Who takes their own vocal processing kit with them?

rze99

I think the singer in my band would benefit from having his own kit to take with him

a stomp box that provides

limiting/compression
reverb
delay
eq

so that there is less dicking about with boards that we've never used before.

anyone do this if so what do you use that's plug and play instant vocal mix
 

thecolourbox

TC Helicon are pretty good at this - either the Mic Mechanic for the essential effects (comp, reverb, etc) or one of the many different Voicelive units if one prefers option paralysis and the risk of over doing things like reverb  

maltingsaudio

Oooh my favourite (sarcasm emoji). If you don’t have a sound bloke fair enough, but if you do he will be trying to fix what you think is the right mix of reverb comp etc from where he can hear it properly in the room as opposed to you trying to guess from stage.

NB quite happy with harmonising and loopers etc but reverbs eq comp etc leave to me

slacker

I use a boss vf1 and the eh harmoniser. I like them for rehearsals as I can control everything without running to the mixer. I assume if we get any gigs I'll be the soundman. If we get a proper one I'll turn off the reverbs etc and let them sort it.

rze99

maltingsaudio said:

Oooh my favourite (sarcasm emoji). If you don’t have a sound bloke fair enough, but if you do he will be trying to fix what you think is the right mix of reverb comp etc from where he can hear it properly in the room as opposed to you trying to guess from stage.

NB quite happy with harmonising and loopers etc but reverbs eq comp etc leave to me

Yes I'm talking only about no sound guy situations and unfamiliar PAs in rehearsal / venues which is pretty much always

rze99

thecolourbox said:

TC Helicon are pretty good at this - either the Mic Mechanic for the essential effects (comp, reverb, etc) or one of the many different Voicelive units if one prefers option paralysis and the risk of over doing things like reverb  

Thanks yes that Mic Mechanic is a quick rehearsal room set-up option

mrkb

I’m trying out a JHS Colourbox for running a mic input into my Fractal FM9. It’s a console preamp in a pedal and has EQ and gain control.

darthed1981

mrkb said:

I’m trying out a JHS Colourbox for running a mic input into my Fractal FM9. It’s a console preamp in a pedal and has EQ and gain control.

@mrkb needs this kind of kit as well, because he sometimes comes to events where I'm singing

PolarityMan

our singer has a boss pedal of some kind. its red. 

rze99

PolarityMan said:

our singer has a boss pedal of some kind. its red. 

PolarityMan said:

our singer has a boss pedal of some kind. its red. 

Improvement or does he knob twiddle?*

*Where not a part of the act…..

maltingsaudio

rze99 said:

PolarityMan said:

our singer has a boss pedal of some kind. its red. 

PolarityMan said:

our singer has a boss pedal of some kind. its red. 

Improvement or does he knob twiddle?*

*Where not a part of the act…..

Red pedals  are louder than blue ones!

mike257

From a sound guy's perspective, they give me the shivers. The Boss ones have always sounded hideous. The TC stuff is generally a lot better, but it's only as good as the way it's been set up. 

As guitarists, we all (hopefully) know that when you get a multi FX fresh out of the box, the patches are all set up to sound great in the shop, but are usually hideous overkill in a band mix. Also, dialling them in at bedroom volume/on headphones is not a representation of how they'll be on stage at volume. 

The same principles absolutely apply for vocal pedals. The majority of times I've seen a band roll up with them, the signal is wildly over-compressed, drowned in effects, or terribly EQd. I've seen a handful of people with them set up for nice, subtle processing, and on occasion some very effective use of TC vocal harmony pedals, but aside from that they've usually been more trouble than they're worth. 

PolarityMan

rze99 said:

PolarityMan said:

our singer has a boss pedal of some kind. its red. 

PolarityMan said:

our singer has a boss pedal of some kind. its red. 

Improvement or does he knob twiddle?*

*Where not a part of the act…..

He has patches set up for specific things. I don't think he runs it on all the time. So like specific tempo delays for some parts, harmoniser or distortion for specific sections etc.

PolarityMan

Depending on the sound guy we do sometimes end up with it bypassed too.