Testing Digitech Vocalist 3 with Dead -> Skynyrd -> Beatles Medley

[Blooby]

As some of you know, I feel my voice is akin to the sound of air brakes put to hard use. A while back, I got a Boss vocal thingy with the thought that John could provide his own background vocals, and I could continue to hide behind my guitar. Although it served great as a preamp with EQ, reverb, delay, and compression, the problem was you had to tweak it between songs for the harmonizer.

I explained this to a musician buddy of mine, and he suggested Digitech as their harmonizers follow the input of a guitar or keyboard (meaning minimal fuss live).  I nixed it as glitchy before hearing it.  He eventually set up a little demo with a friend who owned one.  The tune "Seven Bridges Road" was first, and my jaw hit the ground.  

It does take some work to set up properly, and we are firmly in the knob-turning phase, but at least you can hear its reverb and harmonizing during the choruses of the songs in the medley.  Yes, I know the reverb is too high, and the balance is off in spots, but I wanted to get the word out on this device, and remixing wasn't in the cards.

If you wish to cut to the chase, its best example can be found at around 6:15 or so during the "Dear Prudence" section. I almost stopped playing when John sang it. It freaked me out a tad.

Recorded live in the living room (with the help of a loop pedal) with a heap of edits after the fact.

Haven't tested it live yet, but I've seen them on Ebay for under $200.

Peace.

Blooby

[thetworegs]

sounds excellent .......cheaper than the Helicon live 2 version about £350 by the sounds of it which is on my wish list i shall have to investigate...thanks for the heads up...

[Oldrottenhead]

feck aff ya bugger, giving me gas again. aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Geir]

Fanbloody performance guys. And yeah ... that new gear gives me gas too! .... both the vocalist and the looper ! But more than that, I would really like to meet you guys one day for a jam !!!

[Rata-tat-tat]

Blooby this sounds great...

I was wandering how easy this would be to use in a jam atmosphere or a live performance where you didn't have a set list... More of an off the cuff type of jam performance.

Also... I would love to be able to use something like this on my vocals when playing live, but my feet are usually too busy to even consider using a stomp box. I've often wandered if there were something a little easier to use for a drummer to switch between presets... Like a trigger or or something you could hit with a stick rather than your feet.

[bruno]

That sounds great - don't get the artifacts and wobbling that you get on other units.
Sounds excellent and natural.
B

[Jarle]

Fantastic.

feck aff ya bugger, giving me gas again. aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What he said

JOA

[Gnasty]

What a cool piece of equipment. That sounds wicked good. You guys rocked these tunes like you always do too.

Fabulous!

[Blooby]

Blooby this sounds great...

I was wandering how easy this would be to use in a jam atmosphere or a live performance where you didn't have a set list... More of an off the cuff type of jam performance.

Also... I would love to be able to use something like this on my vocals when playing live, but my feet are usually too busy to even consider using a stomp box.

The short answer is I can definitely see this being used for a jam or live.  That's actually why I got it.  Once it's set up, all you have to do is engage the button on the lower right for harmonies.  Hit it again to return to normal (You can set it up so it's a momentary switch as well).  Its simplicity is its genius.  The switch on the right can give you a different harmony setting.  On top, there is a section to scroll through five patches (again, each with an A and B setting), but I don't know how necessary that would be for us. 

Setting up can be easy.  You plug the guitar into it (with optional reverb and chorus), and the vocals and guitar go out with either a stereo or mono signal.

Our set-up gets a little weird.  I run my guitar into it, and the signal comes out to a Guitar-Through jack.  This pure guitar signal goes into a volume pedal and whatever effects du jour I am using.  The volume pedal is great because during a capella parts, I can turn the volume off, but because of the original signal going in, I call still do (silent) chords to help shape the harmonies.

A different buddy came over last night, and he was impressed as well.

Blooby

[Craig810]

Sounds good! I have a Vocalist Live 4 and it's a blast to mess around with.