TC-Helicon VoiceLive 3 Extreme Reviews

Love the effects!

I love the effects on this and it made our band sound a lot fuller. One issue I have with it is the effect sometimes cuts off if the mic is a bit farther away than it's supposed to be, but all in all a great addition to any vocalist's musical arsenal!

TC-Helicon VoiceLive 3 Extreme

It's a mixer, it's a voice processor, it's an electric and acoustic guitar processor, it's an audio card, it's a looper, it's a 24bit recorder, it's a wav player, it's a guitar tuner...in one word it's voicelive3extreme. It's simply the perfect thing for me, and so far no device has replaced it. A DSP processor that turns on up to 16fx and works stably. Simply perfect.

TC Saver

Im crazy about the easy handling of this, is.. I was afraid that I had to go through a million tutorials on YouTube, and stille don't get it. But a friend from one of the bands I play in, showed me how and what to do...IT'S SO FREAKING EASY ... I love it, and I would recommend anyone to get it.. My vocal got soooo much clearer and brighter and more dynamic.

My guitar got a magical BOOST... the different setting you can get and do to your voice, is soooo cool.

And the pre amps on the guitar is cool to.

Easy to handle when you wanna make changes and you can spend hours and hours, just having fun trying different settings out or maybe changing the pre settings...

My total full star review from here. And Ive been looking for years toor not to bye this, and I did it, and I love it.

Its easy to handle. Voice parts, press Voice and the 2

Needs a rocket science degree to operate

This product has one of the most cumbersome interface to operate, unintuitive, sounds are horrible, overal a huge disappointment. I can understand it may work for some (setting a few scenes and thats it), - however - whoever designed it really did not consider the practicality of the unit whatsoever. Perhaps my expectations were too high, nevertheless I have returned the unit, as it is really not my cup of thee. I find the youtube reviews further misleading. I own other TC helicon products (so nothing against the company), but this one I find outdated and lacking the sound quality but mostly, it requires rocket scientist to operate.

Great Sound, Questionable Choice of Materials

Pros: Immense choices in programming. The Voicelive is a powerful effect chain that can do a LOT of things all at once, and all well.

Cons: There is a steep learning curve to get it to sound natural. As always, less is more with vocal effects

Concern: I am returning the unit for an exchange. One of the footswitches broke in the first week of use. Although the tops of the switches are metal, the shafts underneath are plastic. One of them snapped in half in use. The thing came out of the box and sat in the same place and was never gigged. I hope this was a fluke regarding quality,

The best voice FX on market!

I had many TC-Helicon processors since 2012 and this one is the best! Pro sound quality, double & harmony FX, guitar FX (that not so good as vocal FX, but it works;) & many other cool features. It's the best voice FX unit on market!

Not really

The guitar FX are not great, the vocal harmonies are ok i guess but still leave much to ask when the harmonization is derived from a plugged guitar. Maybe they work better if connected to a midi keyboard? Also some of the menue knobs have stopped working and having used this on tour for a little while, this is really just collecting dust from now until forever. All in all I would not reccomed this product.

complex but good

Although it took me a while to really get the hang of it and create the effects a was looking for, eventually it does the tric in a very nice way.

the best for vocals and guitar's!

i sold it and bought it back three times and i'm staying with it for now there's just not other such a good equipment out there imho amps simulation's are not very good but everything else is veeery nice!

Very useful device

I have been using VL3X for 1.5 years. I've played around 300 short (30 minutes) repetitions, about 75 long (3 hours) concerts with the VL3X and am satisfied. In my opinion, this is a unique and very useful device, that has no analogues in the world. I am an underground garage rock artist, vocalist and guitarist. The drummer plays with me. Most of our concerts are in small pubs, where 50 viewers are big deal.

And we use the VL3X backing track player to play bass guitar track. Very good internal memory - fits a lot of backing track's. I don't know, how much will fit backing track in this device, but I've already uploaded around 100 wav files. This is important, because I use backing track a lot - different in different concerts.

I write a review after reading the negative reviews. Some say, that VL3X are bad guitar amps. But this is not true. A clean brit, 4/12 crunch, scooped amp and tc dark matter overdrive - sounds good to me. There are many parameters that can all be fine-tuned, adjust as needed.

Automation is a great thing. I use it for guitar effects. When you switch from guitar rhythm to solo during a song, I write down the effect change in backing track automation. Very comfortable. No need to bother with effect alternation. You can focus on performance and communication with viewers.

In "do it yourself" underground rock festivals with minimal hardware, we use VL3X to process the lead vocals. Great for all punk rock and modern metal bands.

