Those who are experts with effects...

[machinex]

Ive asked this question millions of times and have never gotten a straight answer.. but since Im new here I'll give it a whirl:

 

For a few years now Ive been curious as to what produces this certain effect. Before I explain it, it can be heard from The Smashing Pumpkins in: "Rocket" (Siamese Dream) very slightly in the beginning, sounds like someone knocking on a door, "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans (Melon Colie and the Infinite Sadness) towards the end, alot easier to hear, varying in speeds and looped quite a number of times, and most notably "Soma" played live in the home video (Vieuphoria) during the second chorus right after billy sings "and took my shelter, in that pain" (james slightly mutes all strings and strikes them in unison)

 

About the effect, describing the way it sounded in the Soma performance.. when james hits the strings.. it sounded like it could an appregiator or something close to it with delay, however the sound was like a deep fuzzed sound (as if you were to hear an aresol can in slow motion) but with every time the delay repeated, the pitch changed starting low, jumping to a high pictch sound and decending one note or octave below everytime the delay repeats.

 

Ive heard a few suggestions on what it could be, someone said using a pitch shifter and feeding some of the output to the input of a delay pedal.. this produces interesting results, but nowhere near what im talking about... another said it was a patch on an Eventide pitch shifting rack processor, which could be the case because they use them alot.. (tough to find out seeing as they run atleast about $3000)

 

The best thing I can compare this effect to, is the sound of a transformer (the cartoons from the 80's) changing from robot to its alternate form (truck, car, plane, gun, etc) the sound that they made transforming comes real close to what im describing.

 

If anyone has any idea how to reproduce this effect or might know what it consists of, I would really appriciate the suggestions.. its just become a matter of principle to find out now, lol.