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Stage (and/or studio) vocal stomp boxes


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Hi folks, I've been out of the performance and recording loop for a while, and I plan to get back into it primarily as a vocalist, and I'm curious about the vocal processors available. A quick look around the web showed stuff mostly fro T.C. Helicon, and some Boss stuff.

 

My initial concern are boxes that have high quality chorus, delay, and reverb, with the emphasis on chorus. I know many boxes today have cool processes for pitch correction, custom and other cool effects, but the core effects is what I'm interested in, specifically with chorus. Are there any boxes out there that have evolved the chorus process, or is it still old school with these units? Not that I'm against old school chorus effects, but I'm curious if anyone's evolved the process to sound more realistic. I plan to start doing some live gigs, and I want something that gives me more realistic multi-tracking, that effectively replicates double, or even triple or more multi voice tracking (not necessarily harmonized :-D). Also, the ability to stack and stomp individual processes in and out, like reverb, delay, and chorus, or possibly from one stack process layer to another is understandably useful and desirable..

 

Although the use of such arifacts if acceptable, is welcome.

 

Anyway, and help with this is appreciated, thanks.

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Frankly, I cringe anytime I see a vocalist show up a vocal stomp box d'jour. There are some truly capable devices out there, but very few vocalist that take the time to set them up correctly. The presets are generally there to show off what it can do and there is nothing tastefully about the way they're implemented. I've only had a handful of good experiences with them as a FOH guy.

 

Usually it's with a solo guitar/singer act that has spent a lot of time listening objectively to someone else sing into so he could get the correct blend and effects levels for his presets rather than listening through headphones and over saturating his vocals with effects, not taking the occlusion affect from his own voice into consideration.

 

The only time it's really worked with a fully band, the vocalist came prepared and handed me a dry mic signal and his effects pedal signal and asked if I would please make sure the dry signal was predominant, but that the effects mix has some specific delays and reverb tails that he wanted me to mix in to the main mix, but not the monitor sends. He had again spent a lot of time getting the effects mix so that all I had to do was ride the fader a little and it sounded great.

 

Most of the time however, vocalist use them without setting them up correctly, with no regard to how it sounds in the house mix and saturating the monitor sends so bad the whole thing becomes a festival of feedback. Don't be that guy. Get help with it if you need it and learn how to use it to help your sound, not boost your ego. Hope that gives you something to think about.

 

The Voicelive 3 should do everything your looking to do and done properly can be a good sounding unit.

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I've been using vocal processors for every one of my last 800-ish shows over the last 15 years. Just like guitar processing, done right it's fine.

 

Why chorus? Do you have a specific need for that particular effect? While it's available in many processors, it's not a mainstay of modern vocal effect pedals. Doubling and detuning "uMod" as TC-Helicon calls it, is used to thicken the vocal and give it more body and can be part of a base effect you'd want in most songs where the vocals are not supposed to sound effected.

 

I'm a TC-Helicon fan and would suggest the VoicePlayLive for an all in one unit that gives you a ton of options, is easy to program, small, and won't break the bank. I own one currently, along with a VoiceLive3.

 

Just keep it tasteful. Unless it's supposed to purposely sound like something other than your natural voice, avoid throwing the kitchen sink into the effects.

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Thanks for all your fear and loathing...

 

Now I remember why this place is dying. So that's two votes for a VoiceLive3 along with two user's real world anecdotal experiences. Chorus is a very short delay with an LFO. What ground breaking evolution of chorusing are you expecting?

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I will allow for the possibility that I didn't make myself entirely clear in my initial post, although I believe I did. However:

 

"Why chorus?"

Perhaps I'm using the wrong term here, or intertwining two different concepts. What I'm looking for is REALISTIC DOUBLE TRACKING, as you get when you double track in a recording. Typically this is called a "chorus" effect in effects boxes, but the "traditional" chorus effect is not what I'm looking for, it's realistic double tracking. Why would I want this? An example is a song I'll be singing, the Beatles "Fixing a Hole" The opening line is:

 

"I'm fixing a hole, where the rain gets in, and stops my mind from wondering, where it will go."

 

When McCartney sings "where it will go", the voice goes from single track, to double track. The following lyrics immediately revert back to single track, where the effect is repeated again at the end of the second line.

