Bonjour Wayne,

quote:

Originally posted by captbanjo:
You know, that would be really cool; the ability to see and read where you are and where you need to go. If you're over forty, it's a big issue looking down and trying to get your bearings. That's actually one of the reasons I initially considered jumping to the TC Helicon, so I could simplify things. The biggest issue for me is, in shrinking the size, the controls shrunk too.

Here are a few things that make my life easy with the Harmony G:

- I play sitting down;
- I use only two presets in the same patch, and one of them 98% of the time so I only turn on and off with one of the two foot switches;
- I have both my feet on the PorchBoard Bass and the Harmony G to the right of the PorchBoard, so I just rotate my right foot and press down on the right switch without ever looking down.

On the other hand, I also use my feet to control my loop station, play the PorchBoard, turn on and off my effects (again limited to 3 on the same patch), operate the guitar synth pedal and finally control my lighting... All the while singing and playing guitar.

You can see the feet in action on "The thrill is gone" video on MySpace. In this song I don't use the loop station other than to start and stop the rhythm, I don't use the Harmony G, I turn a guitar effect on and off for the "solos" and turn the lighting on and off.

Now that wrote this, it's a wonder things don't go wacky more often! I suggest maybe giving the Harmony G a second chance; the sound is worth it.

Joyeux Noël!

JFd

Bonjour JFd. Liked the video. You seemed relaxed while using all that equipment by your feet. Is that a Taylor LC10 your picking (ala 'BB Goes Acoustic)?

Do you use a T1? If so, do you route everything through the T1 first?

I have the Digitech Vocalist Live II, and it does what I need. I just wish it had a seperate foot switch so I could put it within hand's reach to change things.

Respect,

Col. Andy

Bonjour Wayne,

quote:

Originally posted by captbanjo:
Is that a Taylor LC10 your picking (ala 'BB Goes Acoustic)?

The guitar is a Taylor 310CE. I don't know the LC10.

quote:

Originally posted by captbanjo:
Do you use a T1? If so, do you route everything through the T1 first?

Yes I do use the T1. It is hanging from my microphone stand (you can see its profile on the video if you look for it).

The short answer to the second part of your question is: no, the signal doesn't go through the T1 first. Here is the long answer:

The interconnections are a bit complicated for the guitar, but straightforward for the voice:

- Microphone into Harmony G, then into T1 input 3 (my partner is on 1 and 2);
- Other than the harmonies, I use no effects on the Harmony G, for either voice or guitar, as all my effects and tone are set on the T1;

- Guitar (I now use the Godin Multiac Jazz) into the Roland GR-20 guitar synthesizer (GK connector);
- Roland GR-20 guitar out (acoustic/electric mix) to Harmony G guitar in;
- Harmony G Guitar through to Boss ME-20 multi-effects pedal in;
- Boss ME-20 out into the Roland GR-20 mix in;
- Roland GR-20 out to Roland RC-50 Loop station instrument in;
- PorchBoard Bass into the Roland RC-50 microphone in (I use the XLR connector on the PorchBoard);
- Roland RC-50 Main out to T1 input 4

This allows me to use my guitar effects independently of the guitar synth sounds, loop both these sounds as well as the PorchBoard Bass and just plain have fun! The hard part is figuring out the optimal signal path to give the most versatility, but once that is figured out and connected, you just forget about it and play.

I hope this can be of some help.

JFd

I know I'm coming into this discussion late but I wanted to talk about what I did to hit the right pedal on my VL4. I put a piece of velcro on the on/off harmony pedal and connected an eight inch piece of wood to this pedal with velcro. This way I don't have to hunt for the correct pedal because it sticks out from the crowd. With this method I never miss hitting the correct pedal. Hope this helps all other middle age guys with weak eyesight.

Thanks DrJ. That may not exactly do the trick for me, but it does give me an idea.

Respect,

That's a great idea! Unfortunately, the TC Helicon unit has only a small foot button. A bad design for anyone I think. But it sounds great!

The great thing about the Digitech VL2 and 4 is the big switches.

quote:

Originally posted by JFd / Iron Sky:
Bonjour Wayne,

[QUOTE]Originally posted by captbanjo:
Is that a Taylor LC10 your picking (ala 'BB Goes Acoustic)?

The guitar is a Taylor 310CE. I don't know the LC10.

Your lack of knowledge is directly attributable to my lack of knowledge; I meant Taylor 710CE...

Bonjour Wayne,

quote:

Originally posted by captbanjo:
That's a great idea! Unfortunately, the TC Helicon unit has only a small foot button. A bad design for anyone I think. But it sounds great!

