Vocal harmonizers

[RustyAxe]

I've had no problem singing harmony in the band, and using the harmonizer to add additional harmonies to my sung harmony.
RustyAxe, I started in a band in 1967. We did 4 part harmonies back then and worked hard at them. I've had a good sense of harmony since I was 14. In all the bands I have been in, I listen to what harmonies are missing, and sing those.
At 62 I find it not as natural as it was 20 years ago, but it's still not hard.

I'm nearly 61 ... been playing since 67 too. But as I've aged, my voice doesn't go as high as it used to. Some people seem to have a natural gift for harmony, I think it's like that for me. I know the harmonizers are popular but like anything else, they ain't for everyone.

 

[jondog]

Can anyone recommend an inexpensive harmonizer pedal that will trigger from a bass. If it had pitch correction too that would be ideal! Thanks!

 

[gumtown]

My current Vocal pedal is the Boss VE-5, does all sorts of harmony, pitch correction and effects, and it mounts on my mic stand

 

[Big_Daws]

i haven't looked at the boss product, but i don't like the zooms or digtech product as i find that the higher harmonies can sound really chipmunk like...lol

i have found that the TC helicon products to sound the most natural within the price range they are in...also a very solid product. take a look for your self, they have tons of great samples on their website.

 

[RustyAxe]

Can anyone recommend an inexpensive harmonizer pedal that will trigger from a bass. If it had pitch correction too that would be ideal! Thanks!

I don't know of any ... to auto-sense a chord they need at least two notes, usually the root of the chord and a third and MUST have the flatted third if the chord is minor. Say, for example, it senses a G and B ... now, that could be Gmajor, or it could be an Eminor ... can't tell without the root, can we? Further, on bass you'd be doing runs and fills and such, and that would confuse the crap out of a harmonizer. In essense, if you want the machine to harmonize a chord you have to give it enough input to determine what that chord is. There are programmable harmonizers that might work, and others that are triggered by midi, but I haven't had an desire to try them.

 

[gumtown]

I have been down the avenue of finding a harmonizer to sync to bass, it is not possible.
options are
1) plug in a line out from you guitarist
2) use the Voice Live Play which has internal room sense mics to get the overall band key
3) use the Boss one which just senses what your singing and makes harmony from that.

 

[jondog]

OK thanks, I'll look into #2 and #3. I only sing backup, it would be nice to get a fuller sound sometimes and my pitch is only decent so . . .

 

[RustyAxe]

The Boss unit is a decent enough vocal processor, but it's pretty bad as a harmonizer. The room mic sounds like a good idea, but my experience with other harmonizers is that if the ambient sound is picked up in the mic, as when the singer isn't singing (takes a breath, for instance), the unit will try to harmonize to the instrument! Some have included a noise gate to help, but it doesn't always.

 

[Munjibunga]

I can't stand the danged things. I've never heard one that sounded natural. It's like the thread about pitch correction, where a lot of responders said, "If you can't sing the song in tune, don't sing it." If you don't have the personnel to do harmonies, don't do them.