Vocal Harmonizers - Interesting Example

[ggalen]

I just became my own gospel trio to back myself up on a cover of the Sam Cooke classic A Change Is Gonna Come.It's pretty amazing to me how far this technology has come.I used the new Digitech Vocalist Live 4 and my trusty Shure SM58, and Sonar 6 Producers Edition.The basic backup band (bass, piano, drums) is courtesy of Band In A Box...but I did all the guitar work, as well as changing the chords a slight bit from the original. And I sped it up. I think Band In the Box-created MIDI is fine for the basic rhythm section if you use quality samples for the instruments, and good recording engineering. Of course, it can often help to drop in an EZDrummer track for the drums, tooThe Vocalist Live 4 uses something called "musical intelligence" to create the harmony by listening to both my vocal that I drive it with, and the guitar chords I am playing. I sang the lead vocal for the song, of course. The backing trio was added later. I sent the "gospel trio" to Sonar as the backing track.Anyway, it's the first song on the player on my website (link below).

[arkjack]

Sounds pretty cool Glen. I have an old version of the Digitech vocal processor and I'm thinking of putting the Vocalist on my gear wishlist for an upgrade..... it does the pitch correction too?....ArkJack

[ggalen]

Quote:. it does the pitch correction too?....ArkJackThanks. Glad you enjoyed it.Yes, it does pitch correction. The harmonies are always based on a pitch correction of your lead vocal.I found that the pitch correction, when applied to the lead vocal, does "color" the sound in a slightly electronic way. It wouldn't be noticed in a rock song where they often do a lot of processing and echo/delay to the voice. But on natural, acoustic numbers I prefer to leave off the pitch correction for my main vocal.The unit also does compression, Pre-amplification, EQ, reverb, and delay...so you can use it to get the vocals sounding pretty sweet.

[gitarrero]

..just a quick note, there are also vst-plugins that do inteligent pitch-shifting, e.g. "vielklang"

[ggalen]

The more I use this device, the more possibilities I see for it.Gitarerro, thanks for the tip about the about the plugins.

[asiabackpacker]

Wow....I'm impressed!....and nice vocal....Is there a Pro Tools plugin to do harmonies like that? (without me actually having to learn how to sing them )

[ggalen]

Quote:Wow....I'm impressed!....and nice vocal....Asiabackpacker,Thanks for the kind words. Nice of you to post the compliment.

[stick]

Quote:Wow....I'm impressed!....and nice vocal....Is there a Pro Tools plugin to do harmonies like that? (without me actually having to learn how to sing them )Never tried it, but I bet it does what you're looking for Protools:Harmony Engine

[djdeweese]

hey ggalen- I've got the Vocalist Live 2 and it is really fun. I had a much more expensive unit (The TC Helicon VoiceLive) which has even more realistic harmonies than the Vocalist Live units, but it doesn't have the auto chord sensing, so it required programming the key and any mode changes for each section of each song, so for me the Vocalist Live is much more fun to use live. Nice work on your example track by the way.

[ggalen]

djdeweese,Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.Yes, I think the Digitech units are great fun; and really, in a mix their background harmony sounds just fine to my ear. And live, they really add a polish to a solo act. I perform with just myself on electric guitar, and my backing tracks. The harmonies add so much.If I want more complex harmonic accompaniment, I just use the unit in Sonar to create the complex vocals backing track -- and let the harmonies come through on the backing track rather than "live" through the unit.