Tc-helicon Play Acoustic User Manual

English Manual

Play Acoustic

Important safety instructions 1

Before you begin 4

About this manual 5
Getting support 5
VoiceSupport 5
Please register your Play Acoustic 5

Introduction 6

Diagram legend 7
Diagrams 8

Basics 9

Inputs and outputs 10
Gain settings 12
Switches and operation 14
Control knob and arrow buttons 16
Soft buttons 18

Connection diagrams 20
Mixer setup 21
Play Acoustic back panel inputs
and outputs 21
Stereo (or mono) vocals and guitar 22
Mono vocals and guitar amp 23
Mono vocal and guitar with a
TC-Helicon FX150 24
Mono vocals via FX150 and a guitar amp 25
Guitar and vocals via FX150 and stereo out
to a PA 26
Stereo PA and TC-Helicon
Guitar & Headphone cable 27

Setup button/section 28
Input page (1/7) 29
Output page (2/7) 31
System page (3/7) 32
System page 2 (4/7) 33
Loop page (5/7) 34
Switch-3 page (6/7) 35
Product Info page (7/7) 36

Vocal FX button/section 37
Harmony page (1/7) 39
Harmony Advanced page 40
Double page (2/7) 41
Delay page (3/7) 42
Delay Advanced page 43
Reverb page (4/7) 44
HardTune page (5/7) 45
Transducer page (6/7) 46
Transducer Advanced page 47
µMod page (7/7) 48

Guitar FX button/section 49

Guitar Reverb page (1/7) 51
Guitar µMod page (2/7) 52
BodyRez EQ page (3/7) 53
BodyRez Shelf EQ page (4/7) 54
BodyRez Parametric EQ page (5/7) 54
BodyRez Compressor page (6/7) 54
Guitar Anti-Feedback page (7/7) 56
Notch Filter section 56
Simple steps for feedback reduction 56

Mix button/section 57
Mix page (1/2) 58
Mix page (2/2) 59

The Looper 60
What is looping? 61
Using the Play Acoustic looper 61
Looping tips 62
Using a Switch-3 for looping 63

Troubleshooting 64
General troubleshooting 65

Appendix 66
TC-Helicon scales reference chart 67

Links 68

Technical specifications 70

Product Play Acoustic

Product (firmware) version 1.0

Document Reference manual

Document version / date 2014 - 07-16

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) a

Important safety instructions

Important safety instructions

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 1

Important safety instructions

1. Read these instructions.

2. Keep these instructions.

3. Heed all warnings.

4. Follow all instructions.

5. Do not use this apparatus near water.

6. Clean only with a dry cloth.

7. Do not block any ventilation openings. In­stall in accordance with the manufacturer’s
instructions.

8. Do not install near any heat sources such
as radiators, heat registers, stoves, or other
apparatus (including amplifiers) that pro­duce heat.

9. Do not defeat the safety purpose of the po­larized or grounding-type plug. A polarized
plug has two blades with one wider than
the other. A grounding-type plug has two
blades and a third grounding prong. The
wide blade or the third prong is provided for
your safety. If the provided plug does not fit
into your outlet, consult an electrician for
replacement of the obsolete outlet.

10. Protect the power cord from being walked
on or pinched, particularly at plugs, con­venience receptacles, and the point where
they exit from the apparatus.

11. Only use attachments/accessories speci­fied by the manufacturer.

12. Use only with a cart, stand, tripod,
bracket, or table specified by the
manufacturer, or sold with the ap­paratus. When a cart is used, use
caution when moving the cart/apparatus
combination to avoid injury from tip-over.

13. Unplug this apparatus during lightning
storms or when unused for long periods
of time.

14. Refer all servicing to qualified service per­sonnel. Servicing is required when the ap­paratus has been damaged in any way,
such as power-supply cord or plug is dam­aged, liquid has been spilled or objects
have fallen into the apparatus, the appara­tus has been exposed to rain or moisture,
does not operate normally, or has been
dropped.

Caution

You are cautioned that any change or modifi­cations not expressly approved in this manual
could void your authority to operate this equip­ment.

Service

►

All service must be performed by qualified
personnel.

►

There are no user-serviceable parts inside.

Warning

►

To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock, do
not expose this apparatus to rain or moisture
and objects filled with liquids, such as vases,
should not be placed on this apparatus.

►

This apparatus must be earthed.

►

Use a three wire grounding type line cord like
the one supplied with the product.

►

Be advised that different operating voltages
require the use of different types of line cord
and attachment plugs.

►

Check the voltage in your area and use the
correct type.

Voltage Line plug according to standard

110 to 125V UL817 and CSA C22.2 no42.
220 to 230V CEE7 page VII, SR section 107-

2-D1 / IEC83 page C4.

►

This equipment should be installed near the
socket outlet and disconnection of the device
should be easily accessible.

►

To completely disconnect from AC mains, dis­connect the power supply cord from the AC
receptacle.

►

The mains plug of the power supply shall re­main readily operable.

►

Do not install this device in a confined space.

►

For use at an altitude of 2000m or lower.

►

Do not open the unit – risk of electric shock
inside.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 2

Important safety instructions

EMC / EMI

Electromagnetic compatibility /
Electromagnetic interference

This equipment has been tested and found to
comply with the limits for a Class B digital de­vice, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC rules.

These limits are designed to provide reasonable
protection against harmful interference in resi­dential installations. This equipment generates,
uses and can radiate radio frequency energy
and, if not installed and used in accordance with
the instructions, may cause harmful interference
to radio communications. However, there is no
guarantee that interference will not occur in a
particular installation.

If this equipment does cause harmful interfer­ence to radio or television reception, which can
be determined by turning the equipment off and
on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the
interference by one or more of the following
measures:

For customers in Canada

This Class B digital apparatus complies with Ca­nadian ICES-003.

Cet appareil numérique de la classe B est
conforme à la norme NMB-003 du Canada.

Explanation of graphic symbols

The lightning bolt triangle is used to

alert the user to the presence of unin­sulated “dangerous voltages” within
the unit’s chassis that may be of suffi­cient magnitude to constitute a risk of
electric shock to humans.

The exclamation point triangle is used

to alert the user to presence of impor­tant operating and service instructions
in the literature accompanying the
product.

►

Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

►

Increase the separation between the equip­ment and receiver.

►

Connect the equipment into an outlet on a cir­cuit different from that to which the receiver is
connected.

►

Consult the dealer or an experienced ra­dio / TV technician for help.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 3

Before you begin

Before you begin

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 4

Before you begin

About this manual

This manual will help you understand and oper­ate your Play Acoustic.

You can download the most current version of
this reference manual from
tc-helicon.com/products/play-acoustic/support/

To get the most from this reference manual,
please read it from start to finish, or you may
miss important information.

Getting support

If you still have questions after reading this ref­erence manual, please read the FAQs, visit the
user forums and get in touch with support at:
support.tc-helicon.com/

VoiceSupport

VoiceSupport is the application that allows you
to fully unlock the potential of your TC-Helicon
product and stay in touch with the latest news,
tips and tricks.

VoiceSupport key features include:

►

Professionally authored preset libraries

►

Direct access to product manuals

►

Update messaging – helping you stay up to
date with the latest software

►

Drag & drop preset management

►

Customizable content about your products

►

VoiceCouncil feeds for the latest advice for
singers

►

Firmware upgrading

►

Account management

►

Access to support

Please register your Play Acoustic

To register your Play Acoustic using the Voice­Support software, launch VoiceSupport and
click on the ACCOUNT button.

Please note that registration of your product is

not required to use VoiceSupport, download

presets, update firmware or contact support.

You can download VoiceSupport for Microsoft
Windows and Mac OS X from
tc-helicon.com/products/voicesupport/

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 5

Introduction

Introduction

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 6

Introduction

XLR Male XLR Female

Combo Jack

MIDI Jack

1/4 inch jack

XLR Male XLR Female

Combo Jack

MIDI Jack

1/4 inch jack

Power Input

Mini USB

1/8 inch jack GRND Lift

USB Type A

USB Type B

XLR Male XLR Female

Combo Jack

MIDI Jack

1/4 inch jack

Power Input

Mini USB

1/8 inch jack GRND Lift

USB Type A

USB Type B

XLR Male XLR Female

Combo Jack

MIDI Jack

1/4 inch jack

Power Input

Mini USB

1/8 inch jack GRND Lift

USB Type A

USB Type B

XLR Male XLR Female

Combo Jack

MIDI Jack

1/4 inch jack

Power Input

Mini USB

1/8 inch jack GRND Lift

USB Type A

USB Type B

XLR Male XLR Female

Combo Jack

MIDI Jack

1/4 inch jack

Power Input

Mini USB

1/8 inch jack GRND Lift

USB Type A

USB Type B

Combo Jack

MIDI Jack

1/4 inch jack

Mini USB

USB Type B

Combo Jack

MIDI Jack

1/4 inch jack

Mini USB

1/8 inch jack GRND Lift

USB Type A

USB Type B

Welcome to the Play Acoustic manual!

First, thank you so much for purchasing Play
Acoustic. We at TC-Helicon are confident that
your vocal and acoustic guitar performances
will be positively impacted with this great effects
processor.

As you discovered in the Quick Start Guide (the
short manual that came in the box), Play Acous­tic is easy to use at the top level, but there is
more under the hood of this compact device
than you might think. We recommend you treat
your Play Acoustic like any other new instrument
and dedicate some time to learning how to use it.

Yes, that means RTFM!

Read the… full manual.

And if you ever find yourself without this manual:
On the bottom of your Play Acoustic , you will
find a “cheat sheet” explaining the most impor­tant functions.

Diagram legend

The following icons are used in the diagrams in
this manual.

Microphone

Acoustic Guitar

Monitor Mix

P.A.

Guitar amp

XLR cables

¼“ / 6.5mm TRS (Tip / Ring / Sleeve )
and TS (Tip / Sleeve) guitar cables

⅛” / 3.5mm cable

Mixing Board

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 7

Introduction

Diagrams

On the following pages, you will see some con­nection diagrams. We have set things up to give
you clear and concise representations of what
goes where.

