Tc-helicon VoiceLive 2 User manual Manuel d'utilisateur

USER’S MANUALVer. 1.5

1. GLOBAL GROUP - When activated, these threeeffects stay on independent of preset changes. Press anyto activate or hold to enter a specific edit

Delay/Reverb Lvl 86 “ “Dry Pan 10 “ “ 127 MIDI values map to 201 pan values, Center = 64Output Level 7 “

Factory Preset List1011 SIXTH ENCORE 26 SIMPLE SLAP 51 JAZZ CLOSEUP 2 76 SING WITH RADIO2 CLOSE UP 3RD 27 LONGVERB DUCKED 52 JAZZ CLOSEUP 3 77 THICK 2

101 DELAYED UPPERS 128 LOOSE DOUBLE 155 BANDPASS VERB 182 BOLLYWOOD102 DELAYED HARMONY 129 OCTAVE CHILD 156 DEEP DUCKED FX 183 NOW HEAR THIS!103 LIFE

Effects Path Diagram103Tone ButtonEQCompDe-EssGateHardTuneHarmonyDoublingLead MuteVoicesµModDelayReverbDelay/ReverbTransducerInsert EffectPitchPitch B

All products manufactured by TC-Helicon are warrantedagainst failure arising through faulty workmanship andmaterials for a period of one year from dat

Specifications 105AAnnaalloogg IInnppuuttssConnectors, balanced Mic.: XLR, Line: 1/4" phone jack, Guitar: 1/4" phone jack, Aux: 1/8"

Front Panel1111. SHORTCUT - Press to access the effect extensionthat is listed in the MAIN DISPLAY under SHORTCUT.This can include TEMPO,HARMONY HO

1. MIC and LINE inputs - Connect your microphone orline level audio device’s output here. Only one should beconnected at a time. Hold the REVERB

Back Panel13of the USB digital input is done in the I/O tab of theSETUP menu.7. PEDAL Input - A standard expression pedal can beconnected here to cont

14Overview:This chapter will help you get set up in the typical liveperformance setting with a microphone. You will learnhow to connect external devic

15Step 2: InputsFirst, connect the XLR cable from your microphone tothe MIC input jack on VoiceLive 2.Next, connect the instrument or device you will

16Step 3: OutputsThe typical setup for monitoring the output of VoiceLive2 is to connect two 1/4” cables to a stereo channel in aPA mixer. VoiceLive 2

17Step 4: Set Mic LevelThis step informs VoiceLive 2 how loud you plan to singwith your particular mic. We’ll use VoiceLive 2’sautomatic MIC GAIN feat

18How To Audition PresetsThe best way to sample VoiceLive 2’s effects is to startwith preset #1, sing, and then tap the PRESET upfootswitch to auditio

19First ImpressionsUsing The Effect On/Off SwitchesThe Effect On/Off footswitches give you the option tomodify the sound without changing to another p

WARNINGTo reduce the risk of fire or electric shock, do not expose this applianceto rain or moisture.CAUTIONThis equipment has been tested and found t

The STEP FootswitchThe Step feature allows you to create a series of up to10 linked effect changes associated with a preset. In apreset that has steps

To delete any single step, locate the step you want toremove then enter Step programming mode. TapSHORTCUT to delete the current step.To speed Step pr

First Impressions22Activating BYPASS + TUNER ModePress and hold the FX footswitch to remove all effectsfrom your voice except TONE (when active). The

First Impressions23Basic Editing ConceptsWhen you want to go beyond turning effects on and offto make changes in your preset, press the Edit button to

OverviewGuitarists have bonus features in VoiceLive 2. In additionto sensing the guitar chords to guide harmony,VoiceLive2 offers the guitarist:o Eff

If you hear a buzz from either your guitar amplifier or thePA VoiceLive 2 is connected to, press the GND LIFT(ground lift) button to silence it.Now yo

OverviewUsing MIDI opens up a wide range of harmony andparameter control options. This section will discuss thebasics of setting MIDI channel and perf

or tap it to engage harmony in any preset. Now you canplay a song on your keyboard while singing and hearhow the harmony voices adjust musically as yo

OverviewThis section is for those who do not play an instrumentsuch as a MIDI keyboard or guitar. You are still able toexperience VoiceLive 2’s vocal

last chord in a song without extensions. For example GMajor is a valid Key, Gm7b5 is not.Hold the HARMONY footswitch to enter Key Set modethen use the

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Borrowing” From Another PlayerIf you play with a guitarist or MIDI keyboard player, youcan use their playing to guide the harmony voices in yourVoice

Monitor PlacementTry to ensure that your keyboard amp or monitor is notfacing directly into your mic as this can confuse VoiceLive2’s pitch detection

The USB ConnectionConnecting the supplied USB cable between VoiceLive 2and your Mac or PC computer offers the followingbenefits:o Audio input and out

Connect your mic and headphones to VoiceLive2 andpick a preset you like. VoiceLive 2 will send the fullyprocessed sound to your DAW and you’ll be able

