PROCESS LIVE VOCALS

[bmast160]

Great! Some questions... 1) why avoid tc helicon? Like one of the reviewers said, there's no output control, so you'd be messing with the sensitive input everytime you wanted to turn down. Also, the one reviewer, who sounded knowledgeable, said the only thing that worked on the Correct model was the de-esser. So $250 for a mic pre and de-esser? Or $250 for a mic pre and delay OR reverb on the Create model? Lame. 2) what do you think of this...it has eq and some reverb etc already in it...good reviews http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Mackie-DFX12-12x2-Mixer-with-Effects?sku=634264 I had one and didn't think it sounded very good. Once again, $250 for a few mic pres, delay OR reverb, and only a 5-band graphic eq, which effects all instruments plugged into it. 3) How would i run the behringer eq and delay on vocals...they have instrument ins/outs...and arent they designed for guitar? After you use a mic pre, you come out of the 1/4"/guitar/instrument outputs (or fx loop) and your signal will work fine with guitar pedals. My Behringer reverb pedal sounds awesome on voice, but delay sounds even better. 4) If i eq using the mixer...why would i want to eq again with the behringer eq pedal? Think of sound with four parts: lo, lo mid, hi mid, and hi. A mixer's hi-knob can be turned down to avoid "essy" sibilance (small graphic eq's don't reach hi enough for that). A mixer's mid is the hi mid at 2.5kHz, 1 octave--crank that sucker for your main voice-tone. You'll still have some honk from the lower mids though, between 200Hz and 800Hz. A $30 guitar graphic eq will give you three sliders to avoid the honk. You'll also have two more sliders to thicken your hi-midrange. This isn't going to sound perfect, but for live performance it should sound okay. For recording, you'll want to get the $300, digital dynamic eq from Behringer. It'll let you compress any shape you want: a small "scoop" in the bass, a wide "scoop" in the lower mids, etc., and those scoops will uncompress as you sing softer. If you were only going to record, I'd say get the $29 Art mic pre on sale at MF, the $300 digital eq, and a Behringer delay pedal with Dano wallwart for $40. Pretty sure the Deq has a noisegate as well, but I don't think it has a "sidechain eq" that keeps hi's and lo's from opening the gate--which is critical. 5) Do you need to have the multigate? I looked at it but am unsure of what it does? Just prevent feedback? Do most people have something like this? How do they handle feedback? Is it a huge issue? For live use it's the biggest issue of all. Pro sound guys use these or more expensive versions, like the $1,000+ Drawmers. They not only prevent feedback, but bleed-through of other instruments (esp. drums) onto your vocal mic, makig the mix sound horrible. Do not use those cheap gates found on compressors or those digital notch filters that "hunt" for feedback. You might not need all 4 of the Multigate's channels, but just one channel is worth the $100. One other cheap option is the Behringer VoicePro for $100. You get mic pre, noisegate, compressor, pretty nice eq, and a de-esser. It gets fairly good reviews, and will help you learn how everything works. And once again, you can run guitar pedals after it for fx.

gotcha...that makes sense now.

you love behringer!

[tubetonez]

The VoicePad products are very good, I plan to get them. You would need both units to do what you want, the "Correct" does compression, autoEQ, and pitch correct. The "Create" does delays, reverbs & other FX. I'm currently using the Digitech Vocalist Live 2 for harmonies, I love this box it really helps fill out the live vocals. There are several articles and reviews here.

[bmast160]

The VoicePad products are very good, I plan to get them. You would need both units to do what you want, the "Correct" does compression, autoEQ, and pitch correct. The "Create" does delays, reverbs & other FX. I'm currently using the Digitech Vocalist Live 2 for harmonies, I love this box it really helps fill out the live vocals. There are several articles and reviews here.

damnit. some people love them and some say they are crap.

[tubetonez]

damnit. some people love them and some say they are crap.

Well, it won't work right for everything, but it does work quite well for a lot of stuff. It takes a little patience and experimentation, but right out of the box I was able to do several songs right away and got a respectable sound that I'd use in a live setting. Of course you do have to sing in key, and in my opinion this helps me to sing in key because you can hear the chord made with the harmony - and if you're off, everybody's off! Stuff like the 3rd harmony line in STP's Interstate Love Song is a piece of cake. One lower and one higher harmony, and Sweet Emotion is spot on if you play the hidden "D" chord. Shooting Star also sounds great with this setting on the chorus. You do have to learn to kick it on and off for the appropriate sections, which is sometimes not as easy as it would seem.