There are a few things we would like you to keep
in mind as you look at the diagrams:

1. Inputs to Play Acoustic will be to the left of the
back panel image.

2. Outputs from Play Acoustic will be to the right
of the back panel image.

3. There are two boxes on the bottom of each
diagram.

►

The Play Acoustic box shows “what you
hear” from your Play Acoustic headphone
output.

►

The P.A. box shows “what you hear” from
the P.A. speakers.

4. We don’t account for other inputs/instruments
when showing “what you hear” from the P.A.,
so you won’t see pictures of drums etc.

5. In a lot of cases, “what you hear” will be the
same for both Play Acoustic headphone out­put and P.A. – but it can also be different.

PLAY ACOUSTIC

5 5

3

4

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 8

Basics

Basics

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 9

Basics

Play Acoustic – rear panel

GUITAR IN connector

Connect your guitar to this input.

via the Voice (L) connector, and a mono guitar
signal is sent via the Guitar DI (R) jack. This con­figuration can be changed in the Setup/Output
menu.

Inputs and outputs

Connectors are described from right to left. For
setup examples, see “Connection diagrams”.

MIC connector

This is where the magic happens!

Plug your dynamic, condenser, MP-75, or e835
fx microphone in here. Remember to set the mi­crophone type and level correctly, as described
in the Play Acoustic Quick Start Guide.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 10

AUX connector

Use a 1/8” cable to connect any music source
you want to use to your Play Acoustic (especially
that 8-Track from your 1974 Comet). When an in­put is detected here and no guitar is plugged in,
Play Acoustic will use the music signal to figure
out key and scale information.

GUITAR DI (R) and VOICE
(L) output connectors

These are the main output connectors of your
Play Acoustic. By default, mono vocals are sent

GND switch

This is a ground lift switch. If you experience hum
while using Play Acoustic, try pressing the GND
switch to reduce or remove the hum.

Headphones connector

Connect your headphones to the Phones con­necto r.

Basics

PEDAL connector

Use a TRS cable to connect a Switch-3 (optional)
to the PEDAL connector. If you use the Switch-3,
you have direct access to looping and other ef­fect control. See the Switch-3 menu section for
details on assigning controls to each Switch-3
button.

USB connector

Connect to your computer with the included ca­ble. Use the VoiceSupport software to manage
presets and update the product’s internal soft­ware (firmware).

You can download VoiceSupport here:
tc-helicon.com/products/voicesupport/

Stereo audio input and output via USB is also
supported at 16bit resolution with 44.1or 48kHz
sample rate.

Incoming USB audio signals are NOT passed to
the USB output, allowing you to sing/play along
with tracks from your DAW while recording back
“just the vocals and guitar”.

Power socket

Connect the included power supply. Your Play
Acoustic will power up immediately. Always use

a TC-Helicon power supply (12 V, 400 mA).

Using any other power supply may damage the
unit and will void your warranty.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 11

Basics

Gain settings

How the Input LED
Level Meter Works

The LED on the top of your Play Acoustic is used
for both vocal and guitar level metering.

When setting the level for your microphone
or guitar, make sure that you sing or play
separately. If you are setting your vocal level,

don’t play your guitar – and vice versa.

The meter will show a combined level for both
guitar and vocals when you sing and play.

If you see the LED light red – indicating clip­ping –, it is helpful to play/sing individually to see
which input may be getting too much level.

Keep in mind that the combined level of two
inputs can clip, even when the individual in­puts do not. If this happens for you, it’s best to

simply turn down each input slightly until the LED
no longer lights red when you sing and play si­multaneously.

Setting Microphone Gain

Once you have connected your microphone and
selected the microphone type (Dynamic, Con­denser, MP-75, e835 FX), use the Mic Gain knob
on the side of your Play Acoustic to set the input
level for your microphone.

As you increase the level, pay close attention to
the LED on top of Play Acoustic. You want the

input to light the LED green. It’s OK if the LED
sometimes lights yellow – but it should never
turn red. If it does turn red, reduce the level. Red
means that a) the input is overloading and b)
you’ve got powerful lungs!

Setting the guitar level

The control for your guitar input is on Page 1
of the Setup menu. You can access the Setup
menu by pressing the SETUP button and then
use the < or > buttons to move to Page 1. Press
the “soft” button next to the “Guitar IN” box and
use the Control knob to adjust your level.

Reading the LCD Display

The Play Acoustic display

The LCD display of your Play Acoustic displays
the following information:

Preset Name

The name of the currently selected preset. In the
screen shot above, it is “High Harmony“. The
Presets concept is explained in “What are pre­sets?”.

Preset Number

The unique preset number – i.e., the number of
the slot where the preset is stored. In the screen
shot above, it is 1.

“FAV” indicator

The “FAV” indicator is shown in the upper right
corner of the display if the current preset has
been tagged as a Favorite.

“NP” indicator

The “NP” indicator is shown in the lower right
corner of the display when chord information
changes have been detected by Play Acoustic.

You may see the “NP” indicator switch on and off
somewhat erratically as it processes incoming
musical information. This is normal.

What is NaturalPlay?

NaturalPlay is the voodoo we do inside Play
Acoustic to figure out which key your music is in.
If you plug your guitar into the GUITAR IN con­nector, NaturalPlay will look there first for key/
scale info. Next, it will look at the Aux input and
listen to the RoomSense microphones.

Once Play Acoustic “hears” key/scale informa­tion from one of these inputs, it will set the key/

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 12

Basics

scale on the fly. “NP” is only shown when a
change in key/scale is detected – so don’t panic
if you don’t see it all the time.

“LOOP” indicator

The “LOOP” indicator is shown in the lower right
corner of the display when a loop is running, but
you are currently not on the Loop mode screen.

GB (Guitar Boost) indicator

The GB (“Guitar Boost”) indicator is shown in the
lower left corner of the display when guitar boost
is active.

Genre indicator

If you have set the Genre selector to any other
value than “All”, the currently selected genre is
shown in the upper left corner of the display. In
the screen shot above, it is “Harmony“.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 13

Basics

Switches and operation

The three Play Acoustic footswitches

DOWN and UP footswitches

Form here on, we will refer…

►

to the footswitch with the down-pointing tri­angle as the DOWN footswitch and

►

to the footswitch with the up-pointing triangle
as the UP footswitch.

The DOWN and UP footswitches allow you to
navigate through presets.

►

Press a footswitch once to switch to the previ­ous or next preset slot.

►

Press and hold a footswitch to quickly move
through presets.

HIT/ Hold for TALK footswitch

During normal operation, this footswitch acts as
a HIT button. What does this mean?

When you activate HIT by tapping the footswitch,
a new effect (or several effects) will be added
to the current sound. This feature is perfect for
spicing up a section of a song with a particular
effect, e.g. Harmony.

TALK mode

When you press and hold the HIT/ Hold for TALK
footswitch, Play Acoustic enters TALK mode.

In TALK mode, all vocal effects are bypassed,
and the microphone input is passed directly to
the output.

output is muted to allow tuning, but the dry voice
is still passed to the output, allowing you to tune
your instrument and still entertain the crowd with
witty banter.

Activating Loop mode

To enter Loop mode, press and hold the DOWN
and UP footswitches simultaneously.

For more information on the Looper, see “The
Looper”.

Loop mode screen

In Loop mode, the DOWN footswitch controls
the following functions:

►

PL AY

►

REC (Record)

►

Overdub

Holding the DOWN footswitch will undo your
most recently recorded Overdub.

TALK/Tuner mode

If you have a guitar plugged into the GUITAR IN,
you will enter TALK/Tuner mode, activating the
guitar tuner built into Play Acoustic. The guitar

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 14

In Loop mode, the UP footswitch controls the
following functions:

►

STOP

►

ERA (HOLD to erase)

Basics

To exit Loop mode, tap the HIT footswitch.

You may exit Loop mode while a loop is still play­ing. That means you can choose a new vocal
sound – and then re-enter Loop mode to add a
new overdub to the loop.

Loop Undo/Redo

To undo a loop overdub, press and hold the
DOWN footswitch.

To restore the overdub (Redo), press and hold
the DOWN footswitch again. Restoring a loop
overdub this way is only possible if you have not
recorded another overdub after using Undo.

Looping with a Switch-3

If you connect a TC-Helicon Switch-3 (optional)
to the PEDAL connector of your Play Acoustic,
you can use it to control all Loop features.

The benefit of using a Switch-3 is the addition of
the dedicated Undo button.

When a Switch-3 is connected, Play Acoustic’s
UP and DOWN footswitches are assigned to Set
Key/Scale.

where pressing the DOWN and UP footswitches
simultaneously will allow you to set key/scale.
You can set this mode on System page 5 under
“UP/DN Function”.

When you have activated this alternative mode,
pressing the UP and DOWN footswitches simul­taneously will allow you to set Key and Scale us­ing these two footswitches.

If you don’t know which Key and Scale a particu­lar song is in, try using the last chord of the song
for the Key and Major 2 for the Scale. It’s often
correct, especially in popular music.

For more information, see “TC-Helicon scales
reference chart”. You can also find this chart on
the TC-Helicon website:
support.tc-helicon.com/entries/
21051886-scale-chart-for-TC-helicon-products/

To use your newly selected Key and Scale, sim­ply press EXIT.

To save the current preset with your chosen Key
and Scale, press STORE twice. Storing presets
is covered in more detail later in this manual.

Tap tempo

To access Tap Tempo, press and hold the UP
and HIT footswitches simultaneously.

Tap tempo screen

Once you see the current tempo displayed on
the LCD screen, tap the HIT button in time with
your music.

When you are finished, stop tapping, and the
screen will “time out” back to the preset screen.

For more information, see “Switch-3 page (6/7)”.

Using DOWN and UP for
setting key and scale

Activating Loop mode by pressing the DOWN
and UP footswitches simultaneously is the de­fault mode. There is also an alternative mode

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 15

Basics

Control knob and arrow buttons

BACK, STORE, arrow buttons and the control knob

Use the control knob to scroll through presets
and to move through various settings in the Edit,
System or other menus.