Method #3 - Recording dry vocal and guitar tracks:You’ll need a fully dry mono vocal track and optionally, adry instrument track (guitar or keyboar

Selecting The Audio DeviceIn the Mac and Windows operating systems, you canselect VoiceLive 2’s audio device in your workstationprogram by name. In so

36

In this part of the manual we shed light on the individualediting parameters in VoiceLive 2.This section discusses:The Global controls:Tone, Pitch and

The Tone ButtonThe Tone button activates what we call the “LiveEngineer Effects”.These are different from standard vocalprocessing effects in that th

Note that there is a slight lag between adjusting theAdaptive effects and hearing the effect as the algorithmre-assesses your voice input.The ADAPTIVE

VoiceLive 2 for the MIDI keyboardist/Singer . . . .26Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26MIDI Hookup And Chan

instruments or sounds from getting into the front of themic. A side effect of this that singing closely on a cardioidmic adds more bass frequencies th

feedback with lots of compression combined withAdaptive Shape EQ.o Note that, in order for the Adaptive Compressionfeature to work properly. you must

brightness to remain on the voiced portion of yoursinging.There is only the single DE-ESS control; no other manualadjustment settings are required. Th

default), most of the adjustment is done automatically sofewer controls are required.These are:ADAPTIVE ON/OFFSHAPE AMOUNTWARMTH ON/OFFADAPTIVE ON/OFF

WIDTH). For vocals, the gain of a narrow parametricband is typically reduced to overcome room or voiceresonances and smooth the sound althoughexperien

COMPRESS Tab With ADAPTIVE ONThe ADAPTIVE Compression algorithm performsautomatic processing which reduces the amount ofadjustable parameters. As suc

Note that the RATIO control has to be set above 1.0(1.0:1) to apply any compression regardless of thesetting of the THRESHOLD.Also note that automatic

attenuation amount of -10 dB should work well in manysituations, but you can further reduce the level if you stillhear harmonized instrumental chatter

The Pitch ButtonPressing the Pitch button activates auto chromatic pitchcorrection. For most applications, this is all that isrequired to set this fea

The Guitar FX ButtonFor those guitar players who mix their guitar throughVoiceLive 2’s outputs by not connecting to an externalmixer or amp via the GU

The Tone Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38The Tone Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38The

help, but if you typically remain in the same position itcan help considerably.To see if phase reversal will help, stand where you willperform in rela

The EQ TabUse the Navigate arrows to tab over to the EQ tab fromthe GUITAR tab. Here you will find a 3 band EQfeaturing:Low band shelvingAll band full

PARA GAINBoosts or cuts the band of frequencies centered at thesetting of the PARA FREQ control and its associatedWIDTH.PARA FREQDefines the center of

OverviewBasic editing, menu navigation and concepts are brieflydiscussed on page 23. This Edit Menu section discussesthe actual parameters in detail

Overview μMod is short for micro-modulation ("μ" is the scientificsymbol for micro).The μMod effect is capable of creatingmany different sou

mono. LEFT puts the left side out of phase with the rightwhich is normal phase and vice versa for the RIGHTvalue. BOTH puts both sides out of phase wi

HARM TO UMODSets the amount of harmony level sent into the μModblock. The HARMONY footswitch must be on to feedthis send.LEAD LEVELControls the lead

OverviewThe delay effect is a configurable echo. You can controlhow far apart the echoes occur (Delay Time), andwhether the echoes fade out quickly or

MIDI:The unit can be set to derive its delay times fromincoming MIDI clock signal.TEMPOThis is where you can manually set the tempo in beatsper minute

Applying these filters to the delays can create the feelingof space while not obscuring the main vocal signal.DUCKING AMOUNT This sets how much attenu

The System Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88The Expression Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89The VL

OverviewReverb is the arguably the most common vocal effect. Itcan add a spaciousness that softens the abruptbeginnings and endings of lyric phrases.

HI FACTORThis allows you to raise or lower the level of the highband of the Reverb tail independently.EARLY REFLECTIONS / TAIL LEVELThese parameters a

DUCKING AMOUNT This sets how much attenuation (gain reduction) isapplied to the reverb signal when a vocal is present. Forducking to not be too obviou

OverviewThe Harmony block in VoiceLive 2 produces up to 8harmony voices and is the home of the Choir effect.IMPORTANT NOTE: The parameters available o

more masculine and deeper effect and values above 0lend a more feminine or thinner effect.V1 to V4 PANEach voice may have a unique pan position. There

overall effect.The various Humanization styles consist of variousamounts of the following modifiers:o Onset pitch events - This is also known as"

overall style with this parameter. All the styles weredesigned to be useful at middle values but you can addor remove vibrato as you like.V1 to V4 POR

parameter has elapsed.TUNINGThe Tuning parameter allows you to affect tiny pitchadjustments to your harmony intervals to achieve Equal,Just or Barbers

lowest LEAD LEVEL value will determine the value.Note that the LEAD EFFECT SENDS parameter on thePRESET tab must be set to PRE in order for any signal

allows you to pick pitch shift intervals that falloutside of the standard “musical harmony”definition and as such, require no musical inputfrom you.o

