Vocal FX to hide a wobbly voice - updated with new pedal day info!

thecolourbox

So i have a bit of an unconfident voice and not much opportunity to practice to learn any conviction, i have a busking gig that I'm not sure why i agreed to do, and I'm trying to think of ways to hide the voice a bit with instruments. What vocal fx would help? I'm thinking a compressor and distortion, overdriven Vox is a sound i like (big strokes and Lou reed fan) so could use it in future, but I'm just panicking a bit having tried fudging it by playing instruments too loud haha but its not great still

i do understand mushing Vox to hide rubbishness is not ideal but i think it may be the way forward. Pitchwise I'm fine, just the tone and power in needing...

Cheers all

monquixote

TC Helicon Mic Mechanic

thecolourbox

Doesn't that only do verbs and pitch correct though?

monquixote

It also has the "Tone" button which does compression, gate and EQ. 

thecolourbox

Hmm right I see, the manual is very vague, how do you tweak stuff? Or can't you past on/off?

monquixote

You can't. 

It analyses the incoming signal and applies optimised processing. 

I have a Harmony Singer, it's very good.

steamabacus

I played with a singer who had one of these - sounded pretty good, did all sorts from subtle to barmy.

thecolourbox

The mechanic sounds interesting, though I am very wary of automatic fx in general, I can see the benefit of what sounds effectively like a one touch preamp kind of feature.

 I've heard the harmony ones before, not keen on harmony vocals unless whoever arranges them is brilliant at it, mostly I find them pretty ineffective and I can't imagine an auto pedal doing harmony melody lines more than just following in 3rds or similar?

 I think something that compresses or slightly overdriven me is perhaps more useful in this application though

That digitech looks like a tweakers heaven, I'd be there all night fiddling with that many things, and a further night playing with the whammy alone....

monquixote

The Harmony singer makes up a harmony based on the input chords. 

You can choose 3rds or 5ths up or down.

thecolourbox

So it just follows your tune at that interval following the scales of the chords you're playing? Like the intelligent harmoniser thing on zoom guitar multi fx? And I think the boss harmoniser too?

monquixote

Yeah pretty much.

thecolourbox

Cool, would be cool to load a midi harmony line onto something like that so you can get a more interesting harmony line, 3rds sounds a bit dull to me 

 Cheers for the mechanic recommendation

monquixote

No worries. 

It mostly comes up with interesting stuff, but it sometimes sounds weird and off. 

dano91

If you're playing acoustic guitar at the same time I strongly recommend the TC Play Acoustic. That also tracks what you're playing and harmonises that would help strengthen your voice, as well as other effects, guitar effects (based on HoF and Corona), anti-feedback for your guitar, a looper and other useful stuff. Basically, if you're an acoustic/singer, that pretty much sorts you out for any live situation.

vasselmeyer

You might look at the BOSS VE-20 Vocal Performer, details here: http://www.roland.co.uk/products/productdetails.aspx?p=1043

It's a unit which is in the Boss stompbox format, tough as anything, but built for vocals. It has 2 or three part harmony at any interval, reverb, delay, compression, pitch correction, distortion as well as some weirder stuff along with a 38 second looper. It can run off mains or batteries. It's awesome for people like me who have a decent vocal range and can hit a note but can't pitch a harmony to save my life.

dano91

Good shout - the VE-20 is a great unit. Doesn't have the ability to plug in a guitar and track what chords you are playing, but if it's vocal only you want then the effects on there sound gooood. TC also do some individual effects for around £109 but you're probably better off spending the extra £100 or so and getting something that will be way more useful.

But yeah, one of the TC pedals around £200-250 like the Play Acoustic or the vocal only VE-20 at £199 are good units.

fretmeister

Big fan of the TC Harmony Singer here too.

The 1 button EQ / Compression / desesser is excellent.

the harmonies can be very good, but it does need you to play your chords cleanly.

But to be fair I don't use the harmony bit a lot as the guys I was playing with can sing too so we did the harmonies the old fashioned way.

thecolourbox

Thanks all, the mechanic is looking like the front runner for a quick fix, though part of me is still gassing for distorted vocals haha if only the distortion one had the auto setting thing.

The others sound impressive but I think for the amount of use it's likely to get (i'm by no means going to be ever called a singer) it seems too uch to justify when I don't need half of the stuff it does. Reverb I could be tempted by, but harmony is a no no for me unless it's well arranged and sang, echoes would scare me as it's bad enough hearing me once let alone again a second later, and the other weird and wonderful sounds offered would seem like huge overkill as well I think. I'm playing electric on the day as acoustic is too exposing for my vocals as I found out last year

Thanks guys for the good help as ever though. Shame I can't find a second hand one going or one to borrow for the day haha but I'll have to see. Cheers all

57Deluxe

...wear tighter gunties....

dano91

If you've got a guitar reverb pedal already you could try running your vocals through that. Could be a cheap fix to make your voice sound 'fuller' - all you'll need is an XLR to 1/4" jack cable. Just a thought, not sure what the results would be like...

thecolourbox

I feel reverb would be a post effect, a kind of bonus really, rather than actually improving the strength of the voice as such, which I presumed would involve some kind of compression (thats how i'd use on with a guitar anyway) but then also the stuff that monquixote mentioned on the mechanic's "tone button" - gate, de-esser, eq, they would also be helpful i think more so.