DIGITECH VOCALIST LIVE 2 - NOW WITH CONCLUSIONS AND VIDEO CLIPS!

[Anderton]

Here's another Pro Review that really lends itself to audio examples...

There was a lot of talk at the Winter 2007 NAMM show about DigiTech's demos of the Vocalist Live 2. In a nutshell, it provides harmonization (two harmonies) and effects in a small, floor/tabletop box. Click on the image below to get a better look at the overall box.

But what makes this more interesting than the average harmonization machine is that it has no presets. None. You don't need to enter a scale or tell it what harmony you want, either: That's all handled automatically. The Vocalist Live parses a guitar plugged into it, analyzes the chord being played, then generates an appropriate harmony. That's it. It's the kind of thing you don't really believe at first, but it really does work.

To see the Vocalist Live in action, click here then scroll down to DigiTech Vocalist Live 2 and Vocalist Live 4 videos. There's a certain amount of "NAMM fiction" - the price has gone up, and obviously, they shipped a bit late, but the last part with the demo gets the point across.

As is usually the case with Pro Reviews, we'll start off with some photos so you can picture the box in your mind as we go through the various functions. And when we get into the audio examples...that will get really interesting.

[Anderton]

I'll get to the pictures in a minute, but I thought it might be good to bring an audio example into the review as soon as possible...I mean, the big deal about this thing is not just whether or not it works, but whether it actually sounds good - or does an Alvin & the Chipmunks thing.

The attached example was done in a couple minutes, it's nothing special (we'll do some more sophisticated examples, as well as show off the various effects it can do other than harmonization) but the thing to remember about this is it's a single voice, with no background tracks to obscure the sound of the harmonies. Surprisingly (at least to me!), even with falsetto, the harmonies tracked perfectly, and the timbre certainly doesn't sound robotic.

[Anderton]

We'll start off by describing what's available on the front panel, then get into the rear panel interfacing later on.

Like a vocoder, there are two inputs: One for the mic, one for the guitar (the guitar also has a thru so it can work its way through various effects, amps, etc.). Once the vocal gets into the box, you can do a variety of things to it...as you'll see if you click on the image. The VL2 is also a general vocal processor.

One thing to note is that the front panel is designed for simplicity. The UI is about as simple you can have and still result in a cool box. The VL2 is obviously designed primarily for live use (although it makes quite a recording accessory, to say the least), so it's as close to idiot proof as possible.

Going from left to right, the first knob up says Compressor. You turn up the knob for more compression, and turn down for less compression.

Then there's the Reverb effects block. You have three algorithms to choose among (Studio, Room, and Hall), and a Reverb knob that - you guessed it - adds more reverb when you turn it up, and less when you turn it down.

Next up is the Enhance effects block, which is basically three EQ presets with a knob providing the amount of effect. The final block, Harmony Mix, is where the heart of the VL2 lives. We go into this in some detail later on, but it's what lets you determine how many harmony lines you'll have, or whether you'll have unison (or a combination of the two).

Just above the knobs is a display with a tuner (we'll cover this in more depth later on, but the point is that your guitar needs to be in tune for the VL2 to parse the chords properly), as well as three LEDs to indicate vocal signal, guitar signal, and phantom power on/off.

The final front panel features are the two footswitches. One brings any effects in or out, the other brings the harmony lines in or out.

[Anderton]

Here's a shot of the back. There's an XLR Mic In, a Line In (in case you use your mic with a particular preamp), and Guitar In jack. Note the Guitar Thru jack to the right; this carries the straight guitar sound.

The input level control to the left affects only the mic or line input, not the guitar. This is because DigiTech makes some assumptions about the type of level it's going to see, and it wants to see a standard, full output level guitar. Incidentally, note the guitar Ground Lift, which can be helpful sometimes when you're trying to get rid of hum.

As to outputs, there's a mono XLR out which you can feed to whatever used to connect to your mic, or line outs for feeding a standard line level input. Also, note the Phantom Power switch toward the top. It's pretty noticeable, but it's still relatively easy to hit accidentally. Also, the physical switch position for on and off isn't that different. Fortunately, there's an LED to indicate when phantom power is enabled.

[Anderton]

One thing that's worth mentioning upfront is that although DigiTech talks constantly in terms of using the VL2 with guitar, when reviewing the VL2 for EQ magazine I tried several other signal sources (from organ to synth kalimba) and they worked just fine. I hope to explore this more as the Pro Review continues to find out just what does and does not work, but so far, the parsing seems pretty tolerant.

