DigiTech Vocalist Live 2

Even though I did a plug 'n play, I highly recommend reading the manual first. Because I didn't dial in a proper gain on the VL2 for the vocal mic I discovered that the unit has a noisegate built in. It would cut off the initial note of each new phrase I started singing. Whose fault? Mine! And I'll say here that the best feature Digitech installed was the tuner! Thank you!

It's not perfect, but the VL2 works great in a live setting. I used it at a practice right out of the box and the other four guys in the band were amazed. Because all of our original songs have harmonies on the album versions of the tunes, I really wanted them on the live versions as well. This allows me to do it. Having said that, I also tested it with a recording I made of "Crazy Arms," trying to add the third above and fifty below. Let's just say it's not going to allow you to skip recording separate harmonies. It does work nicely if you want to get a roughy draft of complicated harmony parts, but under the scrutiny of multitracking and isolation it becomes more obvious that it's an electronic manipulation of a single vocal part. Plus, stray away from that note at all and the harmonies start searching for other sympathetic notes.

I've also noticed that open A chords on guitar can cause the unit to become a bit confused. That may be my fault, whether it's the guitar, the input volume of the guitar, or my lead vocal warbling on the note. I'm interested to see if anyone else finds this problem.

I sing in a deep baritone. If I throw a lower fifth harmony on, some of the results are just bad. Once again, this may be more the fault of the accuracy of my voice.

It's also nice that Digitech built the VL2 with separate outputs for the guitar, the lead vocal and each of the harmony vocals. When I take this to a gig it allows the sound man to mix all of them independent of me or, if I think the sound man is whack, I can force him to take my mix of all of the vocal outputs together.

Two great things the VL2 forces a musician to do: Keep your input instrument and tune and keep your lead vocal in tune. Otherwise, suffer the consequences of some weird harmonies!

I've had it for about a week and so far so good. It seems to be built pretty solid. No need for a backup.

I play honky tonk music, singing and playing rhythm acoustic in a five-member band. The VL2 gives me the ability to add the harmonies that were missing from live performance. It's important that you use the VL2 sparingly to get the best results from it. I consider this a "bells & whistles" type pedal, albeit a really nice one to add for live performance to thicken up the vocals. And once more, the VL2 comes with a built in tuner! Awesome, considering you have to be in tune for this thing to work correctly. Digitech, my fellow musicians thank you!

Super easy to use. Plug and play. Tune your guitar to standard pitch and away you go.

For the price and what it does the sound is great. There are a couple of ways to hook it up. You can use your guitar cables and run it in stereo. Pan the outputs right and left. Too my ear this seems to make the harmonies a little clearer. You also need to experiment with the compressor, reverb and ehance effects. I use these in small doses. The enhance doesn't really accomplish much and you can only use a small bit of compression or the sound is not as natural. I think that all these settings seem to effect how clear the harmonies voices are - so exmperiment till you find what works for use. The harmony that is a 3rd above your voice sounds the most natural. It is recommended to set the harmony mix around eleven but for some songs I like to set it at 12. Everly brothers for example - where each voice is important. If you use only the 5th above harmony you may find that it is not as loud and that the pitch is not as accurate. I think the volume issue may be to create a better blend when used with the 3rd above. 3rd and 5th together nails eagles and crosby,stills and nash. If you are a jazzer, which I play as well, you will find it a treat to play some standards using the 3rd and 5th harmony. I recently did an acoustic gig at a shopping center where we played Christmas tunes. It was a blast using this unit as it tracks your chords very accurately and some Christmas songs contain great chord progressions. When my wife sings I use this unit to add some oohs in the background. You can also add some nice background vocal lines in a jazz style - kinda like h orn shots. Very cool. Another combination that you may find good is the 3rd above and the harmony below. If you are doing a cover tune you may want to listen to the original to get an idea of what you want. As other reviewers have said overkill with this unit is not good. Use it in a musical way and I am sure that yo will be happy with the results. When I play electric gigs with the band I sometimes use the 5th above if I am singing harmony to another person hadling the vocals. This gives 3 part harmony but it sounds a little more convincing because t he harmonizer is only producing one harmony. One thing to remember is t hat y ou have to sing with a supported vocal sound. If you drop off and don't hold your notes the unit will just harmonize to this. Once you get use to this and sing with confidence you will obtain good results. I am being a little long winded but I find it helpful when people offer real life scenarios of a devices possibilities.

