English Manual
VoiceLive 3
Important safety instructions 1
Caution 2
Service 2
Warning 2
EMC / EMI 3
Explanation of graphic symbols 3
Before you begin 4
About this manual 5
Getting support 5
VoiceSupport 5
Please register your VoiceLive3 5
Introduction 6
Design concepts 7
Top panel overview 12
Footswitches overview 14
Back panel inputs and outputs 19
Diagram legend 21
Diagrams 22
VoiceLive3 overview 23
Getting started – setting up 24
Quick troubleshooting tips 29
Getting to know VoiceLive3 30
Tips and tricks for working with
layers and effects 48
Editing the Vocal layer 52
Harmony block / t ab 53
Double block / tab 55
Vocal Delay block / tab 56
Vocal Reverb block / tab 57
HardTune block / t ab 58
Synth block / tab 59
Transducer block / tab 60
Vocal µMod block / tab 61
Choir block / tab 62
Vocal Rhythmic block / tab 63
Stutter block / tab 64
Vocal Buttonmap block / tab 65
Editing the Guitar layer 67
Amp block / ta b 68
Drive block / tab 69
Guitar Delay block / tab 70
Guitar Reverb block / tab 71
Comp(ression) block / tab 72
Wah (Wah-Wah) block / tab 73
µMod block / ta b 74
Octaver block / tab 75
Guitar Rhythmic block / tab 76
Guitar Buttonmap block / tab 77
The Looper 78
Basic Loop concepts and terms 79
Entering and exiting Loop mode 80
Your first loop 80
The Utility menu 84
Loop limits 88
Setup 89
Input tab 90
Output tab 94
Guitar tab 96
MIDI tab 98
Tone tab 102
System tab 108
Buttonmap tab 111
Pedal Calibration tab 116
Product info tab 116
Appendix 117
MIDI CC List 118
System Maintenance/Factory Reset 119
Technical Specifications 120
Features 121
Design 121
Connections 122
Details 123
Included with VoiceLive 3 123
Product VoiceLive 3
Product (firmware) version 1.0 R70
Document Reference manual
Document version / date 2014-03-29
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) a
Important safety instructions
Important safety instructions
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 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 125V UL817 and CSA C22.2 no42.
220 to 230V CEE7 page VII, SR section 107-
2-D1 / IEC83 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, dis-
connect the power supply cord from the AC
receptacle.
– The mains plug of the power supply shall re-
main readily operable.
– Do not install this device in a confined space.
– For use at an altitude of 2000m or lower.
– Do not open the unit – risk of electric shock
inside.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 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 equip-
ment and receiver.
– Connect the equipment into an outlet on a cir-
cuit different from that to which the receiver is
connected.
– Consult the dealer or an experienced ra-
dio / TV technician for help.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 3
Before you begin
Before you begin
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 4
Before you begin
About this manual
This reference manual will help you learn understanding and operating your VoiceLive 3.
You can download the most current version of
this reference manual from
tc-helicon.com/products/voicelive-3/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 about the product after reading this reference manual, please get in
touch with TC-Helicon Support:
tc-helicon.com/support/
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 VoiceLive3
To register your VoiceLive3 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/
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 5
Introduction
Introduction
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 6
Introduction
Welcome to the VoiceLive3 reference manual!
First, thank you so much for taking the leap and
purchasing VoiceLive 3. We at TC-Helicon are
honored that you chose to spend your hardearned money on our vocal, guitar and loop
processing system – and we are confident that
VoiceLive3 will fundamentally change your performances.
As you discovered in the Quick Start Guide (the
short manual that came in the box), VoiceLive3
is easy to use at the top level but offers unprecedented depth in both control and editing. We
recommend you treat your VoiceLive 3 like any
other new instrument and dedicate some time to
learning how to use it.
Yes, that means RTFM!
Read the… full manual.
Design concepts
Layers & footswitch mapping
VoiceLive3 is built on the fundamental concept
of “layers”. From a design perspective, there are
thee layers to work with:
– Vocal
– Guitar
– Looping
You may switch between layers using the Layer
footswitch, which we will discuss in more detail
later in the manual.
You can even remap footswitches within a lay-
er or from one layer to another. This approach
solves one of the most common requests from
our massively popular VoiceLive 2 unit: “I love
it – but I want the ‘X’ footswitch to be where the
‘Y’ footswitch is”.
We also recognize that layers and remappable
footswitches can be a bit daunting to learn.
This is why we have designed the system to be
consistent and straightforward. Once you have
learned how to remap one footswitch, you know
how to remap them all.
Essentially, when you tap the Layer footswitch,
the effects associated with the six effect footswitches (labeled µMod, Delay, Reverb, HIT,
Double/Comp, Harmony/Drive) will change from
vocal effects to guitar effects or looping controls.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 7
Introduction
Global effects
Another common request from TC-Helicon users
has been for “global effects”. VoiceLive3 allows
you to define a specific Preset as the “Global”
Preset. This defines all of the effects and parameters within that Preset and allows them to be
easily applied to other Presets.
What does that mean for you? Easier, quicker Preset creation and access to consistent
sounds!
Here is an example:
“I want to use this great reverb on a whole bunch
of Presets. How do I do that?”
– First, edit the guitar reverb on your Global Pre-
set (by default, this is Preset no. 491). Editing
guitar settings is explained in greater detail in
“Editing the Guitar layer”.
– Then go to each Preset where you would like
to use the same Reverb, go to the Reverb
settings and change the Global parameter to
“On”.
Done! This Preset will now use the Reverb settings from the Global Preset.
Global effects are available for each and every
effect in the Vocal and Guitar layers. There are
endless possibilities for Global effects handling,
but here are a couple we think you might like:
Use the same guitar effects
across all Presets
This essentially turns VoiceLive 3’s Guitar layer
into a series of stomp-boxes that you only need
to set up once.
“How do I do that?”
– Simply edit ANY Preset until all of the guitar
effects and footswitch assignments are how
you like them.
– Enter the Setup menu and navigate to the Sys-
tem tab using the horizontal Arrow buttons.
– Dial the Control knob until the line saying “All
Guitar FX Global: Off” is highlighted.
– Turn Mix knob 3 or Mix knob 4 under the dis-
play until “Off” changes to “on”.
Done! Every Preset will now have the same
guitar sounds.
Make sure a particular effect
always sounds the same
Want a certain Delay available in every Preset?
No problem.
– Just edit the Global Preset’s Delay setting.
– Go to each Preset where you would like to use
the same Delay, go to the Delay settings and
change the Global parameter to “On”.
Always use the same guitar amp model,
but have everything else change
– Easy! Adjust the Global Preset’s Amp setting
the way you want it.
– Go to each Preset where you would like to use
the same Amp, go to the Amp settings and
change the Global parameter to “On”.
Updating Global settings
The Global system is “opt in”. This means each
Preset carries its own individual settings until
you change an effect to Global. Once that happens, the current Preset and Global Preset settings become shared.
Once you have changed an effect to Global
ON, any edits you make within that Preset affect the Global settings as well. This means
you don’t have to bounce back and forth between the Global and current Preset to make
changes to Global effects.
Set All Guitar FX Global to “On” to use the
same guitar effect in all Presets
It also means that you need to be aware of the
above, so you don’t accidentally edit a Global
setting, thinking you are only editing the current
Setting Global to on links an effect to the settings defined in the Global Preset
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 8
Preset. With great power comes great responsibility!
Introduction
Multi-track looper
Looper – main view
Having access to multiple, independent loops allows for a lot of flexibility and functionality when
looping. Our multi-track looper has some really
amazing performance features that will help you
to make great loops.
The Swap feature allows you to record two loops
and alternate between them with the push of a
footswitch. This is particularly useful for recording different “sections” of a song, (like a verse
and chorus) and quickly moving between them.
to play your guitar part over. Now, you can record unequal length phrases!
Record your 1 bar “beat box” on one loop Track,
then record your 8 bar guitar section on another.
There are a few different Sync modes in the
Looper – so be sure to read the “The Utility
menu” to familiarize yourself with the way they
affect your loops.
Store loops
Those of you who have jumped on board with
looping have likely made a really, really good
loop in the past – only to see it vanish into thin
air when you power off the device. VoiceLive3
allows you to store your creations right in
the box!
Loop Utility menu with Save function
Not only can you store your loops – you can
assign a stored loop to a Preset. This, in our
opinion, is a game changer.
Imagine recording a really cool ambient loop,
synced to the tempo of your song, while you are
at home – and then fire it off at your gig. If the
band is using a click track, everything will line up
perfectly with what you are playing, including all
of your time-based vocal and guitar effects!
Looper – Swap feature
Loop length no longer matters. In some loop-
ers, your longest loop track will dictate the length
of all others, which can be a big hassle. Imagine
a “beat box” style rhythm that is 1 bar long and a
guitar progression that is 8 bars long. In the past,
you would have to record 8 bars of the “beat
box” segment in order for there to be “enough”
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 9
This storage ability removes a lot of the repetitive
nature of building loops live in front of an audience. Sure, it’s neat the first time you see someone build a loop live, but then it gets a bit boring.
It often takes a while to get all of the “bits” of the
loop recorded. You can do that work in advance
and then add to things in real-time during performance.
Introduction
If you are using backing tracks, you can even record them into the looper and use VoiceLive3 as
your complete playback system!
Complete guitar effects
With VoiceLive Play GTX, we introduced our first
“complete” guitar effects suite. Previously, we
had provided Chorus, Reverb, EQ and Compression blocks. VoiceLive Play GTX added Amp/
Distortion and Delay to the options, greatly expanding the sound possibilities for guitar players.
VoiceLive 3 takes that ball and runs with it. In
fact, it pulls a Forrest Gump and runs straight out
of the stadium and across the country!
Guitar effects in VoiceLive 3
The guitar effects in VoiceLive 3 come from
some of TC Electronic’s most successful effects,
like Corona Chorus, Hall of Fame Reverb, Vor tex
Flanger and Flashback Delay!
Advanced monitoring
More and more people are jumping into the In
Ear Monitor (IEM) pool. It’s a great thing to do –
but it can often require a fairly complex setup.
VoiceLive 3 offers two features that make custom monitor mixing really easy for you.
Monitor IN
Using the Monitor IN XLR connection, you can
bring a “monitor or cue” mix into your VoiceLive3, blending it with your own vocal, guitar and
loop sounds. The incoming monitor IN does not
get passed back out of the unit – so you can rest
assured that it won’t cause feedback.
Headphone Mix
VoiceLive3’s headphone mix is independent of
the output mix – allowing you to hear “what you
want” in your headphones or IEMs, without affecting what comes from the main outputs.
When you couple those beautiful effects with
great amp modeling, Drive/Boost, Compression,
Rhythm/Tremolo, Wah-wah and Octave Down,
you can truly manipulate your guitar and vocal
sounds as a cohesive unit.
Imagine your time-based vocal and guitar effects
being perfectly in sync, without having to set up
complex timing systems or tapping tempo on
multiple devices. Everything just lines up!
