All-IN-One multi-effects for VOCALS and Acoustic Guitar?

[resorte]

I am a new solo acoustic live performer doing all originals with a slightly surreal/unnatural sound. For my own headliner gigs, I have my own PA, mixer, rack effects, etc but I have upcoming gigs that are in-between-er slots for other full bands where I will be expected to setup, play, and breakdown very quickly while running through the other bands PA rather than bring tons of my own gear. I want to retain the effects and control over my sound from the stage in a quick/simple all-in-one kind of set-up so I do not have to count on communicating with someone else to get the sound I want. Most ideal would be a floor multi-effects unit that is made for the solo performing acoustic singer/songwriter and handles simultaneously vocals and guitar that can be sent direct to the PA board. I have not found such an item and so I am also looking for the right sort of acoustic and vocal floor multi-effects processors (1 each) that I can run direct to the board.

Artificial vocal harmony is NOT what I am going for here. With my own PA setup I use compression, EQ, chorus, vocal doubling, and verb. For guitar, pretty much the same with some delay.

Can anyone recommend an all-in-one unit for guitar and vocals? Or possibly separate acoustic or vocal multi-effects floor units that will go straight into the board? Price is not a factor. I do like the idea of USB patch editing and back-up. I purchased my acoustic guitar with a pick-up installed under the saddle, it does have a battery. I am not sure if I'll need a DI box but usually I just plugged the guitar cable right into my Mackie mixer with my own setup.

Thanks in advance for tips/recommendations.

[Brent Nelson]

I haven't test driven this unit from TC Helicon, but I've always wanted to. My needs are quite similar to yours. I know you're not looking for harmonies....but from what I read, this does all those things you're looking for PLUS the harmonies. It's pricey though (I've just kept my own PA simple....but this one I'd love to try).
- http://www.fullcompass.com/product/244927.html

Brent

[guitaniac]

You might want to wait for this one to come out.
http://www.tc-helicon.com/VoiceToneHarmonyG.asp

Gary

[JCW308]

How about a TC G-Natural? I am selling one for $550 brand new in the sealed box!

[guitaniac]

jwoertz,

Does the G-Natural allow for separate effects chains on the indivdual line and mic channels? If so, it sounds like a solo act could use it as a mini-mixer and send just one line to a powered speaker or amp. Cool.

As a soundman, it has always driven me nuts when some "adventuresome" performer wants to use a line tranformer to run his vocal mic thru a guitar effects pedal. Its nice to learn that there's a classier (and sonicly superior) way to use guitar effects on a vocal. Still, I don't know if the G Natural can do the vocal doubling trick which resorte has in mind. Some of the TC Helicon vocal processers would have that covered.

Gary

[JCW308]

Hmmmm....honestly I'm not sure about that one. Someone will have to check the G-Natural's owner's manual to see if that is true. I can't right now because I'm at work. Sorry!

[JCW308]

Ahhhh, here we go. Looks like it will do the basics for the mic channel:

"With both a built-in mic preamp and standard line inputs you can choose between using a piezo or pickup system or miking your guitar with a condenser mic. Or why not do both and mix the signals inside G-Natural to get the best of both worlds?
G-Natural comes with 99 factory settings optimized for a wide variety of musical genres and playing techniques. The 99 user-customizable presets allow you
to add that crucial personal touch to your sound. G-Natural’s mic pre can also be used for vocal performance. Just put G-Natural in song mode and you automatically get a vocal strip EQ and reverb block."
unwanted effects when you’re presenting the next
song.

Topping an already packed featur

[guitaniac]

Here's what I get from the G Natural manual.

Whether the mic is in "Vocal" or "Guitar" mode, it has its own separate EQ and compression (and the instrument line input has its own separate EQ and compression as well). After that, things get messy with respect to signal routing.

When the mic is in "Vocal" mode, its routed thru the reverb block when the effects are routed in series. It bypasses all the other effects. ("Effects", in this case, meaning the effects which come after EQ and compression. Those would be boost, modulation, delay and reverb.) Both the mic signal and the guitar pickup signal go thru the same reverb block and get the same reverb, whatever it happens to be.

When the mic is in Vocal mode, its routed past all effects (after its dedicated EQ and compression) when the effects are routed in parallel or semi-parallel.

The only way you're going to get modulation (chorus, flanger, whatever) and delay on the mic is to have the mic in "Guitar" mode. In that case the mic signal (after passing thru is own dedicated EQ and compression) is routed thru the same boost, modualtion, delay and reverb blocks that the guitar pickup signal is. That, of course, means the mic signal will get the same effects as the guitar pickup signal, whatever those effects blocks happen to be set for.


Its seems to be a pretty useable setup for those who don't need something more exotic than a basic reverb on the vocals. I didn't see anything in the manual about a vocal doubler, however. For a more exotic vocal treatment which isn't a carbon copy of the guitar pickup signal effects, one would have to look toward the TC Helicon vocal stuff.

Gary

[Jason Bien]

Just got back from the DFW Guitar show and the Helicon Voice Live stole the show. I tried to buy one right there on the spot but they were sold out. They recommended that I try a few other booths and they were sold out as well! This little piece of gear was awesome. I wish I could tell you how great the backup /harmony vocals sounded. Anyhow, just my two cents but I personally am heading out to guitar center this week to pick one up.

[Raggamuffin]

The POD X3 might warrant consideration. It offers guitar, bass, and vocal processing. This is from their website...

"Perform live using POD X3 Dual Tone processing to turn your POD X3 into both a vocal processor/preamp (via XLR input) and a guitar amp modeler/effector (via 1/4-inch input), and simply send a single stereo pair to the house as you sing and play your sensitive heart out!"

http://line6.com/podx3/index.html

[guitaniac]

Jason,

Can the current version of the Voice Live use your guitar accompaniment to determine the harmony tones, or do you still need to buy a guitar-to-midi converter for that?

Gary