Some people complained about the VL3X failing fast. But it works for me, despite the fact that one night after the concert with the VL3X I fell on the asphalt. :) And nothing happened.

If there is any doubt about the operation of the device - then I just reboot the device.

Commentators curse VL3X factory presets. I don't use them, it's just a demo. But overall I use a lot of the vocal effects in VL3X, they are all useful. They need to be fine-tuned. Work with the VL3X will be a good task for the advanced audio engineer as well. And for us - rock'n'roll losers - it will take a long time. Combining effects, the VL3X is best for listening with headphones!

It should be understood, that once you buy a VL3X, you will not run with it on stage or repetition the same day - it will take at least a month to study, tune, adjust to your needs and your productions.

I've been gigging with this pedal for 6 months now, and learned every single feature in it. I'm giving it 2 stars ONLY BECAUSE it actually does work well as a backing track player. If you're thinking of using this with backing tracks, then you'll love it. Connect straight to the PA system, use in-ears, no need for a mixer or guitar amp. Probably in a restaurant, busking, or small pub where you're not fussed about guitar sound too much. For my solo work gigs, it's brilliant.

But for everything else (playing with a band, recording etc.) Its completely useless. Here's why:

-The amp simulators are terrible: Trust me, I don't ask for much, just a semi-clean amp tone that sounds halfway real. But there are none. These amp sims will take away all the joy of playing your nice guitar.

-Can't use your own amp: yes you can plug it in and bypass the amp simulators... but you have one type of drive to choose from. It's called...drive. That's it. So as bad as the amp sims are, you're much better off using them than plugging into your amp, because at least you have SOME variety there. And don't think about using pedals in the guitar chain before it either. Tc Helicon basically guarantee that it wont be able to recognise the chords for vocal harmonies if you do.

-Harmonies are unusable: I wont blame then for the harmonies sounding super fake - it's the nature of digital harmonies, but it has to be mentioned. However it's the note choices that will ruin it. The harmonizer will hit wrong notes that are completely out of scale ALL THE TIME. I wouldn't risk using it for a real show.

Presets are ALL unsusable: There's not single preset out of 400+ that is usable out of the box. They seem to all be designed to make you sound like a dragon or chipmunk or with 7 harmonies right in your face. Nothing that's a decent guitar tone and subtle harmony. So you'll have to make your own from the start. I eventually just deleted all of the presets.

I've mentioned my biggest issues but there are many more small ones that I wont get into (mini Jack monitor output instead of xlr, backing tracks freeze 90% of the time while storing onto the pedal, fake sounding reverb and fx, the list goes on)

If you're gonna use this for backing tracks in solo gigs, it be great. Otherwise this is an amateur pedal. Avoid it if you play any serious shows at all.

A DEFECTIVE UNIT REPLACED WITH ANOTHER DEFECTIVE UNIT

My unit arrived defective and got replaced with another unit with exactly the same problem. Which is probably a ground loop problem and it's affecting the guitar side, meaning every time you plug your guitar, the machine produces a loud noise/hum that makes it totally unusable.

Now this can't be just my bad luck and with a little research on the net I have realised this product has some manufacturing problem which has never been solved and there are loads of people complaining about it. I even contacted the TC Helicon but they weren't very reassuring.

So... in short:

VOCAL FX: Wonderful

GUITAR FX: Good effects, poor amp simulations

LOOPER: Haven't had time to try that

MANIFACTURING: from my experience, very poor

Also, I think the pedal is very well organised and makes your life easier in many ways.

I am sorry to let it go but if I'm going to spend so much money and rely on a unit for vocal effects, guitar effects, backing tracks so basically my entire live show, it has to be reliable. And this is not!

The best vocal processor

The best vocal processor I've ever had. All inclusive for any things for any vocalist. It's ideal for a street musician - playback, effect automatization, lots of useful presets. You can play on you instrument and have cool vocal processing without dance-tapping by foots instead of other analogues. I don't have more words!

Excellent product

Bought a few years ago, and use it to combine live and guitar music at home. Cons in complexity interfaces and fat manual, manufacturer wants customers to buy more apparature of TC for further emancipation.

Very poor quality

Great features and sound but that doesnt matter if it can only handle 20 h of usage, and lets not forget that at this price, you need to deliver. Arrived with some scratches on the top area, i didnt really mind and didnt wanna go through all the process of sending it back and taking ages to get it back. after a month of purchase, having used the VoiceLive 3 only a couple of hours in total the HIT button doesnt work at all. Not acceptable at this price.

