TC Helicon Play Acoustic

[jstegeman]

Originally Posted by 121

I have no experience using body-rez with K&K, but with-in a few weeks plan to have a guitar with K&K mini and the T.C Helicon Play Acoustic.

I had always assumed body-rez would work well with a K&K mini pick-up system.

Before I possibly make an expensive mistake, would you mind sharing the reasons you would not use body-rez with K&K ?

thank you

Bodyrez is basically EQ + compression. As far as I can see on mine, there is no EQ settings apart from the bodyrez

[Joe F]

There are also Advanced Paremetric EQ, Shelf EQ and Compression settings that are hidden. These are detailed on Page 54 of the manual.

[jstegeman]

Originally Posted by Joe F

There are also Advanced Paremetric EQ, Shelf EQ and Compression settings that are hidden. These are detailed on Page 54 of the manual.

Yes, but those are part of BodyRez, not a generic EQ setting.

[Woodstock School Of Music]

I have a Voice Live 3 and it has the body rez patches but I've never been impressed with them. Maybe I need to go back and revisit them

[jstegeman]

Originally Posted by The dman

I have a Voice Live 3 and it has the body rez patches but I've never been impressed with them. Maybe I need to go back and revisit them

According to http://support.tc-helicon.com/entrie...-Play-Acoustic and http://www.tc-helicon.com/en/generic...available-now/ BodyRez on the VL3 is not the same as on the Play Acoustic.

Note - the comment on that first link about not being able to store guitar settings with a preset is no longer true with the latest firmware.

[Woodstock School Of Music]

Originally Posted by jstegeman

According to http://support.tc-helicon.com/entrie...-Play-Acoustic and http://www.tc-helicon.com/en/generic...available-now/ BodyRez on the VL3 is not the same as on the Play Acoustic.

Thanks good to know because I was never clear on that

[Carbonius]

Originally Posted by 121

I have no experience using body-rez with K&K, but with-in a few weeks plan to have a guitar with K&K mini and the T.C Helicon Play Acoustic.

I had always assumed body-rez would work well with a K&K mini pick-up system.

Before I possibly make an expensive mistake, would you mind sharing the reasons you would not use body-rez with K&K ?

thank you

Hi there. I may have misunderstood "body-rez". In the videos, the TC guys talk about de-quacking and helping your UST. I ASSUMED this put it in the realm of the Fishamn Aura where UST's are the focus. If the eq settings in the Play Acoustic are optimized for UST's, then it would sound bad with a K&K. So that is where my question came from. I am still learning myself. I can't try before I buy, so I am looking for info and corrections on my errors!

Does anybody use the Play Acoustic with a K&K??

EDIT: I tread searching around the TC Helicon Forum and found several answers. In short, it seems to work fine. Some threads had settings posted. Here are links to the threads;

http://support.tc-helicon.com/entrie...tic-New-Owner-

http://support.tc-helicon.com/entries/98786498-K-k

http://support.tc-helicon.com/entrie...7-K-and-K-mini

http://support.tc-helicon.com/entrie...-play-acoustic

[GibbyPrague]

This is similar to my set up, i have the Play Acoustic but use it only for vocal ehancement and harmonies, dont even run my guitar through it, mainly as there is no 1/4 guitar output which is the single biggest error they made with Play Acoustic.

I instead run my guitar through an Aura spectrum DI and connect the Zoom G3 effects unit to the Aura. I also use the G3 looper rather than Play acoustic.

I do like the play acoustic a lot for vocals, it makes one punch above their weight and the harmonies, once dialled in properly can add a massive amount of dimension.

Originally Posted by steve_mac

Been a play acoustic user for a while and yes the looper is upto 60 seconds and you can eq to your hearts content and no the switches aren't noisy.
Cheers Steve

[Carbonius]

Another question, is the looper pre or post effects?? Can it be changed??

It's important. I like laying a dryer base track, then throwing on some reverb and or delay and soloing over top. I don't want the base track to change. With the POD HD500 you can switch pre/post on the fly.

[Carbonius]

So as I now understand it, if you want the loops to be in stereo (yes please) AND have the ability to undo them (yes please), you only get 15 seconds of looping time??? That's very bad... that's like 1980's bad! have they updated it since this post??? -> http://support.tc-helicon.com/entrie...f-looping-time

The situation is further complicated by having no 1/4 out. If you want looping to be post effects, you then have to run it through a DI or adapter to get form XLR to 1/4. I imagine it's best to use a DI so you don't have signal full off. I VERY rarely use looping pre-effects. I guess it's fine for people who never change effects but, not me. So this all-in-one pedal is suddenly a pedal board;

Play Acoustic + Switch 3 + DI + looper... + ditto mic looper if you want to loop vocals with undo and stereo. (EDIT) could replace "DI + looper" with another Ditto mic looper.