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 10
Headphone Mix
Introduction
This monitoring capability can literally eliminate
the need for expensive belt packs, transmitters,
secondary mixers and other gear required for a
custom IEM solution. Using our included Guitar/
Headphone cable, you only use one cable to
connect your guitar and headphones/IEM’s to
the unit!
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 11
Introduction
9
10
Top panel overview
1 2 3
4
5
Below is a brief description of the top panel controls and buttons. Full functionality for each will
be described in more detail later.
6 7 8
12
11
1. Genre button
Use the Genre button to sort
Presets based on their musical genre or featured effects.
For example, you may want to
restrict the Presets “visible” to
you in VoiceLive3 to those that are defined as
“Rock” or “Country” in nature.
2. Setup button
Use the setup button to access
to all system setup settings,
including Input, Output, MIDI,
Tone, Guitar and more.
Push and hold the Setup button to enter the
automated microphone and guitar gain setting
mode.
3. Store button
Use the Store button to store
Presets. Tap once to activate
the store procedure. Tap again
to confirm.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 12
Introduction
4. Home button
Use the Home button to return
to the “top level” interface. The
screen will show Preset Number and any effects associated
with the current layer.
5. Control knob
Use the Control knob to move
through Presets and scrolls up/
down when in an edit screen.
When in the “Home” screen,
press to add or remove the
current Preset from the Favorite genre.
6. Vocal button
Use the Vocal button to enter
the Vocal edit screens. This is
where you can make changes
to the vocal effects for the current Preset. For more information, see “Editing the Vocal layer”.
8. Looper button
Use the Looper button to enter
the Loop options screen. Here
you can control several general
Loop options.
9. Mix knobs
From the Home screen, turning any mix knob enters the
Mix screens (Main, Headphones and Effects).
Within an Edit page, the mix knobs adjust values
and settings.
10. Arrow buttons
When you are on the Home
screen, you can use the Arrow buttons to move through
Presets.
When you are on an Edit screen, use the Arrow
buttons to move between pages.
12. Level LEDs
The Level LEDs show input level for the Mic input. The red
LED also lights if any other input – for example your guitar –
clips (too much signal).
7. Guitar button
Use the Guitar button to enter Guitar edit screens. This is
where you can make changes
to any of the guitar effects for
the current Preset. For more information, see “Editing the Guitar layer”.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 13
11. NP LED
The NP LED lights when NaturalPlay (chord) information is
received via Guitar, MIDI, Aux
or RoomSense.
Introduction
Footswitches overview
1
2
3
4 5 6
7 8 9
Below is a description of the footswitches on
VoiceLive3. Some switches will be discussed in
more detail later in the manual.
1. Preset up / Preset down footswitches
– Ta p the Preset Up/Preset Down
footswitches to move through
Presets.
– Hold the Preset Up/Preset
Down footswitches to quickly
scroll through Presets.
– Tap both footswitches simul-
taneously to enter Talk/Tuner
mode.
Talk/Tuner mode mutes guitar
output, activates the guitar tuner and bypasses all vocal effects so you can speak to your
audience.
You can still tap the Preset Up and
Down Preset buttons while in Talk/Tuner mode
to change presets. This is great for changing
presets while addressing the audience to queue
sounds for your next song.
To exit Talk/Tuner, press any button other than
Preset Up or Preset Down.
For more information, see “Talk/Tuner Mode”.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 14
Introduction
2. Layer footswitch
– Tap the Layer footswitch to
swap between the Vocal and
Guitar effects layers.
– Vocal layer active: Layer
footswitch LED lights blue.
– Guitar layer active: Layer
footswitch LED lights red.
– Hold the Layer footswitch to
access the Loop layer.
– Loop layer active: Layer
footswitch LED lights purple.
– To return from the Loop lay-
er to previously active layer
(Vocal or Guitar), hold.
Here are a couple of examples showing how the
effects footswitches might look when each layer
is active:
Vocal Layer with Reverb, Double and Harmony
activated.
Guitar Layer with µMod (let’s say it’s Flanger for
this example), Delay and Drive activated. If you
were previously on the Vocal Layer, you would
tap the Layer footswitch to move to the Guitar
Layer, changing the footswitch LED color from
blue to red.
Vocal Layer with some guitar effects remapped
to vocal effect footswitches. You may find that
you would like to “hang out” on a particular layer
(Vocal or Guitar) and have access to a key effect
or effects from another layer. Remapping footswitches allows you do to just that. This is best
referred to as a “mixed layer”. This is a more advanced operational mode that we will cover later.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 15
Introduction
3. Step footswitch
– To move to the next Step within
the current Preset (from 1 to 2
etc.), tap the Step footswitch.
! Not all Presets have Steps.
– To move to the previous Step in the current
Preset (e.g. from 2 to 1), tap the Preset Down
footswitch.
– To enter the Step management screen, hold
the Step footswitch.
Step management
Step management
You can use the current Preset or a different Preset as a Step.
If you are using the current Preset, make sure
that it sounds the way you want it to before you
enter Step management.
If it is a different Preset, enter Step management
and then use the Preset Up and Preset Down
footswitches to locate the Preset you would like
to add as a Step.
Adding a different Preset as a Step
– To accept changes, tap Step.
– To delete the current step, tap the Layer foot-
switch.
– To cancel, press Home.
The Step footswitch can be Globally reassigned
to several different functions – such as Tap Tempo, HIT, Set Key, any Vocal or Guitar effect and
more. We have found that remapping Step to
enter/leave the Looper can be incredibly useful
in performance, when you need quick access in
and out.
For more information about Steps, see “Using
Steps”.
4. µMod footswitch
Tap the µMod footswitch to turn the
micro-modulation (µMod) effect on
or off.
The µMod block encompasses effects such as
Chorus, Flange, Detune and Rotor.
Adding a Step to a Preset
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 16
Introduction
5. Delay footswitch
Tap the Delay footswitch to turn the
Delay effect (also known as echo) on
or off.
The Delay block encompasses effects such as ¼
Note, Multi-Tap and Ping Pong.
Tempo tapping
– To access tempo tapping, hold the Delay foot-
switch.
– Tap the footswitch in time with your song.
A few taps are enough.
– When you are happy with the tempo, stop tap-
ping.
6. Reverb footswitch
Tap the Reverb footswitch to turn
the Reverb effect on or off.
The Reverb block encompasses effects such as Hall, Club, Room and
Plate.
7. HIT footswitch
Tap the HIT footswitch to activate or
deactivate HIT. HIT can control:
– Vocal HIT (blue)
– Guitar HIT (red)
– All HIT (purple)
HIT is covered in greater detail in “Using the HIT
footswitch”.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 17
Introduction
8. Double/Comp footswitch
On the Vocal layer, tap the Double/
Comp footswitch to turn the Double
effect on or off.
Double encompasses effects such as 1 Voice
Tight, 2 Voices Wide and 4 Voices Wide.
On the Guitar layer, tap the Double/Comp footswitch to turn the Compressor on or off.
9. Harmony/Drive footswitch
On the Vocal layer, tap the Harmony/Drive footswitch to turn
the Harmony effect on or off.
Harmony encompasses effects such as High
(3rd up), Low (4th below) and Low & Lower (4th
below and 6th below).
On the Guitar layer, tap the Harmony/Drive footswitch to turn the Drive effect on or off.
Drive encompasses effects such as Boost, Boost
& Drive and Drive.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 18
Introduction
Back panel inputs and outputs
VoiceLive 3 offers extremely robust input and
output routing. Using the Monitor IN/THRU and
dedicated Guitar outputs effectively, you can
greatly reduce the amount of gear you need to
take to a performance.
Inputs
4
1. DC Power connector
2. XLR & ¼” Combo jack
3. ¼” Guitar input
4. 1/8” Stereo Aux input jack.
Please note that Aux input and Monitor input
are mutually exclusive. Only one may be used
at a time.
5. MIDI In
6. Footswitch (for Switch-3) In.
You can also connect a second expression
pedal here – see “Working with a second expression pedal”.
7. Expression (pedal) In
SWITCH-3
2 3 6 57 1
VoiceLive 3 inputs overview
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 19
Introduction
7
Outputs
VoiceLive 3 outputs overview
1. Guitar THRU: If you only need chord detection and want to pass your dry guitar signal
onto a different processor or record a dry guitar track, use the THRU jack to pass your guitar signal to your amp.
2. Monitor THRU: The Monitor THRU jack allows you to receive an incoming Monitor IN
signal from a mixer and pass it on to another
monitor.
3. Headphone out: Connect headphones or
IEMs to the Headphone out and use the Headphone Mix to set up your personal mix.
4. Main Outputs: The Main Outputs carry Vocals & Effects. If nothing is connected to the
Guitar outputs, Main outputs also carry Guitar
signals.
5. Guitar Outputs: The Guitar outputs carry the
Guitar signal. If only one output is connected,
guitar output is automatically in MONO. When
you connect the Guitar Out(s) to your amp(s),
guitar sounds will be removed from the Main
outputs.
6. MIDI Out: The MIDI Out jack sends MIDI Control Change messages (MIDI CCs) related to
footswitches and buttons pressed on VoiceLive3. If no CC is sent, there is likely no CC
assigned to that particular action.
Currently, Vocal & Guitar effects ON/OFF and
their respective levels are represented by MIDI
Control Change messages.
If you experience hum from your guitar amp or
PA, try pressing the GRND LIFT switch, located between the Headphone out and the Left
XLR output.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 20
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
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
Diagram legend
The following icons are used in the diagrams in
this manual.
Microphone
Acoustic Guitar
Electric Guitar
Keyboard or other instrument
Mixing Board
P.A.
Guitar/Keyboard amp
XLR cables
1/8” cable (guitar cable)
Monitor Mix
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 21
TRS and TS cables
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 VoiceLive3 will be to the left of the
back panel image.
2. Outputs from VoiceLive3 will be to the right of
the back panel image.
3. There are two boxes on the bottom of each
diagram.
– The VoiceLive3 box shows “what you hear”
from your VoiceLive3 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 VoiceLive3 headphone output
and P.A. – but it can also be different.
3
5 5
4
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 22
VoiceLive3 overview
VoiceLive3 overview
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 23
VoiceLive3 overview
Getting started – setting up
Instead of jumping directly into a whole bunch of
descriptions of parameters and fine tuning controls, now is a good time to back up a bit and approach VoiceLive3 from a “Let’s use this thing!”
perspective.
First, if you haven’t read through the VoiceLive3
Quick Start Guide that came in the box, we suggest you do so now.
The minimum gear you will need from here is:
– Your VoiceLive3
– A microphone – either
– Dynamic (MP-75, SM58, OM5 etc.)
– Condenser (Beta 87A, enCore 300 etc.)
– An XLR cable (microphone cable) to connect
your microphone to VoiceLive3
– A guitar or MIDI keyboard, if applicable
– Headphones
– The Guitar/Headphone cable that came with
your VoiceLive3.
