Vocal harmonizer

[HamerHokie]

We had a big "State Of The Band" meeting last night and one of the main strategic issues discussed was vocals or lack thereof. We are not a vocal-oriented band and that is a huge liability. Neither my keyboardist, bassist or drummer sings, and I sing poorly.

We can of course rectify over time via attrition. Privately we all think our keyboardist will be retiring to South Carolina within a year, and we'd look to replace him with one who can sing. But in the short term we'd like to audition some vocal harmonizers.

The ones I've seen come in two flavors - programmable based on key presets, and dynamic based on input from guitar or keyboard. I would love to do the latter but our singer doesn't play guitar often enough to make it useful. It would have to get data from my guitar or my keyboardist's rig to work. That might work.

For those of you with experience, who makes a good one? I've seen some from Digitech and TC Helicon - here's a demo video I found of the TC Helicon that uses a guitar input:

TC Helicon Demo

[DavidE]

If you want to use midi signals from the keyboards to trigger the keys, also look at the brand new rack mount harmonizer from Digitech.

I'm using the Digitech VL4 on my vocals. It sounds a bit fake in the acoustic duo or solo context, though it adds something. But I tried it last weekend with the full band and it added a lot and wasn't noticeable in the midst of our sound. My singer looked at me during a couple of tunes I used it (he didn't know) and said the vocals sound amazing! He thought it was just that our bassist was singing with me so we had three parts going, but the bassist's voice isn't that strong. In fact, it was our singer on lead, me singing a harmony, the machine generating another harmony and then our bassist taking the high harmony. It was an impressive blend.

I used it on several songs where my singer sang lead and I added the harmony but then had the machine add another harmony or even two. We actually did an off the cuff Eagles tune and I let the machine add 3 or 4 (an Eagles preset) and it sounded great.

I already had a TC Helicon Voicelive in a rack from when I started doing some solo acoustic gigs a few years ago. I used it for pitch correction only and as my voice got stronger, I stopped using it. I bought the Digitech before finding out TC made a guitar controler for it. But after looking at both, I decided the TC worked better for me mainly because of the large LCD screen.

I suggest you do searches on The Gear Page and look under pro reviews for the Digitech VL4 review thread. Lots of good info there.

I was thrilled that even though I was singing harmony parts, the VL4 added harmonies appropriate for the melody. VERY cool.

And don't over use it!!!

Most of all, don't forget to turn it off after the song so it doesn't harmonize your voice when speaking to the "crowd."

The VL4 does have two design issues I'd change. It needs a 1/4" out for a heavy duty footswitch to turn harmonies on and off. I don't know how long that plastic will last...

The other is that the internal guitar effects are useless because if you use them, the unit mixes the guitar signal with the vocal signal to the same XLR out. That doesn't work for me. So I put the guitar into the guitar input and then run the guitar thru to the amp. Then I have to turn the guitar level mixer knob on top to 0. Bad design in my book.

[Turdus]

Maybe you need to find a good sound man that can sing background vocals. There was a cool band around here, early 80's, that did that. Took awhile to figure out where the backing vocals were coming from, but they always sounded great.

[HamerHokie]

Maybe you need to find a good sound man that can sing background vocals. There was a cool band around here, early 80's, that did that. Took awhile to figure out where the backing vocals were coming from, but they always sounded great.

Ah, you missed my 'don't make enough money to hire a soundman' thread.

That was another strategic topic. I don't think we can prosper without one. I think I convinced the band of this but finding the money is another issue.

[silentman]

+1 for the vocalist live stuff. We use a VL2. Sounds great - not chipmunk like or fake. You you can easily over do it if you crank the vocal output. But if you keep it back it sounds good to fill in holes. I still try to sing live when I can or at least sing along with the vocals. My singer's mic drives the harmony and I usually turn it on and off. He tends to over use it or use it when it's not appropriate.

[Thundernotes]

I use the Digitech Vocalist VR (2002 model) and it works fairly well. I traded a cymbal for it. The effect is pretty good when patched into an aux bus on the mixer. I take the output back to another channel on the mixer so I have fader control of the level. The front-panel mic input is useless because of the noise level. I'm using it for my solo acoustic stuff and it works fine, but I'm only using the 3rd harmony.

[Hardrockracer]

I vote for any TC-Helicon processor. We use a quintet. I sing lead and add to the backings of my guitarists thru the Helicon. Pretty handy if you do Damn Yankees tunes, he he.

HRR

[DavidE]

I'll probably sell my Helicon Voiceworks in exc. with the unused footswitch if anyone is interested.

It's probably a better built unit than the Digitech for sure, but the display on the digitech is what makes it work for me in a live situation.

[HamerHokie]

I'll probably sell my Helicon Voiceworks in exc. with the unused footswitch if anyone is interested.

It's probably a better built unit than the Digitech for sure, but the display on the digitech is what makes it work for me in a live situation.

I might be but I need to know how it works. I DLed the users manual but it was pretty useless unless you are dying to know how to program it. I need to know how it works in a practical live situation.

[DavidE]

I'll probably sell my Helicon Voiceworks in exc. with the unused footswitch if anyone is interested.

It's probably a better built unit than the Digitech for sure, but the display on the digitech is what makes it work for me in a live situation.

I might be but I need to know how it works. I DLed the users manual but it was pretty useless unless you are dying to know how to program it. I need to know how it works in a practical live situation.

I only used it for pitch correction on one patch programmed by Paults' keyboardist at the time I got it.

Paul's bassist still uses one, though I don't know if he uses it for harmonies.

[Mindseyes]

I heard a guy demoing a Digitech VL4 the other day and was rather imprested, so much so that i put a guitar down to see what and who was singing so nicely.

[Hardrockracer]

I'll probably sell my Helicon Voiceworks in exc. with the unused footswitch if anyone is interested.

It's probably a better built unit than the Digitech for sure, but the display on the digitech is what makes it work for me in a live situation.

I might be but I need to know how it works. I DLed the users manual but it was pretty useless unless you are dying to know how to program it. I need to know how it works in a practical live situation.

It's easy to program. I am a midi dummy and even I was able to program it. Absolutely working in a live situation. I use it for doubling/thickening the lead voice plus enhancing the backing vocals with harmonies. But I use a midi foot board that is programmed so I have one bank per song to assign the right key to the harmonies etc. I would not want to miss it.

The Digitech VL only follows the chords you play on your guitar. If you play a lick during the chorus line it will not work properly.

HRR

[teleman]

I have a Helicon Voice Live that is excellent. Highly recommended.

[HamerHokie]

My lead singer went ahead and picked up a Digitech Vocalist 4. We used it sparingly last night as a trial. It did very well tracking an acoustic guitar input, and surprisingly worked fine using his voice as the sole source of data sans guitar.

[DavidE]

The Digitech VL only follows the chords you play on your guitar. If you play a lick during the chorus line it will not work properly.

HRR

Not true. It has some memory so it remembers the key you're in. It works fine even during a lick.