The arrow buttons act similarly, allowing you
to move through presets, effect/setup pages,
styles, Genres etc.

Quick Tip: You can press and hold the arrow
buttons to “jump” to the first or last page in a
menu. For example, in the Vocal FX menu, you
can move from Harmony (page 1) to Transducer
(page 7) directly by pressing and holding the >
button.

STORE button

What are presets?

To use Play Acoustic effectively, you need to un­derstand the concept of Presets.

Essentially, a Preset is a record of all the settings
for a group of effects that you can recall quickly
and easily.

The Preset concept is extremely flexible. A Pre­set can be general purpose – like a simple Re­verb or Harmony sound. But a Preset can also
represent a specific song or portion of a song via
multiple effects and settings.

icons on the desktop, program behaviors and
much more. When each user logs in, the com­puter recalls all of their custom settings.

Depending on how you like you to work with ef­fects, you may find that you like to use a few gen­eral purpose Presets. Or you might be the kind
of guy or girl who likes to spend a bit more time
in advance of the performance to create Presets
for all sorts of things.

Once you have fine-tuned all settings in the Vo­cal section, you should store them as a Preset,
so you can later recall them.

Keep in mind that you never have to save Guitar
effects settings. They are global and retain their
values across all of your vocal presets.

Storing presets

When you have made a change to a preset, sim­ply press the STORE button.

Pressing the STORE button once will bring up
the name/location display, allowing you to re­name and/or relocate the preset.

Pressing the STORE button again will save the
preset, along with its new name or location.

BACK button

Press the BACK button to exit the current screen
or mode.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 16

A good modern analogy for a Preset is a user ac­count on a computer. Even though each user has
access to the same hardware (CPU, RAM etc.)
each user can change their desktop wallpaper,

Basics

Changing preset names

To change the name of a preset, press the
STORE button once, then press the left blue soft
button and use the control knob to modify the
letters/numbers. Press the STORE button again
to complete the process.

Storing a preset to another location

To save the current preset to a different preset
slot (location), press the store button once, then
press the right Blue soft Button and use the
control knob to select the destination number
for the preset. Press store again to complete the
process.

If you change your mind and don’t want to save
the changes, simply press BACK.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 17

Basics

Soft buttons

Soft buttons

There are six “soft” buttons on the Play Acoustic
– three on each side of the LC display.

Each button is context-specific – meaning that
when its function is available, you’ll see it lit up
with a WHITE or BLUE LED.

When there is no function available, the button
will not be lit.

►

In white LED mode, the text on the button re­fers to its action.

►

In blue LED mode, the button will select the
segment of the LCD screen that is directly be­side that button.

Not every menu uses all six buttons.

Vocal FX button

Press the Vocal FX button to open the Vocal FX
menu, which controls the settings of the vocal
effects. This button is described in its own chap­ter: “Vocal FX button/section”.

Guitar FX button

Press the Guitar FX button to open the Guitar FX
menu, which controls the settings of the guitar
effects. This button is described in its own chap­ter: “Guitar FX button/section”

Mix button

Press the Mix button to open the Mix menu,
which allows you to adjust the levels of the sig­nals. This button is described in its own chapter:
“Mix button/section”

Favorite button

You can tag a preset as a “Favorite”. This allows
you to e.g. mark all presets you want to use in
a show and filter out all others. This means that
you can use Favorites to create a set list or sim­ply group all the presets you like, regardless of
their Genre.

►

To add the current preset to your Favorites,
press the FAVORITE button. “FAV” will be
shown in the top right corner of the display.

►

To remove the current preset from your Favor­ites, press the FAVORITE button.

►

To only browse your Favorite presets, press
the GENRE button and select FAV as the
Genre. Press the BACK button to return to the
Home screen.

If there are no presets tagged as Favorites, the

FAV option will not appear in the Genre menu.

GENRE button

Genres allow you to filter your presets by cat­egories, such as musical styles and effect types.

Press the GENRE button to open the Genre
menu.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 18

Basics

In the Genre menu, use the control knob to
navigate through the available options. Select a
Genre.

Press the BACK button to return to the main win­dow, where you will see only the presets con­tained within the Genre that you have selected.

Presets can be associated with multiple genres.

Setup button

Press the SETUP button to open the Setup
menu, which controls the general functions of
the device. This button is described in its own
chapter: “Setup button/section”

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 19

Connection diagrams

Connection diagrams

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 20

Connection diagrams

The following connection diagrams show you
some common ways to hook up Play Acoustic.
For basic information about audio inputs and
outputs, see “Inputs and outputs”.

Mixer setup

For connection to your mixer or PA, check out
this Craig’s Corner video:

youtube.com/watch?v=qq0AOtafIjs

It’s very important to follow gain-staging instruc­tions in order to get the best signal to noise ratio
(SNR) from your device and prevent distortion in
the signal chain.

Play Acoustic back panel inputs and outputs

SWITCH-3

Play Acoustic back panel

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 21

Connection diagrams

Stereo (or mono) vocals and guitar

This diagram shows connections for both Stereo
and Mono PA applications.

If your Play Acoustic is set to Stereo, you’ll need
to pan one channel left and the other channel
right (or use a single Stereo channel) on your
mixer. Vocal/Guitar level mix is achieved within
Play Acoustic.

In Mono output mode, you have control over the
vocal and guitar sounds independently at the PA
mixer. In Mono mode, do not pan the channels
left and right.

The Aux input may be removed from the XLR
outputs in the setup menu if you wish (Setup –
Aux to Main Out).

PLAY ACOUSTIC

Setup example: Stereo (or mono) vocals and guitar

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 22

Connection diagrams

Mono vocals and guitar amp

This configuration works well when you want to
pass your guitar signals to an amplifier and your
vocal signals to a mixer or powered PA speaker.

PLAY ACOUSTIC

Setup example: Mono vocals and acoustic guitar amp

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 23

Connection diagrams

Mono vocal and guitar with a TC-Helicon FX150

This configuration gives you mic-stand-mount
monitoring and control over you vocal and guitar
channels, while sending a summed mono signal
to a mixer or PA.

For additional control, you can opt to plug a mu­sic player into the Aux channel on the FX150,
instead of Play Acoustic, giving you control of
Vocals, Guitar and Aux independently. Signals
will still be summed to mono at the output of the
FX150.

For more information on FX150, see
tc-helicon.com/products/voicesolo-fx150/

FX150

Setup example: Mono vocal and guitar with an FX150

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 24

Connection diagrams

Mono vocals via FX150 and a guitar amp

Here, you can send the vocal signals to an FX150
and guitar signals to an amplifier.

FX150

Setup example: Mono vocals via FX150 and an acoustic guitar amp

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 25

Connection diagrams

Guitar and vocals via FX150 and stereo out to a PA

In this setup, you can use the Headphone Out
from Play Acoustic to send Guitar, Vocal and Aux
signals to your FX150 and send a stereo mix to
the PA via the Play Acoustic XLR outputs.

FX150

Setup example: Guitar and vocals via FX150 and stereo out to a PA

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 26

Connection diagrams

Stereo PA and TC-Helicon Guitar & Headphone cable

If you own our Guitar &Headphone cable (sold
separately), you can use an external monitor
send to the Aux in on Play Acoustic to create a
headphone/IEM mix.

PLAY ACOUSTIC

Setup example: Stereo PA and guitar/headphone cable (not included)

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 27

Setup button/section

Setup button/section

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 28

Setup button/section

Input page (1/7)

Input parameter

Use the Input parameter to select the type of mi­crophone you will be using.

Dynamic Mic setting

Use the Dynamic Mic setting for dynamic micro­phones (like an SM-58 or OM5).

Condenser Mic setting

Use the Condenser Mic setting for condenser
microphones (like a Beta 87a).

MP-75 or e835fx mic setting

Use the MP-75 or the e835fx mic setting with the
MP-75 or e835fx microphones, which have an on
board switch to control various functions of your
Play Acoustic, such as HIT or LOOP functions.

The Mic Control feature defaults to HIT when Mic
Type is set to “MP-75” or to “e835fx”.

USB setting

Digital audio can be passed to Play Acoustic via
the USB port allowing you to send vocals from a
DAW to the unit for processing.

When sending “dry” vocals from your DAW, pan
the vocal signal hard LEFT in the DAW mixer.

If you have a guitar track recorded and want it
to guide harmony, pan it hard RIGHT in the DAW
mi xer.

RoomSense parameter

Controls the way the two onboard RoomSense
microphones work.

Ambient setting

With the Ambient setting, RoomSense uses the
onboard microphones and passes that signal via
the headphone output.

Control for RoomSense level can be found in the
mix section (default OFF).

To avoid feedback, the RoomSense output is
only passed to the headphone output and not
the XLR output(s).

You can also mix some of the ambient signal into
an in-ear monitor mix to give you room sounds
with your direct microphone feeds.

Ambient/Auto setting

With the Ambient/Auto setting, RoomSense uses
the onboard microphones and passes that signal
via the headphone output. The onboard Room­Sense microphones will also “listen” to musical
information from the surrounding environment
(a single chord based instrument or even your
whole band will work!) to determine the key/scale
for Harmony and HardTune effects.

If you have a guitar plugged in, the Guitar acts
as the primary source for chord detection. If you
stop playing guitar, RoomSense will try to deter­mine key/scale from “what it hears” in the room.

Guitar parameter

Use the Guitar parameter to adjust the guitar in­put gain.

Different guitars have different output levels,
based on their pickups and electronics. Use this
setting to ensure that your guitar input isn’t too
low or too high.

Set your guitar input so the input LED lights
Green/Yellow most of the time, but not RED. Re­fer to the “How the Input LED Level Meter Works”
section for more info about the LED meter.

Mic Control parameter

Use the Mic Control parameter to set the action
you want to associate with the Mic Button. This
parameter can only be set if you are using an
MP-75 or e835 fx microphone. If you have set
the Mic Type parameter to another microphone
type, this parameter will only show “N/A” (not
available).

HIT setting

With the HIT setting, pressing the button mon
you Mic Control-enabled microphone will en­gage the HIT function in any preset that has a
HIT function assigned.