If you would prefer to use VoiceLive 3 via your
PA, you will need one or two additional XLR
cables to connect VoiceLive3’s XLR outputs to
inputs at your mixer. A lot of PAs are mono and
only require one XLR connection. If you have a
stereo PA, you will want to connect both VoiceLive3 XLR outputs to your mixer.
Connecting VoiceLive3 to your mixer/PA
– Determine whether your mixer/PA is stereo or
mono.
– Connect the appropriate number of cables
from VoiceLive3’s XLR outputs to the mixer/
PA inputs (1 for mono, 2 for stereo).
! If your P.A. is Stereo, you will need to pan one
channel left and the other one right in order to
receive the benefits of VoiceLive3’s stereo effects.
– Watch the Craig’s Corner episode about con-
necting to a mixer:
youtube.com/watch?v=qq0AOtafIjs
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 24
VoiceLive3 overview
Stereo PA connection for vocals (and guitar if applicable)
This diagram shows a “Stereo” output mode.
Stereo sends a Left and Right signal via the XLR
outputs to your PA or mixer.
This allows you to enjoy the full benefits of stereo
audio effects.
Setting Output Mode to Stereo
Changing VoiceLive3 from Mono
(default) to Stereo output:
– Press Setup.
– Use the < or > Arrow buttons to move to the
Output page.
– Use the Control Knob to move the selection
bar until Output Mode is highlighted (white).
– Turn the Mix Knob directly below the Out-
put Mode box on the screen until the mode
changes to Stereo.
– Press Home to exit.
– When choosing Stereo, ensure the PA is ac-
tually outputting a stereo signal. It’s common
for a PA to have 2 speakers but still be mono.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 25
VoiceLive3 overview
Dual Mono PA connection for vocals (& guitar if applicable)
This diagram shows a “Dual Mono” output
mode. Dual Mono sends two mono signals from
the XLR outputs on VoiceLive3. One XLR carries
the vocal sounds and the other XLR carries the
guitar sounds.
This allows you to balance the vocal and guitar
levels via your mixer. Dual Mono can be especially effective at a venue with a sound tech. The
guitar and vocal signals are separated and can
be controlled independently, making the tech’s
mixing job easier.
Setting Output Mode to Dual Mono
Changing VoiceLive3 from Mono
(default) to Dual Mono output
– Press Setup.
– Use the < or > Arrow buttons to move to the
Output page.
– Use the Control Knob to move the selection
bar until Output Mode is highlighted (white).
– Turn the Mix Knob directly below the Out-
put Mode box on the screen until the mode
changes to Dual Mono.
– Press Home to exit.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 26
VoiceLive3 overview
Stereo vocals and a guitar amplifier
You may want to make a quick adjustment to the
guitar output if you are connected to an amp.
It might be desirable to turn off VoiceLive 3’s
speaker simulations while preserving all of the
other guitar effects. This will allow the “character” of your amp to stay the same from Preset to
Preset.
Follow the Stereo PA connection instructions to
change your output mode to Stereo.
Turning speaker simulation off
– Press Setup.
– Use the < or > Arrow buttons to move to the
Guitar tab.
– Use the Control Knob to move the selection
bar until Speaker Sim Enable is highlighted.
– Turn the Mix Knob directly below the dis-
play until the setting for Speaker Sim Enable
changes from On to Off.
– Press Home to exit.
Turning speaker simulation off
This setup is great if you have got a guitar amp
and want to send VoiceLive3’s guitar sounds to
that amp instead of to the PA.
For Mono vocals via the PA and guitar sounds
via a guitar amplifier, follow the diagram above,
but connect only the Left XLR output from VoiceLive 3 to your PA and set the output mode to
Mono.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 27
VoiceLive3 overview
The kitchen sink – everything hooked up
Stage
Monitor
Aux
Send
SWITCH-3
PA
Speakers
Computer
or
DAW
It’s unlikely that you will have absolutely everything seen here hooked up to VoiceLive3 – but
the above diagram can serve as a general connection diagram that you can use to configure
your personal setup.
The setup shows:
1. Microphone
2. Guitar
3. Music Player
4. Incoming Monitor (or cue) mix from the
Front Of House mixer
5. Monitor THRU to another monitor
6. Headphone out (possibly using the head-
phone/guitar cable and In Ear Monitor’s)
7. XLR Outputs carry stereo vocals to the P.A.
8. Guitar Outputs carry stereo guitar sounds
to amps
9. Switch 3 and Expression pedal for extra
controls
10. MIDI IN for NaturalPlay chord information
from a keyboard (NaturalPlay will “listen” to
Guitar/Keyboard over the AUX input and will
automatically switch between Guitar/Keyboard if they are both plugged in)
11. MIDI OUT to control a DAW, perhaps with
backing tracks and/or show control software
Loop and Metronome sounds generated by
VoiceLive3 are not shown, but any Vocal Loops
will be sent out via the XLR outputs and Guitar
loops will be sent out via the Guitar outputs.
The Metronome can be heard in the XLR Main
Mix and headphone mix or just the headphone
mix, depending on your mix settings.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 28
VoiceLive3 overview
Quick troubleshooting tips
After following the VoiceLive3 Quick Start Guide
and referring to the diagrams in “Getting started
– setting up”, you should hear your voice and
instrument(s) via your VoiceLive3.
Here are a few troubleshooting ideas if you are
not hearing sound.
“I’m not hearing my voice!”
Do the Level LEDs near the Control Knob light up
when you sing?
No?
– Try a different cable.
– Try a different microphone.
– Did you go through the Auto-Gain procedure
described in the Quick Start Guide?
– Press and hold the Setup button.
– Follow the on-screen instructions.
– Are you using a condenser microphone?
– Press Setup.
– Navigate to the Input tab.
– Change the Input Type parameter to “Con-
denser”.
Yes?
– Is your PA receiving signal?
– Check your PA manual for details on how to
check input levels.
– Turn up channel input trims until you see
signal.
– (If you have a separate mixer/amplifier) Is the
PA turned on?
– Are the speakers connected?
“I’m not hearing my guitar.”
– Check that your guitar is turned all the way up.
– Are you connected to an amp?
– Is it turned on?
– If you are in Dual Mono mode, make sure both
of the channels on your PA/mixer are turned
up and unmuted according to your PA/mixer
manual.
– Are you in Tuner mode?
Accidentally pressing the Preset up/Preset
down footswitches simultaneously will enter
Tuner mode, muting guitar output.
If you see a guitar tuner on the screen and the
Preset up/Preset down LED’s are lit solid red,
you are in Tuner mode. Press Preset Up or
Preset Down to exit.
OK – back to performing!
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 29
VoiceLive3 overview
Getting to know VoiceLive3
While some product manuals take a path through
all of the functions and features, we are going to
lead you on a tour of VoiceLive3 from a practical use standpoint. If you follow along on your
VoiceLive 3 while reading the following pages,
you will get a good grasp of most of the key features in the box.
It may seem as though we jump around through
various menus and operations – but trust us that
this is a good way to get to know the unit while
making practical changes in the process. Stick
with us!
There’s no place like Home
Using all the features described on the following pages, you might find yourself deep in some
sub-menu or parameter list. Don’t panic! Just
press the Home button, and you will return to
VoiceLive3’s “Home” screen. The Home screen
shows…
– The number of the current Preset.
– The name of the current Preset.
– The effect blocks currently assigned to the
six footswitches labeled µMod, Delay, Reverb,
Hit, Double / Comp and Harmony / Drive on the
currently active layer (Guitar or Vocal).
Using the Control knob
– While on the Home screen, the Control Knob
moves through Presets.
– Turning the knob clockwise (right) will move
up through Presets.
– Turning the knob counterclockwise (right)
will move down through Presets.
– Pressing the control knob while on the Home
screen will set the current Preset as a Favor-
ite. For more information, see “Using Preset
Genres and Favorites”.
– On an Edit or System screen, the Control
Knob acts as a vertical scroll control. Use it to
navigate up or down through parameters and
settings.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 30
VoiceLive3 overview
Using the Arrow buttons
Use the two small Arrow buttons located beneath the Control knob to move through Presets
and edit pages.
– While on the Home screen, use the Arrow but-
tons to move through Presets.
– To select the next Preset, press the right Ar-
row button.
– To select the previous Preset, press the left
Arrow button.
– On an Edit or System screen, the Arrow but-
tons allow you to move left and right through
the “tabs” in that menu.
For example, the Vocal edit screen has a sep-
arate tab or “page” for each vocal effect. The
Arrow buttons move from left to right through
these tabs.
What is a Preset?
VoiceLive3 and many other TC-Helicon devices
are based on 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.
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,
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 and turn effects on and off
manually during your performance. 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. Or you may
be somewhere in between. Any amount of editing or Preset manipulation is fine! You can get as
“programmer” or “seat of the pants” as you like.
Using Steps
A Step is, at its core, a Preset within a Preset.
Here’s how it works…
Let’s use a typical song pop song structure as
an example.
– Verse
– Chorus
– Verse
– Chorus
– Bridge
– Chorus
Now, let’s assume that you want a completely different sound for your Verse, Chorus and
Bridge sections. The HIT function is great if you
need two variations within a song – but here,
you’ll obviously need more.
Now the easiest way to accomplish this is to
make a separate Preset for each song section.
This means that on stage, you now have to remember where those presets are and move between them for each part of the song. It’s totally
doable – but a bit more work that necessary.
Enter the STEP.
If you treat the Verse Preset as your starting
point (perhaps name it simply with your song
name), you can add Steps to that initial preset to
cover the other sections of your song, in the order that they are needed.
So, let’s assume that you have created the three
different presets that represent your three song
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 31
VoiceLive3 overview
sections. You’d now create “Steps” within your
Verse preset like this:
– Step 1: Verse
– Step 2: Chorus
– Step 3: Verse
– Step 4: Chorus
– Step 5: Bridge
– Step 6: Chorus
As you perform, you simply press the STEP
button once for each song section as it comes
along. It’s a much simpler way to manage several
presets in a song!
For more information about creating and deleting
Steps within a preset, see “Step management”.
Using Preset Genres and Favorites
If you are playing classical pop,
you may not care much for Presets that have been optimized
for Alternative rock – and vice
versa. And if you have created
or fine-tuned ten Presets for your show, you may
now want to scroll through the hundreds of other
Presets that you are working with in the studio.
Genres to the rescue!
As described earlier, the Genre feature allows
you to filter the Presets in VoiceLive 3 based on
the musical genre or primary effect.
Using Genres
– Tap the Genre button.
– Use the Mix Knob to scroll through available
Preset Genres.
– When you have found a Genre you would like
to explore, tap the Genre button again to confirm and exit.
Pressing any other button – like HOME – to
exit Genre selection mode will not select the
current Genre. Make sure you use the Genre
button to exit the menu and confirm your selection. The Genre button will be flashing to
remind you to press it.
After selecting a Genre, you will notice that
scrolling through Presets gives you fewer options than before. Presets are now filtered and
only show options contained in your chosen
Genre.
To return to seeing all Presets:
– Use the Mix Knob to change the Genre to “All”.