Sewems great

I am a music educator and have been playing professionally for 30 years. I play all styles of music. T here are really only 2 kinds of music. Good and bad. This unit is a great device. I would highly recommend it.

Love the simplicity of this box. No need for a manual, really. I hooked it up right out of the box, and was playing and singing thru it in about 5 minutes. I ended up reading the manual anyway. It doesn't get any easier. I also own a Digitech VR, which I have been using until now. It's also a really good unit, but you have to enter the key as well as a few other parameters. When playing, you have to pause between songs to select the next key. It's not that bad, but the VL2 is so much easier. You don't need to know the key, don't need to program. You just need to know how to play the song and sing. Go figure. For the most part, you set the knobs one time, and most of the time, you're just turning the harmony on or off via the footswitch. For what this unit does, it's the easiest thing possible. It's no harder than a simple Boss pedal. Turn a know, kick it in, play. That's it.

I just received this unit this weekend. This unit has exceptional harmonies. It tracks the chords of the guitar, not just the key of the song. The older VR followed a strict key. The harmonies on some chords on the old VR didn't sound exact. It sounded ok, but there was something missing on some tunes, leaving much to be desired. The VL2 fixes all of this. This is one smart little box. Great for any style of music. Eagles, Van Morrison, Beatles, country tunes all sound great. I was playing some Christmas tunes in a Jazz style, some obscure chord progressions. It harmonized perfectly, and sounded great. The Unison1 and Unison2 added a lot to my mediocre voice. I sound so much better. With Unison2, it does a bit of a pitch correction. Very nice. The effects are decent. You need reverb on any vocals in my opinion. The Enhance feature is also decent, but you can obtain similar results by just EQ'ing PA. Haven't played much with the compression yet. I play solo, and am preparing to start gigging after the holidays. I've got the best partner you could ask for. Just me and my VL2. It doesn't drink, smoke, cry, complain, is never late, etc. Get it? I play a Fender Roadhouse Strat or Ovation Celebrity Deluxe or Ibanez Classical guitar (depending on the song) thru this little gem, thru a few Boss pedals (Tuner, Compressor, Blues Driver, Chorus)into a Fender SFXII. I plug the VL2 into the vocal channel of the SFX, and my iPod with backing tracks into the RCA of the SFX, and I'm off and running. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this on the floor, or elevate it. I like the ideas of turning off the harmonies, but leaving the Unison settings on. The only way to do this is by pressing the little buttons on the unit. The footswitch will not do this. They would have needed to put 6 more switch pedals on the unit to do this for each harmony/vocal, not very practical. I can't wait to gig with this thing. As I said, I just received the VL2 a few days ago, but I like what I hear so far. I find myself spending most of my spare time wanting to play more. I'm like a kid with a new toy. Digitech did a nice job on this thing. The VL4 is also nice, but much more complicate, involves a little more programming, and an overkill for what I need. It's also more expensive. You can find this unit for $299 new if you look around. It beats anything out there in terms of ease of use, sound quality and price. I'm not the least bit disappointed. My wife doesn't quite understand why I needed another harmonizer, since I commented so much about how much I loved the Digitech VR, but the VL2 is even better.

No opinion. I've only owned one other Digitech product. The Digitech RP6. I had the unit for about 6 years, and gigged regularly with it for about 3+ years of that. Never had any problem with it. It still works great today. I don't abuse any of my stuff, but I still "use" it. This unit seems well built. If it lasts like my RP6, I'm not worried.

Have no opinion. Never dealt with them.

I play all kinds of music. I've been playing about 40 years. I've played in a Classic Rock & Blues cover band for several years. I'm planning on gigging solo in the next few months. I own all sorts of gear. Much of which I don't use anymore. I need to sell some. If something happened to this unit, I would definitely get another. The only thing that would stop me is if I had problems with the unit breaking down. I don't anticipate this though. I can't wait to gig with it. I bought the Digitech VR at about the time this VL2 was coming out. I read about it a little, and thought it was going to be too complicated to use. I was wrong. This is a great little unit. I set-and-forget, and get on with the business of playing and singing. What a concept. The guys at Digitech hit a home run with this thing. Craig Anderton has a lot of info on this unit on the web as well. Do a Google search, and read the string.

This is really Plug & Play, it's that simple to set-up and use.I spent 30 seconds on the set-up diagram and was up and playing in minutes. Couldn't sing without a huge grin on my face for the first few numbers as this harmonizer is fantastic and makes playing / singing even more fun. I'm almost tempted not to tell folk how these great harmonies are made as it raises your game som much.

