TC-Helicon VoiceLive Play 5-stars Reviews

Super!

Is like magic for voices!

It does pretty much exactly what I wanted it to do.

It's a bunch of vocal effects in a pedal, and it is easy to use once you get the hang of it. The interface on the hardware is easy to use; my only complaint is that the software that comes with it is not very intuitive.

Worth the money

This pedal is a game changer, it sounds great. No doubt it's the best option for the given price.

Very good for the money

Makes your voice "clean" (depending on the setting...). Takes one hour or so to understand the menu stuff and you're good to go.

Fantastic device

First of all, this unit has best auto tune out of all that I tried (Boss, other TC devices), it is smooth and if set properly almost not noticeable, does the job perfectly. Finally crowd is not suffering because of my vocal mistakes. Harmonizer works perfectly with specific setup - I return only my guitar from mix monitor to VoiceLive AUX plug, don't rely on built in microphone to give you accurate harmonies. I use both outputs to mix board, in master mix output I send voice with effects, and in my in-ear monitors I send native vocal with no effects, so I can hear my real singing and correct mistakes on the fly. Unit is very sturdy, built like a tank, and very reliable, after dozens of gigs not once it failed. Presets are fantastic if you want to adjust them for specific songs that require special effects like robot, or places that require more or less reverb. All in all, best of it's kind for the price.

Awesome product overall

Awesome sounding, awesome processing. The only thing I'd change would be adding a couple more footswitches. A bit more foot control would be welcome. Great product nonetheless.

Great voice pedal

That's great pedal, easy to use it and and super effects! Luca

Works well

Does the job, fairly easy to use with a good rang of sound effects.

Excellent

J'utilise le voicelive play depuis quelques jours, et j'ai fait mon 1er concert avec avant-hier.

Je commence par les points négatifs qui sont décris notamment sur des forums: le premier est qu'il n'y a pas d'interrupteur. C'est stupide de la part du fabricant je trouve. Ce n'est pas ça qui coûte cher et je n'aime pas l'idée de brancher ou débrancher la prise pour allumer le voicelive. C'est peut-être psychologique...

Il est décrit sur certains forums que le potard de gain d'entrée est mal situé... Il est sur le côté gauche; personnellement, ça ne me gène pas: une fois que c'est réglé, on n'y touche plus.

Il n'est pas possible de brancher une guitare dedans pour l'harmonisation automatique de la voix. Soit on met la pédale proche de l'ampli guitare rythmique et l'appareil capte, soit on pré-programme la tonalité. Je n'utilise pas cette fonction, je ne m'attarde pas sur ce point mais je le soulève quand même.

L'équalisation est très sommaire et peu précise. Ca fait le taf en répétition, mais il est préférable de désactiver la fonction en concert.

Enfin, on aurait apprécié une housse pour le transport.

Mon utilisation principale: j'utilise essentiellement la réverb et le delay. J'ai tenté la compression lors du concert mais l'ingé son m'a demandé de la retirer; ça n'apportait rien de bon, voire même, c'était compliqué pour lui de faire une bonne EQ sur ma voix.

Points positifs:

la prise en main est facile. J'ai eu le voicelive 2 à l'époque... trop compliqué... Je chante dans 2 projets très différents au niveau du style musical. Le truc est qu'au final, on n'utilise que 2 ou 3 effets différents. Je n'avais donc pas besoin d'une machine de guerre pour laquelle il faut se taper un mode d'emploi complet de 124 pages en anglais (comme le voicelive 3); je suis trop paresseux pour ça...

Les effets sont jolis, tc helicon oblige. Pour les reverbs, je suis convaincu principalement par la plate bright, qui ajoute beaucoup de brillance à ma voix (grave en l'occurence). Les autres sont bien aussi; je testerai avec mon autre groupe mais je suis assez fan des plate sur les voix.

Plusieurs types de delay aussi. J'en utilise 2, l'un réglé au tap tempo (là j'ai dû trouver comment le faire sur le mode d'emploi mais c'est tout simple), et l'autre programmé. Il y a plusieurs types de delays. Je ne suis pas expert, j'ai trouvé mon bonheur facilement en chipotant un peu.

Je n'utilise pas les overdrive, flanger, chorus etc. J'ai un peu voyagé et testé les présets d'usine. Certains sont amusants et semblent corrects mais c'est pour moi plus une démonstration des possibilités du voicelive plutôt que des sons à utiliser tels quels (mais qui sait?).

L'ergonomie est bonne, même si la molette centrale aurait pu être dotée d'une fonction clic pour valider les choix dans les présets; on s'y habitue.Au niveau de l'encombrement, c'est parfait: pas trop grand, ni trop petit. Pas de risque d'appuyer sur 2 switches à la fois et pas besoin d'une valise de voyage pour le trimbaler.

Le poids est d'environ 1 kg; bien stable au sol. Rien à signaler.

Pour le concert, je n'ai pas eu de problème de son, ni de souffle de l'appareil. Le bouton hit est très pratique pour ajouter ou retirer un effet dans le son, mais tout doit être préparé à l'avance évidemment.

