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More on the Digitech Vocalist Live 4 Harmonizer
11:08 am by Ryan in Musician Gear, Live Performance Tips
A quick update for those that saw my previous entry on the Digitech Vocalist Live 4 Harmonizer. Amazing as it is, yes I did convince my wife that we needed it before we bought a new refrigerator. Not sure how I pulled that off, but it was something about being able to make more money with this unit than with a new ice box.
So, I’ve had some time to live with the unit and get used to it. I am starting to do some custom settings on the guitar effects, but maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.
Once again, let me give you a quick overview of what it does. You plug your guitar and microphone into the unit and send one (or two, for stereo) of various outputs to your PA system. Whenever you want harmonies, you tap a button on the unit with your foot. While you’ve been playing, it’s been listening to the last 30 seconds of music to programmatically figure out your key via your guitar chords. Hit the harmony button, and it synthesizes just the right harmonies for the passage you’re in—usually changing keys automatically, if that’s required. You can choose the type of preset harmonies that you’d like, from The Eagles, to CSN to gospel choir, via up and down foot switches. There is a bank of 50 presets that you can’t modify, and 50 mirror presets that you can mess with.
There is an effects footswitch that kicks in some nice guitar/vocal effects. These effects change with the vocal harmony setting, but on a second bank of 50 mirrored presets, you can make and save changes to them.
While most of us basically flip out when we try this unit, working with it a while reveals some minor irritants that need to be addressed—mostly through technique. I’d advise practicing with this thing for five or ten hours before you take it to a gig. For one, having the vocals suddenly jump in behind you requires the same discipline you need when singing harmonies with humans. You have to keep it together and stay on your note, no matter how much you want to pay attention to the beautiful sound of harmonies. It’s something like, “Man, that sounds good. Oh crap, I just lost my part.”
When you’re singing harmonies “for real,” you will usually have to change the notes of some of the voices to track the chord progression you’re in. Quite often you’ll also notice that one of the voices sustains on the same note, because there are notes from one chord to the next that are the same. For instance, change from a G to a C on your guitar, and the triad for G (GBD), and the triad for C (CEG) have the G in common. If the voicing is placed in a particular order, then a person singing a G note may sustain that G through the change—this has been going on since Bach first did four-part, so it’s nothing new.
Okay, but what about the notes that change? The unit tracks it pretty quick, but a couple of execution techniques on your part (yes, literally on your part) will make it better. For one, sing confidently. If you’re using the unit during harmonies, it really wants to “hear” the notes. Sing to softly and the harmonies will either cut out or not track correctly because it can’t hear your voice—the basis of the entire triad that it’s trying to build.
Second, the unit needs to hear your guitar well. Make sure the guitar is turned up enough. If it’s a little too loud, you can use the unit’s guitar volume control to turn down the guitar signal coming out of the unit and going to the PA.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you drive your guitar volume so hard that it distorts. You will still have to be aware of unity gain/gain staging issues that I talk about in my Live Sound clinics. Just make sure the signal is good and solid, and you may have to turn up from your guitar volume itself, when you decide to finger pick. It still works very well—CSN’s Helplessly Hoping sounded great.
Next, I get slightly more accurate harmonies when I either jump into the chord change or lag the entry of the vocal just a fraction of a second during the chord change. This is more critical in some songs than others, and it sounds more difficult than it is. If you’re a decent guitarist and/or singer it won’t be a problem. I play CSN’s Suite: Judy Blue Eyes in modal tuning and it has a much easier time when I use this technique.
Finally, there is a built in tuner that is incredibly easy to access in the unit. You simply hold down the guitar/effects button for a few seconds and it shows up in the LED display panel at the top. It also cuts your guitar off, so no one has to listen to you tune. It is a chromatic tuner, which means it works with your open tuning too. You should always use it because the unit pitch-corrects the voices to concert pitch. It doesn’t matter if you capo up or down, or retune to a non-standard tuning, the vocals will keep up with you if you use the tuner to make sure you’re on par.
Like everyone else you’re reading out here in the cybersphere, I love this unit. I’ll be using it as a solo, and in bands, I’m sure. I’ve even thought of hiring myself out as a sideman guitarists—and entire backup vocal section. I can be The Pips and half the band, all by myself!
DigiTech Vocalist Live 4 Harmonizer: Rare Product Review
11:05 am by Ryan in Musician Gear
I rarely write about specific products, but I’ve just been blown away by the DigiTech Vocalist Live 4 Harmonizer. I was treated to a demo (it’s best to set an appointment for a slow period during the day) by the friendly folks at the North Dallas Guitar Center, 4519 LBJ Freeway, in Farmers Branch, Texas–a suburb of Dallas. They set me up with the system in their PA room and let me have at it. The results were stunning.
First of all, what is this thing anyway? The DigiTech Vocalist Live 4 Harmonizer is a device that actually creates harmonies–up to four parts–to back your real-time vocal while you’re singing the lead or one of the parts. I’m not talking oohs and ahhs here, I mean it recreates the exact words that you’re singing. It uses your guitar to determine what key you’re in, so it usually follows key changes nicely. It is designed for live situations, but probably is a shade too synthesized for the studio. I don’t think your live audience will be able to tell, however.
The basic set up is a real piece of cake. Just plug in your microphone and guitar, and take two leads out (one guitar, one voice) for your board or snake. Adjust the volumes of guitar, lead voice and background voices on the front panel, and you’re ready to start playing. I’m sure you can make it more complicated if you want to start tweaking, but getting you up and running is really easy.