A New Friend

This one is a very good Vocal Processor. We all know its features and so far it all works just great for me. But the software side is not helping much, like there's no development on software side from the company. So we have to set all the *complicated parameters manually on it. Complicated means detailed.

Could not recommend more. Good luck!

Great features, faulty and unreliable construction

This unit does everything I need. While electric guitarists will almost certainly want a valve amp to get convincing tones, as a primarily acoustic player who uses live loops, the design of the interface and practical thinking are excellent. BUT...

I bought my first VL3X unit in 2015. It has since been back to Germany for warranty repair twice after the screen and switches froze mid-performance (I couldn't even stop the song I was playing - I had to mute the mixer and turn the pedal off at the plug). This same unit last week failed again with the same symptoms. I bought an identical backup unit here in Dubai last year for just this eventuality (and for while I was without my first pedal while it was being repaired). That backup was replaced after 4 months' use under warranty by the supplier here. So I'm on my third VoiceLive 3 in three years!

There's a clearly a massive factory fault that has not been resolved, and I know 4 pro musicians here in Dubai who have suffered the same experience with the VL3X. Why TC Helicon have not had the decency to recall the unit is beyond belief.

I love the features but this is in no way a reliable pedal for professional use. Actually, not even for amateurs.

A Professional Sound In Your Pocket!

I have had the TC Helicon VoiceLive3 Extreme for a few months now and wow! This is a very special piece of kit. I have taken the time to get to know the unit before writing this review, for the simple fact that I didn't simply want to be impressed with its immediate quality of build and said features.

I am glad I took the time. Both to get to know the unit and to use it. The TC Helicon VL3X is a must for any professional singer/singer-songwriter who performs live. It will virtually give you any sound you want (but you must work with the unit as an instrument) and make difficult venues more of a joy to play in. It is like having 'A profession vocal sound pack in your pocket.' Which of course, it is!

I love it and I am glad I've found it. And more over, in the few months since I've had it, it has paid for itself!

Truly fantastic!

Not for the serious guitarist!

This pedal has so much potential, the vocal section is great. The room-sense feature is amazing. The looper is okay... but from the guitarist perspective, there are a some serious deal-breakers.

With all the connection possibilities provided on the back-panel interface, the looper playback can't be separated from live guitar (with effects).

After the guitar signal enters the pedal, it has to exit either via:

1) the "guitar through" or

2) the main output -- (XLR)

and/or

3) the guitar outputs (tele jack)

As expected, the guitar-through jack offers a clean signal. If you connect to your amp using this jack, no loops or effects will come through.

However, all recorded loops and guitar+effects will exit through the main outputs and/or the guitar outputs. If you do not connected anything to the guitar output, then everything (vocals, effects, loops and live playing) will exit through the main outputs. If you connect the guitar output, then guitar+effects and all loops will exit exclusively through these, while the vocals will exit via the main outputs. Loops cannot be separated from your live-guitar (with effects) output. This means your loops and backing tracks etc will play through your guitar amp and/or the PA system.

Any serious guitarist who has invested in a signature sound will want to use their amp exclusive for their guitar. The amp is, after all, part of their instrument. It's bad enough to share your guitar signal with the looper (and potentially live vocals), but if you use this pedal to record a clean loop and decide to turn on the amp distortion for a solo, the loop will then distort along with it.

(If you connect your amp to the guitar-through jack, then you can't use any of the built-in guitar effects. Even a two-channel amp will not help, unless you can separate the looper from the guitar+effects signal.)

Since your only option of not sending loops and vocals into your amp is to route the guitar signal through the guitar-through jack, this means that the built-in guitar effects will not help you save any space on your pedal board.

As for the guitar section, the compressor and reverb are great, the delay and chorus are basic, but the other effects leave a lot to be desired. The auto-wah is unpleasant. The amp simulations are far from realistic. There is far, far more to amp simulation than the fancy pre/post EQ system touted as the nut and bolts of it all. The one place where they could really have used such an advanced pre- and post-EQ is the overdrive, but no such option is provided. You get only one uncustomizable overdrive sound per preset over something that doesn't sound or behave anything like an amp. A rhythm sound usually needs entirely different tones from the solo, but this is not provided for.

If the deficient routing system isn't hardwired, hopefully, TC Helicon will see the light and create separate routing for loops vs live playing through a software update.

Best choice for singer/songwriter

This product is Extreme good, for professianal users.

Build quality is excellent. Button config is a life saver. Great sounding pedals from the TC Electronics line (Corona, Flashback, HOF, Nova Drive, etc.)

Recommended!