band around 232 Hz by up to 18 dB (~0.7 octaves wide)
Fine 2
all settings together
low → high
0
28
57 · default
85
114
raises a band around 217 Hz by up to 6 dB (~0.3 octaves wide)
measured as
Feedback Level
1.3 → 2.7 dB per repeat
Fine 1
7.9 → 7.86 Hz LFO rate
Fine 2
7.88 → 7.89 Hz LFO rate
Initial Delay
0.475 → 0.463 s T30
Pan 1
-7.93 → -7.38 dB L/R isolation
Pan 2
-7.93 → -7.38 dB L/R isolation
Pitch
8.26 → 18.7 Hz LFO rate
What each control does in physical units, from the probes made for it: the line is the reading as the control goes from its lowest setting (left) to its highest (right), and the numbers under it are the reading at those two ends. Each cell has its own height scale.
two controls together
Pitch, with Initial Delay low / high
one changes the other
Pan 1, with Pan 2 low / high
one changes the other
Pitch, with Pan 1 low / high
one changes the other
Pan 2, with Initial Delay low / high
one changes the other
Feedback Level, with Initial Delay low / high
one changes the other
Pan 1, with Initial Delay low / high
one changes the other
Pitch, with Pan 2 low / high
one changes the other
Every pair of controls that was recorded at all four corners (each at its low and its high test setting). A cell is what the second control does to the tone, bass left to treble right: cyan with the first control low, amber with it high. The two lines lying on each other means the controls simply add; lines apart means one changes what the other does. The pairs furthest apart come first. On an effect that moves by itself some of the gap is the movement caught at a different moment.
Detailed charts
The measurements behind the board, at full size, each with what it shows, how to read it and what it found.
In plain terms: the board gives the comparison at a glance; open one of these when you want the full picture of a single quality.
One note in, a cluster of lines out
What it shows. A steady 440 Hz note through each pitch shifter at four Pitch settings, with only the shifted sound returned. Each dot is one spectral line of what came back, placed by how far it is from the pitch that was asked for; bigger dots are stronger lines.
How to read it. One row per setting; the dotted line marks the target pitch. A perfect shifter would put a single dot on that line.
What it found.
Neither effect returns a single note.
Each returns a cluster of evenly spaced lines around the target: the power-weighted centre of the cluster is within 111 cents of the setting at every step (about a semitone at worst, at two octaves down), taking one semitone per step either side of raw 64.
The spacing is small for a small shift and wide for a large one, which is why a two-semitone shift sounds like a slow flutter and a two-octave shift like a buzz.
Settings below raw 40 read the same as raw 40: the range stops at two octaves down (4 takes).
The spacing of those lines is the splice rate
What it shows. The spacing between the lines in each cluster, against the size of the shift. A shifter that plays back a short stretch of delay line at the wrong speed has to jump back each time it runs out; it makes that jump at a rate of |pitch ratio − 1| ÷ window length, and that rate is the spacing between the lines.
How to read it. Size of the shift left to right, line spacing upward. Points on a straight line through the origin mean one fixed window length; the slope gives the length.
What it found.
Pitch Change 1 fits a window of 34.7 ms (about 1532 samples) and Pitch Change 2 one of 27.9 ms (about 1230 samples), with every point within 6% of its line.
The spacing is the same for the 440 Hz note and for the 880 Hz note an octave above (within 0.2 Hz), so it belongs to the effect, not to the note.
The two effects are the same kind of delay-line shifter with different window lengths.
Pitch Change 2's shorter window splices more often at any given shift.
Only four distinct shifts were recorded per effect, so the window lengths are good to a few percent.
Evenly spaced clicks in, and when they come out
What it shows. A click every 40 ms through each pitch shifter at four Pitch settings. Each tick is one click in the output; the grey row at the top is the input. The first tick of each row is lined up at zero.
How to read it. A shifter that raises pitch plays its delay line back faster, so clicks come out closer together than they went in, until it runs out and has to jump back; one that lowers pitch spreads them out and repeats or drops some. Evenly spaced ticks are the playback; an odd gap or a doubled tick is a splice.
What it found.
Clicks per second coming out, for 25 going in: Pitch Change 1 at −24 semitones 8 (25 × the pitch ratio is 6); Pitch Change 1 at −20 semitones 9 (25 × the pitch ratio is 8); Pitch Change 1 at +2 semitones 34 (25 × the pitch ratio is 28); Pitch Change 1 at +24 semitones 93 (25 × the pitch ratio is 100); Pitch Change 2 at −24 semitones 8 (25 × the pitch ratio is 6); Pitch Change 2 at −20 semitones 2 (25 × the pitch ratio is 8); Pitch Change 2 at +2 semitones 32 (25 × the pitch ratio is 28); Pitch Change 2 at +24 semitones 109 (25 × the pitch ratio is 100).
The count out follows the pitch ratio: shifted up two octaves, each click in comes out about four times; shifted down, most clicks are dropped.
Between splices the ticks are evenly spaced at the new speed.
This is why a pitch shifter of this kind smears drums: one hit in can be several hits out, or none.
Which controls depend on each other
What it shows. Every pair of controls that was recorded at all four corners, each control at its low and its high test setting, for the Pitch Change effects. For each pair: what the second control does to the tone with the first one low, what it does with the first one high, and how far apart those two are as a share of the larger.
How to read it. One dot is one pair; hover for which. At the left edge the second control does the same thing wherever the first one is, so the two simply add. At the right edge it does something at one end of the first control and nothing, or the opposite, at the other. The same pairs are drawn as curves on each effect's sheet above, under two controls together.
What it found.
Of 14 pairs in which the second control changes the tone, 12 are ones where the first control changes what the second does.
The pair furthest apart is Pitch with Initial Delay on Pitch Change 2.
Tone only is compared, smoothed over about two thirds of an octave, so a change in timing alone does not show here.
On an effect that moves by itself part of any gap is the movement caught at a different moment.
Each effect's written breakdown, its measurement card and every single-control chart are on the
detail page (large).