Thought some of you would be interested to follow the lives of some VoiceLive 2 beta units.
This week a VoiceLive 2 performed at a silent auction with a duo band called Two Funky (pics below). Stewart McLellan, a beta tester and moderator on www.voicecouncil.com has been taking it for laps.
There are two units on the way to some performing musicians who frequent this blog. One of them is off to the races (or at least we confirmed the courier delivered the unit).
David, our hardware engineering manager, snagged a gig this weekend with his band performing for 10,000 plus at then end of a fundraising run/walk in our town – we hope to see VoiceLive 2 up on stage.
Our Product Manager Tom Lang, he’s always gigging and has been using his VoiceLive 2 at gigs for a few weeks now.
Can you tell we’re getting close? We’ll post some comments from our blog beta testers mid next week.
Good to see – I’ll be testing mine life Friday-Sunday to see how she fairs! I’ll post as well. Rock on yawl! It’s a great time to be alive
b
I menat live – hahaha
Hi all,
The VL2 Beta worked great at my duo gig last Thursday. I basically used Laura Clapp’s number one preset on a couple of songs, and it sounded great. I do all the ‘sock-it-ome, sock-it-ome’ and other vocals in Aretha’s ‘Respect’, triggering the changes from my guitar. I used a Fender Strat with Texas Special pickups, guitar muted to the VL2 output, then out to my amp.
The original intent was to have a dedicated MIDI track trigger anything TCH, but with the simplicity of the guitar input, I think I’ll be keeping this configuation.
More soon.
BETA TESTING VOICE LIVE 2:
Just some excerpts from my findings. I’ve got a blog posted on the TC-Helicon Blog page for more in depth details. Peace!
b
05/26/2009 (6:42pm)
VOICE LIVE 2 – GETTING CREATIVE!
The last few days have been a blast! I had my birthday this weekend and the opportunity to mesh with some betrothed musicians, all of which were very impressed with the capabilities, appearance, and sound quality. I’ve already begun writing with this instrument as it’s just too inspiring not to. Hands down, there’s something special, in the Voice Live 2, for every singer. I’m hanging onto it to test a few more builds for TC-Helicon, but will use it as a live and studio staple from now on. Beautiful!!!
05/25/09 (9:47pm)
VOICE LIVE 2 – AUXILLARY INPUT & HEADPHONE OUT
This feature might get overlooked, but don’t!!! This is a fantastic way to vocalize, practice, and structure vocal patterns to backing tracks that you’ve created. The sound quality is superb and it’s very easy to mix the music in with your voice. Great addition, plus it makes it easier to go mobile, when all you need is one outlet. This is also a great way to come up with counter melodies against what you’ve already recorded.
05/11/09 (11:24pm)
VOICE LIVE 2 – GUITAR FEATURES
Alas, I am not a guitarist, but I did have a friend over to test this new feature. It did work well. The harmonies don’t seem to come through as prominent as they do when you use Scale or Notation though. We had greater luck with slower or power chord types of progressions. The Voice Live 2 effects banks sound great on top of your already slamming guitar line. This is an interesting feature with room for growth. If you’re a guitar player in need of more than what the Voice Live 2 offers, concerning guitar capability, check out TC’s Nova Guitar Systems. Keep it in the family!!!
05/12/2009 – (9:41pm)
VOICE LIVE 2 KEYBOARD, & SCALE HARMONIES
Both of these features work beautifully, more robust and seamless. Everything just sounds so good under the hood! Any standard MIDI keyboard controller should do the trick, as far as controlling harmonies. There’s a lot of studio potential for this unit as well, especially by using some of the new hip-hop vocoder techniques. Rock pours out of this box as well, with tons of distortions, demonoid, and transducer effects to get your point across. Most Styles have harmonies pre-applied in 3rds, 5ths, & Octaves for a standard preference, but can easily be tweaked on the fly. The jazz harmonies are perfect and sit like horns around you. Slick! I could go on and on. Basically this does what it did before, only faster and sonically it’s one revved up mutha’! I think I could actually pull off Bohemian Rhapsody with this MONSTER – VL2 Rawks!!!
05/19/2009 – (4:30am)
VOICE LIVE 2 – LIVE WORKOUT
The Voice Live 2 gave me a few bums with the auto gain. It’s easy to bypass and edit, in the setup features, and the fix is in the tone knob. Now it’s kicking every time. It’s kind of cool when other singers come up to talk about the equipment. I’m meeting a whole new strain of modern-vocalists that want a sound unparallel, to what has been because of hearing it. TC-Helicon is rolling out new patches all the time, each one gets more exciting, so keep up with your data builds through the application interface online…you won’t be sorry!
05/10/2009 – (10:00am)
VOICE LIVE 2 – STUDIO WORKOUT
I’ve run this baby through the mill for days on end. I have the Voice Live 2 feeding a stereo XLR signal, while using the onboard phantom power and auto gain, to a Digidesign DIGI002 Soundcard and I’m auditioning the VL2 in Pro Tools LE at 24/96.
A lot has changed, but for the better. You’ll stare at it for a second and realize that everything on the faceplate does exactly what it says. Instead of doing so much scrolling TC-Helicon has given us a nice set of digital folders. The Setup button takes you into the global parameters and much more. Push the store button twice to store your edits. The knobs still serve some of the same functions but also act as a primary for your inner mixer. You’ll want to bypass the Global harmony features if you plan to manipulate keys, in a series of steps or modulations.
There aren’t so many modes now. Your step button is your mode. Each Preset can hold 10 separate steps, and each of those separate steps can be edited apart from each other…all the way down to a new modulation. TC-Helicon has also set up the Effect Blocks in a stomp box arrangement. This is no nice to have. Everything gets its own button and changes in real time. The FX button stores a lot of your transducer and more maniacal type of colors. The shortcut button can be assigned to effect just about anything; I found it very useful for assigning Scales and Tap Tempo. The tap feature comes in very handy if your band is not sequenced. Not-to-mention, the bypass button bypasses quickly, unlike the Voice Live 1 version.
There are 205 massive presets…all as good as the next. When the Voice Live 2 first shows up at your doorstep, rip apart the box, plug in and start singing. You’re going to have so much fun. It’s no wonder why TC-Helicon remains a performance staple.
05/10/2009 – (1:32pm)
VOICE LIVE 2 – SECOND COMING
I can’t believe the customer service – it’s uncanny! They had me send my first beta unit back. Within a couple of days, they had a new one to me with all of the new builds in place. The new VL2 is responding very well and works solid for long periods of time. Oh, and it now boasts 205 presets. All build loads, system dumps, online apps worked without a hitch. Auto gain responds nicely. Paging, Edit and Wizard features are fast, straight forward and simple. I went through every preset and had to start recording with it right away. The manual I have is slim, but TC-Helicon sent me an email stating that it will be robust, in coming builds, and also available as a growing app online.
04/30/09 – (9:17PM)
VOICE LIVE 2 – ARRIVAL
Wow! TC has kept up with the heavy duty feel and appearance. You lose the onboard power supply but you get so much more than all of the great stuff you had before. I just wish there were more presets…only 30? I found a few bugs! I felt bad that I did, but good that my critiques have been useful. No need to go into the glitches here, as TC-Helicon fixed them so fast it nearly made my head spin.