dan –

thanks for the reply and the concise explanation of what exactly is going down.  knowing what to expect can have a huge impact on the (perceived) results.  i've owned eventide boxes for nearly a decade and have never been informed that eventide's diatonic shifters (which are 90% of what i use) are basically designed with monophonic input in mind.  this information is not in the manual.  all this time i thought it was just crappy.

since i have your attention – just how much does the orville lack compared to the eclipse (specifically regarding pitch shifting)?  there are several mitigating factors at work here…one being external modulation and clock issues, which were never addressed or resolved by tech support.  the other being orville's pair of stereo i/o.  the only problem with owning an eventide is that once you know what it can do and how well it does everything that you end up wanting to run everything through it. 

so…i'm still on the fence.  if i can pick up an orville for the right price i might still go for it…unless you can talk me out of it.

thank again.

– jim