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Where to put a vocal correct unit?


kikabyte

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The singer of my band likes to use a TC Helicon Vocal Correct unit for assistance mainly at the end of the night. It is designed to go on the floor in front of the singer, looping the mic through and back to the mixer. I have convinced him to let the unit next to the mixer so I can see when the thing is clipping etc, but I am just wondering if this is the best way to have it set up.

 

Our singer uses a SM58 Beta, and so you have to enable Phantom Power on the vocal correct unit (yes it doesn’t pass through from the mixer).

 

Would I be best adding the unit as an insert, so the pre amps from our mixer do all the work, and I have a better control over clipping and signal strength? Or is it best left where it is?

 

Also, if I did patch it in as an insert, should for any reason it get switched onto Phantom power, is this going to cause any problems?

 

Help much appreciated

Chris

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rtfm @http://www.tc-helicon.com/Default.asp?Id=2963

 

maybe send from an aux and back to fx return,

 

phantom if required can then be from the board as normal.

cheers

 

but you should read the manual, it took me less than 30secs to track it down.

 

good luck

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The imortant thing with this kind of unit is to get it out of the monitor path, so having it as an insert at FOH makes sense. If it has to go on stage then a split from the mic before the box is just about mandatory.
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A Beta 58 dosen't require phantom power. It is dynamic.

 

If used as an insert there would be no danger to the desk if the unit has 48V left switched on providing you use the balanced Jack inputs and outputs and a standard insert lead with tip send ring return. Stay completely away from the XLR mic input and pass through

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The imortant thing with this kind of unit is to get it out of the monitor path, so having it as an insert at FOH makes sense. If it has to go on stage then a split from the mic before the box is just about mandatory.

 

Providing the monitor sends are PRE insert. Not all desks are. We can safely assume its a 1 desk gig as the OP talks about their desk rather than their FOH desk, so it's important to make sure the aux outs are PRE insert so as not to send this back through the monitors.

 

A Beta 58 dosen't require phantom power. It is dynamic.

 

If used as an insert there would be no danger to the desk if the unit has 48V left switched on providing you use the balanced Jack inputs and outputs and a standard insert lead with tip send ring return. Stay completely away from the XLR mic input and pass through

 

Agree with the bit about putting it on an insert, but be careful. Not all desks inserts are wired the same way. Check in your user manual for the desk as to which way it's wired.

 

 

 

How well does this unit work?

How bad are things without it?

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I am vaguely aware of what the unit does but as I have never used one I don't know whether the artist would want a mix of wet/dry or one or the other. I was just stating how I have seen it done on one desk gigs where the monitor feeds required both wet for the singer and dry for the rest of the band.

 

Josh

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Right. It's a pitch correct unit. Similar to the Autotune plug ins etc for Protools.

You normally don't want the dry signal, it is not an effects processor, its use it to enhance the vocal and make it sound more in tune... therefore you wouldn't want the raw (un-tuned/ out of tune) signal at all.

 

What you describe is indeed a possible way to run reverb and effects, however in this situation does not apply. Perhaps a quick skim of the manual next time may help to give you a better idea before posting about something with which you have had no direct experience... ;)

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Sorry, I haven’t managed to get my laptop online for a few days!

 

Ok, so I get the impression your suggesting its best to plug the mic directly into the mixer rather adding the voice correct unit in the chain.. so…

 

Some information first…

 

First, I got the mic wrong, it’s a Shure Beta 87A.. sorry

 

The correct unit has one input, but it has two outputs, one is the dry signal, one is the ‘modified’ signal. So I have in the past, wondered whether I should take the dry output and patch that into the singers monitor mix, that way he won’t get lazy?!? Then just let the altered signal come out through the FOH.

 

We do only have the one desk, and it is a Yamaha MG 206… I quote from the manual the following:

"Insert

These jacks can be used to insert an external signal-processing

device between the equalizer and fader of the corresponding

monaural input channel."

 

Does this mean that if I plugged the vocal correct into the mixers insert, It would apply itself after the auxiliary sends anyway? So I would get dry signal coming back to the singer, and the altered vocal going to the FOH speakers??

 

We have no Axillaries left on the mixer, we use three for monitor mixes, and the last one for effects, so it wouldn’t be an option to insert the correction device that way.. sorry

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sound isnt normally my domain so tell me to "do one" if need be....

 

if you have a spare input on the desk, can you not take the direct out from the original mic source, feed it trough the autotune device, and back into the new input, then you have control of both from your desk, to send to wherever you like?

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