Review: Eventide Micropitch and Ultratap

Micropitch and Ultratap are two incredibly powerful plugins for those working in Digital Audio Workstations. Eventide have now brought that technology to the pedal platform, opening up the floor to sonic architects who wish to push boundaries and expand their sound palette. Eventide have always been at the forefront of music technology, pushing the envelope and creating new and innovative pro-audio gear that defines the way we play and produce music. 

In the late 80’s Eventide created two studio rack mountable effects that gave many artists their signature sound. The H910 was the world’s first ever digital effects processor. It used a combination of modulation, delay and pitch shifting to create a sound like never before. 

The SP2016 became in many ways the reverb that defined the sound of the 80’s snare drum. Used by many legendary mix engineers that favoured its authentic emulation of classic rooms and plate reverbs. Both of these iconic effects are now available in a portable, lightweight and powerful pedal platform.

The Sound

Given Eventide’s rich history and extensive experience in pro-audio, we’d expect both pedals to deliver the best sound possible. As always, Eventide have gone to great sonic depths to recreate features that made the original rack mountable units so inherently characterful, and this Is evident across both the Ultratap and Micropitch pedals. Both pedals feature a 6 bank preset menu to get you off the ground and running, as well some templates that you can overlay to learn and shape your own patches. Both pedals are also equipped with studio level converters, dual-processing engines, silent switching and true/buffered bypass.

The Eventide Micropitch

The Micropitch is already available as a plugin, however, now you can own the modern-day homage to the legendary H9 Harmonizer that put Eventide on the map in the 80’s. Essentially, Micropitch is a stereo widening tool that makes your guitar, synth, vocal or even drums sound bigger. The Micropitch takes the original algorithm from the H910 through to the H3000 which allows mono and stereo signals to be widened using a combination of delay, pitch shifting and modulation. For those who were fans of Van Halen and big rock bands such as Def Leppard, the Micropitch is a one stop solution. Micropitch also features some new advanced features that make this a really exciting and innovative pedal to own. You can mix in detuned and delayed versions of your source material and achieve dimension and tonal shaping that aren’t possible with any other effect.

The Eventide Ultratap

Similar to the Micropitch, the Ultratap is also modelled and heavily inspired by Eventide’s rack mountable effects from the late 80’s. It brings the company’s sought-after algorithms into a portable and affordable form factor, and pushes the boundaries for the most adventurous delay enthusiasts. Ultratap Is also available in plugin format, but let’s face it, you can’t beat owning the real thing. The Ultratap’s story begins right back in 1983, when Eventide introduced the SP2016, the first ever programmable effects processor. The SP2016 quite literally defined a new dimension for delay effects, named ‘creative tap spacing’. It was this effect that allowed users to shape the envelope of the delays. The Ultratap is the most up-to-date version of this technology, giving musicians and sound designers alike 64 taps of creative spacing at their fingertips.

The Build Quality

In terms of build quality both of the Eventide pedals are built to last the test of time. If you’re a touring musician who likes to pack down quick and not worry about subsequently damaging gear, fear not, the Micropitch and Ultratap both have an extremely rugged aluminium casing to them. Although mesmerising, I can’t help but think that the Ultratap will scuff and blemish easily, given its gloss metallic finish. All of the I/O seems very rugged though, with nice caps and moulding around the insert points.

Features and controls 

If you want to learn more about the features and parameter controls on both the Micropitch and the Ultratap, you can find out more by watching our full overview and test of the units below.

Pros:

• Fantastic sound from both units
• Great on-board presets
• Templates help diminish the learning curve
• Nice form factor, not too small and not too big for your average pedal board

Cons:

• The metallic gloss finish on the Ultratap will be easy to blemish
• MIDI only over TRS adapter or USB