If you are a guitar player / singer you have got to get yourself one of these, sell the dog if you have too.

My version of Seven Bridges Road by the Eagles is now scarily convincing and I can't wait to see what the reaction will be at our next gig later this month. I'm even playing songs I would not otherwise have attempted without backing vocals but this does it all.

No background noise dicernable and the effects are pretty good although I use the reverb / Delay on my Roland AC60 amp.

I use a Crafter SA Electro Acoustic and an Ovation and both sound tip top with this kit.

I guess making sure you are in tune becomes even more important as the software tracks the guitar to provide the harmony but when the payback is cracking harmony it's a no-brainer

Feels solid and well made although the power unit is not going to take too much punishment but they are cheap to replace.

No comment at this time but I got a three year warranty from the dealer.

I currently play in a 3 piece covering a general mix from Blues / R&B / Country and MOR and have played for over 25 years. I would not be without this kit even after 2 days, I'm probably going to upgrade to Vocalist 4 in a few months but it doesn't look a simple to get going even though if offers even more

I do wish it had an on/off switch but that really is the only thing

This is a piece of cake. Not much editing. Just tweak away. Watch out for the compression when you go into a board - if you're not careful and volume is up to high, you'll get deafening feedback.

Manual is good - like all Digitech products.

Sound quality is fabulous. It's like having backup singers. You'll learn to tweak based on your voice - I tend to use the Shine option with the Studio setting - sounds real good. I"ve also noticed in a live band situation that it makes sense to only use the double harmony (so not the triple effect), especially if you are singing with other band members. Just sounds a bit better; not as intense.

You can use any guitar and it's decent - the guitar thru is exactly what is says, doesn't add any color. I set up mine to go to the mixing board for the vocal and then into my tube amp for the guitar, but I also use a Bose system and it's sounds pristine thru that too.

One thing to watch out for - be careful stepping on the left side effects pedal - if you step on it and it blinks it's in tuner mode and you'll get no sound (a bummer if you are performing and step on it accidently).

Eminently dependable.

Never had to deal w/ them.

Great value. I am constantly amazed with the quality of gear that is coming out for the money. This one is a keeper, especially for singer/songwriters or "one man" bands. Really a great product. Kudos to Digitech on this one. It is the real deal; as advertised. Thumbs up.

Plug and play!!!
Manual is simple and direct to the point.

Excellent harmony reproduction but nothing can beat a real human voice. Having said that this is the next best thing.

The noise gate is noticeable but not significant enough to worry about in a live situation.

Effects are good enough for live situation but I'd probably record dry and use plugin or something.

My settings are compression:8oclock, reverb (room)10oclock, enhance (clarity)8oclock and harmony @ 9oclock. Input is set to 2oclock.

I would definitely use this on a gig without backup. If it fails then I guess I'll just by pass this unit and go straight to PA.

NA

I play in a covers band and do some solos as well.
In the band situation the harmonies is like hot and cold meaning sometimes good and sometimes it's really really bad. With this thing providing I sing and play in tune the harmonies will always be spot on. And the fact that I can set the volume to my liking is a plus. Have you tried telling your backup vocals to sing softer or louder?
when I play solo, this thing gives my performance a bit of an oomph. I don't play with midi, computer sequences, etc just me and my guitar and the vl2 provides me with 2 voices without having to split the earnings 3 way :)I guess it'll take a bit of practice to incorporate this unit in your performance but to be able choose when the harmony comes on in a song is a real plus. Its quite liberating to have this independence.

as a singing BASS player (i play guitar too ..but not for this review) ..i thought i might just see... can this thing track a bass line and still make usable harmony... and based on my use.. yes... (and no ) ... but the yes is pretty good..

i bought the original vocalist from musicians friend long before Al Gore invented the internet.... at that time i played a lot of Midi Guitar, (even today both units are still attached to my strat and my kramer acoustic/electric ).. the old system ( tracking midi ) worked pretty good..

as we move into the 90's, i used the midi less and less... and the old vocalist kinda gathers dust... when i saw the new "live 2" about to be released, i had to be in line ( well on line) to get one..

no comparison on ease of use... this new-bee is true plug and play.. one of the biggest problems with the original vocalist was... you had 750 gazillion things to worry about... those days are gone... yea...