You could always drill a small partial hole in the piece of wood to go over the button switch and stabilize the board, thus obtaining a bigger "target"? You could also add some 3M reflective tape on the board.

Cheers,

You're a great thinker...I was thinking the same thing yesterday!

I bought a Voice Live Touch for Christmas (present to me). I have been playing around with it, and have some initial comments.

I sold my Digitech VL2 to help buy the Touch. I liked the VL2 a lot, but wanted more voices, and have the controls at my finger tips. I gigged with the VL2 for about 2 years, and it performed nicely. The Touch is attached to my mic stand with the Switch-3 footswitch on the floor. The switch is very large and heavy duty, and easy to access. It has heavy duty switches with a nice "click" feel when engaging. My VL2 was easy to engage, but the only feedback was the led on the floor unit, no click feeling on the feet. The Touch has a heavier switch feel AND an indicator on the main unit. Nice.

Regarding the sound, I like the sound of the Touch a little better. More realistic, but not "night and day" better. The only thing I don't like is the harmony change speed. It takes a noticeable time between changing guitar chords and hearing the harmony change. My VL2 was great here. After playing a few progressions on the VL2, it seemed to "learn" the key. I could stop playing the guitar, and sing a solo part of the song, and it would still change with the song changes without the guitar input. The Touch doesn't do this at all. It will not react until it "hears" a new chord change, and like I said I can hear the delay.

Finally, the Touch is very powerful. The effects are incredible. The only thing is I'm not sure if I would use them. May not be practical. It's expensive too.

I'd be curious about how the VL3 or Harmony G react to the chord change issue I mentioned. Anyone?

Overall, I like the Touch, but it's not perfect.

My opinion. I'm still learning it. It's powerful. I haven't even got into the looping capabilities yet.

Thanks for listening.

Dave

The Harmony G is very easy to use and sounds signifcantly better than other units imo.

Hi,
Short version: The VL3 is fantastic, and well worth the price for the ease of use, great, accurate harmonies, AND an effects mute foot-switch allowing you to bypass/ skip using the T1 FX Mute button when talking between songs etc..
I´m seriously impressed, and work great with the clarity of the L1 II with T1.

Longer: I bought a Vocalist live 3G on Friday, spent about 2 hours running through chorus´s etc of various songs and then gigged with it Sat. night. I have no experience with the other units you mention, although I have used a few TC helicon product over the years and they´re pure quality. I´ve had no real dedicated time to fiddle around with the VL3 so everything is based on out of the box use. I am very impressed. There are thing i thought that would work well and they didn´t, ie; i could have sworn a second harmony on `weather with you ´by Crowded House would be a breeze. I couldn´t get a working version together.( perhaps with more time and experience it will work - I´ll have to go back to it)
The sounds and tracking are great using chords or finger-picking, I do a ragtime/country/picking version of ´That´s All` by Genesis, and it followed me brilliantly! I´m impressed. As I said i used it right out of the box.
Given time with this unit, you could do amazing things. I actually blew myself away when I kicked in 2 part harmonies for a version of `The Living Years` by mike and the Mechanics.
On stage I have Vocals, gtr,( Godin MultiAc SA) Alesis Sr18 drum machine and GR55 gtr synth. And now the sound with the VL3 can be immense if I so wish.
Songs like `Baby now that I´ve found you`the Alison Krauss version just sparkled with this unit; anything remotely ´country´ will get a complete new breath of life with the VL3.
One of the reasons I got the VL3 was ease of use AND it has an on/off foot-switch for effects. I use the T1 and it´s a real bummer having to reach around and mute any effects before talking ( a real oversight by Bose )The VL3 foot-switch only cuts reverbs etc, you still have the tube warmth and any eq setting on your sound. This alone allowed me to bypass any reverbs on the T1 and use the VL3 alone ( I still used the T1 preset for my sennheiser mic though) The effect mute foot switch has made my enjoyment of using the L1 II even more enjoyable than ever before - something i didn´t think possible. After every gig I´ve played with the L1, I always say out loud to myself, a little dedication to the folk who put this together - a simple " Thank you Bose" It may sound a tad soppy, but I genuinely am very grateful that my sound is fantastic, my spine is less taxed, my audience happier, and the ease of use.
ps it also has Gtr Tuner built in too - very handy!
John

www.johnmorrell.de

Hi John,
Just checked out some videos on your website...Wow!
Loved the ELP.

Didn't see a sound system in the frame, was that Bose?

Thanks for the compliment.
I have a wider range of videos on youtube featuring all the things i do. Including lessons None of the videos are featuring the Bose as I´m a recent convert, but it has become my main rig for almost everything i do apart from the Genesis cover band, where I do need a bigger bass amp.
John