[Harp-L] Voice Processors

[David Fairweather <dmf273@xxxxxxxxx>]

At NAMM 2011 I tried a bunch of different vocal processors.  The one that
impressed me most was the TC Helicon Voice Correct XT.   Despite having
"Correct" in its name,  it only has subtle pitch auto-correct capabilities,
so don't expect to get that "T-Pain" sound from it.   In fact,  I leave the
"auto-correct" turned off most of the time, because the bebop vocalese I
sing is often too rapid for auto-correct to react to in time.

The strength of the TC Helicon Voice-Correct XT is in its real time adaptive
compression.   It learns your microphone technique (or lack thereof) and
compensates for inconsistencies in the distance between your mouth and the
mic.   It also compensates for dynamic differences between your vocal low,
mid and high registers, making you sound like a stronger, more consistent
singer than you may actually be!

It also adds "warmth" to your voice  (not sure what its actually doing in
that regard, but it does sound good to me.)

The only drawback is that when you're performing onstage, you may hear what
sounds like a chorusing effect, especially if you've got the pitch
auto-correct turned on.   That's because you're hearing your own uncorrected
unamplified voice together with the corrected processed amplified voice, so
it sounds like two slightly different voices singing together.   That can be
disconcerting until you get used to it.   The TC-Helicon tech support people
insist that you are the only one hearing that,  and that your audience will
only hear the amplified corrected voice.