Anyone use TC Helicon?

[Jimmy4string]

thanks for the clarification.

 

[Barisaxman]

I use a Voicelive Play, mostly for the doubler and a touch of reverb in my in-ears mix. It's mild enough that FOH can stack another on top if they really need more verb, but in most cases works fine. The harmony setting are cool for lead vocal stuff, but i have trouble making good use of them when I'm singing backup (most of the time) because I'm already singing something other than the root notes of the chord. There a ton of great effects...and the pitch correction is certainly workable either at a low level as a "helper" or as an effect as used in some pop tunes.

 

[seanm]

I really like the Mic Mechanic. No harmony, just pitch correction. Found it really didn't work with harp.

I have played with multiple vocalists who used harmony pedals. Definitely the ones that trigger off the guitar seem to work better. But it is still a crap shoot. Some people sound ok with them, others sound "silly".

 

[Robb Fesig]

Just purchased a Voicelive 3 after using a Voicelive Perform V for about three weeks. The Voicelive 3 is amazing, and it has a room sense mic that will pick up the music around you to generate harmonies, so you don't need to run a guitar through it. That being said, the FOH can usually get you a monitor mix input that you can use, and the Voicelive 3 will generate harmonies from that.
If that's also not an option, you can enter the key of the song you're signing, and it will generate harmonies from that.
You can also specify specific notes if you want to.

In the beginning of Twilight Zone by Golden Earring, there is a part that is spoken by someone with a James Earl Jones like voice. I can't do that for real, but with the Voicelive 3 I can...
In the chorus of Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, there's a three part harmony that comes in one note at a time, you can do that as well.
In Another Thing Comin' by Judas Priest, Rob Halford doubled his voice on the recording, the Voicelive 3 can do that in real time.
Wanna sing songs and sound like a different gender? The Voicelive 3 can do that as well, pretty convincingly.

PM if you have questions, as far as I'm concerned this thing is magic in a stompbox...

 

[lil nelson]

I have a question, and this is the most current thread that has knowlegable people that use these pedals.
Ive been tasked to sing back up in our band. Since i dont have a guitar, could i set the key knob to the 5th and have it correct my pitch? What im asking is on the TC Helicon, if the song is in G major, could i set the Key selector knob to D amd let it correct my pitch. I always sing the melody, not the harmony. I cant think that fast to play bass and sing the harmony when all i "hear" in my mind is the melody. Im wondering if i could use this as a training tool to get experience

 

[tfer]

I have a question, and this is the most current thread that has knowlegable people that use these pedals.
Ive been tasked to sing back up in our band. Since i dont have a guitar, could i set the key knob to the 5th and have it correct my pitch? What im asking is on the TC Helicon, if the song is in G major, could i set the Key selector knob to D amd let it correct my pitch. I always sing the melody, not the harmony. I cant think that fast to play bass and sing the harmony when all i "hear" in my mind is the melody. Im wondering if i could use this as a training tool to get experience

TC Helicon is a brand, not a pedal.

Which pedal are you interested in?

 

[lil nelson]

C1

 

[Robb Fesig]

C1

You need something to generate a harmony and remove the "lead" portion of what you're singing, I don't think that pedal would do that.

 

[s0c9]

I own TC"s VL2 and Harmony G units..
They both work GREAT if you are lead vox and need harmonies.
The VL2 will let you remove teh lead vox and sing like a girl - if you program it so.
However, doing mostly backing vox, I have not found an "easy" to have it do harmonies to the harmony I'm singing - as those are driven by an input signal that is the harmony baseline.
Yes, I could program the VL2 for every song/harmony the band plays.. but that's a LOT of work.. a LOT of work!
The newer devices may support this feature.. but idk..

 

[EdO.]

Apologies if this comes off as a dumb question - just trying to understand clearly. With either/both of those units if you're singing the lead vocal the unit can harmonize in key with you WITHOUT any additional input (from a guitar i.e.) to establish the key? The goal being one vocalist can create their own backup harmonies.