– Press Genre again to exit.
Using Favorites
There is a special Genre called Favorite which
you can assign Presets to. Favorites can be
used to quickly make a set-list or showcase of
Presets, helping you to navigate more quickly
through VoiceLive3.
– To add a Preset to the Favorite Genre, sim-
ply press the Control Knob down while on the
home screen.
A small “FAV” tag will be shown in the bottom
right corner of the display, indicating that the
current Preset is now flagged as a Favorite.
If you now enter the Genre menu and select
the “Favorite” Genre, only Presets that you
have selected as Favorites will be available
as you change Presets – just as with other
Genres.
– To remove the Favorite flag from a Preset, sim-
ply press the Control Knob again.
– Tap the Genre button.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 32
VoiceLive3 overview
What is NaturalPlay?
“Wait! Wait!
What key is it in? What key is it in?”
A device creating harmony voices and correcting
what you are singing to the right scale is a wonderful thing. But how do you tell that device what
key the next song is in? Do you have to program
it as part of a Preset? Do you have to set it up for
each song? What if you get it wrong on stage?
NaturalPlay to the rescue! If you have a guitar
connected to VoiceLive 3, it will automatically
guide key and scale for any Harmony voices or
HardTune effects. You don’t need to make any
changes to the system for this to work. Just play
your guitar normally (chords work best) and sing!
Similarly, if you connect a MIDI-enabled keyboard using a MIDI cable, VoiceLive3 will follow
your playing to determine key/scale for Harmony
voices and HardTune.
If you sing to backing tracks and don’t have a
guitar or MIDI keyboard connected, VoiceLive3
will read key/scale information from a music
signal present at the Aux jack – this might be
a backing track from an MP3 player or smartphone. Finally, VoiceLive 3 can also read key/
scale information from the Monitor In jack.
As you see, NaturalPlay has you covered – no
matter what your setup is.
Using Global Key/Scale
If you do not have an instrument or backing
tracks that can guide VoiceLive 3’s Harmony
and HardTune features, you may want to make
a small change to the System setup so you can
define the key and scale for the song you are
singing and change Presets without having to
change the Key setting each time.
– Press Setup.
– Use the < and > Arrow buttons to navigate to
the System tab.
– Using the Control Knob to highlight Global
Key/Scale.
– Change the Global Key/Scale to ON.
This will set one global key/scale for all Pre-
sets in VoiceLive3.
– You can change this global key/scale “on the
fly” later.
– Press Home to exit.
Using Global Key/Scale
Once you get more familiar with VoiceLive3, you
may want to turn Global Key/Scale off in order to
save a different Key/Scale per Preset.
Setting Key/Scale manually
If you are a singer without an instrument, you
may not want to rely on sone external input.
Instead, we’ll set the Key/Scale for your song
ma nually.
For simplicity, let’s sing “Happy Birthday” in C
using our Major 2 scale.
You will need to find C as your starting note (unless you have perfect pitch – then you are awesome).
To set the key/scale:
– If it isn’t selected, select the Vocal layer by
pressing the Layer footswitch.
– Press and HOLD the Harmony footswitch until
the Set Key/Scale screen appears.
– Press the Preset up/Preset down footswitches
until the key reaches C.
– If the scale is not already “Maj 2”, tap the Step
button repeatedly until the display shows Maj
2.
– Let the Key/Scale screen “time out” and dis-
appear (by not doing anything for a few seconds).
Setting Key and Scale
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 33
VoiceLive3 overview
Depending on the song you are singing, “Major
2” (MAJ2) may not be right for you.
To learn which scale Harmony notes are generated based on your input note, check out our
Scale Chart.
support.tc-helicon.com/entries/21051886Scale-chart-for-TC-Helicon-products
Let’s try Harmony!
Navigate to Preset No. 2 (“Classic 3rd up”) using the Preset up/Preset down switches or the
Control Knob.
– Make sure that you are on the Vocal Layer.
The LEDs around the footswitches should be
blue. If they are not, press the Layer button.
– You should see the Reverb, HIT and Harmony
footswitch lit in blue.
If Harmony and HIT are not lit, press the HIT
button.
key/scale manually. Why? The manual settings
can give a slightly different harmony output than
the one you get when playing chords (NaturalPlay). You may prefer one or the other depending
on the song you are playing and singing. It is not
uncommon for advanced users to utilize NaturalPlay for some Presets and Key/Scale for others.
Preset 2 (“Classic 3rd up”)
If you are a guitar playing singer, you can play
your guitar and sing now. You should hear a harmony following your lead vocal and also hear
some guitar effects.
If you are a singer, and if you have set the key/
scale correctly in the previous step, the harmonies should follow your lead melody correctly.
Even if you play an instrument that could be used
for NaturalPlay, you may want to try setting the
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 34
VoiceLive3 overview
Using the HIT footswitch
As you sing your song, with guitar or without, try
tapping the HIT footswitch. In this Preset, HIT
will activate and deactivate the Harmony effect
each time you press the button – once on and
once for off.
HIToff
essential for using the effects “in time” with your
music. It may take a while to get the hang of
things if you have never used footswitch based
effects before. Don’t worry if you are not very
good at it right away!
Using individual effects
Next, turn off Harmony using the HIT button. Try
tapping the Double button to add the Double effect to your voice. Do the same with Delay and
µMod. Try a few of the effects together and see
what it sounds like.
HITon. Note the additional (highlighted) effects
Practice using HIT to turn the Harmony on and
off at interesting points in the song. This skill is
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 35
VoiceLive3 overview
Change a button from Latched
to Momentary mode
When you are turning effects on and off using
the footswitches, the default behavior for each
switch is to work in “latched” mode. This simply
means that you press the button once to turn the
effect on and again to turn the effect off.
Latched mode works for a lot of cases, but there
are probably times when you would like an effect
to be active as you hold the button down – and
inactive as soon as you release it. This is called
“Momentary” mode.
Since we just experimented with turning effects
on and off, let’s change the way one of those effect footswitches operates.
– Press the Vocal button.
– Press and HOLD the right Arrow (>) to “jump”
all the way to the last Vocal tab.
This is a common behavior for the Arrow but-
tons. If you press and hold, you will jump to
the far side of the effects/Preset pages. This
can save you some time while editing.
Curious about all those tabs and their param-
eters? Don’t worry – we will cover all the Vocal
effects later!
– Now press the left Arrow (<) to navigate to the
Buttonmap tab.
Buttonmap menu
– Use the Control Knob to scroll down and high-
light the line starting with “HIT”.
Selecting HIT in the buttonmap menu
– Use the Mix Knob right below “Mode” to
change the mode of the HIT footswitch from
Latched to Momentary.
Changing Mode to Momentary
while you hold the button down? That’s Momentary mode.
Try singing the same song again, pressing/holding the HIT footswitch when you want harmonies
to activate. Practice activating harmony for a
single word or short phrase. It’s much easier in
momentary mode!
Before you move on, go back into the Vocal Buttonmap screen and change HIT back to Latched
mode.
Changing Mode back to Latched
– Press the Home button.
This will take you back to the main (or home)
screen.
Now, press the HIT button, just like you did before. Notice how the blue light only comes on
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 36
VoiceLive3 overview
Remapping a footswitch
Since you have just seen the Buttonmap page,
this is a good time to remap a footswitch to a
different effect.
Since there are 11 vocal effects and 9 guitar effects in VoiceLive3, but only 6 footswitches, the
ability to assign new functions to these footswitches gives you a lot of flexibility.
Let’s remap µMod to HardTune. Later, you can
remap any footswitch as you wish, for this example, please follow along.
– Press the Vocal button.
– Navigate to the Buttonmap tab using the <
and > buttons.
– Use the Control Knob to highlight the line
starting with “µMod”. It’s at the top of the
page.
As you can see, the µMod is assigned to the
µMod effect.
– Use the far left Mix Knob to remap the µMod
footswitch to HardTune.
µMod footswitch remapped to HardTune
When you press the µMod footswitch, you will
see that HardTune is now controlled by that button.
Remapping can be performed for any effect in
VoiceLive3. Vocal and Guitar effects are not restricted to their “home layers”. This means that
you can remap a vocal effect to the guitar
layer – and vice versa.
Since the Buttonmap page is available in each
Preset, for both vocal and guitar layers, you can
create a custom button mapping for every Preset
in VoiceLive3.
Here are some Buttonmap examples:
– Remap a Guitar effect to Shift, so you have
easy access to the Octaver effect.
µMod footswitch remapped to Octaver
– Change a Vocal effect to Synth, so you can
use the Talkbox effect.
Reverb footswitch remapped to Synth
Remapping the µMod footswitch to HardTune
– Move Guitar HIT from the Guitar layer to the
– Press Home.
If you look at the top left corner of the screen,
you should see HardTune there, µMod will be
gone.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 37
Vocal layer, so you can change multiple guitar
sounds/effects without leaving the Vocal layer.
To control multiple Vocal and Guitar effects simultaneously without having to leave the cur-
VoiceLive3 overview
rent layer, you can assign Vocal HIT to the HIT
footswitch and Guitar HIT to the footswitch
right next to it (Double)
Double footswitch on the Vocal layer remapped
to Guitar HIT
Remember that remapping a Guitar effect to
the Vocal layer needs to be done via the Vocal
Buttonmap.
Talk/Tuner Mode
Before you get too far into playing your guitar
through VoiceLive3, it’s a good idea to become
familiar with the Talk/Tuner mode.
The tuner offers a couple of neat features for
both guitar and vocals – so non-instrumentalists
might want to read this section, too.
To enter Talk/Tuner mode, press both the Preset
up and Preset down footswitches simultaneously for two seconds.
When you enter Talk/Tuner mode, the guitar will
be muted, so you can tune without your audience hearing it, and any vocal effects will removed from the signal. The vocal effects are removed so you can talk to your audience without
effects cluttering up what you are trying to say.
While in Talk/Tuner mode, you can still use the
Preset up and Preset down footswitches to
change Presets. This is especially handy if you
are tuning, changing guitars or addressing the
audience between songs and want to have the
next needed Preset loaded when you are finished.
Guitar Effects
For those of you playing guitar, this is a good
time to try out the various guitar effects in Voice-
Live3. If you are a vocalist without a guitar, go
get a coffee or follow along to learn about the
Guitar layer…
Press the Layer footswitch. You should notice
that VoiceLive3’s LEDs turn RED – indicating you
are now on the guitar layer. Look at the screen,
too. You will see that the effect names have
changed, and there is a small guitar icon in each
of the boxes (there are small microphone icons
in each Vocal layer box).
Guitar layer active
To exit Talk/Tuner mode, simply press both
the Preset up and Down button simultaneously
again. When exiting, there is no need to hold for
two seconds. You can also press any of the effect footswitches to exit Talk/Tuner mode.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 38
While playing your guitar, tap some of the foot-
switches to turn the various guitar effects on
and off.
