Digitech Vocalist Live 4 Harmonizer

K

Keyster

New member
I am thinking of buying one of these ( can probably get one for $500 here in UK).
Would it be any use for my home studio though? Or are there any other harmonizers out there that are more suitable for a budget home studio?
 
I tried the Digitech Live 4 out at Guitar Center a while back.
The store was quite noisy, but from what I could tell the unit would have been useful for live work. I would think that recording with it would show any weaknesses it had. It sounded somewhat artificial (nature of the device, I guess).

If you had the money and a guaranteed return policy, you could always give it a shot and see what you think. Even cooler...post what you record with it. I'd be interested in hearing how it comes out.
 
I have a Live 4 ..... it's fairly cool but you HAVE to sing 'just so' for it to work well. And you have to pick vocal sounds depending on the keys you'll be in. Most only sound good in a narrow freq range ..... so for higher harmonies you need different harmony parameters than for low parts.
And you can't use very much vibrato when you sing ..... it makes the harmonies do very weird things ..... and you HAVE to sing in pitch.

That clip's pretty awful but Digitechs' site has a fairly neat demo vid showing the possibilities.
 
Lt. Bob said:
I have a Live 4 ..... it's fairly cool but you HAVE to sing 'just so' for it to work well. And you have to pick vocal sounds depending on the keys you'll be in.
Click to expand...
That was my experience with it, as well. I used it for half an hour and found it unpredictable at times - the engine certainly feels different to their older Vocalists, which I've used a lot and know what to expect. Still, for the studio, where you have time adjusting stuff and it doesn't matter if you get it wrong at first, it would do just fine I think. It also depends on your requirements in terms of realism - I've always thought of harmonisers as fun special FX boxes that complement the vocoder, but I realise that most people are looking for more straightforward results.
 
I'd personally stay away from live stage effects while processing vocals in the studio... check out some of the TC vocal processors... I own the Voice One (which I think they discontinued) and it's a cool "toy". I don't use it often... but it's clean enough, and accurate enough for "fake" harmony vocals... (along the same use guidelines as the lieutenant mentions) I wouldn't track with it if I wanted a convincing backup... but it's found it's way into some stuff... It's also got pitch correction, which can be handy in a pinch...
 
Although i have no experience with them, there are some plugin's available that might do the job for you. Given the format it might be easier to apply after the fact and get the sound that you want. Of course i'm basing this on the assumption that the plugins are as good as the hardware gear which as i said i don't have the experience to be able to say that it is the case.
 
Keyster said:
I am thinking of buying one of these ( can probably get one for $500 here in UK).
Would it be any use for my home studio though? Or are there any other harmonizers out there that are more suitable for a budget home studio?
Click to expand...

I am using one live and the trick is to use it in the right way. If you use it the same all the time and over use them they are going to sound fake as will all. I agree that the demo's of the TC sound cooler but not because of voicing but because of application. In a recording enviornment you can control much of that.
Given the fact that you are looking at this for recording, then I presume Harmony is not your forte... that being the case, this is the EASIEST way to get some decent harmonies down in a hurry!
Good Luck.

You can catch some brief glimpses of mine being used on "Live Demo" at my myspace... Listen closely as they are used subtely to keep it intriguing...
www.myspace.com/patrickmccoy11
Note these are raw live clips... Note studio enviornment...
 
If all you want it for is to record and if it's your recording set up don't use a toy take the time and do the harmonies for real


:spank: This is new!!! where did this come from?
 
moresound said:
If all you want it for is to record and if it's your recording set up don't use a toy take the time and do the harmonies for real
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I'm not saying that your suggestion doesn't have merit in some situations, but even in such cases, a harmoniser might be a great composition tool. I don't know about the others, but I can never tell how the harmonies are actually going to sound if I use a synth patch to try them out (and yes, I am too lazy to do any more vocal recording - not to mention editing - than it's strictly necessary).
 
Thanks for all the replies, guys. Digitech has so many similar products, I am getting confused! I like the idea of using a harmonizer as a composing aid and if I did track it, it would be minimal. I am not after anything spectacular, just something acceptable. I too am too lazy to work out and track my own harmonies. My songs are pretty simplistic anyway and my ideal backing vocals would be Beatles rather than Crosby, Stills & Nash.
With this in mind, what would people advise me to go for from the Digitech family of harmonizers?
 
Keyster said:
Thanks for all the replies, guys. Digitech has so many similar products, I am getting confused! I like the idea of using a harmonizer as a composing aid and if I did track it, it would be minimal. I am not after anything spectacular, just something acceptable. I too am too lazy to work out and track my own harmonies. My songs are pretty simplistic anyway and my ideal backing vocals would be Beatles rather than Crosby, Stills & Nash.
With this in mind, what would people advise me to go for from the Digitech family of harmonizers?
Click to expand...
I think I'd go for the Live 2 instead. It's cheaper ...... fewer harmonies actually sound less fake ( I use my 4 set to only a single harmony)
 
tewfus said:
Although i have no experience with them, there are some plugin's available that might do the job for you. Given the format it might be easier to apply after the fact and get the sound that you want. Of course i'm basing this on the assumption that the plugins are as good as the hardware gear which as i said i don't have the experience to be able to say that it is the case.
Click to expand...
Anyone have any thoughts on these plugins? I myself am not aware of any.
 
I am very happy with TC products. I had the Voice One for a bit and sold that for the VoiceLive. Once I got that one programmed it really worked well.
But there were too many buttons to press during a live situation. The one I have now is simple and sounds great.

I have used all of those units in the studio. However, there is no substitution for harmonizing with your own voice.
I used it mostly for doubling my vocals instead of signing it twice. I own a lot of Digitech products but it's my opinion that TC makes better vocal processors.
 
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