Introduction7Welcome to VoiceLive 2Thank you for stepping into the evolution of what itmeans to be a singer. VoiceLive 2 was conceived andengineered d

V1 to V4 VOICINGThe voicing alternatives change in SCALE mode andthey are displayed in scale degree terminology.They areorganized lowest to highest,

o ON (4 VOICES X2) - With this you can play up to4 voices at once, but each voice can be doubledfor extra thickness.o UNISON - All 8 voices are trig

OverviewThe Double effect uses the same type of Humanizationtechnology as in the Harmony effect to create up to fouroverdubbed versions of your voice.

a delayed response to the pitch movement of yoursinging voice. It is also referred to as "Glide" insynthesizers. The range of values equals

OverviewThe FX tab contains the edit settings for a combinationof two effects:o Transducer, which uses distortion and steep filtersto emulate the sou

LOW CUT and HIGH CUTSets the cut-off frequency for these very steep low andhigh shelving filters. TIP: these and the PRESENCE filterscan be used witho

down. Use th OUT GAIN control to adjust the outputlevel of the Transducer block to properly balance thecurrent preset with the others.PRESENCE GAIN, P

and the Harmony NATURALPLAY mode is set toSCALE, then only the key is passed on to theHARDTUNE effect. This allows a different scale to beused for the

o Minor-Asc (ascending melodic minor)o Chromatic (no key or scale required)NOTE / ENABLEDThese are applicable when you wish to edit a customscale for

OverviewUsing the Rhythmic features, tap tempo can controleffects on the lead voice, harmonies and doubling voicesin time with your music. The RHYTHMI

About This ManualYou’ve no doubt noticed that the Table of Contents hastwo sections: the Basics section and the Details section.This manual is divide

DEPTHSets the intensity that the Rhythmic settings have on theTarget.TARGETDetermines what Rhythmic modifies.These include:LEAD LEVEL GENDER, (Lead on

1/8 DOT 1/8 1/8 TRIP1/16 DOT 1/16 1/16 TRIP1/32 DOT 1/32 1/32 TRIPSAMPLE LOOP CAPTUREDefines whether the sample is repeated from a pointbefore the foo

OverviewThis tab contains parameters that don’t pertain to theother tabs.LEAD LEVEL This allows the overall lead (dry with Tone) voice level tobe redu

IN GAINSets and displays the MIC / LINE input level. Both inputsshare the same gain settings and are not meant to beused simultaneously; switching fro

DIGITAL INSelects between SPDIF and USB physical inputs as theinput and also specifies where the incoming digital signalis routed. By default the rout

through VoiceLive 2 with the shortest possible latencyinherent to the system. When set to VOICE SYNC, thelead voice is delayed slightly to synchronize

CHANNELSets the MIDI channel that VoiceLive 2 uses for presetsand MIDI harmony control. When a NATURALPLAYpreset is set to MIDI NOTES 4 CH, the chann

PBRANGE(Pitchbend Range) Sets the range in semitones that MIDIpitch bend information will alter voice pitch shifts.The Setup Menu: MIDI Tab87

LCD CONTRASTSets the contrast level of the LCD display. Useful forbetter viewing at different angles and light conditions.USB CONTROLSetting this para

OverviewConnecting an expression pedal such as a TC-HeliconExpress 1 allows you to modify preset or global settingsfrom a standing position using a st

9Front Panel1 24 56 7 8 93111012 13 141516 17 18

Assigning The Expression PedalThe pedal can now be set to control any of the followingparameters:HARMONY + DOUBLE LEVEL DELAY + REVERB LEVELHARMONY LE

OverviewLooping is a new feature for firmware version 1.3. TheVLOOP tab offers control of new parameters requiredfor looping. After the parameter desc

settings previously assigned to your presets but it can bereversed later if needed.After assigning the SHORTCUT footswitch, the Homedisplay will show

OverviewPressing the Store button presents either the STORE orMANAGE tab depending on which was last used. In theSTORE tab, turn the respective contro

My guitar doesn't change the harmonies.Ensure your guitar is connected to the Guitar IN and notthe THRU.Turn up the volume control on your guitar

When I switch Phantom on and off the levelchanges.Why?Because condenser microphones tend to have muchhigher output levels than a dynamic microphone,Vo

My corrected voice or harmony voice soundsout of tuneIt's possible that the tuning reference of the instrumentsyou are singing with are not tuned

when singing. If not, check connection and run MICGAIN setting procedure.3. It's possible LEAD MUTE is enabled globally in theSetup I/O menu, set

FFoooottsswwiittcchh OOnn//OOffffHarmony 110 0-63 off 64-127 onDouble 111 “ “Reverb 112 “ “HardTune 113 “

Level Voice2 17 “ “Level Voice3 21 “ “Level Voice4 25 maps to 127Gender Voice1 29 “ “Gender Voice2 19