Change a guitar effect to Momentary mode as
described in “Change a button from Latched to
Momentary mode”. However, press the Guitar
button instead of the Vocal button to begin the
process. You are now in Guitar Edit mode, and
VoiceLive3 overview
you can move to the Buttonmap screen from
there.
There is a separate Buttonmap screen for both
the Vocal and Guitar layer – but that’s a can of
worms we can open later.
Editing HIT
Return to the Vocal layer by pressing Home. If
you are on the Guitar Layer (indicated by red
LEDs), press the Layer button until the Vocal
layer is active.
You can easily edit the effects contained within
the HIT function. It is possible to have effects active when HIT is on or off. We refer to these two
states as “HIT on” and “HIT off”. Think of them
as two variations of a Preset.
– Press the HIT button a couple of times.
– Take note of which effects come on and off
when HIT is active (HIT on) and inactive (HIT
off ).
– Now, let’s add an effect to the “HIT on” flavor
of this Preset.
– Activate HIT.
– Now, turn on an effect that is currently off. For
this example, try µMod.
Preset 2 – HIT off
– Press HIT again. You will see that µMod
comes back on, in addition to Harmony, which
was previously activated by pressing HIT.
– If you save the Preset, your new HIT assign-
ment will be saved and you can control both
µMod and Harmony with the single HIT button
the next time you use the Preset.
Preset 2 – HIT on
– Press HIT. Notice that µMod (and Harmony)
turns off.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 39
VoiceLive3 overview
Tips and tricks for using HIT effectively
– If you would like an effect to be ON regardless
of the HIT button’s state, just activate it for
both HIT ON and HIT OFF. For some effects
such as Reverb, it is common to leave them
on all the time.
– HIT can control any or all of the effects for
both guitar and vocals, or guitar/vocals simultaneously.
– Use the process described above while on the
Guitar layer to change the effects associated
with Guitar HIT.
Using ALL HIT
What’s better than being able to have separate
HIT footswitches for the Guitar and Vocal layer?
How about one footswitch to rule them all? This
feature is called ALL HIT, and you can easily assign it to a footswitch as described in “Remapping a footswitch”.
– Press the Vocal button.
– Press and HOLD the right Arrow (>) to “jump”
all the way to the end of the available effects
pages.
– Use the < or > button to locate the Buttonmap
page.
– Use the Control Knob to scroll down and high-
light the line starting with “HIT”.
– Use the Mix Knob to change the HIT assign-
ment from Voc HIT to ALL HIT.
HIT footswitch remapped to ALL HIT
HIT footswitch remapped to ALL HIT
– Press Home.
Now the HIT footswitch controls HIT for both
Guitar and Vocal effects in this Preset. When you
press HIT, you will see that it now lights up purple instead of blue, indicating that it’s controlling
both vocal and guitar hit. There’s also a “wrench”
icon instead of a microphone – showing you that
you are no longer just controlling Vocal effects.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 40
VoiceLive3 overview
HIT– Dynamic vs. Snapshot
VoiceLive3’s default HIT behavior is “dynamic”,
which means you can make edits to the effects
contained within the HIT variation of the Preset
by simply turning them on and off as described
under “Editing HIT”. It’s a very quick and intuitive
way of combining effects – especially while editing a Preset.
That being said: While on stage, you may want
to turn an effect on or off during the song – but
still have HIT activate and deactivate the specific
effects you have defined.
Let’s see an example:
Using HIT in “Dynamic” mode (default)
You have saved the Preset with Reverb active all
the time (ON) and Harmony only when you have
turned on HIT (HIT ON).
You start the song with HIT turned off, so you
just have Reverb (but no Harmony voices) on
your voice. You decide that it would be nice to
have some delay for a particular section, so you
turn Delay on. Then, the chorus section of your
song comes up – so you press HIT to activate
Harmony. Reverb stays on and Delay goes off –
just as you would expect.
Now when you press HIT again, Harmony turns
off – but Delay comes back on with the Reverb.
This may not be what you want.
Using HIT in “Snapshot” mode
You might want HIT to ALWAYS turn on/off only
those effects you have saved for HIT within the
Preset.
That’s where “Snapshot” mode comes in. No
matter what effects are active at the time: HIT will
always override them and just turn on/off what
you have saved.
Typically “Dynamic” can be a great editing mode,
while “Snapshot” can be a more “fool-proof” live
performance mode.
Changing HIT mode from
Dynamic to Snapshot
– Press the Setup button.
– Use the < or > buttons to navigate to the Sys-
tem page.
– Use the Control Knob to scroll down to the HIT
Behavior parameter.
– Change HIT Behavior from Dynamic to Snap-
shot.
Changing HIT Behavior from Dynamic to Snapshot
Storing Presets
Since we are talking about storing a change to
your Preset – let’s do it.
Tapping the Store button accesses the Store
screen, where you may name, assign and save
your Presets.
In the upper part of the Store screen, you will
see the current name of the Preset. Use the Mix
Knobs under the display to control the following
functions:
Cursor (assigned to Mix Knob 1)
Use Mix Knob 1 to move the cursor (the currently selected character). This is handy for quickly
navigating to a position in the Preset name.
Letter (assigned to Mix Knob 2)
Use Mix Knob 2 to select the letter, number or
symbol for the current cursor position.
Ins(ert) / Del(ete) (assigned to Mix Knob 3)
– Turn Mix knob 3 clockwise (right) to insert an
empty character (a blank) to the left of the currently highlighted character.
– Turn Mix knob 3 counter-clockwise (left) to the
left to delete the currently highlighted characte r.
Store to (assigned to Mix Knob 34)
Use Mix Knob 4 to select the Preset number
where the current Preset will be stored.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 41
VoiceLive3 overview
– If you want to save the Preset where it cur-
rently is, do not change this value.
– If you would like to save the Preset to another
location, change “Store To” to another number.
The name of the selected Preset slot will be
displayed in the upper part of the screen.
Using Store To is handy when you would like to
make several Presets with similar sounds. You
can create a “master” Preset and store it so a
few different locations using Store To. You can
then edit those copies further if you wish.
Store menu
When you are finished naming and assigning
your Preset, simply press Store again to complete the operation.
Storing Presets and HIT Behavior
When you have set HIT Behavior to “Snapshot”
mode, you must save the Preset for each HIT
state – on and off – in order for your changes to
be stored. Prepare both variations of the Preset
(on and off) and store them, like this:
– Turn HIT off.
– Turn the effects on that you would like to use
when HIT is off.
– Press the Store button twice.
– Turn HIT on.
– Turn the effects on that you would like to use
when HIT is on.
– Press the Store button twice.
Tapping tempo
You can use Tap Tempo to have the tempobased effects align with the tempo of your song.
– Press and HOLD the Delay footswitch.
– You should see the Delay footswitch pulse
with a purple LED, and the current tempo (in
beats per minute) will be displayed.
– Tap the Delay footswitch in time with the song
you are performing (or about to perform).
– After a few beats, stop tapping the footswitch
and wait for the Tempo display to disappear.
– If it is not already on, activate the Delay effect
with its footswitch.
– You should hear your Delay “taps” trail off in
time with the music.
There is another function in the tap tempo window that you may find handy. Let’s try it.
– Enter Tap Tempo mode the same way you just
did.
– You will notice that the Preset up and Preset
down footswitches are lit solid blue.
– These footswitches allow you to increase or
decrease the tempo in 1 BPM increments.
– For example, press the Preset down foot-
switch to decrease the tempo.
Manually adjusting the Tap Tempo can be handy
if you want to set a specific tempo, e.g. when you
have to follow a click track. And of course, both
methods can be combined: Use tapping to “get
close” to the desired tempo and use the Preset
footswitches for fine-tuning.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 42
VoiceLive3 overview
Using Global Tempo
Depending on how you would like to manage tempo within VoiceLive 3, you can choose
whether tempo information is recalled from each
individual Preset or managed globally.
If you would like to store specific tempos within
your Presets, simply set the tap tempo as described in “Tapping tempo” and save the Preset.
If you would like to set one tempo and have all
Presets “follow” it, you will need to head into the
System menu.
– Press the Setup button.
– Use < or > to navigate to the System tab.
– Use the Control Knob to scroll down to the
Global Tempo option.
– Use the Mix Knob to change the value to ON.
– Press the Home button.
Global Tempo on
Now, any tempo you tap will immediately be effective and be used for whatever Preset you
choose.
Editing an Effect
Now that we have heard some sounds, let’s edit
an effect in a Preset. You can choose to edit either the Vocal or Guitar effects, whichever you
like.
To edit the Vocal effects within a Preset, press
the Vocal button.
Editing Vocal effects
To edit the Guitar effects within a Preset, press
the Guitar button.
Editing Guitar effects
Both effect layers (Vocal and Guitars) have a series of “tabs”. There is a tab for each effect within
a Preset, and there are a couple of extra tabs for
other Preset options like Button Mapping and
Expression Pedal assignment.
All the effect edit screens that you can access
using these tabs have a similar structure. On
top of each edit screen, you will find simple and
easy-to-use controls, while scrolling down using the Control Knob will show more parameters
that offer more advanced parameters for deeper
editing.
On the top level, most effects have four main parameters:
1. Style: Style sets the “sound” of the effect. For
example, you might choose a “Hall” or “Studio” reverb type.
2. Parameter 1: The first parameter shown varies
from effect to effect and will have a different
name – it will not be called “Parameter 1”. To
continue with the Reverb example, Decay time
is located here.
3. Parameter 2: Again, this control will vary from
effect to effect, but is commonly the Level
control, which controls the overall volume of
the effect.
4. Control: control sets the “state” of the effect
and how it is controlled.
– Off: The effect is inactive.
– On: The effect is active, regardless of the
status of the HIT button.
– HIT On: This effect is active only when the
HIT button is ON.
– HIT Off: This effect is active only when the
HIT button is OFF.
You may also change this control by press-
ing the footswitch associated with this effect
(if it is mapped to a footswitch). This can be a
quick way to set up several effects to come on
or off when HIT is pressed
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 43
VoiceLive3 overview
The concept of “HIT on” and “HIT off” can be a
little confusing at first – but you will soon get the
hang of things. A user suggested this analogy:
“It can be useful to think of HIT on as “throwing a bunch of effects onto a table” and HIT off
as “knocking or wiping a bunch of effects off of
the table”. Effects that are on simply can’t be
knocked off the table – and effects that are off
can’t be put onto it using HIT.
Back to editing…
– Turn off ALL effect blocks but one. It doesn’t
matter which effect you leave on, so long as
you can clearly hear the effect. For this example, we assume that you are using the Har-
mony effect in the Vocal layer.
– Press the Vocal button.
– Navigate to the Harmony tab.
– Change the Style parameter using the Mix
Knob directly below “Style” on the screen.
Notice how the sound of the effect changes. It
can be a subtle change or a drastic one, depending on the Style.
Changing the Harmony Style parameter
Once you have chosen a Style that you like,
you are 90% of the way there. We will skip
over to the Level parameter now.
– Using the Mix Knob directly below the “Level”
parameter, change the level (volume) of the effect. Find a setting that sounds good to you.
