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Miket156's Reviews
DigiTech VLP Vocalist Live Pro Vocal Harmony Processor
Digitech Vocalist Live Pro-Studio Grade Quality at an affordable price!

‎04-09-2010 08:56 AM

Overall Rating: One of the things that I take into consideration when providing an overall rating is the overall VALUE of a piece of equipment. Based on what vocal processors by other manufacturers are selling for compared to the Vocalist Live Pro, t...
Overall Rating:

One of the things that I take into consideration when providing an overall rating is the overall VALUE of a piece of equipment. Based on what vocal processors by other manufacturers are selling for compared to the Vocalist Live Pro, this is an exception value. It is VERY easy to use, it has a color display which is easy to read in a dark night club, and it displays a lot of important information on the screen without straining my eyes. Its VERY clean, and I must add that Digitech thought of everything. Any one considering a vocal processor/harmonizer should consider the newer Digitech products when you are looking at TC Helicon and Eventide. Digitech has made great strides in improving the sound of their vocal products, and the Vocalist Pro is a lot more affordable and easier to use than competing products.

Features:

I bought this unit to replace my Digitech Vocalist that I bought in 1992. I was pleasantly surprised with how many features this unit has, considering the selling price compared to other manufacturers. It can do up to 4 part harmony, you can select exactly what notes you it to sing, and you can double your lead vocal, and add two harmony parts in addition to the doubling effect. Digitech licensed Lexicon effects and also a Sound Craft preamp. You can combine digital delay along wiht a bit of revert in parallel or series, and you can save different settings to every individual User patch. There are 99 Presets and 99 USer patches. Digitech provides a free Library software to back up the unit via its USB connection. You can choose to back up only the patches you have edited, and after copying them over to your PC, you can rearrange them in different locations on the Vocalist so you can step through your patches with a footswitch. This is convenient when you have numerous combination of patches for different songs; they can be grouped together. One of the biggest improvements in this unit is its output is at instrument level, its a hot signal. Even at high gain setup for live work, the unit is quiet. No annoying hiss.

Sound Quality:

The Vocalist Live Pro sounds great. There are so many ways to tweak the vocals in this unit that its pretty amazing, especially considering the low price for what you get. Being that Digitech licensed Lexicon FX and a Sound Craft Preamp, you know you're getting well known quality.It has stunning vocal quality. People, including other musicians, have commented on how realistic it sounds. I was playing an outdoor event at the end of last summer, and one guy I am aquainted with told me that when he drove into the parking area and heard the sound of the music, he thought a four or five piece band was providing the music. He looked a bit surprised when he walked into the event and saw little ole me providing all the music. I use full MIDI sequences with my OMB classic rock show, and when I took a break, he asked me how I was generating all the "voices". He said he thought it was real audio, not a vocal processor. Impressive.

Reliability/Durability:

I have this unit almost a year and it has been 100% reliable, so far. My previous Digitech VHM5 held up for 19 years and it was used regularly for daily practice and gigs. The Vocalist Live Pro has an excellent build quality, so I am expecting similar reliability. However, I only have it a year, so time will tell if it lasts as long as my origianal.

Purchased From: Pro Audio Star
Price: $429.00 USD
Alesis Micron Micron Analog Modeling Synth
Micron

‎10-19-2004 12:00 AM

Ease of Use: I just want to address the previous reviewers comments about Alesis. I realize that Alesis has had their share of QC problems. I've read all the horror stories. They've gone belly up, bought out, and lost a lot of good people. The main t...
Ease of Use: I just want to address the previous reviewers comments about Alesis. I realize that Alesis has had their share of QC problems. I've read all the horror stories. They've gone belly up, bought out, and lost a lot of good people. The main thing I'd be concerned about is the service organization that does their work now. However, just because you've had some problems, doesn't mean everyone has. I haven't had any trouble with my ION at all. I called Alesis before buying it, and once after with a question about the setup. They called me back with specific answers to my questions and recommended what I should do. It worked fine. They have always been very courteous and knowledgeable. Sure I'm a bit concerned about them being bought out, there's no guarantee what will happen. But their stuff is selling. As long as they stand behind their gear, I'm a customer. Give them a chance.
Alesis ION ION Analog Modeling DSP Synthesizer
ION

