Tc helicon voiceworks

keneds

New member
Hey There.. Has anyone tried the Voiceworks effect rack mount? I was looking at it on their website and was wondering if anyone here has tried it and how happy are you with it? Thanks, Ken
 
I've had fun with it!
Seen a lot of TC's stage floor boxes live as well. They are all kinda cool the trick is to not go overboard with them. :thumbs up: You can find it very easy to use it all of the time.
 
I was planning it for my studio use where I am a one man band. It could help with my harmony tracks for voicing so it not just me singing at different octaves.
 
I have a Tc helicon voiceworks plus, very useful piece of equipment. I got it mainly because I wanted the capabilities of the unit incorporated into my set up, as I'm intending on recording a variety of singers once I have my entire studio sorted. The in your face stuff it does are just selling points, it's the post novelty subtle things that it does which make it very useful, the kind of stuff you discover once the fun of the bangs and whistles subsides. I am very IT capable, but personally prefer to work with knobs and sliders, hence I have all the hardware I need to be able to dial things in without going near a computer. Yes the harmonies and octaves are great, especially if you have it hooked up to a midi piano or other keyboard, my daughter loves it because she can instantly identify piano chords, as they appear in the helicon display if she's playing around with a bit of improvisation and using inversions she is unsure of, by the way she's six years old, so hasn't fully grasped every chord inversion but she's on the right track. Yes I could live without it easier than a good rack compressor, but if one is at the stage where some icing on the cake is to be had, the voiceworks plus make a nice topping. It does make it very easy to get a vocal to sit in a mix.

all the best

Tim
 
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Does it HAVE TO run through a keyboard? I was looking to just run a mic into the voiceworks and then into my interface. Not sure how I would hook it up. Any ideas? I have a Tascam US-1800 interface.
 
The voiceworks plus has the same kind of options as the units already mentioned, you can select scale/chord options if not hooked to a midi item. It connects by XLR or Jack depending on user choice or equipment needs. Perfectly happy to post a recording using some of the stuff it does if you are interested. I can do it over the weekend, probably tomorrow.

Tim
 
Phasemaker, that would be great if you could do that. When it comes to the harmony effect, can you alter it to sound like all male voices? Thanks everyone for your input.
 
Hi, here is a small selection of vocals I did this morning, excuse the odd pop here and there, the wife generating a one person earthquake as only she can while being elsewhere in the building putting the shopping away. You can pan each harmony voice and change gender or various humanization levels and so on as required, and pretty much tinker with every aspect of every voice and store personalised presets, 100 of them. I didn't set any effect for the correct key or use any midi to set harmonies,I just switched on and recorded some vocals. Obviously, one would set it up if recording a track to get everything in respect of harmonies in key. There are adjustments for low cut, high cut, reverb, delay and a whole shed full of other parameters that can be tailored to whatever you are after.


Tim

 
Thanks Tim, Very well done. I'm hoping to pick one up tomorrow. Thanks for your time, Happy New year!
 
Connection question, The Voiceworks rack has both 1/4" input / output jacks and also a SPDIF connection. I currently have it hooked up via 1/4" patch cables and it works......Would a SPDIF connection be better?
 
The SPDIF connections are digital signal output, if you have the option to feed it to a piece of equipment with a matching digital inputs, it's the way to go, if not then use the two analogue outputs. They are not cross compatible, it's a signal like you'd get out of a guitar or mic if using the jacks, it's a binary code using the SPDIF RCA's which has to go through digital to analogue converter to be turned into a signal which is then amplified to drive a speaker or is recorded as digital on some digital equipment. It's then converted back to analogue so you can listen to it. I think most tc helicon stuff runs 24 bit, so you need to be sure it'll be compatible.

Happy new year to you

Tim
 
I currently have it hooked up with mono 1/4" patch cables....The inputs are balanced. Does that mean I need to use TRS plugs? I'm getting a bit of a hum through the headphones when the unit is on.
 
You probably need to unplug the mic from the unit, check what is coming out of the unit to where you have your phones plugged in. If that's clean of noise, re connect you mic and see how it sounds then. Also try various presets and the bypass on the unit to see if the hum alters, turn it off and check for hum with just the dead unit connected. Check the mic settings on the helicon, in the set up menu, as there is attenuation there for various mic output levels. Some of the heavy duty effects will apply those effects to room noise as well as vocals. It does take a while to get everything balanced to get optimal performance, it can be frustrating. It's a new piece of kit which you are finding your way around, like a lot of this kind of gear it requires faith and patience to get the best out of it. I suggest you use a dynamic mic to start with as condenser mics tend to be rather lively, also make sure the phantom is off unless required by a condenser mic. I have mine connected with two short 1/4 guitar leads to my mixer, no hum issues.

I may be having a few sherbets as the evening progresses, and may have to get back to this thread tomorrow if you require further suggestions. All the best.

Tim
 
I have my condensor mic plugged into the back of the voiceworks module, I have the left and right "Balanced" outputs on the voiceworks patched with 1/4" unbalanced cables into the "Balanced" inputs on my interface. ( I really think this is why im getting a slight hum) I will be picking up some new 1/4" TRS patch cables and report back on the issue in a day or so. Happy New Year to all.
 
I ended up taking the s/pdif connection route. It works fine and I lost the hum noise I had, my next mission is to figure out how to do an aux. send into the unit to add an effect to a dry track. The routing of this is where I get lost. Using Sonar X2
 
On the voicework...which preset do u think is best for everyday singing? Most of them are too boyish messing around sounding...
 
The presets represent a snapshot of what can be done with the voiceworks. Personally I find a tone which is somewhere near suitable and then edit the many adjustments available to tailor it to get exactly what I want. You can alter many aspects of a preset to create your own stored presets which can then be called upon for future recordings.

Tim
 
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