HIT + TALK setting

With the HIT + TALK setting, pressing the button
on you Mic Control-enabled microphone will en­gage the HIT function.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 29

Setup button/section

Pressing and holding the button on you Mic
Control-enabled microphone will engage TALK
mode, bypassing all effects. To exit TALK mode,
press the microphone button again.

PRESET UP setting

With the PRESET UP setting, pressing the but­ton on you Mic Control-enabled microphone will
cycle through the device’s presets, moving for­ward.

Loop setting

With the Loop setting, pressing the button on
you Mic Control-enabled microphone will ac­tivates or deactivate the Record/Play/Overdub
feature of the Looper.

Tone Style parameter

Use the Tone Style parameter to apply varying
amounts of adaptive EQ, Compression and Gate
to the signal.

OFF setting

No tone style is applied.

NORMAL setting

Some “bottom”, “mid” and “air” EQ, light com­pression and minor gating is applied to the sig­nal. “Minor gating” means: When the input level
gets low enough, the input gain is reduced to im­prove open-mic feedback resistance.

LESS BRIGHT setting

The LESS BRIGHT setting is similar to normal,
but with less emphasis on the high frequency
EQ band.

NORM+WARMTH setting

The NORM+WARMTH setting is similar to nor­mal, with a small “mid bump” to add some
warmth to the voice.

MORE COMP setting

The MORE COMP setting utilizes the normal EQ
and Gating settings, but it has more aggressive
compression settings. This is a good setting to
try if you have a large dynamic range when sing­ing and want to keep your levels under control.

NORM NO GATE setting

Removes the Gate function from the NORMAL
setting.

LESS BRIGHT NG setting

The LESS BRIGHT NG is the same as the LESS
BRIGHT setting, but with the Gate function re­moved (NG = “No Gate”).

WARMTH NG setting

The WARMTH NG setting is the same as
NORM+WARMTH, but with the Gate function
removed.

MORE COMP NG setting

The MORE COMP NG is the same as MORE
COMP, but with the Gate function removed.

Pitch Correction

Pitch Cor Amt parameter

Use the Pitch Correction parameter to control
the amount of auto-chromatic pitch correction
Play Acoustic applies to all incoming signals
from the microphone.

For a natural sound, we find that 50 % or less
is a good starting point. If you are having a hard
time hitting notes accurately, or want an auto­tuned sound on all of your vocals, experiment
with amounts closer to 100%, or use the Hard­Tune effect block.

Pitch Cor Amt settings are temporarily overrid­den when the HardTune block is active.

Pitch correction and (perceived) phasing

If you are new to auto-chromatic pitch correc­tion, you may find that the sound you hear with
Correction engaged sounds “doubled”. This is
due to you hearing both the corrected signal
from Play Acoustic and your own voice (via bone
conduction in your noggin). The two sounds
have small variances, which can be interpreted
as “doubling”. This is perfectly normal, but will
take a bit of getting used to. The audience will
not hear the “doubling” that you hear.

For more information about pitch correction
phasing, check out this Craig’s Corner video:
youtube.com/watch?v=KWrEIuiDXsA

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 30

Setup button/section

Output page (2/7)

Output parameter

Use the Output parameter to set how signals are
sent over the XLR outputs of Play Acoustic.

Vocal/Guitar (DI) setting

With the Vocal/Guitar (DI) setting, vocal (and Aux)
signals are sent over one XLR connector, and
guitar signals over the other.

Stereo setting

With the Stereo setting, a stereo mix of Vocal,
Guitar and Aux signals is sent over both XLR
outputs.

Mono setting

►

All effected Vocal and Guitar sounds are sent
via the left XLR output.

►

Dry vocals (with Tone and pitch correction, if
you have set the Pitch Cor Amt parameter on
the Input page to a value other than zero) are
sent via the right XLR output.

On setting

With the On setting, Play Acoustic will attempt to
remove lead vocals from a piece of music.

This process can create “Karaoke”-style music
for you to sing along to, including key information
for harmony generation.

The processing capability can vary quite a bit
from song to song, depending on the way the
song was originally mixed.

Lead Mute parameter

Use the Lead Mute parameter to mute the lead
vocal and only output the processed signals.

Off setting

Lead Vocals are routed to the main mix.

On setting

Lead vocals are removed from the main mix.

Ear damage can occur quickly at high volumes,
so be cautious when using headphones or in-ear
monitors!

Headphone Lim parameter

Vocal Cancel function

The Vocal Cancel function attempts to remove
the vocals from a piece of music.

Off setting

With the Off setting, no processing is performed
on the Aux input signal.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 31

There is a built-in headphone limiter to provide
protection from large volume increases, spikes,
dropped microphones, screaming fans etc. Use
the Headphone Lim parameter to set the maxi­mum level of the headphone signal.

0dB is the default, but you can set it lower if you
want more protection.

Setup button/section

System page (3/7)

LCD Contrast parameter

Use the LCD Contrast parameter to set the con­trast of the LCD screen. Depending on the ambi­ent light in the room, different settings may have
more or less effect.

UP/DN Function

Use the UP/DN Function parameter to define
what should happen when you press the DOWN
and UP footswitches simultaneously.

Please note that when you connect a TC-Hel­icon Switch-3 to the PEDAL connector of your
Play Acoustic, the default behavior of the UP/DN
function changes from “Loop” to “Set Key.”

Looping setting

Pressing the DOWN and UP footswitches simul­taneously will enter and exit Loop mode, allow­ing you to play and record loops.

Set Key setting

Pressing the DOWN and UP footswitches simul­taneously will enter Set Key/Scale mode, allow­ing you to manually set the key and scale for a
song.

Lead Delay parameter

Use the Lead Delay parameter to delay the in­coming vocal signal very slightly to compensate
for the small amount of latency introduced when
effects are processed by the device.

This delay ensures that the processed/generated
voices – like harmonies – will be perfectly in sync
with the lead vocal.

None setting

No delay compensation is used.

Voice Sync setting

The lead vocal is delayed an amount equal to the
maximum latency of the system with all effects
turned on.

Auto setting

The lead vocal will be delayed by an amount
equal to the latency of the currently enabled
effect blocks. Using more effect blocks will in­crease the latency compensation amount.

Tune Reference parameter

Use the Tune Reference parameter to define the
reference frequency for the guitar tuner and any
Harmony or HardTune effects. The default is
440Hz (A), which can be changed in 0.5Hz in­crements.

Aux to Main Out parameter

Use the Aux to Main Out parameter to define
wether the Aux signal should be sent to the XLR
outputs. Set this parameter to Off if you would
like to hear the Aux input only in your head­phones. This is useful for in-ear monitoring ap­plications. You can send a full monitor mix to
the Aux input, and you will only hear it over your
headphones or in-ear monitors.

Aux In Type parameter

The Aux In Type function will perform magical
calculations to help make harmonies more ac­curate.

Live setting

Use the Live setting when you are playing live
or processing a recorded vocal track from your
DAW using the aux in to provide guide tracks.

Tracks s e t ting

Use the Tracks setting when you are singing
along with prerecorded music, e.g. from an MP3
pla yer.

Monitor setting

Use the Monitor setting to remove incoming Aux
signals from the main output. This allows you to
hear Aux audio via headphones, but not pass
that audio to the PA. This is a great solution for
cost effective in-ear monitoring.

The TC-Helicon Guitar & Headphone Cable
is an excellent way to combine your guitar and
headphone signals into a single cable. For more
information, see:

tc-helicon.com/products/
guitar-headphone-cable/

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 32

Setup button/section

System page 2 (4/7)

Global Key parameter

Use the Global Key parameter to define if key
and scale information for harmony generation
and/or pitch correction should be global or pre­set-specific.

Off setting

Key can be set per individual preset, via direct
key setting (C, D, F# etc ), Guitar IN via Natural­Play, RoomSense or Aux.

On setting

When a key is chosen within a preset, that key
will remain even when you switch to another pre­set.

Global Tempo parameter

Use the Global Tempo parameter to define if
tempo-based effects should follow a global tem­po or a preset-specific setting.

Off setting

Tap tempo set within a preset changes from pre­set to preset.

RoomSense LoCut parameter

Use the RoomSense LoCut parameter to “roll
off” undesirable frequencies from your mix.

In some circumstances, the low frequencies “in
the room” – such as bass or kick drum – can
cause the RoomSense microphones to become
muddy sounding. The built-in high-pass filter al­lows you to reduce this kind of “rumble”.

Guitar Gate parameter

Use the Guitar Gate parameter to set the gate
threshold for the GUITAR input.

Guitars have varying amounts of “noise” inherent
in their signal. Sometimes it is desirable to set a
gate to “cut off ” or “mute” the guitar when the
incoming signal is very low.

We have set the threshold pretty low by default,
but you may want to raise it to suit your style.
Having a higher gate threshold can be effec­tive when playing quick chords with rests in be­tween.

feature which allows +6 (“Low”) or +12 (“High”)
dB of extra gain if you need it. The default value
is +6 dB (“Low”).

BodyRez Editing parameter

Basic setting

Only the Basic BodyRez page is accessible. The
Advanced BodyRez page is hidden.

Advanced setting

Both the Basic and Advanced BodyRez page are
accessible.

On setting

Wen you have set a tempo using tempo tap­ping within a preset, that tempo will remain even
when you switch to another preset.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 33

Mic Boost parameter

If you are a quiet singer, you can use the Mic
Boost parameter to increase the microphone
gain.

Some artists sing more quietly than others, re­quiring the Mic Gain knob to be turned up quite
far. To offset this, we have added a Mic Boost

Setup button/section

Loop page (5/7)

Input parameter

Use the Input parameter to set the input source(s)
for loop recording. The following settings are
available:

►

Guitar

►

Lead

►

Aux

►

Lead + Guitar

►

Lead + Aux

►

Guitar + Aux

►

All: With the All setting, everything you hear
will also be recorded as part of the loop.

Undo parameter

Use the Undo parameter to switch the Loop
undo function on or off.

On setting

Undo is active and may be used to undo the last
change made to your loop. It is common to use
undo when you have added a loop section that
you are not happy with and want to try it again.
You can also press Undo a second time to redo
your last Undo action. This will bring a loop over­dub back that you have removed using Undo.

