A Singers Secret Weapon: The Vocal Floor Processor
The challenges of recreating an album’s vocal performance in a live setting can be much more difficult than those facing the rest of the band. Members who play instruments can tune, replace strings, or even change instruments between songs. The vocalist must work with the same throat, voice box, and lungs for the duration of the entire concert. Without proper vocal processing, amplification, and microphone a singer could easily find themselves hoarse at the end of a show. This is in addition to the fact that a studio environment is often loaded with racks of gear dedicated to recording vocal music – not a common component of a touring band’s arsenal.
Luckily, a vocalist’s live performance can be enhanced in several ways. Obviously, the choice of microphone and the venue design itself can play a large role in how a singer creates their desired sound, but sensible use of vocal processing can go a long way towards putting the finishing touches on a killer set.
Floor based vocal processors are becoming a hit with singers everywhere, because they provide the vocalist control over his or her most precious asset during a live performance. This can be a blessing or a curse depending on the circumstances of use of the device. As performing musicians can normally only hear playback of their performance from the stage, introducing effects into the signal chain on stage can cause issues for those listening in the audience, if not handled correctly. However, use of these devices in small venues can help singers tremendously in managing their instrument – their voice.
If you are one of those performers who prefer to have a little more control over their live vocal effects, TC Helicon produces a vocal floor processor called the VoiceLive. Control of the effects unit is obtained through a series of eight footswitches which allows the VoiceLive to open up a new realm of improvisation and creativity, and is one of the most powerful offerings among floor processors. The audio interface contains all of the industry standard vocal modeling tools in a sturdy, rubber-backed steel chassis, meaning the TC Helicon VoiceLive vocal floor processor will take all of the abuse a touring musician can throw at it – an important consideration when evaluating a modeling floor processor. Not to be outdone, Digitech has also thrown their hat into the to vocal floor processor ring.
Approaching the same problem from a different design perspective, the Digitech Vocal 300 vocal effects processor is smaller than the TC Helicon offering, with only 3 selectable pedalboard controls, but it makes up for this with a standard expression pedal (optional on the TC Helicon VoiceLive). This pedal on the multi effects processor can be assigned to control up to 3 parameters at once, allowing real-time control of reverb depth, delay time, or even distortion level. The Digitech vocal processor also provides amp modeling to allow a breadth of different sound eras and genres. If you are looking for more toys, Digitech offers the VX400 vocal modeling floor processor. While similar in appearance, the this vocal effects processor pedalboard also offers USB connectivity to your favorite audio recording software, an onboard drum machine, mic preamps and 16 different microphone models to play with.
For larger venues using rack mounted vocal processors in your mix at the house console is recommended. This way, both the monitor engineer and the front-of-house engineer, can manage the mix and effects properly for each environment. TC Helicon produces several different vocal processors designed to provide singers with an array of audio weaponry. Rack mounts like the TC Helicon VoiceWorks vocal processor feature multi-voice harmony, vocal pitch correction and real-time double tracking. Fed by a 48V phantom power mic preamp, the VoiceWorks processor allows for up to 100 presets to be stored internally and accessed at the push of a button. The performer can explore vocal harmony by selecting to have their own voice harmonized in up to 5 parts with the vocal harmonizer, or even having the harmonized pitch “frozen” so as to not be affected by the original vocal pitch dropping out of tune. Digital delay and thickening effects are also available, allowing the device to make up for poor acoustic environments or subpar venue microphones. A 3 band EQ and a compressor allow for fine tuning of the processed vocal sound.
As you can see, guitarists aren’t the only band members who get to radically reshape their sound at the touch of a button or stomp of a pedal. Vocal signal processors challenge the singer to push their technique to a higher level without sacrificing their vocal chords. With the ability to save a favorite preset, your vocal sound can become one of the most repeatable aspects of your performance – and who knows, you might discover a combination hiding in your processor out there on the road that would fit perfectly into recording vocals for your next studio session. With this type of gear, the only thing limiting your creativity is how adventurous you become with exploring the many different effects and models available to you on a nightly basis.