– Now, turn on another effect. It still doesn’t
matter which one. Notice how the two effects
interact with each other.
Navigating to the Delay tab
– Use the < or > Arrow buttons to navigate to
the effect you just activated. In the image
above, that’s Delay.
– Try changing the Style of the newly activated
effect. Find a style that sounds good with the
other effect you had turned on.
– Adjust the Level control of the new effect to
blend it with the first.
From here on in, EVERYTHING is advanced,
specific editing. Try manipulating the other parameter on the screen, be it decay time, lead
level, speed or whatever is shown there. Notice
how it changes the sound of the effect.
Use the Control Knob to scroll down. You will see
many, many different controls and parameters
on each effect tab. DON’T PANIC!
Typically, advanced parameters are defined and
Switching off all effect blocks except for Harmony
loaded with the Style you choose and should
sound pretty darned good as they are. If you
have got some audio engineering experience or
own one of our other products, like VoiceLive 2,
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 44
VoiceLive3 overview
you may recognize some or all of the advanced
controls.
If you don’t recognize anything, there are two
paths you can take:
1. Don’t touch anything you don’t recognize.
Slowly back away from the advanced menu.
There be dragons in that cave!
2. Turn every parameter as far as it will go in
each direction and see what happens!
Whether you choose #1 or #2: It’s totally fine. We
can’t tell you how fast or far to venture into the
depths of VoiceLive3. All we can do is recommend that you treat VoiceLive3 like any other instrument or skill you would try to learn and give
things some time.
From our own experience, you know it’s a good
time to venture deeper into the menus and controls when you say to yourself: “Hmm. This
would sound perfect if only the [X] was a bit
more/less [Y]…”
Defining and using Global Effects
Each effect in VoiceLive 3 can load and use
Global settings. Global settings make editing effects much easier and faster, but you need to understand the concept to use it effectively.
How does it work?
First, you define a “Global Preset” in the System menu. This Preset is the Preset from which
any other Preset can “pull” settings for any effect. Think of this Global Preset as a template
or master. In the screen shot below, you will see
that Preset 491 has been defined as the Global
Preset. You can change this Preset if you like.
However, we recommend making yourself familiar with editing the Global Preset and turning
Global ON in other Presets before you reassign
the Global Preset.
We suggest placing the global Preset in a location quite far from your other Presets in the box,
so you don’t accidentally overwrite it. Any Presets that depend on the information in the Global
Preset will be affected if you delete or change it.
Defining the Global Preset
– Press the Setup button.
– Use < or > to navigate to the System tab.
– Use the Control Knob to highlight “Global Pre-
set”
– Use the Mix Knob below “Global Preset” to
change its value to represent the Preset number you would like as your Global Preset.
Using an effect from the Global Preset
– Select a Preset that you would like to link to
the Global Preset.
– Press the Vocal or Guitar button (depending
on which effect you would like to edit).
– Navigate to the effect tab for the effect that
you would like to link to the Global Preset –
e.g. Delay.
Once you start thinking like that, you will know
that your skills have moved beyond using Style,
Global Preset set to Preset no. 491
and you will likely find the experience of editing
advanced parameters more thrilling than daunting.
If you invest some time into creating effects that
you like in your Global Preset, you can then access these effects in any other Preset by simply
Remember to go through the Store procedure af-
setting one parameter.
Delay effect block settings
ter you have made changes to a Preset. Changes
are not stored automatically. If you edit a Preset
and switch to another Preset without storing, all
changes you made will be lost.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 45
We have defined a Global Preset for you already
(the factory default is 491), but you can make
your own.
– Use the Control Knob to scroll down to the
“Global” parameter. It should say “Off”.
VoiceLive3 overview
Global set to Off in the Delay block
– Change it to “On” using the mix knob right be-
low the parameter.
Setting Global to On for the Delay block
– Settings from the Global Preset will be applied
to this effect immediately.
– You will also see that the tab name has
changed from “Delay” to “Delay-GBL” – indi-
cating that this particular effect is using Global
settings.
Important: The link between the Global
Preset and other Presets goes both ways
Before you make any tweaks to the effect you
have just made Global, there is something you
should know.
If Global is ON in any Preset and you make
changes to the settings of the respective effect,
this will change the settings of the Global Preset
(and all other Presets where that particular effect
is set to Global on).
That can be really handy – or a disaster, if you
are not prepared for it.
Using the Global Preset to copy
effect settings into a Preset
As you just read, the link between the Global Preset and other Preset goes both ways. However,
you can also use this feature temporarily to copy
effect settings from the Global Preset to another
Preset and then edit them independently.
– Select a Preset.
– Select an effect that should use the settings
from the Global Preset as a starting point.
– Set Global for this effect to on.
This will copy the settings for this effect from
the Global Preset to the current Preset.
– Set Global for this effect to off again.
This “breaks the link” between Global and
current Preset, allowing you to modify the set-
tings locally.
Using the Mix Controls
As you probably have realized by now, there is a
lot going on under the hood of your VoiceLive3.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could control the levels
of the signals going in and out of VoiceLive3?
As it turns out, you can – and you do not even
have to press any buttons.
– While on the Home screen, touch (move) any
of the four Mix knobs right below the display
to enter the Mix screen.
There are actually three separate mix pages or
“tabs”:
– Main Mix
– Headphone Mix
– Effects Mix
Select the mix you want to control using the Arrow buttons. The last selection will be remembered, so when you use the Mix knobs later, you
will be editing the previously selected mix.
Main Mix
Main Mix controls the sounds that come from the
XLR Out and Guitar Out jacks.
Main Mix controls
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 46
VoiceLive3 overview
Use the Mix knobs to adjust the levels of the signals shown on screen.
Keep in mind that if you are connecting the Guitar Out jack to a guitar amplifier, you likely want
a fixed output level. In the Guitar tab of the Setup
menu, you will find a parameter called Output
Mode that controls this.
– If you set Output Mode to Unity Gain (this is
the default), this will set one master output
volume for the guitar signals coming from the
Guitar Out jack.
Output Mode set to Unity Gain
– If you wish to vary the output level of the Guitar
Out (e.g. when you are connecting VoiceLive3
to a mixer or recording interface), change the
setting to Variable Level.
sounds from the XLR outputs and only use them
over your headphones or IEMs.
Headphone Mix
Headphone Mix allows you to independently set
the signal levels for the headphones or IEM connected to the Headphone jack. In other words:
You can have a headphone or in-ear-monitoring
mix that is independent of what goes out to the
XLR outputs.
Headphone Mix controls
The Guitar and Loop Trim controls allow you to
increase or decrease the levels of Guitar and
Loop, relative to the Main Mix settings. The one
limitation this imposes is that you cannot set the
Guitar or Loop controls in the Main Mix to Off
and still hear them in your headphones.
Effects Mix
Effects Mix allows you to adjust the overall
sound of your presets.
– Voices: Controls the overall level of any voices
generated by VoiceLive 3. This includes Harmony, Double and Choir.
– Voc Reverb: Controls the overall level of the
Vocal Reverb effect across your presets. If you
find yourself in a venue that has a lot of (or
very little) natural Reverb, you may not have
the time to adjust the Reverb settings in all
your Presets manually. Instead, use this control to better match the Reverb settings in your
Presets to the physical space you are in.
– Guitar Reverb: Performs the same function
as Voc Reverb for the Guitar Reverb in all your
Presets.
Output Mode set to Variable Level
You can set the levels of both Aux and Metronome signals to Off if you wish to remove their
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 47
VoiceLive3 overview
Tips and tricks for working with layers and effects
As we discussed in “Design concepts” and
“Footswitches overview” , VoiceLive 3 is comprised of three “Layers”: Vocal, Guitar and Looper.
Tapping the Layer button will give you access to
the layer you would like to control: Guitar or Vocal. Press and hold the Layer button to access
the Looper.
Keep in mind that as we discuss editing Vocal
or Guitar effects, the editing process is inde-
pendent of the layer you are currently controlling.
Put another way: You can have the Vocal layer
active (blue LEDs will show that you can use
footswitch to control the vocal effects), but simply press the Guitar button (the blue one on the
top panel) to enter and edit the Guitar effects.
General Vocal & Guitar layer usage
The basic concepts of accessing effect settings
and going from simple to advanced editing are
explained in “Editing an Effect”.
In addition to the effects tabs in the Vocal and
Guitar edit screens, you will find the Buttonmap,
Expression and Preset tabs.
Editing Vocal effects while on the Guitar layer
As there are no effects linked to the Looper layer, we will cover Looper operations in a separate
section of this manual.
Editing Guitar effects while on the Vocal layer
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 48
VoiceLive3 overview
Buttonmap tab:
Remapping footswitches
We have already made some changes on the
Buttonmap tab in “Remapping a footswitch” – so
you have seen it before. Let’s dig a little deeper
into it now.
– Enter the Vocal or Guitar edit screen.
– Navigate to the Buttonmap tab.
Earlier in the “VoiceLive 3 overview”, we remapped a footswitch and changed the Mode
from Latched to Momentary.
On the Buttonmap tab, each effect footswitch
is represented by sets of two two lines. Use the
Control Knob to select a set, for example µMod.
The first word in the first column is the name of
the effect footswitch, as it is printed on the device. The name of the effect currently assigned
to this footswitch is shown directly below it. For
now, you should see µMod with µMod directly
underneath. If you are on the Guitar edit page,
you will see µMod and G µMod respectively.
You will see that the effect you have chosen is
now shown in the top left corner of the screen
and will activate if you press the µMod button.
Typically, remapping footswitches is great for
three situations:
– “That darn button is in the wrong place! I hate
where it is and want to move it!”
– “I would like footswitch access to an effect
that isn’t already assigned to a button.”
For example, you might want access to Synth
– so you decide to remap the Delay button.
– “I want access to a guitar effect on the vocal
page.”
For example, remapping the Double foot-
switch to Guitar HIT will give you access to
guitar effects on the Vocal Layer – right beside
Vocal HIT.
Parm1 and Parm2
By now, you know how to remap footswitches
and choosing between Latched and Momentary
mode. But what are the other two parameters –
Parm1 and Parm2 – good for?
Parm 1 and Parm 2 are part of the Loop Trigger Buttonmap. If you assign Loop Trigger to a
footswitch, you need to choose which loop and
which track you would like to trigger when you
tap that footswitch.
– Parm 1 defines which Loop slot you are using
(see “Basic Loop concepts and terms”
– Parm 2 defines which track (or combination of
tracks) you would like to trigger when pressing the button.
The available options are Loop A, Loop B,
Loop C, A&B or A&C.
Learn more about the Looper in “The Looper”.
– Assign another effect to the µMod footswitch
by turning the Mix Knob directly below the parameter.
It doesn’t matter if the effect you choose here
is already mapped to another button. For example, if you choose Harmony, you will now
have Harmony mapped to both the µMod button and the Harmony button (default). That’s
OK – it just shows how remapping works.