In this mode, the total available loop time is 15
seconds.

Off setting

Disables undo, freeing some memory for addi­tional looping.

In this mode, available loop time is doubled to
30 seconds.

Loop Feedback parameter

Use the Loop Feedback parameter to control the
amount of loop record feedback.

When recording a loop with multiple passes (or
parts), the signal from the first loop pass is add­ed to the next, and so on.

If all of these passes were put together at full
(100 %) volume, the loop you are working on
would get louder and louder and LOUDER, so
you would end up with a distorted output signal.
The purpose of the Loop Feedback parameter is
to prevent this volume increase from happening.

When you record a new pass to the existing loop,
it is recorded at 100% volume, but the existing
loop is blended with it at the Loop feedback set­ting.

The calculation works like this:
Input + (Loop x Loop Feedback) = Loop output

I.e. input + (Loop x 90%) = output

(Run away! Scary math!)

Most users find the default setting of 98% works
well, but you may find a different setting that
works best for you.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 34

Setup button/section

Switch-3 page (6/7)

Control parameter

Switch-3 is an optional, high-quality remote con­trol which you can use with your TC-Helicon de­vice. Use the Control parameter to set the func­tionality of connected Switch-3.

Loop Mode setting

With the Loop Mode setting, the three foot­switches on a Switch-3 will control loop func­tions:

►

Button 1 activates Record / Play / Overdub.

►

Button 2 stops recording/playback and can be
used to erase the loop (by holding).

►

Button 3 is used for Undo.

Custom setting

With the Custom setting, you can assign func­tions to the three footswitches on a Switch-3
from a list.

Simply press the soft button next to “Switch1”,
“Switch2” or “Switch 3” on the right side of the
display and use the Control Knob to define the
function the respective footswitch should con­trol.

The available settings are:

►

Loop Rec/Play

►

Loop Stop/Clear

►

Loop Undo

►

Loop Start/Stop

►

1 Btn Looper

►

Tap Temp o

►

Set Key

►

Preset Down

►

Preset Up

►

Hit

►

Harmony

►

Harm Moment

►

Doubling

►

Delay

►

Delay Moment

►

Reverb

►

HardTune

►

Transducer

►

µMod

►

Gtr Amp

►

Gtr Boost

►

Gtr Compressor

►

Gtr µMod

►

Gtr Delay

►

Gtr Reverb

Harm Moment and Delay Moment

When you have selected the Custom setting, two
menu items work slightly differently from the oth­ers: Harm Moment and Delay Moment.

With “Harm Moment” and “Delay Moment”, the
respective effect (harmony voices or delay) is
active only as long as you press down the foot­switch. Some users prefer the precision offered
by this mode.

1 Btn Looper setting

The 1 Btn Looper (1 Button Looper) setting is
a convenient way to control all relevant Looper
functions using a single footswitch. This allows
you to assign the two remaining buttons on a
Switch-3 for other features (e.g. Hit).

►

With no loop present, tap the footswitch once

to record.

►

Tap the footswitch again to define the loop
length and switch to loop playback.

►

Tap the footswitch again to overdub during
playback.

►

Hold the footswitch to undo the last overdub.

►

Hold the footswitch again to restore (redo) the
last overdub.

►

Tap the footswitch twice quickly to stop.

Please note that when stopping, a short por-

tion of audio is recorded.

►

Tap the footswitch to play or hold to erase the
loop.

Tip: If you prefer to have Play Acoustic up on a
music stand, you can use “Preset DN”, “Preset
UP” and “HIT” as your custom Switch-3 assign­ments to replicate the footswitch controls.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 35

Setup button/section

Product Info page (7/ 7)

The System Info page contains information
about…

►

the installed firmware version,

►

serial number and

►

manufacture date for your device.

If you need to contact support, please have this
information handy. See “Support resources”.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 36

Vocal FX button/section

Vocal FX button/section

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 37

Vocal FX button/section

Press the VOCAL FX button to open the Vocal
Effects menu, which is comprised of seven pag­es. Each page contains the parameters control­ling the respective vocal effect block.

There is one parameter common to all effects
pages:

Control parameter

Use the Control parameter to turn an effect block
on and off.

Off setting

The effect block is inactive, no signal process­ing occurs.

On setting

The effect block is active and will process the
signal according to the selected style.

HIT setting

The effect block is assigned to the Play Acous­tic HIT button (or the button on a microphone
supporting Mic Control) and will become active
when the HIT button is lit.

See the Setup section for instructions on how to
activate Mic Control.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 38

Vocal FX button/section

Harmony page (1/7)

Use the Harmony block to create harmonies that
accompany your lead vocal, using up to two ad­ditional voices.

Style parameter

The Style parameter determines the number of
harmony voices and the way those voices relate
to your lead vocal.

Choose from the following styles:

►

High

►

Higher

►

Low

►

Lower

►

Octave Up

►

Octave Down

►

High & Low

►

High & Higher

►

High & Lower

►

Higher & Lower

►

Higher & Low

►

Lower & Low

►

Oct Down & Up

►

Oct Down & Higher

►

Oct Down & High

►

Oct Down & Low

►

Oct Down & Lower

►

Oct Up & Higher

►

Oct Up & High

►

Oct Up & Low

►

Oct Up & Lower

►

+7 Semito n e s

►

-5 Semitones

►

+7 & -5 Semitones

►

+12 & +7 Semitones

►

+12 & -5 Semitones

►

-12 & +7 Semitones

►

-12 & -5 semitones

Level parameter

Use the Level parameter to control the overall
level of the harmonies.

Press the upper right soft button to select this
parameter and use the control knob to adjust
the level.

0dB is the maximum volume for the effect.

Key parameter

Key is the most important setting for creating
harmonies. Get it right, and things sound amaz­ing. Get it wrong and they will sound, well, bad.

Auto setting

With the Auto setting, key is set automatically
based on input from…

►

the Guitar input connector

►

the Aux connector

►

the RoomSense microphones

in this particular order.

The priority of inputs is as listed. For example,
if you have a guitar plugged into the GUITAR IN
and tracks playing via the Aux in, the system will
read key/scale information from the guitar. If the

guitar stops playing and the Aux signal contin­ues, the system will then look to the Aux input for
chord information.

Key setting

With the Key setting, you can choose any of the
12 keys (C through b) in Western music.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 39

Vocal FX button/section

Harmony Advanced page

To enter the Harmony Advanced page, press and
hold any of the lit Blue Led soft buttons. To exit
the Advanced page, press the BACK button.

Scale parameter

If the Key is set manually (not auto), the ad­vanced menu will allow you set the scale associ­ated with the Key.

Choose one of the following settings:

►

Major 1

►

Major 2

►

Major 3

►

Minor 1

►

Minor 2

►

Minor 3

For more information, see “TC-Helicon scales
reference chart”. You can also find this chart on
the TC-Helicon website:
support.tc-helicon.com/entries/
21051886-scale-chart-for-TC-helicon-products/

Using high amounts of both Humanize and Por­tamento can make your harmony voices sound
as if they’ve… well… been drinking… a lot. Small
amounts are usually preferable.

Humanize parameter

Use the Humanize parameter to “humanize” the
Harmony voices by imparting some timing and
pitch variances to the voice.

At its core, this is actually the process of making
the harmony voices less accurate – but imper­fection is something that can make voices sound
more “real”.

►

The 0 setting turns humanization off.

►

100 is the maximum setting.

Portamento parameter

Use the Portamento parameter to control the
amount of “slide” between notes as you sing.
The more Portamento you use, the more the
Harmony voices will slide, instead of jump, from
note to note.

►

The 0 setting turns Portamento off.

►

100 is the maximum setting.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 40

Vocal FX button/section

Double page (2/7)

The Double effect block creates the impression
that one or more vocalists are singing in unison,
with small differences in the timing and timbre of
each voice. Some refer to doubling as “thicken­ing” or “double tracking”. The latter references a
recording studio method of singing the same vo­cal part on two separate tracks and playing them
back simultaneously.

Style parameter

Use the Style parameter to set the number of
voices and the timing of the double.

Choose from the following styles:

►

1 Voice Tight*

►

1 Voice Loose*

►

2 Voices Tight*

►

2 Voices Loose*

►

Shout

►

1 Voice Oct Up

►

1 Voice Oct Down

►

2 Voices Oct Up

►

2 Voices Oct Down

►

Oct Up & Oct Down

soft button to select this parameter and use the
control knob to adjust the level. 0 dB is the maxi­mum volume for the effect.

* “Tight” and “Loose” refers to how closely the

double is timed with the lead vocal. Loose tim­ing can feel “larger” or more effected.

Level parameter

Use the Level parameter to control the overall
level of the doubling effect. Press the right upper

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 41

Vocal FX button/section

Delay page (3/7)

The Delay effect block repeats the input signal
based on the style and the current tempo.

Style parameter

Select the Style menu by pressing the lower left
soft button. It will be the only one lit on the left
side of the display.

Choose from the following styles:

►

Quarter

►

Eighth

►

Triplet

►

Dotted 1/8th

►

Dotted ¼

►

¼ Triplet

►

Sixteenth

►

Ping Pong 1

►

Ping Pong 2

►

Ping Pong 3

►

Multitap 1

►

Multitap 2

►

Multitap 3

►

Multitap 4

►

Multitap 5

►

Multitap 6

►

Classic Slap

►

Set Time

soft button to select this parameter and use the
control knob to adjust the level. 0 dB is the maxi­mum volume for the effect.

Feedback parameter

Use the Feedback parameter to control the
amount of the delayed signal that is fed back into
the effect. Higher levels of feedback will make
the delay continue for a longer period of time.

Level parameter

Use the Level parameter to control the overall
level of the delay effect. Press the right upper

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 42

Vocal FX button/section

Delay Advanced page

To enter the Delay Advanced page, press and
hold any of the lit blue LED soft buttons. To exit
the Delay Advanced page, press the BACK but­ton.

Dly Filter Style parameter

Use the Dly Filter Style parameter to add filters to
the delay signal that will simulate different types
of delay hardware or sound.