So.. i plug's in the mike to the go's-inna.. i plug the go's-outta to the board ( i actually use an inline "line to mike attenuator" from Shure.. A15AS is the part # .. just for good luck )..

i don't use the on-board effects, (but they are not bad.. not great.. but not bad..).. if i were gigging solo with my Ovation, i would use them ...

i use a wireless on my bass, so i take an "aux" send to feed the Vocalist. ( plug into the guitar in on the live-2 )... boy...that was a tough set up.. must have taken me 30 sec.... Oh yea.. plug in the A/C wall wart....

play.. sing... enjoy...

the harmony parts ( i just use 1... a 3rd up ) are pretty good...
like salt on fries, a little goes a long way.... about 1/4 turn and you are set.... don't go crazy with your little friend on stage with you... first off he can get annoying pretty quick...and most important, he probably sings better that you...

the harmony is not bad... not that "cheezzy " sound of the past.... actually almost sounds real.. and very usable..... most of the time..

i did say "yes and no " about "does it work with the bass " notes on the low B string can fail to track.. and tuning....remember... if'n you's play's a wrong note whilst you is singin'.. you may be singing on key, but little you followed your fingers.... ooopp's..hate when that happens..

only on rare occasion has any Digiech product let me down... i give this a thumbs up..

over the years, i have talked with the customer support folks on some other products, and have never had an issue... sometimes it takes a while... but DigiTech is very good about on-line archives and downloads....

if i could change just 1 thing, i would make the harmony footswitch momentary... not latching....

the above mentioned old style vocalist let you choose... and for years i pushed the button to have harmony, and let up to make it stop...

it is distracting to have to remember to push on/ push off/// push on// push on///no off /// no i mean off and on... $%!^

sometimes i have me and mini-me when i did not want both....

this is a REAL problem if you play outdoor gigs in the sun... forget about ever seeing the LED.....

.. DigiTech...can you hear me calling ?

So easy to use. The most plug and play friendly pedal ever.

I play rhythym guitar in a 60's 70's 80's covers band, and do the backing vocals. Having to figure out the harmonies for new numbers can be a real task, while getting to grips with learning the guitar sections for new covers. Using the Vocaliser 2, I just move the mix right over, so my voice which is singing the fundamental doesn't come through, just the harmonies to back the lead singer. Simply perfect sounding harmonies, so long as I hold the correct pitch. No more having to work out 3rds and 5th harmonies for me............. Also , the VL2 on the high harmonies go higher than most male vocals can reach, which adds that extra dimension to the mix. You need to be careful not to hit any bum chords while doing the harmonies, as it throws the harmoniser off. The compressor turned up, leads to some wild feedback, so be careful when using this feature. If you have a good PA system, you can minimise the use of the enhance effects. The reverb works well though, and makes the vocals a lot warmer. The built in guitar tuner is such a nice additional feature. It mutes your guitar when you switch over to tuner mode, and I found it quite accurate.

It seems reasonably well built, but I haven't had it long enough yet to know if it will stand up to some hard gigging.

Dunno

This pedal is everything I hoped it would be, at an amazingly affordable price. It just lifts the level of the vocals in our band, and makes it so much easier to have professional sounding harmonies, without all the hard work of having to work them out, and constantly practice them ourselves. Or just let the lead vocalist use VL2, and make his own harmonies. It just sounds so good if the harmonies are created with a diferent vocal, than the lead singer. Just seems more real. A must have if you're looking for something that will make a big impact on the overall mix of your sound.

Very easy to operate and tweak.

Great sounding. Definitely not a toy!

Every other Digitech item I have purchased has failed me in the past

Turn around time for warranty repair is ridiculous.

This thing is worthy if you have band members who can't harmonize.

Comparison to the TC Helicon unit this is a 10 vs a 0 in ease of use. The Helicon has a nasty learning curve and requires many hits to the buttons as you are singing. The Vocalist Live on the other hand is really plug and go. The manual is written simply and really explains all you need to know.

There is no patches per se to edit you only have a choice of one or two voices - high or low. I'll say again this is very easy to use

The vocalist does capture the CSN or Eagles sounds (if you like to go high a la Graham Nash). I've found the low end not to be very good at all however. I expected a more bass end but it isn't there.

The on board effects reverb and enhance are not that good - enhance especially a waste of chips inside. The reverb will do if you do not have one of your own or on the board you are using. I do find the gate (not selectable - it's on when you select the effects) is bad when trying to record using the unit. You cannot control it. Live it is not so noticeable as it comes on and off.

Comparing it to the Helicon (where you can control the gate), the sound of your guitar does not leak through as much (using no gate). This can be an issue if you play loud (ie. using an acoustic with no feedback buster). You will get your guitar sound leaking through the mic which in turn gets harmonized and sounds bad.

