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FDP Forum / Sing, Sing, Sing! - Vocalist's Forum / Vocal Harmonizer problem

Backfire

USA

Play 'em all!
Jul 17th, 2013 08:04 AM Edit Profile
In using our new Boss VE 20 vocal harmonizer for our vocalist, we notice that the 3rds and/or 5ths generated by the VE20 are not "true" in some instances. We play a lot of jazz with minor seventh chords and flatted 5ths, and other kinds of altered chords in the keyboard and guitar accompanyments. I believe the VE20's harmony feature only provides simple 3rds and 5ths and has no way of "knowing" the need to flat 3rd or 5th when it is called for. Of course the VE20 can be set to either a minor or a major key, but this doesn't seem to solve the problem of providing correct harmony for the vocalist for many altered chords.

Am I missing something here or am I just expecting the harmony feature to perform beyond the intended parameters for this particular machine? Any advice on this would be appreciated since we are new to vocal harmonizers and otherwise like the high quality of this Boss unit.

ProToneThinline

Pittsburgh, PA

Love my 335
Aug 26th, 2013 06:15 AM Edit Profile
No, you're not missing anything. The VE 20 is not the best unit for your particular application. Since you're using a lot of "altered" chords, you should get a unit that reads the pitch source, like one of the TC Helicon or Digitech units. The source can be either guitar or keys, but that will be much better than a "set and forget" unit like the Boss...

Backfire

USA

Play 'em all!
Aug 28th, 2013 10:45 AM Edit Profile
Thanks for the info and advice. Who would have guessed? Boss probably should have advised us of this limitation in the promotional material for the VE 20 since it is a serious limitation for those interested in jazz or even pop standards that routinely use altered chords.

I did some research on this item prior to purchase and there was no hint of the harmonic limitations in the literature or on the YouTube demos.

Backfire

USA

Play 'em all!
Nov 25th, 2014 12:21 PM Edit Profile
Update. We got a TC Helicon Vocal Harmonizer and found that it works perfectly with the keyboard, tracking every altered chord we could throw at it. It even ignores all the percussion sounds that the keyboard generates when we use the "auto accompanyment" feature (Yamaha 235 keyboard) and provides perfect harmonies.

Peegoo
Contributing Member
**********
**********
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Abducts aliens

for fun
Apr 6th, 2015 01:57 PM Edit Profile
I have a TC unit that analyzes the guitar chords I'm playing and it tracks perfect harmonies. I find it works best when used sparingly though...like most effects.

Steve Dallman
Contributing Member
********

Merrill, Wisconsin

Age is just a number...mine is big
Apr 10th, 2015 01:55 PM Edit Profile
I use a Digitech Live 3 and it follows the guitar chords extremely well.

What a fun and great technology!

FDP Forum / Sing, Sing, Sing! - Vocalist's Forum / Vocal Harmonizer problem

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