J'ai aimé la facilité sur scène, pas de prise de tête même si je n'utilise pas toutes les possibilités de la machine, en tout cas actuellement. Le looper est, parait-il, un peu court et se pilote mieux avec le fameux micro de la marque ou une pédale switch, mais pour moi, ça n'est pas utile.

A refaire, oui, sans problème. J'espère qu'il tiendra plusieurs années. L'avenir me le dira :)

Very useful on stage

Really good quality product, heavy-duty and reliable. A lot of functions, which means a lot of use cases on stage and home studios.

I use it in live situation and in rehearsal, of course. No doubt about fx on PA, just plug my microphone into line in and thats it. It gives you the freedom, you can control your own sound pretty much well.

Another functionality I use: monitoring, practice mode.

Resume: very useful for the price. Quality effects, easy to control, reliable design. A good job! A good product. Must have. =)

Excellent Effects Unit.

I use the TC-Helicon VoiceLive Play for professional solo gigs. It is very simple to use and greatly enhances vocals.

If you have a typical set-list of songs that you perform you

can programme the unit for every song in the set giving it a lift at the chorus or wherever required.The USB link helps you keep the software and presets up to date. The harmony is excellent and there are video tutorials online to take you through the instructions which are really practical. The variety of reverb is more than you will ever need and really good quality. There are some amazing presets, which give an extremely professional sound without adjustment.This is an exceptional vocal unit for the price. Highly recommended.

Love it!

Great pedal for lead singers. If you are looking for something with lot of presets ready to be twerked, this is what you'll want. Great for gigs, easy to use. Makes you sing like a f***ing princess!

TC-Helicon VoiceLive Play the best pedal in it's class

If have owned a TC Helicon Correct, TC Helicon Voicesynth, Digitech Vocalist Performer Harmonizer Vocal Effects VPR and a Digitech Live Pro.

The TC-Helicon VoiceLive Play beats them all by a long way.

Easy of use

Great effects and features

Roomsense makes so much sense and works well

This little box fits in with studio and live applications

Good quality unit with easy user interface.

I love this product.

This gives me possibility to add effect live. (effects that I do not want to be constantly on)

I had earlier the TC Helicon Voiceworks Plus

but I find this more user friendly and better for live application.

I am not a fan of autotune (as I believe singers should be able to sing correctly)

so I use only some FX on this + slighty the harmony on some extrema metal screams.

The unis has and level setting so you can make the harmony more "human sounding"

by having the level settings on a lover percentage.

as I dont play guitar simultaniously I have not seen any real benefit of buing the more expensive voice live 3.

(I may reconsider once I have a chance to test one)

Maybe an on/off switch would have been good to have in this unit as an extra.

It is now missing.

-Sami

Awesome UNIT

The tone quality and the effects packed up in this unit are easily comparable to those found in way more expensive units.

I like it for:

- fantastic sound for the price, from what I've heard in this range it's unbeatable

- most of the time I use the re-verbs, being a ballad oriented singer, and the sound that comes out of this unit just fills the space with some kind of "sparkling dust" that adds a lot of quality to the tone

- I use it in combination with a wireless microphone and I had no troubles at all

- menu layout is user friendly and easy to navigate, settings are easy to understand and tune.

-update software works great, also allows to edit the presets from the computer

Review after 6 months of live use

I got this for the singer in one of my electronic bands. Sound engineers were rarely blending her voice into the mix right (she was tending to sit on top of the mix instead of sitting back into it), so I bought this to apply my own effects to her voice, control freak that I am. For that, it works superbly. It's easy and logical to program, is sturdy and has a big bright screen so you can see where you are. The quality of the fx is excellent for live use (I don't use it for proper recording, although for rough and ready demos it does the job ok).

I have one niggle. You have no real control over EQ or compression, just broad presets that are either on or off. In practice, it's not a huge issue so long as you have a sound engineer who knows how to use EQ to notch out feedback frequencies, as the unit is more prone to introducing feedback than just a mic straight into a desk.

On the other side of the same coin, the unit makes multiple micro-adjustments to the FX during a performance, and it seems to do this extremely well. The EQ profile sounds very similar to the ones I end up with on our finished studio recordings, which is impressive.

All in all, I'm very pleased with my purchase. My singers' vocals have sounded great in every live mix since, and she's more confident knowing that she sounds good out front, making for better performances.

A solid tool

Purchased this, to replace mu Boss VE-20, which was working properly, but lacked some much needed functions. I would classify the VE-20 as a beginners tool, but this one for the intermediate user. Needs some time to get used to (the interface) but the result is much better!

I also sometimes needed the looping function, which in VE-20 is only a very basic function (no stopping/pause and the additional layers are recorded at same level, which causes major noise). This one however has all that.

Also much more memory slots, compared to the Boss. Recommended!

TC-Helicon VoiceLive Play

Excellent unit does what it says on the box and more . first class after sales and an informative and helpful forum . Also free on line updates to firmware and soft ware.

Very happy with this unit can not recommend it enough