I suspect this may be a situation like some software manufacturers who say their products will work only with a particular OS but know it will work pretty well with other operating systems (e.g., something listed as being only for XP but still works on Windows 2K). To say it works with anything more than guitar might open a real can of worms ("Hey, I tried it with kazoo and it didn't work, you guys suck!") but I'd encourage anyone who has a VL2 to experiment with putting in sources other than guitar and seeing what happens.

[mikews99]

Originally Posted by Anderton

The attached example was done in a couple minutes, it's nothing special (we'll do some more sophisticated examples, as well as show off the various effects it can do other than harmonization) but the thing to remember about this is it's a single voice, with no background tracks to obscure the sound of the harmonies.

Dang! Pretty cool. Can this unit create female voice harmonies with male voice input or vice versa?

[Anderton]

Originally Posted by mikews99

Dang! Pretty cool. Can this unit create female voice harmonies with male voice input or vice versa?

It does not have a specific "gender bending" function like some other DigiTech units, although I do think there is a little formant shifting going on to add variety to the vocal sounds.

[cincy_cosmo]

My question about this box and LIVE 4, is:

How does it respond to less than optimal situations (that really happen) like:

Fret buzz?
A flat vocalist?
A vocalist who, well, sucks on a particular night?
A slightly out of tune guitar?

[Terry Allan Hall]

I'm going to order the Vocalist 2 very soon...even before thiis excellent review, I was VERY interested in checking one out, as I work solo a lot, but this just convinces me!

Gracias, Anderton!

[MDLMUSIC]

I currently use the Digitech Vocalist Performer and am really satisfied with the job it does. Unfortunately, the unit is about 10 years old and I fear its days are numbered.

I have been thinking about the VL2, but am a little leary about the matching-to-the-guitar-chord feature.

What happens if I'm singing and I stop playing the guitar to do some acapella harmonies? Does the VL2 continue with the same harmonies I had or drop to no harmonies? I'd heard that I could put a volume pedal on the guitar output after the VL2, so I could keep strumming chords to get the harmonies while dropping the guitar volume to zero, but that seems like a lot of fancy footwork to me.

Also, what happens if I play a two-note power chord, or a one note line? Will the VL2 try to come with harmonies for them? Or does it only react to three or more notes?

[Anderton]

Originally Posted by cincy_cosmo

My question about this box and LIVE 4, is:

How does it respond to less than optimal situations (that really happen) like:

Fret buzz?
A flat vocalist?
A vocalist who, well, sucks on a particular night?
A slightly out of tune guitar?

I will be getting into this. So far, the VL2 is much more tolerant than I had expected. The biggest problem is if the vocalist is off-key, because then the harmonies will be off-key as well...and three off-key voices is more of a problem than one

As to guitar tuning, it's not as critical as DigiTech would lead you to believe. For example, I've been cutting some audio examples this morning to post in the review, and busted the D string on my guitar. I tuned it up but as an experiment, didn't do any "touching up" and let it drift out a bit. It didn't seem to affect the harmonies.

I suspect the way the technology works (this is speculation, I don't really know) is that it has a bunch of filters that analyze the guitar input. If energy shows up in the C, E, and G bands, then it goes "Aha! A C Major!" and acts appropriately. Perhaps the filters are just broad enough so that if the string is a little bit off, it says "Well it's pretty darn close to an 'E,' so we'll assume that's what it is."

The biggest issue I've encountered is if I'm late hitting the chord that leads into a change, because then the harmony from the previous chord carries over. In one of the examples I recorded, I made that error but decided to leave it in so y'all could hear what it sounds like. In a way, it's actually not that bad; it's almost like on a guitar, where you slide up to the next note, and I didn't really consider it objectionable. But I can see where it could be if the preceding chord and the chord you're going to play next are not harmonically related.

One interesting aspect is that it's made me pay more attention to my singing and playing. I'm trying to be more "tonal" in my singing -- e.g., sustaining a held tone so the harmonies can ring out rather than glissing down at the end of a line -- and paying more attention to my timing.

I'll also be trying a studio experiment, namely, doing the chord changes in MIDI, driving a synth set to a guitar patch, and having the synth audio output drive the VL2 guitar input. I think that would have two advantages:

1. You could shift the MIDI track forward just a bit so you'd be guaranteed the chord would play just before you started singing, and...

2. You could concentrate solely on singing.

So far I've found there are plenty of synth sounds that can trigger the VL2 reliably.

[pjc]

lI'm curious as to how it'd handle two persons singing into the same mic.

[Anderton]

Originally Posted by pjc

lI'm curious as to how it'd handle two persons singing into the same mic.

