VH2 or TC Helicon Harmony-M?

Time to see how good your hearing is, or isn't. The following are identical songs, one recorded using the TC Helicon Harmony-M and the other directly into the PSR-S950 using the standard mic input. The mic used for both is an E-855. The only editing was to change the file from a .wav file to an MP3 using Lame and Audacity.

I must apologize for not doing this last night, but beginning about 10 pm yesterday evening, my lungs were really nasty, and they're still not great, so I have very little power in my vocals. I have nasal oxygen stuck in my nose and I had to take a shot of rescue inhaler in order to record this.

Here's the first rendition of Jimmy Buffett's Man-ana, a song that I heard for the first time about 3 weeks ago. Click Here!

Here's the second rendition: Click Here!

Now it's time for you to decide which vocal processor was used.

Good luck,

Gary

I'd say the 1st one is best

Agree, the first one sounds better.

I’m with JIm on this one 1st one I thought was better. Seems 2nd had extra reverb.

Same here - the first one. Much cleaner.

Deane

I'm going sailing first thing in the morning and taking my daughter's room mate with me. So, when I get back, I will tell you what the results are.

All the best,

Gary

Agree 1st one is a lot better.
Second one Is warbly and robotic
Jim

The first one sounds lightyears ahead of the second one. I hope its the korg

You can hope all you want... the Korg was never tested... although the harmony M is very similar to Korg's on board harmonizer..

Of course the better version was from the Yamaha harmony... But more care was used in a better signal than the TC..

I am so glad I never had to deal with either one..

I used the Harmony M for several years, and it is outstanding. The Yamaha harmonizer can be made to sound pretty good, with some work. The Harmony M also has the automatic voice processing that is included on the Korg.
In this demonstration it's easy to hear that the first one sounds best, for whatever reasons.
Part of that may be that the original voice signal on the second was much drier? Just guessing.

I think just about any VH can be made to sound good (except the technics, unfortunately) when using one and MAYBE two voices ... the true test comes in using IT as Uncle Dave did in his recording of "The Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" ... THAT was AMAZING !!!

This reminds me that I have a TC Helicon Harmony-M that I want to sell ... I need to get it ready to sell and put it on the "For sale" part of the board (or on Ebay).

Jim

Its not only the great sound of the TC Helicon but more importantly the TRACKING is far Superior then anything Yamaha VH,VH2 has ever made good singers who know how to use vocal harmony all know that.
try singing from the side of the mic in real time and listen for the drop outs, warbleing, etc, etc, etc, ....

Fran, what vocalizer do you use?

Chris

Chris I use the G70....

Ok sports fans, I just returned home from a full day of sailing - fantastic weather, excellent sailing conditions, excellent company, my daughter's room mate Christine.

Now, those of you who said #1 (the first song) were correct. It was the TC Helicon Harmony-M, which I fell in love with the very first time I fired it up, though the user manual is lousy. The second song was created plugging the mic directly into the keyboard, and using the default settings, no tweaking or tuning at all. I know I could have made it sound better, but it wouldn't be a fair comparison if I did that.

I have been using an external vocal processor ever since I met Uncle Dave for the first time in a New Jersey Rib place and heard him sing. UD is a master of right hand chords to trigger the vocal harmony, thus, one of the reasons he sounds so good when singing in harmony. But, I'm still better looking then him!

All the best,

Gary

Gary I thought for sure... you would had tuned the Yamaha to sound great...I was wrong..


I should have known better... My last PSR was the 2100 and it was terrible .. I used it on one gig .. a little old lady told me how bad it sound ... compared to how I usually sound... Lesson learned.. I got rid of it and the back up unit too..

Back then I used the Digitech workstation ex ..

Hey Gary,

My observations are that the first version was a bit wetter with the
reverb that the second. Not to be critical, but just an observation.

The second version added two parts of harmony verses one part in the
first version. Again only an observation.

I have to say that the first version is much more defined and clear in
regard to the harmony.

I play an s970 on gigs and I bought a harmony M but I have never used
it playing out primarily because of the extra setup time and it never
tracked my vocals accurately but I think it needed a software update
that I could never get due to T.C. Helicons update protocol.

I don't use that as an excuse though. I just never felt the need to use harmony.

I do agree that the onboard harmony prosessor is inferior to the outboard versions.

Allen

Allen, actually, the Harmony M was set to two part harmony, but both were set at higher, while the S-950 was at factory default, which I believe is a duo setting.

The update on the Harmony M is easily done through their site, where you can download the update and install it in a few minutes. I didn't have a problem doing this, but that was so long ago I cannot remember exactly what I did at the time.

All the best,

Gary