The unit has about 100 presets that I could find. You roll through them by tapping the up or down buttons with your foot. In short, easy to understand descriptive names, you can usually tell what the effect is going to be. For instance, the ”CSN” setting puts Crosby, Stills and Nash-style harmonies on what ever you’re singing. If you place it on the “7 bridges” setting and sing Seven Bridges Road by the Eagles, it totally nails the harmonies–but this is the only setting I see that references a specific song.
For the hour that I worked with the unit, I threw everything at it that I could think of. America, Eagles, CSN&Y, originals, Styx (nailed that a capella part in the beginning of Renegade), etc. The first time I opened my mouth and started singing, I couldn’t help but laughing out loud in my amazement. The feeling never left as I ran down a list of old favorites.
For my solo playing, this is an obvious boost in sound and enjoyment for me and my audience. I got to thinking of other situations, too. One of my biggest challenges of putting together bands for pickup gigs, is that the harmonies usually take a lot of time to work out, especially on the originals. It’s also a lot easier to find musicians who can play, but can’t sing. This would be a great stop gap measure to get the band up to a full vocal sound, even if only the lead singer were ready. I could also use it to work vocalists in, turning off the harmonizer once everyone felt confident to sing their parts.
This will be my next major equipment purchase. Now I just need to convince my wife that we need to buy it before we get a new refrigerator!
A musician should also be a “tech”
7:59 pm by Ryan in Live Performance Tips
Last Saturday night I was setting up to play with my buddies at a coffeehouse in a church in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Church-sponsored coffeehouses are a time-honored tradition in Dallas, the oldest of which is the famous Uncle Calvin’s. Church or no church, things can get pretty raucous at these events, so you still hear some pretty edgy stuff, albeit usually on acoustic instruments.
In the middle of set-up we ran into a problem with the direct boxes, or so we thought. Direct boxes or “DIs” are boxes that let you plug your guitar-style quarter-inch plug into a three-pronged low-impedance input called an XLR or Cannon connector (like a microphone cable ), which is what all the snake inputs are. Our sound technician couldn’t get the DI-fed acoustic guitar channels–10 and 11–to make a sound, either in the mains or the monitors. He switched the direct boxes out three times with no change in result.
I took one of the guitars and plugged it into a guitar amp just to make sure it wasn’t the instrument, but the guitar worked perfectly in the onstage amp. Meanwhile the two channels were still dead. Not a sound when we plugged the guitar back into the direct boxes.I said, “Guys, it has to be at the board.” The sound engineer protested, saying that the board was set up right. I asked if I could look it over. “Go ahead,” he said, as if to say, “You won’t find anything.”
I checked the channels for muting. I compared the cannels to the channels around them. I checked the bussing switches to the mains and the sub-mixes. I checked the faders. I glanced in the back where there was no light, but saw something disturbing.
“Would it cause a problem if the snake wasn’t plugged into channels 10 and 11?” I asked.
“Oh, sh*t,” was the response.
Problem solved. Next.
While my friend, C. Aaron Moore and his band “The Issues,” performed the first set, I got into a “discussion” with a fellow band-member about problems with the mix. He was hearing one of the vocalists louder than the others. Now, I’d been all over the room and the mix was pretty good, but my friend just couldn’t stand what he was hearing.
I worked to get the sound right, which was complicated by the fact that the PA board was in the back of the room in the corner, in a box with an open window to the performance hall. The sound in the hall was fully twice of what it was in the booth, but the booth sound was surprisingly pretty mixable. After I got the “vocal in question” to sit in the mix a little better, I realized at least part of the problem. My fellow band-member was sitting 10 feet from the back wall of the hall. He was in the worst seat in the house, with the sound waves reflecting from the back wall and cancelling a lot of the frequencies–possibly even reinforcing others. Once I walked into the sweet spot in the middle of the room, the vocals were actually now a bit low in the mix.
What else helps vocals sit in the mix? Well, vocals are one of the most dynamic “instruments,” meaning the can be very loud, very soft, somewhere in between, and can change on a dime. Great for emotional delivery, but it drives the person at the mixer crazy trying to get the vocal to mix well with the rest of the music. The answer is a compressor. The compressor will turn the loud sound down (in a fraction of a second) and the soft sound up. This more even sound lets you pretty much set and forget the vocals, because where you mix them is where they tend to remain in the mix with the other instruments.
Want to know more? For a FREE whitepaper report on phase cancellation, click here. For lots of equipment, promotion, songwriting and music career management knowledge, go to http://www.GigsterClinics.com/merch.htm.
Ryan Michael Galloway IS the Alpha Gigster of Gigster Clinics. Performer, mentor, author, and songwriter. See his videos on YouTube. Be his friend at MySpace.
Whatever you do, don’t spill crap on your amps and gear
7:50 am by admin in Musician Gear
The worst time I ever had worrying about liquids hitting my gear was when some drunk hobo was standing over my monitor and pedalboard with a beer bouncing up and down. Yes, I have spent too much time cleaning sticky crap out of my gear. While you might not be able to control the smelly guy hanging over your gear with his Miller Lite, you can control what liquids of yours land on your stuff. I do, and I use the Mic Caddy.
The Mic Caddy will fit any standard-sized mic stand and/or music stand, and is removable.
The cheapest place I have found them is at Musicians Friend, but let me know if you find it somewhere cheaper.
Welcome to Performidable.com
7:51 am by admin in Musician Gear, Book Reviews, Band Merchandise Tips, Touring Tips, Live Performance Tips
We are going to be working hard at providing the most relevant news, gear, books, and tips for managing your music enterprise.
This is our soft launch, under the radar, but we will be making some major announcements soon.
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