Harmonizing Effects Gear.

In another thread I misslabeled a harmonizing effects pedal as vocalive. Tt's Voicelive by TC Helicon. I got mine used, and the original owner just handed me the manual, and video CD, but still, this thing is so confusing. Other than the confusing stuff, it's pretty awesome as it takes what you put in, either voice, or theremin, and harmonizes along with you as you progress through scales. You can edit how it behaves. It has midi as well.

Here's the link to TC Helicon, www.tchelicon.com
And the link to the Voicelive product is

http://www.tc-helicon.com/VoiceLive

It's like having your own theremin quartet.

I use a Digitech Vocalist Workstation EX which does a similar job - probably not as fancy as the Voicelive - I;m keen to try the Voicelive but had I the money I think I;d like the Voiceworks Plus which has knobs. The Digitech has handy sliders.

It has some annoying quircks - I use it mostly scalicly - ie you set the scale and whatever you play a harmony halo plays along in that scale. However - change the harmony style preset and it resets the scale - doh!

Til money rolls in I'll work round the quircks.

I know a guy with one of those Telcion Hoopah things, and if I had money I would be that guy.

Boss PS-2 for me, to be passed through Hyperfuzz. ghghghfhhkkghgkhgkHKFHKGDGHFFKHGKFHGFKGHFG

BRKGHHK! SHKSHS! BVHHVK! btzz-trrrr BGHKSK! SHSKS! BKVHK!

So Thomas - how well does the pitch correction function work on a theremin?

First off, someone want to check on Alexander's wellbeing right quick?

I've not tried the pitch correction yet, but I suspect it take out the protamento charactor of a theremin.

Relax, Thomas. It's natural that you require fuzz. Everybody, everybody, skskzkzkzkhzzkzhzkzhzhzhzhzhzhzheh
HEEEEEEEEEEEEEENOOOORGGHHHHHHHH

FUZZ
FUZZ
FUZZ

Or else harmonics are nothing.

Ok, just checking, last time I saw text like that the guy at the source had a stroke. Wasn't sure what the garbled text meant. ;)

Do let us know the results when you try the pitch correction.

So far I have tried two:

The pitch correction built into Apple's GarageBand application - it's quite good - at 100% it sounds like Cher's Believe, and kills vibrato stone dead but at lower percentages it just eases notes a bit towards the right pitch, tightens up vibrato and makes long glisses a little sweeter. The downside is that the latency introduced make it unusable as a real time effect (at least they did on my iBook - I haven't tried it on my macBook but I anticipate the same.)

Twiddling the knobs on my PS5 to the right setting gives realtime pitch correction, and turns the theremin into a stylophone - which I imagine is good if that is what you want, but not otherwise.

Pitch adjustment is getting better and cheaper - I don't think it will be long before it is affordable for pretty much anyone - and I think it's a good thing - for some it will be like bicycle stabilisers, for others an interesting effect, and for some an opportunity to agonise over "cheating" instead of agonising over poor intonation.

Interesting times ahead.

Gordon, I'll certainly keep you posted on the pitch correction. I'm still trying to figure out all the other cool stuff this thing does. It evin has midi in, out, and through, so I'm wondering if that means I can control a midi device the way the ethervox did. Mabe I won't have to get the wavefront midi device.

While we're on the subject of pitch correction...

Click here! (http://youtube.com/watch?v=60FkRSBmpNw)