TC-Helicon Play Acoustic 3-stars Reviews

Has great features but odd quirks and not so easy to adjust

Having wanted as combined solution for acoustic and voice I thought this was it. Overall the sound is good if you can put up with the channels on the back not actually being separate. No matter what I tried, either using Stereo , Mono , Supposedly Seperate channels the Vox and Guitar elements seems to be somehow overlapping, and coming out of One channel or the other. Neither were ever totally separate!. Annoying. Interface isnt great for live adjustment, although good for general processing, Vocal effects are great and easily useable out of the box. Guitar Sounds leave something to be desired and need adjustment. Settings in general hard to trim to a Desk / Monitoring process easily, and not that easy to do if something is wrong levels wise. Found it a pain in general but usable , have gone to a Headrush Prime in the end as much better adjustability and separate Channels!

Expected more

I've been using this unit for about two years now as a one man band. I used it in different venues, form big and small, and different systems.

I would definitely say the pros of the product is that it has a lot of options in general in a relatively small unit and it seems very well built.

But, even tough there are a lot of option for a unit small like this, there are also some essential features that should be there but aren't, as for example vocal compression and limiter.

I found the LOOPER totally useless, it has a problem with keeping being in the rhythm, you have to be very very precise to get something usable out of it, and I've been using RC-3 looper for years and now I'm using EHX 22500, so I'm not a beginner in looping.

I'm very disappointed in the VOCAL EFFECTS, especially the reverb. I couldn't get a nice direct normal reverb like you have on every basic available DAV in your laptop or computer, it is like it's always "somewhere in the background", whatever I do with the parameters.

The BODY REZ function doesn't necessarily improve the sound of the guitar that it sounds more natural to me, especially not in the grasp as it is marketed. It is ok to add compression to the guitar but you have to really play with it or it can even make the sound worse.

I think that since this is a digital unit, TC should maybe consider updating some of the effects and their computability, especially vocal reverb, add compression to the vocal because this should be a must on a VOCAL processor unit.

I use the unit as a travelling musician and would much more prefer that TC offers a unit as this in even smaller size, maybe without the looper option.

So in general I'm not very satisfied with the unit. Reason I use it is because I need to have something as a traveling musician when I end up on different gear without any reverb or compression etc. which is better than nothing. But I'm stil considering just buying my own mixer because I don't have compression and good reverb on this unit, but the problem then is switching the effects for different songs or during a song.

The problem is there are not many other alternatives to something that offers at least some effects for acoustic playing in one unit and it is relatively ok for transport.

So I could recommend the unit if you really need it, but in general I think it could be much much more purposeful.

Undecided ?

I bought this unit while I was gigging with my Tanglewood Parlor guitar, and never had any issues. That was until I upgraded to a Taylor 714ce. My second time using it with my new Taylor the screen went blank and I lost all my settings. It took me over 2 hours to upload the new software and reprogram it. It still doesn't sound 100%. Also I'm getting a loud max out peak noise that I can't seem to get rid of, it comes without warning. When it works, it's a fabulous piece of gear but when it fails everyone will hear it.