Why have all this lush reverb and amazing chorus without looping in stereo?? Doesn't make sense. Instead of having 500 presets (who needs that many presets???) boost the looper to 90 seconds, in stereo & with all the features. I'd give up 250 presets for that.

[Irish Pennant]

Originally Posted by Carbonius

So as I now understand it, if you want the loops to be in stereo (yes please) AND have the ability to undo them (yes please), you only get 15 seconds of looping time??? That's very bad... that's like 1980's bad! have they updated it since this post??? -> http://support.tc-helicon.com/entrie...f-looping-time

The situation is further complicated by having no 1/4 out. If you want looping to be post effects, you then have to run it through a DI or adapter to get form XLR to 1/4. I imagine it's best to use a DI so you don't have signal full off. I VERY rarely use looping pre-effects. I guess it's fine for people who never change effects but, not me. So this all-in-one pedal is suddenly a pedal board;

Play Acoustic + Switch 3 + DI + looper... + ditto mic looper if you want to loop vocals with undo and stereo.

Why have all this lush reverb and amazing chorus without looping in stereo?? Doesn't make sense. Instead of having 500 presets (who needs that many presets???) boost the looper to 90 seconds, in stereo & with all the features. I'd give up 250 presets for that.

I once had the Play Acoustic pedal and returned it for the exact reason you described. Along with that, the version I had seemed to be tailored more for the vocalist and I'm primarily an instrumentalist.

[Marty C]

Carbonius,
I have a K & K in a Martin dread. Hated it at first. Then I tried adjusting the amount of Bodyrez applied. Mine is now lowered to 60%. This helped since it didn't need as much as my guitars with a UST.

I also use a k & k preamp occasionally to adjust the low, mid and high frequencies on the fly. Don't always need it, but in some cases the system I may play into may need just a little tweak here or there. I don't want to change the presets for just one venue so I use this preamp for EQ to better match the venue.

Maybe I replied earlier. Can't remember. If so, I apologize for repeating myself.

[Carbonius]

Originally Posted by Marty C

Carbonius,
I have a K & K in a Martin dread. Hated it at first. Then I tried adjusting the amount of Bodyrez applied. Mine is now lowered to 60%. This helped since it didn't need as much as my guitars with a UST.

I also use a k & k preamp occasionally to adjust the low, mid and high frequencies on the fly. Don't always need it, but in some cases the system I may play into may need just a little tweak here or there. I don't want to change the presets for just one venue so I use this preamp for EQ to better match the venue.

Maybe I replied earlier. Can't remember. If so, I apologize for repeating myself.

Hi Marty. Nope, I don't see you elsewhere in this thread. Thanks for the reply! The more info the better.

I keep rethinking this pedal. I really wanted an "all in one" but that just isn't the reality for me. I have been reading about many other types of pedals and there's just no way getting around it. I need multiple pedals for what I want to do. Even the popular Zoom G3 has horrible loop time once you include stereo and undo feature. 15 seconds, just like the Play Acoustic. I am a tweaker so I really like that I can dial in features more so with this pedal. The Boss VE-8 seems better for live adjustments, as all the buttons are right there. However almost all the effects are missing a key editting parameter. Like there's no depth on the chorus. Delay is missing parameters I like as well.

The POD HD500 looper layout is great. It has reverse, half time play once and the undo/redo option works great. You press it anytime while the sequence is playing and it applies the undo/redo to the end of the sequence. The problem is that the pedal switches are horribly loud! I guess it was made for the screaming loud electric stages! Also, my guitar constantly clips the signal. I may have a bad K&K transducer and/or connection. Just pressing on the bridge a little hard makes a "POP" sound in the speakers and then no signal for 1+ seconds. Although when I run direct through a DI box to a PA it's fine. I have to investigate it further. I just might be a compatibility issue. The POD has some input settings that I should mess with.

[gamazz50]

I;'ve been trying to set up my looping function on play acoustic to loop voice and guitar . i'm only getting voice. the manual seems to think i know how but i cant figure it out and if you can can you use it differently in different presets. thanks?

[rick1ryan]

I'm really digging the Play Acoustic but one problem. I cannot find out how to set the HIT button to momentary for harmonize. The Harmony Singer does this beautifully. Please tell me they didn't leave that feature off this newer pedal.