Choose from the following styles:

►

Digital

►

Tape

►

Analog

►

Radio

►

Megaphone

►

Cell Phone

►

Lo Fi

►

Hi Cut 1

►

Hi Cut 2

►

Hi Cut 3

►

Low Cut 1

►

Low Cut 2

►

Low Cut 3

Experiment with the styles to find what works for
your particular sound.

Tempo parameter

Use the Tempo parameter to manually set the
delay tempo.

Settings are saved per preset. They are overrid­den (but not overwritten) if Global tempo is on.

If your selected Delay style is Slap or Time, the
Tempo parameter will say “Time” instead and be
represented by a millisecond value.

Some of the delay filter styles are consistent,
meaning that the sound is affected (like mega­phone) and all subsequent delay “taps” sound
the same. Some delay filter are cumulative – e.g.
“analog” where processing is applied throughout
the feedback loop, which changes the sound of
the delay over time.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 43

Vocal FX button/section

Reverb page (4/7)

The Reverb effect block creates “room” around
your voice. Essentially, a reverb puts your dry vo­cal into a simulated space, small or large, to give
a sense of depth and distance.

Style parameter

Use the Style parameter to determine the size of
the simulated space and also the type of material
being used to create the simulation.

Choose from the following styles:

►

Smooth Plate

►

Reflection Plate

►

Thin Plate

►

Bright Plate

►

Real Plate

►

Real Plate Long

►

Jazz Plate

►

Quick Plate

►

Soft Hall

►

Amsterdam Hall

►

Broadway Hall

►

Snappy Room

►

Library

►

Dark Room

►

Music Club

►

Studio Room

►

Warehouse

►

Bouncy Room

►

Cozy Corner

►

Bright Chamber

►

Wooden Chamber

►

St. Joseph Church

►

Dome Chapel

►

Hockey Arena

►

Museum

►

Indoor Arena

►

Warehouse

►

Thin Spring

►

Full Spring

Level parameter

Use the Level parameter to control the overall
level of the reverb. Press the right upper soft but­ton to select this parameter and use the control
knob to adjust the level. 0 dB is the maximum
volume for the effect.

Decay parameter

Use the Decay parameter to define how long it
takes for the reverb to fade away. Longer Decay
times generally sound like large spaces, while
shorter times sound like small spaces.

Each Reverb style has its own decay time, but
you can change it.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 44

Vocal FX button/section

HardTune page (5/7)

Ah – HardTune…

Some call it the Cher effect and others refer to
it as Auto-Tune™. Whatever you name it: If you
are looking for that radio-pop tuned sound, this
is your effect.

The HardTune effect block can also be used for
scale-based, natural pitch correction – so don’t
discount the effect if you are looking for correc­tion that does not sound “robotic”!

Style parameter

Use the Style parameter to determine the accu­racy, speed and “aggressiveness” of the tuning
effect.

Choose from the following styles:

►

Pop

►

Country Gliss

►

Robot

►

Correct Natural

►

Correct Chromatic (not scale based)

►

Drone

►

Gender Bender

Gender parameter

Use the Gender parameter to manipulate the tim­bre of your voice to sound more male or more fe­male in nature. Extreme settings for this param­eter will sound very unnatural – but that may be
just the effect you are looking for!

Shift parameter

Use the Shift parameter to shift the note you are
singing up or down by one or more semi-tones.
You can shift your voice up or down by up to 36
semitones.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 45

Vocal FX button/section

Transducer page (6/7)

The Transducer effect block modifies the sound
by adding various filters and overdrive compo­nents.

Style parameter

Use the Style parameter to define the Transducer
effect style.

Choose from the following styles:

►

Megaphone

►

Radio

►

On The Phone

►

Overdrive

►

Buzz Cut

►

Stack

►

Tweed

►

Combo

Drive parameter

Use the Drive parameter to control the amount
of overdrive applied to the signal. More drive will
distort the signal and create megaphone-style
effects.

Filter parameter

Use the Filter parameter to apply an EQ filter
that will make the Transducer sound “thinner” or
more “muddy”, depending on the preset. Thinner
filter settings sound more like a radio or walkie­talkie.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 46

Vocal FX button/section

Transducer Advanced page

To enter the Advanced Transducer page, press
and hold any of the lit blue LED soft buttons.

Routing parameter

Use the Routing parameter to define which
signal components should be affected by the
Transducer effect.

Output setting

With the Output setting, the effect is applied to
the lead voice and any voices derived from it, like
Harmony or Doubling.

FX setting

With the FX setting, the effect is only applied to
voices within an effect. For example, if you are
using a delay, no effect will be applied to the ini­tial “tap” of the delay, but subsequent “taps” will
have the Transducer effect applied.

For more information about feedback and tips
on how to reduce or eliminate it, check out this
Craig’s Corner video:

youtube.com/watch?v=VlN1RJ4gcAo

Gain parameter

Use the Gain parameter to control the overall
level of the transducer effect.

Gate Threshold parameter

Transducer effects are very prone to feedback
via a PA or monitor. The Transducer block has
an independent gate that can be set to help al­leviate feedback.

Raising the threshold will cause the effect to
“kick in” at a higher input volume, which can help
avoid feedback while you are not singing.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 47

Vocal FX button/section

µMod page (7/7)

µMod stands for “micro modulation”. The µMod
effect block is used for creating effects that
modulate the signal, such as flanger, phaser,
panning or chorus.

Style parameter

Use the Style parameter to select the style of the
µMod effect.

Choose from the following styles:

►

Micromod Clone

►

Micromod Wider

►

Thicken

►

Light Chorus

►

Medium Chorus

►

Wide Chorus

►

Mono Chorus

►

Fast Rotor

►

Panner

►

Flanger

►

Flange Feedback

►

Flange Negative

►

Mono Flange

►

Soft Flange

►

Tube

►

Up Tube

►

Down Tube

►

Down & Up Tube

►

Rise and Fall

►

Auto Wah

►

Cylon Mono

►

Cylon Stereo

►

Alien Voiceover

Level parameter

Use the Level parameter to controls the overall
level of the µMod effect. Press the right-middle
soft button to select this parameter and use the
control knob to adjust the level. 0dB is the maxi­mum volume for the effect.

Speed parameter

Use the Speed parameter to adjust the speed at
which “oscillation” or modulation occurs within
the effect.

►

Underwater

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 48

Guitar FX button/section

Guitar FX button/section

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 49

Guitar FX button/section

Press the GUITAR FX button to open the Guitar
Effects menu, which is comprised of five pages.
Each page contains the parameters controlling
the respective vocal effect block.

Guitar effects are handled in the same way as
vocal effects – see “Vocal FX button/section”.

Guitar sounds in Play Acoustic are global –
meaning you only need to adjust them once. As
you change presets, your guitar sound will re­main the same.

Please note that several pages described in this
chapter will only be visible when you have set the
BodyRez Editing parameter in the Setup menu
to “Advanced”. The page numbering will change
accordingly. I.e., when the BodyRez Editing pa­rameter is set to “Basic”, the first page will be
numbered “1/4”, not “1/7”.

Each guitar effect has a Control parameter, simi­lar to those in the Vocal FX section. However, for
guitar effects, the Control parameter only has On
and Off settings. There is no Guitar HIT setting/
functionality.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 50

Guitar FX button/section

Guitar Reverb page (1/7)

Reverb creates “room” around a signal. Es­sentially, it puts your dry guitar into a simulated
space, small or large, to give a sense of depth
and distance.

Style parameter

Use the Style parameter to determine the size of
the simulated space and also the type of material
being used to create the simulation.

Choose from the following styles:

►

Hall of Fame – Hall

►

Hall of Fame – Plate

►

Hall of Fame – Room

►

Hall of Fame – Church

►

Hall of Fame – Spring

►

Hall of Fame – Ambience

►

Hall of Fame – Lofi

►

Hall of Fame – Tile

►

Smooth Plate

►

Reflection Plate

►

Thin Plate

►

Bright Plate

►

Real Plate

►

Real Plate Long

►

Jazz Plate

►

Quick Plate

►

Soft Hall

►

Amsterdam Hall

►

Broadway Hall

►

Snappy Room

►

Library

►

Dark Room

►

Music Club

►

Studio Room

►

Bouncy Room

►

Cozy Corner

►

Bright Chamber

►

Wooden Chamber

►

St. Joseph Church

►

Dome Chapel

►

Hockey Arena

►

Museum

►

Indoor Arena

►

Warehouse

►

Thin Spring

►

Full Spring

Level parameter

Use the Level parameter to control the overall
level of the reverb. Press the right-middle soft
button to select this parameter and use the con­trol knob to adjust the level.

0dB is the maximum volume for the effect.

Decay parameter

Use the Decay parameter to define how long it
takes for the reverb to fade away. Longer Decay
times generally sound like large spaces, while
shorter times sound like small spaces.

Each Reverb style has its own decay time, but
you can change it.

Pre Delay parameter

Use the Pre Dly (“Pre Delay”) parameter to define
the time until the reverb tail sets in.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 51

Guitar FX button/section

Guitar µMod page (2/7)

Just like the vocal effect of the same name, the
µMod effect block in the Guitar section applies
minute pitch and timing variations to add depth
or thickness to the sound. µMod stands for “Mi­cro Modulation”.

Style parameter

Use the Style parameter to select the style of the
µMod effect.

Choose from the following styles:

►

Corona 12:00 – based on the Corona Chorus
from TC Electronic

►

Corona Fast

►

Corona Slow

►

Silky Detune

►

Medium Detune

►

Mono Chorus

Depth parameter

Use the Depth parameter to adjust the intensity
of the modulation effect. Slower speeds often re­sult in more noticeable effects.

Level parameter

Use the Mix parameter to controls the overall
level of the µMod effect.

Speed parameter

Use the Speed parameter to adjust the speed at
which “oscillation” or modulation occurs within
the effect. Slower speeds often result in more
noticeable effects.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 52

Guitar FX button/section

BodyRez EQ page (3/7)

Exclusive to Play Acoustic, BodyRez combines
equalization, compression and ambience to give
your guitar mounted pickup a more natural
“mic’d in a room” sound.

