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TC-Helicon VoiceLive Rack
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TC-Helicon VoiceLive Rack

Vocal Processor from TC-Helicon belonging to the VoiceLive series

chrislieck chrislieck

« Great but not user friendly. »

Published on 09/25/12 at 19:50
I love what these units do but they are not the easiest to work with. They state they are but as you start to want to edit the presets it becomes a bit challenging. The harmonizing is wonderful as is the presets. Following your tonic note is perfect. Now granted I use this in my studio and in that application I want to work fast when I need to edit a preset. I was doing some Queen effects and for some I like it and for some it was a bit over the top. I do recommend this unit. It does sound great. The phantom power engagement needs to be just a switch and it is too involved. It should have just been a button on the front especially on the mic stand version. It is rather intense and to much info in a small box. The best thing about this unit is the effected presets. You can start from there and to edit by touching the buttons it is easy but if you are going to start tweaking effects times and decay times or even the basic effects you will have to learn the unit really well. I don't think that it will be an automatic easy task as advertised. I was editing a preset that had auto tune effect reverb and delay and it took me some time as you have to hit the right buttons and then hit the mix button to adjust. It was not a plug and play and just start singing. I have a few bands that own them and they love them but have to get to know them.

UTILIZATION

Vocal effects. The manual is a bit confusing. As is the preset editing on the unit. I find that when your wanting to move around from preset to preset you are dealing with a great deal of issues. First you must learn the quick editing shortcuts and know them well in order to have any once of fluidity while using the unit. Second you must know a great deal about blending and uses of different effects and all the parameters that make up the one preset, otherwise you will be scratching your head. If you are not aware of what effect does what you can touch the effects buttons one at a time but that won't get you into the presets and editing parameters. I think a better manual and a quick edit feature would be better suited for this piece.

SOUND QUALITY

I use this for vocal effects in a studio only. I do not use it live. I like the long reverbs and the vocal choir effects. I love the choirs and some of the wild presets that is comes with although some are a bit dirty. For live I am sure it would be great but I am using it in a studio application and most would buy this unit for live sound or harmonies.

OVERALL OPINION

Good for the money. Sound quality is very good. User friendly it gets an average. Some companies assume that the normal musician would have an easy time editing with this unit but I don't see it that way as most singers are not familiar with blending effects and are not use to effects. I think the stock presets need to be more easy and more useful for live applications. For harmonies it is fantastic and follows every not perfectly.

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