I don't have two heads to test this , maybe I can get my daughter to help out. Bottom line, though, is I HIGHLY doubt it would work. The harmonization is designed around a monophonic voice.

If you wanted to harmonize two vocalists, I'd be 99.99999% sure you'd need two VL2s.

[Anderton]

Originally Posted by MDLMUSIC

What happens if I'm singing and I stop playing the guitar to do some acapella harmonies? Does the VL2 continue with the same harmonies I had or drop to no harmonies?

It stays with the last chord you played.

I'd heard that I could put a volume pedal on the guitar output after the VL2, so I could keep strumming chords to get the harmonies while dropping the guitar volume to zero, but that seems like a lot of fancy footwork to me.

That would certainly do the job, but note that you don't really have to keep strumming chords; strum a chord once, and the VL2 will remember it until changed.

Also, what happens if I play a two-note power chord, or a one note line? Will the VL2 try to come with harmonies for them? Or does it only react to three or more notes?

Great question! I'll find out. I just naturally strum the song chords in the background, it never occurred to me to just play, say, root and fifth.

[cincy_cosmo]

Originally Posted by Anderton

........I'll also be trying a studio experiment, namely, doing the chord changes in MIDI, driving a synth set to a guitar patch, and having the synth audio output drive the VL2 guitar input. I think that would have two advantages:

1. You could shift the MIDI track forward just a bit so you'd be guaranteed the chord would play just before you started singing, and...

2. You could concentrate solely on singing.

So far I've found there are plenty of synth sounds that can trigger the VL2 reliably.

Isn't that alot of work to emulate the older Vocalists products like the Vocal Workstation that took MIDI input to drive the harmonist? I guess it is a good experiment, but if that becomes the technique of choice then there may be better and cheaper solutions.

Thanks for looking into this, man!

[Anderton]

Originally Posted by cincy_cosmo

Isn't that alot of work to emulate the older Vocalists products like the Vocal Workstation that took MIDI input to drive the harmonist? I guess it is a good experiment, but if that becomes the technique of choice then there may be better and cheaper solutions.

Thanks for looking into this, man!

Well, yes and no...the thing is, the older Vocalist products don't do the chord recognition thing. So, if I had a choice between one or the other, given that I like to play live, I'd rather have a VL2 and jump through a few hoops in the studio compared to having a Vocalist and needing to jump through some major hoops live. And remember, in either case that MIDI input has to come from somewhere. I suppose you could play a keyboard in real time to provide the source, but not being a perfect keyboard player, I would probably opt to record the MIDI part anyway. At that point, there's not a whole lot of difference between plugging a MIDI cable into a Vocalist, and plugging a MIDI cable into a keyboard and then plugging an audio cable into the VL2.

But also bear in mind that the VL2 is very basic when it comes to processing. The Vocalists can do tricks like add vibrato and such, so there may be considerations other than the live/studio issue in terms of choosing one over the other.

[Anderton]

The chord recognition technology employed in the VL2 is called "musIQ," and was created by the company 3dB Research. It turns out they have a web site with some FAQs and additional information on the process, which actually answers many of the questions raised so far.

Click here for an FAQ about the musIQ process, including how it reacts to out of tune vocalists, a bit about how the process works (apparently it analyzes chords over time - I didn't know that), and the like.

Click here for some basics about the approach 3dB Research has taken, and how employing it differs from standard vocal harmony processing techniques. It's more promotional than the FAQ, but is still of interest.

[cincy_cosmo]

The musIQ website seems to indicate that the device 'learns' a song...ie...it allows for a cappella harmonies.

How does this happen, do you rehearse a song and then store what it has learned or does it pick up information fromt he intro?

This is cool stuff. I wonder if musIQ/Digitech is working on applying their technology to pitch to MIDI conversion?

[Anderton]

Originally Posted by cincy_cosmo

The musIQ website seems to indicate that the device 'learns' a song...ie...it allows for a cappella harmonies.

How does this happen, do you rehearse a song and then store what it has learned or does it pick up information fromt he intro?

This is cool stuff. I wonder if musIQ/Digitech is working on applying their technology to pitch to MIDI conversion?

What it means by "learning" a song is that it has some sense of the key and tonality that it can use in otherwise ambiguous situations, not that it learns a chord progression per se.

[Anderton]

The compression effect is very useful, despite the fact that it only has one knob. Come to think of it, maybe it's useful because it has one knob! Just "goose it and go."

If you turn it up all the way, you will hear a little bit of pumping so I generally keep it up about 3/4 of the way, where it sounds ideal to my ears. But hey, just listen to the audio example...