Style parameter

Use the Style parameter to select from various
BodyRez presets.

Choose from the following styles:

►

Custom

►

Flat

►

Just Comp

►

BodyRez 1

►

BodyRez 2

►

BodyRez 3

►

BodyRez 4

►

BodyRez 5

Low Gain parameter

Use the Low Gain parameter to control the
“bass” range of frequencies within the BodyRez
style.

Hi Gain parameter

Use the Hi Gain parameter to control the “treble”
range of frequencies within the BodyRez style.

Amount parameter

Use the Amount parameter to control how much
BodyRez processing should be applied to your
guitar signal.

Amount settings lower than 10 will limit the range
of any EQ, Compression or Ambience settings
you can adjust when in BodyRez Advanced
mode. See “BodyRez Shelf EQ page (4/7)” for in­structions on how to reveal the Advanced page.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 53

Guitar FX button/section

BodyRez Shelf EQ page (4/7)

This page is hidden by default. To access it, en­ter the Setup menu and change the “BodyRez
Editing” parameter from “Basic” to “Advanced”.

The BodyRez Shelf EQ page provides a high­shelf and a low-shelf equalizer with adjustable
Frequency and Gain parameters.

BodyRez Parametric EQ page (5/7)

This page is hidden by default. To access it, en­ter the Setup menu and change the “BodyRez
Editing” parameter from “Basic” to “Advanced”.

The BodyRez Parametric EQ page provides a
two-band parametric EQ with controls for Fre­quency (“Freq”), Bandwidth (“Width”) and Gain.

BodyRez Compressor page (6/7)

This page is hidden by default. To access it, en­ter the Setup menu and change the “BodyRez
Editing” parameter from “Basic” to “Advanced”.

Use the Compressor effect block to control the
dynamic range of your guitar signal, enhancing
attack, sustain or both.

Threshold parameter

Use the Threshold parameter to define the signal
level at the guitar input where the Compressor
should kick in. The lower the Threshold (-30dB
is lower than -20dB), the sooner the Compres­sor will engage.

Attack parameter

Use the Attack parameter to define how fast the
signal’s level should be reduced (as defined by
the Ratio parameter) once the signal at the guitar
input exceeds the Threshold value.

Makeup Gain parameter

Depending on the settings of the other Com­pressor parameters, you may need to “make up”
reduced gain to maintain your output signal level.
Makeup gain allows you keep your signal levels
consistent from the input of the Compressor to
the output.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 54

Guitar FX button/section

Ratio parameter

Use the Ratio parameter to define the amount of
compression applied to the signal. The signal at
the input of the compressor has to exceed the
threshold by the number of decibels (dB) set with
this parameter to raise the signal at the output by
1dB. Here is an example:

►

Set the Threshold parameter to -10dB.

►

Set Ratio to 4.0.

►

Now if the level of the signal at the
Compressor’s input suddenly jumps to -6dB,
it is 4dB above the Threshold (-10dB), and
the compressor kicks in. The Compressor will
compress those 4 extra decibels to 1dB –
this is the compression ratio. Accordingly, the
level of the signal at the compressor’s output
will only jump from -10dB to -9dB.

Release parameter

Use the Release parameter to define how fast
the original signal level should be restored once
the signal at the guitar input falls under the
Threshold value.

Ambience parameter

The Ambience section of the BodyRez effect
block utilizes timing variances to emulate body
resonance from your acoustic guitar. Use the
Amount parameter to set the amount of Ambi­ence applied to the signal.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 55

Guitar FX button/section

Guitar Anti-Feedback page (7/7)

In live environments, the open body style of
acoustic guitars is especially prone to feedback
from nearby sound sources such as stage moni­tors or PA speakers. To assist you with feedback
management, there are some controls to ad­dress the most common feedback culprits.

Phase Invert parameter

Use the Phase Invert parameter to invert the
phase of the guitar signal by 180°.

This can help prevent feedback when playing
your acoustic guitar close to a stage monitor or
other speaker. When you experience feedback,
this should be the first setting to try.

Low Cut Filter parameter

Acoustic guitars can be prone to resonance, es­pecially in the low frequency range. If you are
having trouble with “rumbling” or low frequency
feedback, use the Low Cut Filter parameter to
roll off low end frequency from your guitar signal.

Notch Filter section

This very narrow band equalizer can help “hone
in” on feedback-causing frequencies and reduce
their gain.

Notch Gain parameter

Use the Gain parameter to set the gain for the
note/frequency range you have selected with the
Freq parameter. Use negative values (e.g. -8) to
reduce troublesome frequencies.

If you are unsure which frequency is causing the
feedback, it can be useful to use positive values
(8 for example) to boost the feedback you are
hearing. This allows you to highlight problematic
frequency ranges more easily. Then, you can re­duce the Gain setting for this frequency range
using a negative value.

Notch Freq parameter

Use the Freq parameter to set the frequency of
the notch filter. For this parameter, we show both
the frequency in Hz and the relative note (A# for
example). The frequency parameter can be ad­justed in 25Cent increments from note to note.

Simple steps for feedback reduction

►

Set the Phase Invert parameter to “On”. If this
doesn’t eliminate the feedback, try the follow­ing steps.

►

Change the Gain parameter to a high positive
setting such as 8 or more.

►

Use the Freq parameter to “sweep” through
frequencies until the feedback gets “a lot
worse” as you move past it with the Freq con­trol.

►

Once you have found the troublesome fre­quency, change the Gain parameter to a nega­tive setting until the feedback disappears.

►

Lastly, if you still get feedback, turn your guitar
level down in the Mix section described next.

Often, you can determine the note that’s feed­ing back by simply playing a chord and “feeling”
which string vibrates unusually under your finger.
After you have selected that particular string/
note using the Freq parameter, you can use the
Gain parameter to reduce feedback for that note.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 56

Mix button/section

Mix button/section

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 57

Mix button/section

Press the MIX button to enter the Mix menu,
where various audio signal levels within your Play
Acoustic can be adjusted.

Mix page (1/2)

Harmony parameter

Use the Harmony parameter to control the over­all level of all voice-generating effect blocks like
Harmony and Double.

Guitar Level parameter

Use the Guitar Level parameter to adjust the out­put level of the guitar signal. This control is also
dependent on the Guitar input level, set in the
Setup menu. Make sure to set your input level
according to the instructions and use the Guitar
Level parameter to set your “overall guitar output
volume”.

Out Level parameter

Use the Out Level parameter to control the over­all output level of your Play Acoustic.

Headphone Level parameter

Use the Headphone Level parameter to adjust
the volume of the headphone output.

RoomSense parameter

Use the RoomSense parameter to control the
amount of ambient RoomSense sent to the
headphone mix. This parameter does NOT en­able RoomSense to be sent to the main mix, as
this would cause feedback.

Aux Level parameter

The Aux Level parameter will only be shown if a
signal source is connected to the Aux connector.

Use the Aux Level parameter to adjust the level
of the signal received at the Aux input.

If you prefer to only hear the Aux input over your
headphones, go to the Setup/Output menu and
change “Aux to Main Out” to OFF.

Delay/Reverb level parameter

Use the Delay/Reverb level parameter to change
the level of Delay/Reverb effects across all pre­sets.

This control is useful if you find yourself in a
performance environment that has a lot (or very
little) natural reverb and you’d like to “tune” your
sound to that room without having to manually
adjust all presets.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 58

If you would like the Aux input to “listen” for
chord information but not be heard at via the
Main Out or Headphone outputs, set the Aux
Level parameter to OFF.

Mix button/section

Mix page (2/2)

USB In Level parameter

Use the USB In Level parameter to adjust the
level of the incoming USB audio signal (such as
backing tracks).

This control has no effect if Input is set to USB
and you are post-processing the received signal
via a DAW. The track controls within the DAW it­self will determine the output level (and therefore
the Play Acoustic USB input level).

USB Out Level parameter

Use the USB Out Level parameter to control the
level of the audio signal sent over USB.

If the device you are connected to is clipping at
its input, try turning this parameter down.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 59

The Looper

The Looper

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 60

The Looper

What is looping?

At its core, looping is the simple process of tak­ing a small audio recording and playing it over
and over seamlessly. When coupled with cre­ativity and musical ability, the results can be as­tonishing.

Basic looping concepts

Most loopers – including the one in Play Acoustic
– are built around a few basic controls: Record,
Play and Overdub. You should be familiar with
Record and Play. Overdubbing is the process of
recording another “take” to a recording without
deleting the first take.

Using the Play Acoustic looper

Activating Loop mode

To enter Loop mode, press and hold the DOWN
and UP footswitches simultaneously.

The Loop mode screen

In Loop mode, the DOWN footswitch controls
the following functions:

►

PL AY

►

REC (Record)

►

Overdub

►

Undo (removes the most recently recorded
Overdub, if there is one)

In Loop mode, the UP footswitch controls the
following functions:

►

STOP

►

ERA (HOLD to erase)

Exiting Loop mode

To exit Loop mode, tap the HIT footswitch. You
may exit Loop mode while a loop is still playing.
That means you can choose a new vocal sound
– and then re-enter Loop mode to add a new
overdub to the loop.

Recording your first loop

►

Press the footswitch assigned to REC/PLAY/
ODUB to start a recording.

►

Press the footswitch again to finish recording
and immediately begin playback.

►

Alternatively, you can press the footswitch as­signed to STOP/ERA(se) to finish recording
and not switch to playback.

►

Press the REC/PLAY/ODUB footswitch again
to record an overdub (another part) onto the
initial recording. You can overdub as many
times as you want to.

What gets recorded as
part of your loop?

Use the Loop Input parameter in the SETUP
Menu to define which parts of your performance
are captured by the looper. For example, you can
set the looper to only record guitar, not vocals, or
vice versa, or both.

Here is a good example of why you might want
to capture just the guitar while singing and play­ing your instrument.

You have an 8 bar chord progression that you
sing a verse over. After the second 8 bar “verse”
section, you want to play a guitar solo. Wouldn’t
it be cool if the rhythm guitar part kept playing
as you perform the solo? With a looper, you can
do just that!