– Press the Home button to return to the Home
screen.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 49
VoiceLive3 overview
Exp. Pedal tab: Getting the most
out of your expression pedal
If you have connected an expression pedal to
your VoiceLive 3, you can define what the expression pedal should control in each Preset.
Being able to define the expression pedal “target” in each Preset gives you a lot of flexibility
from one pedal.
– Use the Expression pedal parameter to choose
from many controllable “targets”.
– Use the Exp MinPos parameter to define the
parameter value that should be associated
with the minimum (down) position of the expression pedal.
– Use the Exp MaxPos parameter to define the
parameter value that should be associated
with the maximum (up) position of the expression pedal.
The MinPos and MaxPos parameters can be
useful when you would like to limit the effective
range of the pedal.
For example, if you assign the expression pedal
to control harmony volume, you may want the
harmonies to turn down slightly when you rock
the pedal all the way back – but not turn them
off completely. To achieve this effect, you would
set Exp. Minpos to something higher than 0%
(try something like 50 or 70%). This allows you
to make large (easy to perform) movements with
the pedal without changing the level of the harmonies too drastically.
It can be useful to limit the expression pedal
range for parameters such as Guitar Volume,
Harmony Volume, Delay Feedback, Rhythmic
Depth etc.
Working with a second expression pedal
If you want to, you can use a second expression pedal with your VoiceLive 3. Connect this
second Expression pedal to the Footswitch jack.
As opposed to the expression pedal connected
to the Expression jack (which can be used differently in each Preset), the pedal connected to
the footswitch jack only has a global setting – it
will control all Presets in the same way. To use a
second expression pedal:
– Press Setup.
– Navigate to the Buttonmap tab.
– Select the Footswitch Jack parameter and set
it from Switch-3 to Expression pedal.
Calibrating your expression pedal
If you are connecting an expression pedal, it
must be calibrated.
– To enter the calibration screen, press the Set-
up button.
– Use the < and > arrows to navigate to the
“Pedal Calibration” tab.
– Follow the on-screen instructions.
The Preset tab
The Preset tab allows you to make changes to
the Preset as a whole.
Most importantly, you can adjust the overall level
of the Vocal or Guitar signals within a Preset.
This allows you to balance your Presets so they
all have the same apparent volume.
Preset tab for the Vocal layer
Preset tab for the Guitar layer
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 50
VoiceLive3 overview
When you are adding effects to the (Vocal or
Guitar) signal path, each of these effects inevitably adds some gain (volume) to the signal chain.
This means that after adding several effects,
your Preset may end up louder than it started.
At this point, you may want to compare the apparent level of the current Preset to other Presets in VoiceLive3 – and then use the Level Trim
controls on the Preset tab for Vocal or Guitar to
make adjustments.
There is also a Pan control available in both the
Vocal and Guitar Preset tabs that allow you to
pan the vocal or guitar signal left or right. The
default setting is “C” (for “Center”). It can be
especially useful to assign Guitar Pan to an expression pedal if you would like to create stereo
guitar loops, which we will discuss later.
Additionally, you can create some interesting vocal sounds by panning the lead vocal completely
to one side and then add effects. There’s a Delay Pan control in the Delay edit parameters too.
Try panning the lead vocal to the far right and the
Delay Pan to the far left for interesting results.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 51
Editing the Vocal layer
Editing the Vocal layer
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 52
Editing the Vocal layer
Press the Vocal button to enter the Vocal edit
screen. For more information about editing Style,
Level, Control and other parameters associated
with each effect, see “Editing an Effect”.
Harmony block / t ab
Harmony is TC-Helicon’s most popular effect –
and some might argue the most impressive one,
too.
The Harmony effect creates harmony vocals
from your lead voice. This harmony can contain
up to four voices, each with different intervals,
key/scale sources, pan, humanization and other
settings.
Harmony can be used to add a single voice of
harmony, up to a larger “group” sound depending on your application.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Harmony effect
– “Subtle” is often better when using any Har-
mony effect. Typically, when we hear complaints about the created voices sounding “robotic” or “fake”, it can be attributed partially to
the Harmony voices being overly loud in the
vocal mix.
– Level settings of -6 or dB lower can often yield
great results, even if the voices aren’t immediately obvious.
– “High” and “Low” styles are the most com-
monly used harmonies in popular music. If you
are a male or have a lower voice, try “High”.
If you are female or have a higher voice, try
“Low”.
– When using a multi-voice Harmony style like
“High & Low” or “High & Higher”, try adjusting the Pan and Level parameters in the Vocal
Edit screen to adjust the location and volume
of each voice.
– To expand on the above, try turning on Voice
3 and Voice 4. Set each to copy the settings
of the existing two voices. Pan them opposite to the existing voices and reduce their
level slightly. This puts one “High & Low” pair
on the Left and Right of the stereo field with
“High” being slightly dominant on one side
and “Low” on the other.
High Low Lead High Low
Harm. (1) Harm. (2) Voice Harm. (3) Harm. (4)
< Left Right >
Panning Harmony Voices
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 53
Editing the Vocal layer
To further expand, try adjusting the Smoothing
and Humanization parameters for each of the
four voices, so that each voice ends up a bit different from the other.
– On the Buttonmap tab of the Setup menu,
you can remap the Step footswitch to various
controls. Try remapping the Step footswitch
to Harmony Hold. When the Harmony effect
is active, press the Step footswitch (now assigned to Harmony Hold) to “fix” the current
harmony note and hold it. You can then sing
other notes as the Harmonies continue to sing
the note you held.
– We suggest to also changing the Step But-
ton Mode to Momentary to avoid accidentally
turning Harmony Hold on and letting it hold a
note indefinitely. You will find that brief use of
the effect is typically the best approach.
NaturalPlay, Scale, Fixed
& Pedal Modes
VoiceLive3 offers a completely new way of combining harmony voice modes that allows you to
make some really great sounds.
In previous products, all harmony voices were
defined by a single “type” – i.e., they were guided by an instrument (NaturalPlay) or defined by a
fixed key and scale. In VoiceLive3, you can define a different method of harmony note output
for each voice!
The new “Mixed Mode” harmonies allow you to,
for example,
– set one voice to follow your guitar (Natural-
Play),
– the second voice to follow a key/scale,
– a third voice to only sing a single “Fixed” note
and
– a fourth voice to only sing the “root” note
of any chords you are playing on your guitar
(Pedal).
Mixing NaturalPlay, Fixed, Pedal and Scale
modes in one Preset
! Keep in mind that when you are using mixed
mode harmony, you will need to define the
correct key/scale (Scale) or note (Fixed) and
play your instrument (NaturalPlay/Pedal) in
order for the combination of voices to sound
good together. Otherwise, a Fixed voice could
be singing a completely inappropriate note for
your song.
! Harmony can suffer from “warbles” when
sound other than your voice is picked up via
your microphone. Check out this Craig’s Corner video for a bit of TC-Helicon Harmony history and some advice on reducing warble:
youtube.com/watch?v=pT-CCTmv2ZM
This flexibility allows you to create some very sophisticated setups and vocal arrangements.
Changing Step Button Mode to Momentary
You can mix and match any of the available
modes for the four harmony voices. You could
have three NaturalPlay voices and a fixed voice,
or two scale-based voices, one fixed and one
NaturalPlay voice. It’s completely up to you!
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 54
Editing the Vocal layer
Double block / t ab
Often referred to as “Doubling” or “Double
Tracking”, the Double effect mimics a singer recording multiple versions of the same vocal passages and playing them back simultaneously.
The small differences in timing and pitch that
result from the two recordings create a more full
and “doubled” sound.
It’s quite common in contemporary music for
some sort of Double effect to be active during
the entire song, albeit with varying intensity.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Double effect
– “Tight” Double styles will have less pitch and
timing variation than “Loose” styles will. Tight
styles therefore tend to be a bit more subtle
even at higher effect levels.
– Try turning the “Lead Level” parameter to OFF
when using one of the “Wide” styles. This will
effectively remove your voice from the middle
of the stereo field and helps recreate the wide-
panned vocal style that can be heard on many
recent recordings.
– Adding some “1 Voice Tight” Double effect
when using the Harmony effect can add some
presence to your lead voice, preventing it from
being overpowered by the Harmony.
– Adding some “4 Voices Wide” Double effect
when using the Harmony effect can signifi-
cantly enhance the “group” sound of the Har-
mony voices, especially when using two or
more Harmony voices.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 55
Editing the Vocal layer
Vocal Delay block / tab
Delay is often referred to as “echo” and emulates
sound “bouncing” or repeating at regular intervals. As opposed to Reverb – whose reflections
of sound can be somewhat chaotic in the representation of a physical space – Delay is much
more consistent in its sound output.
Typically, Delay is used either as a special effect,
with levels high enough to be clearly heard, or as
a more subtle companion to Reverb.
Using Delay as a special effect can create very
interesting highlights within a performance but
can, like Reverb, become distracting or overwhelming when used too heavily.
Stereo Delays can be especially interesting if you
are performing with a stereo PA or for studio recording.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Vocal Delay effect
– Make sure to set the correct tempo for any
Preset with Delay, either
– via tempo tapping (see “Tapping tempo” or
– on the Delay Edit tab.
Delay timed to your song sounds great, while
off-time delays can sound terrible.
– Experiment with different amounts of the
Feedback parameter. More Feedback cre-
ates more echoes, while very low amounts of
feedback can create “Call and Answer” style
effects.
– Try out the various Filter Style options within
the Delay Edit screen. They allow you to make
the “echoes” of your Delay sound different.
These filter styles can add interesting effects
to your delays – such as megaphone, radio or
lo-fi sounds – or mimic the sound of classic
analog and digital hardware delays.
Filter Style parameter
– When using Delay on both your guitar and vo-
cals, experiment with using the same OR dif-
ferent divisions on each Delay to crate inter-
esting rhythmic landscapes.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 56
Editing the Vocal layer
Vocal Reverb block / tab
Reverb is one of the most basic effects. You will
probably find some form of Reverb at every live
performance and on every recording.
Essentially, Reverb simulates a physical space
and how the sound of your voice is positioned
in it. Typically, Reverbs are defined by the space
they are trying to replicate or the device/processor/medium used to generate the reverb effect.
With the above in mind, you will see Reverb
styles in our products with names like “Amsterdam Hall” or “Hockey Arena” when representing a physical space. You might see “Plate” or
“Spring” when referring to the type of device
used to create a particular kind of Reverb.
Reverb tab
Tips and tricks for working with
the Vocal Reverb effect
– “Timing” your Reverb to the song you are per-
forming can really enhance your overall son-
ic “landscape”. Try picking shorter Reverbs
(lower decay time) for faster songs and longer
Reverbs (higher decay time) for slower songs.
– A 1.3 second Decay Time is very common for
mid-tempo popular music.
– Timing a Reverb so that it “breathes” with
your song can sound great. By “breathing” we
mean that the Reverb ends on a beat, or every
other beat, for example.