The sound on the unit is pretty good but you do have to keep in constant tune (the unit reads your guitar chords and harmonizes to them - if the guitar is out of tune, your harmony is out of tune). This is really the yin yang of the unit.

You may start out with great harmony but if you chow down and play hard and your instrument is starting to go out, so go your nice tight harmonies!

The best setting is the high voices. I wish, however, that they made the switches for on and off on these just a little larger and you could foot select them. Size of this unit (there is a four part unit on its way that will have this option) is great for gigging and transport but I do think they could have enabled a foot selection of the effects (with some extra thought they could have added knobs used on most stomp pedals.)

I believe in the "I don't want to bend down and select magic sounds as I play in front of an audience - I want the effects to happen and appear as if by magic by using foot selecting" school of thought.

The unit does sound best through a PA and you wouldn't want to run it through your guitar amp unless you were stuck for some reason. You definitely need a clean sound for it since it is for vocals after all.

Seems dependable enough compared to stomp pedals. The on-board effects buttons may be an issue if I do try to engage with my shoe as opposed to hands. The actual effects on and harmony on pedals seem very solid. My TC Helicon unit has gone down twice on me (still new at only 6 months old). This makes me wary of any other unit going down. I have integrated the harmony effects into my live show and it is a serious issue if it doesn't work. I will probably purchase the 4 part DigiTech vocalist and have the vocalist 2 as a backup. I'm giving the unit a 6 since I expect it will get beat up pretty fast and may not last as long as it could with stronger housing. Like a new model of a car, it remains to be seen how it will hold up. For a bit more money charged, you could get stronger metal housing all around

Haven't had any direct experience with DigiTech as all the places I buy from handle the warranty issues from their place. I can't give a good answer here

I play acoustic rock with a Gibson J-160 acoustic-electric (use this most of the time). I like an electric edge to my sound but will go pure acoustic during a set to keep things varied. Use of the vocalist has to be with the same kind of thought. Overuse is bad but judicious use is very good. The temptation is to over use it because it does sound sweet to sound like CSN (and do it all on your lonesome).

I have found that the unit will make you sound better since the harmony will sound great when you nail the vocal. The tune of the guitar (to say again) is very critical in keeping the harmony perfect. I do like the fact that the unit tracks the guitar chords and harmonizes to that - this in contrast to the TC Helicon unit where you have to preselect everything and engage on the fly while you play and sing. This is where the DigiTech makes life so easy.

The TC Helicon is bringing out an add on unit that will track the guitar and do the harmony but the catch is it is hooked up to the existing Helicon unit so you will have two pieces to bring out along with any other effect pedals you may use. Truthfully, the DigiTech idea is better and I suspect will be the winner in the harmony sweepstakes for guitarists anyway. You just can't beat the ease here and the size of the unit itself is miles ahead of the TC Helicon.

f the features available on the TC Helicon in a very similar array as DigiTech Vocalist 2. This will include pitch correction. So, in the end, if the DigiTech is reliable, it will have been the better buy.

I am considering trading in the TC Helicon actually since it has failed twice now while still under warranty (at 6 months in). In fact, I'm still paying for it monthly while it is being repaired. That is real disappointing to me and why I checked out the DigiTech. It demoed real well in the store so I bought it.

I do wish the unit could track harmony a little better with tune drift. It is inevitable that your guitar will drift as you play and your harmony can sound real bad as it does. It is a funny experience to be up live and hear it go out. You know you are on key but that invisible harmony isn't. You can look around all you want but everyone wonders why "you" (the three of you that is - you and the harmony voices) aren't in key. You would really be better to stop altogether and tune up and start again or just bail on the harmony when it happens).

So ... tune up before every song and learn to chat while you tune so the audience won't drift away on you.

I should add that I wish the unit did have a gain for the guitar (the vocalist 4 does have this). You do need a strong guitar signal to keep the harmony right. My acoustic and electric, for that matter, need a bit of a boost to bring the level up for it to be consistent. I don't think I should have to add the boost really. This would be an immediate thing that DigiTech could change on the unit - give it a gain knob for the guitar as you have with the mic

I can share more details on the TC Helicon vs. the DigiTech if you are considering one or the other. Check out my web page http://whiners.awardspace.com and the gear section to get an idea of how far I go to get tone and so forth. The DigiTech is part of the "Band in a Box" thing I use though I haven't added this to the information on the page yet.

I also apologize for any spelling or typo issues here. It seems any review ends up with some issues around that.

Keith