1. Set the looper to record “Guitar”.

2. Play the verse as you normally would.

3. When you get to the second round of the
chord progression, keep singing and playing,
but press REC on the Looper.

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 61

The Looper

4. At the end of the chord progression, press
REC again. Play Acoustic will immediately be­gin to play back the guitar chord progression
you just recorded.

5. Begin playing your guitar solo over the record­ed chord progression.

6. When the solo section ends, simply stop the
loop by pressing the Stop/Era(se) footswitch
and play/sing again.

This is a very basic example of how a loop can
be seamlessly incorporated into your perfor­mance. A subtle loop coming “out of nowhere”
can be a great experience for your audience.

Stopping loop playback

Press the Stop/Era(se) footswitch to stop loop
playback.

Erasing the loop

Press and hold the Stop/Era(se) footswitch to
erase the loop completely.

and do it again. You can also use Undo and
Redo creatively for a part/track that you would
like to come and go: Record a basic chord pro­gression for a song, add a catchy melody as an
overdub, undo that overdub so you can sing the
verse and use Redo to bring the melody back for
the chorus.

Looping tips

When it comes to looping, practice is the key!

You might notice that your loops have a small
gap between the end of the phrase and when
the loop restarts. This happens when you mis­time pressing the PLAY/REC/ODUB button(s).
Pay careful attention to coordinating your button
press with the down beat, so that the loop begin­ning and end align seamlessly.

Experiment with exiting Loop mode and picking
a different vocal sound for the next ODUB layer.
You can get some great results by simply varying
the sounds that are part of the loop.

When adding an ODUB layer, you can record
multiple passes (ODUB parts) without starting
and stopping the Looper. This allows you to add
numerous parts, which can all be removed with
a single undo action (they can also be brought
back by repeating the undo action).

Loop Undo / Redo

To undo a loop overdub, press and hold the
DOWN footswitch.

To restore the overdub (Redo), press and hold
the DOWN footswitch again. Restoring a loop
overdub this way is only possible if you have not
recorded another overdub after using Undo.

You can use Undo when you have made a mis­take – just remove the overdub that went wrong

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 62

The Looper

Using a Switch-3 for looping

Connecting a Switch-3 (optional) to your Play
Acoustic will give you permanent access to loop­ing without having to use the DOWN and UP
footswitches. It frees up those footswitches, so
you can assign them to key/scale selection. This
will also allow you to change presets without
having to go in and out of Loop mode.

The Switch-3 buttons are mapped as follows:

►

Rec/Play/Odub

►

Stop/Erase (Hold for Erase)

►

Undo

The benefit of having the Undo feature assigned
to a separate footswitch is the ability to perfectly
time your undo instead of waiting a moment for
a “hold” to be registered.

Play Acoustic footswitch assignments
when using a Switch-3

When a Switch-3 is plugged in and Switch-3
mode is set to Looping, key/scale selection is
automatically assigned to the DOWN and UP
footswitches of your Play Acoustic.

When the Switch-3 is unplugged, the DOWNand
UP footswitches revert to whatever the UP/DN
setting was prior to connecting the Switch-3.

For more info on Switch-3, check out:
tc-helicon.com/products/switch-3/

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 63

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 64

Troubleshooting

Sometimes, things just aren’t working the way
you expect them to. Here are a few things to
keep an eye on.

General troubleshooting

“I’m singing, but I can’t
hear anything!”

►

Make sure you have turned up the input gain,
so that the input LED is lighting green.

►

Have you plugged in your headphones or con­nected to a PA?

►

Is the PA turned on, connected to its speakers
and receiving signal?

If not, check your PA manual to make sure ev-

erything is set up correctly.

►

Are you using a condenser mic?

►

Did you make sure to change the microphone
type to condenser in the setup menu?

will work better for NaturalPlay than others,
based on the mix and instrumentation of the
recording.

►

If you are using Guitar to control harmony,
make sure you have got the Key set to AUTO
on the harmony effect page.

“None of the effects seem to be
making any changes to the sound!”

►

Is the unit in Talk/Tuner mode?

►

If the HIT LED is flashing, tap it once to return
to normal operation.

“How do I restore all of
the factory presets?”

►

When powering up the unit, press and hold
the two “arrow” buttons next to the Control
Knob. Any changes you have made to pre-

sets will be erased!

►

Back up your custom presets via VoiceSup­port.

“VoiceSupport is a bit confusing –
where can I learn more about it?”

►

Go to
tc-helicon.com/products/
voicesupport/support/

“I have turned on the harmony
effects, but they don’t sound right.”

►

Did you select a key/scale?

►

Is it the right key for the song?

►

If you are using RoomSense to listen for Key
information, make sure it’s close to whichever
instrument is playing the most clearly defined
chords (Rhythm Guitar, Piano etc.).

►

If you are using an MP3 player to sing along
with tracks, set the AUX IN TYPE parameter
in the Setup Menu to TRACKS. Some tracks

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 65

“How do I perform a full
factory reset?”

►

When powering up the unit, press and hold
“Back” and “store”.

►

Any changes you have made to presets or set­up information will be erased.

►

Back up your custom presets and setup data
via VoiceSupport.

Appendix

Appendix

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 66

Appendix

TC-Helicon scales reference chart Harmony notes in the Key of C

Scale Sung Note C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab A Bb B

Chosen voicing/interval
Maj 1 3rd (High/Lower) E nc F nc G A nc B nc C D D
Maj 1 5th (Higher/Low) G nc A nc B C nc D nc E F F
Maj 2 3rd (High/Lower) E nc F nc G A nc C nc C D D
Maj 2 5th (Higher/Low) G nc A nc C C nc E nc E F F
Maj 3 3rd (High/Lower) E nc F nc G A nc Bb nc C D D
Maj 3 5th (Higher/Low) G nc A nc Bb C nc D nc E F F
Min 1 3rd (High/Lower) Eb nc F G nc Ab nc Bb C nc D nc
Min 1 5th (Higher/Low) G nc Bb Bb nc C nc D Eb nc F nc
Min 2 3rd (High/Lower) Eb nc F G nc A nc Bb C nc D nc
Min 2 5th (Higher/Low) G nc A Bb nc C nc D Eb nc F nc
Min 3 3rd (High/Lower) Eb nc F G nc Ab nc B C nc D nc
Min 3 5th (Higher/Low) G nc A Bb nc C nc D Eb nc F nc

Highlighted cells show differences between scales.

“nc” = no change

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 67

Links

Links

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 68

Links

Support resources

There is a large FAQ Knowledge base and fo­rum for you to use. Please make sure to search
for your particular issue there before submitting
a support ticket. It’s likely that someone has al­ready addressed the question and posted an
answer.

►

TC-Helicon Support:

tc-helicon.com/support/

►

TC-Helicon user forum:

support.tc-helicon.com/categories/
20073491-User-Forum/

►

TC-Helicon Play Series forum:

support.tc-helicon.com/forums/
21577876-Play-Series/

►

TC-Helicon warranty information:

tc-helicon.com/support/warranty/

TC-Helicon on…

►

the web:
tc-helicon.com/

►

Facebook:

facebook.com/tchelicon

►

Twitter:

twitter.com/tchelicon

►

YouTube:

youtube.com/tchelicon

TC-Helicon newsletter

For more information about your TC-Helicon
products, latest news and updates, tips and
tricks, subscribe to our newsletter:

►

tc-helicon.com/subscribe

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 69

Technical specifications

Technical specifications

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 70

Technical specifications

Features

Vocal Effects µMod, Delay, Reverb, Harmony, Double, Transducer, Tone, HardTune & Correction

Guitar Effects Reverb (including TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb), µMod (including TC Electronic Corona Chorus),

BodyRez EQ, Compression, Ambience, Anti-feedback (manual control)

VLOOP™
Control Preset Up/Down and HIT footswitches

Graphic LCD display
Bump-protected Mic Level knob
Dual-color backlit buttons
Dedicated Effect Block On/Off buttons

Design

Size and weight

Height 1.8inches (45mm)
Width 7.9inches (200mm)
Depth 6.1inches (156mm)
Weight 2.1lb. (0.95kg)
Construction Dual die-cast clamshell design

Acrylic lens
Punch-cut metal connection panel
Rubberized footings
Backlit graphic LCD display

Connections

Analog Inputs

Connectors, balanced Microphone input: XLR

Aux input: 1/8“ stereo mini jack
Connectors, unbalanced Guitar input: ¼“
Impedance Balanced/Unbalanced: Mic.: 2.14/1.07kOhm
Mic Input Level @ 0dBFS -42dBu to +13dBu
EIN @ Max Mic Gain Rg = 150Ohm -127d B u
Mic SNR > 104dB
Phantom Power +48V (on/off via Setup menu)
Aux Input Level @ 0dBu +2dBu

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 71

Technical specifications

A to D Conversion 24bit, 128 x oversampling bitstream, 110dB SNR A-weighted

Analog Outputs

D to A Conversion 24bit, 128 x oversampling bitstream, 115dB SNR A-weighted
Connectors, balanced XLR

Output Impedance Balanced/ Unbalanced 300/150Ohm
XLR Output 0dBFS +2dBu
Dynamic Range > 109dB, 20Hz to 20kHz
Frequency Response +0.30/-0dB, 20Hz to 20kHz
Headphone Out 1/8” Mini stereo jack

Control

USB USB-B (Firmware Updates, Preset Management, audio I/O)
Pedal ¼”TRS phone jack

Details

Power

External Power Supply Mains Voltage Input 100to 240VAC, 50 to 60Hz (auto-select)

12V DC 0.4A max output
Power Consumption < 14W

Safety

EMC – Complies with EN55103-1 and EN 55103-2, FCC part 15, ClassB, CISPR 22, ClassB
Safety – certified to IEC65, EN60065,UL6500 and CSA IEC 65, EN60065, UL6500 and CSA

Operating Requirements

Operating Temperature 32°F to 122°F (0°C to 50°C)
Storage Temperature -22°F to 167°F (-30°C to 70°C)
Humidity Max. 90 % non-condensing

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 72

Technical specifications

Play Acoustic – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 73