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How would it know the key with just a single voice? Not saying there isn't such a thing, subbed for learnin'.
Or the chord, for that matter. Unless you give the processor some guidance, it ain't gonna know.
Yes, some units allow you to set the key and type through hardware or via soft menus.
Others can be programmed to change patches in response to MIDI pc messages, and some units will generate harmonies following MIDI note information. In those MIDI-fied cases, if your band plays against a click run from (or synced to) a sequencer, you can program a MIDI track to handle how your harmonizers work.
Others can be programmed to change patches in response to MIDI pc messages, and some units will generate harmonies following MIDI note information. In those MIDI-fied cases, if your band plays against a click run from (or synced to) a sequencer, you can program a MIDI track to handle how your harmonizers work.
... and the TCH VoiceWorks rack units, etc. It goes at least as far back as some of the early Digitech Vocaliser series.
I was just looking at a DigiTech Vocalist on the 'net and it requires played chord input from what I read.
Maybe the "Vocaliser" is a different unit?
I'm pretty sure that the Voice Live claims to do this. I can't say how well it works, but I believe there is a built-in microphone that tries to figure out the key & current chords for automatic harmonies.
Yeah the TC Helicon VoiceLive units, at least the recent higher end ones, have multiple approaches: they have the standard "plug your guitar through the unit and the chords tell the unit the key," but also the ability to use near-real time key detection microphones that detect the key ambiently from your band playing, and also the ability to set the key manually in the interface.
There's also a pedal-format option, the TCH VoiceTone C1, that has a knob to select the key manually.
There's also a pedal-format option, the TCH VoiceTone C1, that has a knob to select the key manually.
Naw, that was just me typing on TB while doing three other things at work and trying to remember pieces stored *way* back in my gear room. Digitech Studio Vocalist. You *can* play chords via MIDI, but the front panel has a keyboard style set of front-panel buttons so you can enter the key with one button push. (If you want a new scale quality, you'd still have to change that via rotary encoder.)
Eventide units do that. Haven't tried my H9 with vocals. But you can either use algorithms that allow you to enter the key of the song. Or you can simply choose "harmless", well in most cases harmless intervalls like the 4 or the 5 or the octave.
I have a TC Helicon Voice Live, the original one. Never used it with a band - too complex for me to figure out. Very high quality, though. It will generate just about any harmony you want, and you can program the footswitches for different songs, etc. You can find the elaborate user manual on their site if you want to see what it will do. I might be willing to sell mine.
Band in a box has built in TC Helicon harmonizer. Type in the chord, the bars light up to show you song position for the correct harmonies for the bar
I have the VoiceLive 3, and I can confirm it does all this. Obviously being a bassist I don't really use the "guitar chord" method. The pedal does have a mic, and can use "RoomSense" to try and auto-detect the key, but frankly the result is rarely what I actually wanted. So I usually just create a preset with harmonies at my desired interval. You can also use "Steps" to configure different intervals (or number of voices, etc) for different parts of the song. Yes, you can easily turn a super easy song (e.g. Boulevard of Broken Dreams) into a tap-dancing nightmare, but it works...
Ancient Eventides did it. It created the same interval to every pitch, which may work for barbershop, or Gregorian chants, but really isn't musical.
