TC Helicon Play Acoustic or VoiceLive 3 Extreme?

[kramster]

I think the VL3X is my next toy...it works well with my keys through midi as a bonus

[Johnny.guitar]

Oh don't take me wrong. If your able to use these units and set them up well I'm envious. I just seem to do better with a few knobs to turn than banks and presets to set up.
The preamp and delay...oh and a tuner are all on a very small pedal board and the Mic Mechanic is in the travel bag with the mixer all set up and ready to go ....so really no more set up than a single pedal. But again, I'm not knocking those able to use these all in one units, I've just found I can't get them to sound as good as keeping the signal analog(guitar side of things). My bias may come from being an electric player and the whole "true bypass" thing.

[sbpark]

Originally Posted by Johnny.guitar

Oh don't take me wrong. If your able to use these units and set them up well I'm envious. I just seem to do better with a few knobs to turn than banks and presets to set up.
The preamp and delay...oh and a tuner are all on a very small pedal board and the Mic Mechanic is in the travel bag with the mixer all set up and ready to go ....so really no more set up than a single pedal. But again, I'm not knocking those able to use these all in one units, I've just found I can't get them to sound as good as keeping the signal analog(guitar side of things). My bias may come from being an electric player and the whole "true bypass" thing.

I say the whole true bypass thing is a moot point with acoustic guitars, because once you plug them in to anything, no natter what it is, you're compromising the sound. And FWIW, you'd be better off not worrying about true bypass with electrics as well. You think Clapton, Page and Hendrix gave a crap about true bypass, or do you think anyone in the crowd turned their noses up because of it?!

[Johnny.guitar]

True their pedals were not "true bypass". But they didn't send their signals through digital processors either....
And again what works for you may not work for me...or the other way around. It's all good.

[XC1T]

Hello,

I have all three units and use them differently for different situations. Each has a rightful place depending on what you want to accomplish.

The Play Acoustic (PA) [and Play Electric] is by far the most portable solution you could have in your hardware set up. Appropriate for any sized venue, you have to work with this unit to get reasonable looping results and don't expect anything like a Boss RC-30, RC-300, VL3 or VL3x offers.

Similarly on the vocal layer, the PA offers basic looping and harmonies.

These may be enough for the venue you play. I use the PA for smaller gigs that I might be playing 5-10 songs. The BodyRez amp models are a treat with my Martin.

The VL3 and VL3x really shine with looping, harmonies and guitar effects. The VL3x supports storing backing tracks and effects changes in the presets and for that reason offers just that little bit more.

The PA, PE, VL3 and VL3x are all great units to own, from the budding soloist to the road-weathered expert. They each have their place and its your choice.

[sbpark]

Well, I tried the Play Acoustic today and thought the vocals sounded like garbage. Did not like what it did to my voice. Also tried a TC Mic Mechanic, and it was just as bad. Just going to use the onboard EQ on my amp and get a second Holy Grail Reverb Nano to run through the effects loop of the vocal channel (have one on the guitar channel; my amp has separate effects loops for each channel) and get a simple looper pedal just to use for working on parts at home and hashing out song ideas.