‎09-19-2004 12:00 AM

Overall Rating: Yes if someone stole the ION, I would get another one. It fits my music and my budget. Its the right size for my KB rig too. I've been playing KB over 40 years, have a lot of vintage gear and have just started buying new stuff for a l...
Overall Rating: Yes if someone stole the ION, I would get another one. It fits my music and my budget. Its the right size for my KB rig too. I've been playing KB over 40 years, have a lot of vintage gear and have just started buying new stuff for a live KB rig. The ION is a nice addition. What I like the most about the ION is the sound. The price/performance makes this 2004's best value. I compared it to a Korg MS200B, which I thought was a bit more harsh and less appropriate for the music I play. I also considered a DSI Poly Evolver, but the Poly alone is twice as much $$$ as the ION. So the ION was my choice for a great sound at a reasonable price. I'm glad to see Alesis is getting their act together, they went through a lot of changes of late and I'd like to see them stay in business. They are doing a great job with the less expensive synths, and have the flagship analog synth in the Andromeda. I will look to Alesis when I'm in the market for more gear, in addition to Yamaha.
Features: The 8 voice polyphony is right for this size board and the selling price of the ION. What's nice is its the price of a lead synth and is polyphonic. Not stuck with just being capable of mono lead. Some people have complained about the KB being cheap. I think its quite playable and a lot better than some of its vintage breathren that were a lot more expensive years ago. No, its not a Yamaha weighted keyboard, but if you can't play this board, you need to get your chops in order. Don't compare the action or feel of the keyboard to a $3500.00 keyboard, not only its not fair, it's unrealistic at this price. The effects are minimal on the ION, and I knew that when I bought it. I don't care, I have plenty of dedicated effects and don't want to pay for yet another reverb. Alesis did the smart thing by only putting what is really needed on the ION....Great sound and plenty of real time controls. The ION doesn't have any expansioin capabilities, but again, you're talking about a $699.00 lead synth, not a MOTIF ES. Standard Midi Capabilites, and the KB is not pressure sensitive, no after touch. I'm going to use this as a lead synth and not violins, so aftertouch isn't important to me on this board. I can use mod wheels for vibrato if necessary, but I don't see that adding after touch and making the ION more money would fit into its target price range. The on-board arpegiator patterns are set, they're not step or user programmable. Big Whoop. I wonder how many times I've needed a arpegiator? Not often.
Sound Quality: The sound, the real time controls, great selection of filters, the user interface that you can operate via the LCD screen are what makes the ION what it is. 3 OSC per voice with the standard wave forms. You can soft sync or hard sync the ocs which is a nice idea. Sometimes hard sync is too much for editing a patch to get the results you want. The pots are 360 degree pots with high resolution (12 bit) so you don't hear any steps, very smooth. You can change octave up/down on each osc, or on all 3 osc at once with front panel controls. The buttons on the front panel are small, are the right size for the size of the board, and work great. You have the option of monitoring every change you make to a patch on the LCD screen, or shut it off for live playing so you know where you are and can move to one patch or the other with the master program pot. Alesis did a great job of putting the most often used controls on the front panel, and other parameters are easy to get to using the LCD screen. You can find what you're looking for just by touching a pot for the parameter you want to change and it comes up on the screen. It makes ADSR changes a lot easier and faster because you can see the slope on the fly and make the appropriate changes. The envelopes are controlled with the same 5 pots so you can't change the amp and filter settings at the same time, but again, there's only so much room for the pots Alesis put on the ION without making it a bigger box. That's really not a problem for me, I usually only work with one parameter at a time anyway. The envelopes have six stages besides the usual ADSR. There are also length settings for decay and sustain. Very cool. The mod matrix is like using a modular synth. The operation reminds me of some of the vintage synths capabilities. Its an up to date replica of an analog synth, without a lot of the short comings. You can set "drift" if you really want and to what degree you You can detune the oscillators to fatten up the sound and make it sound as analog as the ION sounds. Also has a 40 band vocoder to keep you amused. As I mentioned previously, the KB doesn't have aftertouch, but again, it sells for around $699.00 so they had to cut corners somewhere. KB with after touch is getting to be the exception rather than the rule.
Reliability/Durability: I've only had this less than a month but I'm really happy with it. None of the problems that the early OS had, it works flawlessly. I'm actually pleasantly surprised just how capable the ION is and I'm sure I'll have years of service from this board. I would use this for giggin without a back up. Although at the selling price of the ION, I could actually afford a spare!
Ease of Use: OS V1.05.
The Presets that come on the ION give you an idea of the variety of sounds that you can program on this board. There are some that are a scream, for instance Red Bank #11-Sizzler. Play a low note on this patch and move up Mod Wheel 2, awesome. I primarily play classic rock and wanted a VA that sounds like some of my old analogs without having to carry them around and deal with drift and not enough program memory as is typical with the vintage gear. There's anice selection of lead sounds, lioke Stix Mini, Lucky Porta MWZ, Framkemstein (Edgar Winter Group) and numerous other lead sounds.' I also like the wide array of sound effects patches. Although I'll only use a few of the factory sound effects, I can program my own and replace sounds I won't use. The ION has 512 patch storage, so there's plenty of room. I've been making modifications of some existing patches I can use, and making a list of patches that are expendable for patches of my own. The ION is quite usable right out of the box, and will only get better as you put time into it with your own stuff.
Manual is straight forward. It gets to the point and tells you what you need to know.
Customer Support: I called Alesis two times. Once when I was trying to determine if I should buy a used ION off EBAY or pass on it. Tech support was very objective about the used ION I was considering. They told me what they knew about the problems they had with OS 1.00, which the used board still had on it. They didn't try to talk me into a new one, they just told me what they knew. The second time I called was right after I got a NEW ION, asked for some advice on getting an expression pedal to work with it properly. The tech I got on the phone didn't know the ION well enough and told me he would have someone call me back shortly. Within 20 minutes I get a call back and got the info I was looking for. Also-I sent in the form for the free gig bag and got my bag in 10 days. Alesis also sent me their 2004 catalog and a bunch of other promo stuff and a nice thank you letter. Nice touch. Nicely done Alesis. I will look to Alesis again when I'm in the market for other things they make.
Price: $600.00 USD
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Date Registered ‎06-26-2004 01:49 PM
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