The chorus of the song (no pun intended) is entirely double tracked, possibly triple tracked, not sure.

 

THAT is what I want to do. I want to be able to punch in and out of single and double voicing on the fly.

 

Additionally, delay and echo are sometimes used at the end phrase of certain lyrics, either the last word or the last syllable of the last word, and then the vocal reverts to normal, non-processed mode. I want to be able to punch right in and out of delay/echo in such instances. Reverb is similarly used in songs. I want to be able to have a mild reverb for song X, and something deeper for song Y, as needed.

 

Not only do I want to have realistic double tracking and the ability to punch reverb and delay/echo in and out, I want to be able to program a box so one stomp switch may be purely double tracking, and another may be reverb, and another may be any combination of effects that I will need to use at any measure of any song at any given time.

 

Because I will be singing mostly in simple cafe-type environments where there will be simply a basic PA setup, I need to have control of vocal effect accents thrown in and out of songs as needed, because there will be no one handling those chores at the board.

 

Hopefully this is all a bit clearer.

 

So again I will ask if there are any vocal stomp boxes that can synthesize realistic double- or possibly even triple tracking? In this age of auto pitch correction, auto harmonizing, and endless amp and mic emulators, I find it hard to believe that what I'm asking for does not exist.

 

Thank you.

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I think the problem is that you are using the wrong terminology when describing what you are trying to do.

 

I think (assuming I am understanding your description correctly) you are talking about adding short delay and possibly modulating the delay time a little bit. I think some of the more advanced effects processors can do a good job of this. In the old days we would have gone with an SDE-3000 or such to do this task. In the really old days, I think they would have resorted to a tape loop.

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The Voicelive 3 should do everything your looking to do and done properly can be a good sounding unit.

 

This has the dry outputs I referenced in the same post.

 

If you're really serious about this, you could put one of these https://www.eventideaudio.com/products/rackmount/stereo-effect-processor/h7600 in your vocal rack with your pre-amp, mic splitter and wireless receiver and control it with a midi pedal.

 

 

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I'm seeing two parts to this discussion. There are a number of boxes that can product an effect similar to what you are asking about. I would recommend you go try out as many as possible to get just the flavor you hear in your head.

 

Then add it to your system. If you are in control of all of what goes on (like Abzurd) then you can have a great experience. But if you hand the signal over to a soundman (like trevcda) I would be prepared for a rocky performance. It is difficult to inject special effects to an unknown system and have it come out right. There are a number of things that will need to be dialed in and that will take some time. Assuming you have the time (which I wouldn't count on unless you are the headliner) if you make any preset changes you risk screwing up the sound.

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What you're asking for is called Doubling, not Chorus, though they're similar. Pretty much any vocal fx box has that these days. For all the change ups you want to do in real time the VoiceLive 3, at $600, has lots of flexibility and footswitches. The one Abzurd recommended, the VoiceLive Play, is only $249, but far few realtime change options. The TC-Helicon boxes are noticeable also for their auto analysis and optimization of your voice, giving the inexperienced user closer to having an experienced engineer set up the basic parameters. The TC units also have a great rep for great sounding fx.

 

Personally I'd love the power of the bigger unit, but it does have a big footprint.

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Thanks for your replies.

 

"I think (assuming I am understanding your description correctly) you are talking about adding short delay and possibly modulating the delay time a little bit."

That, technically, is the chorus effect. That is not what I'm looking for.

 

"If you're really serious about this, you could put one of these..."

That kinda defeats the whole purpose of having a stompbox in a small, 2- or 3-man music setting. ;-)

 

"Assuming you have the time (which I wouldn't count on unless you are the headliner) if you make any preset changes you risk screwing up the sound."

No, this will be strictly 2- or 3-man music setups in cafes or similar environments. Hence why I want a box I can control.

 

"What you're asking for is called Doubling, not Chorus, though they're similar."

Thanks, that MAY be it. Yes, just like one would hear when listening to a track recorded identically twice. However, there is obviously a lot of subtle timing and pitch variances when you double track, and THAT is what I want to hear effectively synthesized in an effects stompbox. So I'll have to just have a listen.

 

Something I find surprising is dearth of manufacturers making vocal stompboxes. It's basically TC-Helicon and, as far as I can tell, ONE Roland box.

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