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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!
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