 

[s0c9]

Apologies if this comes off as a dumb question - just trying to understand clearly. With either/both of those units if you're singing the lead vocal the unit can harmonize in key with you WITHOUT any additional input (from a guitar i.e.) to establish the key? The goal being one vocalist can create their own backup harmonies.

On both units I have? Yes on the VL2, no on the Harmony-G..
But you have to tell the VL2 which key you are in... otherwise it has no reference point. It CAN do a number of scales per key, so you need to know if you need chromatic, major, minor, etc. It's not just pick a key and go.
The Harmony-G REQUIRES a reference signal - guitar/bass/keys

 

[tfer]

Spend the time, and learn to sing harmony.

The ability to 'hear' those notes will make you a better bass player, and those notes and phrases will begin to show up in your playing.

And the ability to sing harmony will get you gigs.

 

[EdO.]

I can pick out and sing harmonies no issues. I'm fortunate in the band I'm in having 3 pretty decent vocalists (that is if I'm considering myself to be in the "decent" category...). Was just curious what these things are actually capable of. Seems kinda like cheating using one (assuming they work in the manner I'm envisioning), but the end product the audience hears is what counts. I'm not above cheating just a bit if the end product requires it.

 

[s0c9]

I can pick out and sing harmonies no issues. I'm fortunate in the band I'm in having 3 pretty decent vocalists (that is if I'm considering myself to be in the "decent" category...). Was just curious what these things are actually capable of. Seems kinda like cheating using one (assuming they work in the manner I'm envisioning), but the end product the audience hears is what counts. I'm not above cheating just a bit if the end product requires it.

I view using one of these types of devices for harmonies as being no different than bands that use "tracks".
Purists don't like either, but I know plenty of bands that use both.. ours doesn't use either.

 

[filmtex]

The Mic Mechanic is a great pedal, that doesn't require a guitar for its pitch correction. It pushes you to the nearest chromatic note, and works great.

It also has some basic reverbs/delays and a vocal compressor.

Even if you don't use the correction, it's a great value - really cleans up the average vocal mic.

There are no harmony settings though.

Took me about two minutes to get this set for our lead vocalist. He has many decades experience and was quite sceptical at first. Now he insists I bring it to every show. Yesterday I left it at home and he was "forced" to use just the Microverb slap-echo. I found it all rather amusing. All that to say, the Mic Mechanic has been a great addition to my set-up. Highly recommended. I don't use the pitch correction though. Don't see the need I guess. YMMV

 

[seanm]

All that to say, the Mic Mechanic has been a great addition to my set-up. Highly recommended. I don't use the pitch correction though. Don't see the need I guess. YMMV

Try using just a little bit of the pitch correction, it can really add to the tone. I used to use a bit (first notch I think?) with our singer to make him sound "bigger", but it failed miserably when he played harmonica

 

[G On Bass]

I recently bought one of the TC Helicon Perform-V units as my first foray into vocal tweaking. It's been great. It's in the classifieds now, but it did it's job to prove to me that it is a good and valuable tool. So good, in fact, that I have decided to bit the bullet and jump up to a full-blown Voicelive 3.

 

[azfatboy]

I tried the VoicePlay Live and hated it--horrible interface and hideous harmonies. I have a Mic Mechanic and I like it. I even bought some MP-75 mics to go with it. I'm actually pretty satisfied except for the occasional harmony/doubling that I would like to have.

Initially, I thought the Perform V might be worth a shot, but now I am dismayed to discover that I think i will not be happy with anything less than the VoiceLive 3...

 

[Robb Fesig]

I thought of it as cheating originally too. Then I started thinking about it this way: Your voice is an instrument, and it's not considered cheating to use effects on an instrument, right?
Even using tracks really isn't "cheating" when you're still playing your instruments live along with the tracks.
Cheating = Lip Syncing