Vocal effects on live performances?

EddieRay

EddieRay

#?
Is anyone here using a variety of vocal effects in their live performances?

None of the bands I played in had a sound man. We set a little reverb on the vocals and leave it alone for the entire gig. I'm usually just playing in bar bands but still... some of the tunes could use some slap-back or echo or phase shift... whatever.

So I'm wondering if anyone has made the effort to work out different vocal effects in your playlist, how you did it, who makes the changes and from where (from the stage? from the board?).
 
For small venues without an FOH soundman, I use a Yamaha 03D digital mixer. It has scene memory that I can store whole mixer setups for each song, or even parts of a song. I keep it with my keyboard rig in easy reach. Most any digital mixer can do this, but this is an expensive way to go.
Less expensive would be to put a multi efx processor on an aux buss, and then use a program change foot pedal to call them up. This is the one that's on my get list...... http://www.tech21nyc.com/midimouse.html
 
The TC Helicon Voice Live is pretty good for an array of vocal effects - harmonizer, thickener, pitch correction- plus the usual reverb and delay. It's a floor unit with 6 buttons, intended for live use. It has a rather steep learning curve, but if you just sit down and play with it for a while (with manual in hand) it's not too bad ( I actually had a lot of fun learning it because the range of effects was wild). I pretty much do a one man band thing with the Voice Live and a Boomerang. Might not be what you're looking for if you have actual humans in the group.
 
Whatever you get, spend lots of time messing around with your system. That will be the single biggest factor that decides whether it sounds good or not.
 
I am a FOH sound engineer for a Beatles tribute band. I have 2 Lexicon MPX 1's in my rack for vocal effects. I use one for standard reverb (large room, it's pretty lush) and the other for exotic ones(dry and thin like on "I am the Walrus", huge echo delay like on "Day in the Life").

In some rooms the effect is completely lost. At outdoor festivals, it's sometimes overpowering. So, depending on the venue and aural characteristics, adjustment are needed. Sometimes even within a single song. But that's what they pay me for :)

I also have a TC Electronics M One XL that I use for drum effects-mostly reverb on snare and toms, but some radical ones on certain songs.
 
I don't know if this is what you want to hear, but....after forty-six years of playing rock in the bars it all came down to....turn off the dam effects!
 
I use an old yamaha spx90 into a DI for effects and a midi pedal board to switch it up. You could use this setup with anything and just change your patches right on the stage as long as your not playin guitar and changin between verse and choruses.
 
How about this for crazy...I automated the entire lightshow and vocal effects selection for a band I was in for about 10 years. I used a laptop computer and Calkwalk Live. The lightboard was a Sunn PLC-816 and every function was accessible via Patch changes and Controller changes such as full flash, channel fades, scene changes, etc. We had to play to a click track but the light show and vocal effects were always there and on time!

Before that band I used a patch increment and decrement footswitch to manually change vocal effects.

Good luck.
 
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