– Use this calculator to figure out what Reverb
time to set in order to “time” your effect to the
song:
nickfever.com/delay-calculator/
Use the chart provided on this page to de-
termine which note division to use. If, for ex-
ample, you would like your Reverb to end on
every other beat, use the ½ note result.
– Overuse of Reverb can make your vocals
sound washed out and hard to understand.
– Underuse of Reverb can result in a flat sound-
ing vocal. However, it’s very common in con-
temporary pop music to use very little or no
Reverb, opting instead for Doubling, HardTune
and other effects. Listen to popular records
from your favorite genre and analyze how they
are using reverb.
– When using Reverb on both vocals and guitar,
it can be useful to use the same settings or at
least the same “Style” for each, so the listener
gets the impression of vocals and guitar being
in the same simulated physical space.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 57
Editing the Vocal layer
HardTune block / t ab
This effect has become very, very common in
recent years. Most people remember when Cher
released the song “Believe”, featuring the first
commercially represented use of heavy and robotic-sounding pitch correction.
Since the release of “Believe”, there have been
many advances in pitch correction technology,
allowing both extreme and subtle or transparent
vocal correction. It’s a misnomer to only equate
vocal pitch correction with AutoTune™ and TPain™. Subtle use of pitch correction is a staple
of almost every recording, and many live performances too.
A neat little bit of music history: The Beatles
used pitch correction on their albums! How?
Back then, a control called “VariSpeed” on their
tape recorders was used to manipulate the playback speed – and therefore the pitch of recorded
material. Often, it was done for effect, but VariSpeed was used for all sorts of purposes.
It’s fun to keep that fact in mind when people
disparage modern music for its use of pitch correction or any other effect or recording technique. The Beatles used every tool available to
them at the time, just like today’s musicians do!
Tips and tricks for working
with the HardTune effect
– When you want the “HardTune” sound, choose
the “Pop” style.
– It takes some practice to sing the right way
and get the most out of HardTune. Practice
sliding and gliding from note to note, in order
to emphasize the jumps in pitch provided by
the “Pop” setting. After a while, you will be
able to enhance the effect as you sing.
– When you are using HardTune with a wedge
monitor or in-ear monitors (IEMs), it’s totally
normal to hear some “phasing” type sounds
as your natural voice interacts with the cor-
rected voice output from VoiceLive3.
Check out this Craig’s Corner video for more
about phasing:
youtube.com/watch?v=KWrEIuiDXsA
– If you would like subtle correction that still re-
spects any key/scale you have set for Harmo-
ny, try the “Correct Natural” style.
– To emulate some of the effects used on the
Beatles recordings, try the “Gender Bender”
style and turn the Gender control down a few
clicks to slightly lower the sound of your voice.
– Any time the HardTune effect is active, Global
Pitch Correction settings in the Setup menu
are temporarily overwritten. When the Hard-
Tune effect is turned off, any settings from
Global Pitch Correction will reactivate.
Here is an interesting article about the Beatles
and their use of VariSpeed:
ofbuckleyandbeatles.wordpress.com/
2010/12/05/
beatles-production-tricks-part-ii-varispeed/
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 58
Editing the Vocal layer
Synth block / t ab
Synth effects are created when a “carrier” sound
modifies a signal (your voice) to create an interesting combination of the two elements.
Common use includes the classical guitar “talk
box”, where the notes played on an electrical
guitar dictate the pitch and sound of the voice
output, regardless of what you sing. You don’t
have to use a guitar though – it could also be
sounds from a keyboard or other instrument.
VoiceLive 3 offers polyphonic (more than one
note at a time) Synth effects, so you can play
chords on your instrument and have them act as
the “carrier” sounds. It’s a really great effect to
have fun with!
We have also included several “carrier” sounds
in VoiceLive3, so you may use the Synth effect
block without an instrument signal.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Synth effect
– When using the Synth block to generate the
well-known talk box effect of the seventies, it
really pays to know exactly the notes you want
to output and practice them ahead of time. It
sounds great when you play the right melody –
but the effect can lose its luster pretty quickly
if you meander around or play the wrong notes
for the song.
– With the above in mind, there’s nothing wrong
with shredding a crazy solo either!
– Synth effects tend to best be used as an ac-
cent during a particular passage of a song,
not full-time.
– Manipulating the way you sing/speak words
into the microphone while Synth is active
can greatly increase the effectiveness of the
sound. Elongating vowels and/or over-pro-
nouncing consonants will really make the ef-
fect stand out.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 59
Editing the Vocal layer
Transduce r b lock / t ab
The Transducer effect is often referred to as
“Megaphone” or “Distortion”, but it really covers any manipulation of gain structure and EQ
filters. Distortion and filter effects are common
across Rock, Pop, Country, Hip Hip, EDM and
other genres.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Transducer effect
– The first and most important tip is that any
distortion or EQ filter effect can be very prone
to feedback, so bear this in mind when con-
necting your VoiceLive3 to a 50,000 watt sta-
dium PA or the system at your local pub!
– Use of Gate within the Transducer advanced
edit parameters can reduce the chances of
feedback when the effect is active. Set the
threshold such that the gate “opens” to let
your voice through but closes (mutes) very
soon after you finish singing.
– This Craig’s Corner video covering feedback
can help a lot for both general PA use and
Transducer effects:
youtube.com/watch?v=VlN1RJ4gcAo
– Changing the Buttonmap setting for
the footswitch assigned to the Transduc-
er effect from Latched to Momentary al-
lows you to quickly add doses of the ef-
fect to specific words or phrases in your
song. Simply remap one of the Vocal layer
footswitches to Transducer and change its
Mode to Momentary – see “Buttonmap tab:
Remapping footswitches”.
µMod footswitch remapped to Transducer
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 60
Editing the Vocal layer
Vocal µMod block / tab
Pronounced “Micro Mod”, the µMod block includes effects like micro-pitch shifting (hence
Micro Mod), Flanger, Chorus, Rotor and more.
These effects can be subtle, like “Thicken”, or
quite extreme with “Tube Up” or “Alien Voiceover”.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Vocal µMod effect
– Try combining µMod set to one of the “Clone”,
“Wider” or “Thicken” styles with your Harmo-
ny or Double effects to increase the depth of
sound.
– Songs like “Believe” by Lenny Kravitz use
Flanger to create its iconic sound.
– If you use styles like “Cylon” or “Alien
Voiceover”, it’s probably best to use them for
small sections of a song or for a fun effect
while addressing the audience, rather than a
full-time effect.
– The advanced controls allow you to determine
which other effects, like Harmony, are sent to
the µMod block. This allows you to add µMod
effects to whichever components of the signal
you would like and keep other signals “clean”.
Lead to µMod and Harm(ony) to µMod parameters
– Remember that 0 dB means “high volume” –
not “no volume”!
– Most level controls max out at 0dB, but a few
– such as Guitar Trim in the Headphone Mix –
can go higher.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 61
Editing the Vocal layer
Choir block / ta b
Formerly a part of the Harmony effect block,
Choir was split into its own effect in the TC-Helicon VoiceLive Touch 2. Separating these effects
gave us the opportunity to provide more styles
and parameters for controlling the Choir sound.
We have defined Choir as its own effect block in
VoiceLive3 too, so you have extra control over
the way it sounds.
Choir makes a great companion to Harmony, especially when you are trying to create a “group”
sound. You can use Choir by itself too, which can
give its own unique flavor to the vocal.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Choir effect
– When using Choir with Harmony, start with a
low level setting and move up from there. Us-
ing too much Choir level can make the overall
output sound a bit robotic or “effected”.
– With the above suggestion, keep in mind that
high levels of Choir can be used to create a
very pronounced effect sound – which could
be just what you want.
– The “Speaking” style can be used with any
kind of Hip Hop, Rap, Spoken Word etc. to
add a sense of a group saying something to-
get her.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 62
Editing the Vocal layer
Vocal Rhythmic block / tab
Rhythmic effects use VoiceLive 3’s tempo to
chop, break up, pan or otherwise manipulate
your voice in time with the music.
Depending on how you set the depth and target
controls, Rhythmic can be mild or wild and apply
to either your lead vocal or the Harmony voices.
Tips and tricks for working with
the Vocal Rhythmic effect
– Using Vocal Rhythmic in combination with
Guitar Rhythmic can create some really inter-
esting sounds.
– Try increasing and reducing the “Depth” pa-
rameter to alter the relationship between the
lead or harmony voices and the Rhythmic ef-
fect.
– Setting the “Target” parameter to Harm Level
and using a long division makes the Harmony
voices swell and fade slowly.
– Try changing the Type parameter to create
dramatic variations in the output sound.
– Rhythmic can benefit from momentary use,
applying the effect to brief sections of your
vocal. Try remapping the Rhythmic effect to
a footswitch and set its mode to Momentary.
µMod footswitch remapped to Rhythmic, Mode
changed to Momentary
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 63
Editing the Vocal layer
Stut ter block / t ab
Stutter is essentially a small sampler, used to
make a quick recording of your vocal and play it
back repeatedly, in time with the music. Depending on the division setting, the sample used for
the Stutter effect can be longer or shorter.
Stutter is great for Pop, Hip Hop and EDM
genres, but can find a home in any style of music
when used creatively.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Stutter effect
– It takes some practice to learn when to press
the stutter button in relation to your singing
in order to get a good working sample. Take
some time to experiment with the timing of
footswitch pressing and the division param-
eter to see how the two interact.
– There is a Direction parameter that can play a
reversed version of the sample. Try changing
it from Forward to Reverse.
– Stutter is much easier to control and integrate
into your performance when the button is set
to Momentary operation. When remapping
Stutter to a footswitch, remember to set that
footswitch to Momentary.
– Stutter can be used in a similar fashion to Har-
mony Hold – see “Tips and tricks for working
with the Harmony effect”. Try starting the stut-
ter effect on a note, then sing around that stut-
ter note with your lead voice while the stutter
runs. It can help to mimic the stutter sound
with your lead voice while you do this. Phrases
like “yeah”, “nah-nah” etc. can work well.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 64
Editing the Vocal layer
Vocal Buttonmap block / tab
Buttonmap is probably one of the coolest new
features in VoiceLive3.
– Don’t like where the Harmony button is?
Remap it!
– Want to have direct footswitch access to an
effect that isn’t µMod, Delay, Reverb, HIT,
Double (Comp) or Harmony (Drive)?
Remap it!
– Don’t feel like switching between the Vocal
and Guitar layer?
Remap a Vocal button to a Guitar effect or
vice versa!
– Want to trigger a loop with one button from
the Vocal or Guitar layer?
Remap a button to Loop Trigger!
Remapping buttons
– Use the Control Knob to highlight the but-
ton you would like to remap. Physical button
names are on the top in each selection box,
and the mapped button is on the bottom.
– Use the Mix Knob on the far left to change the
button mapping.
– If you wish, set the footswitch to Momentary
mode using the Mix Knob under the Mode
column.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Buttonmap
– There are separate Buttonmap tabs on the Vo-
cal and Guitar edit screens. They are independent of one another, so you can remap footswitches for each layer.
– When you have remapped a footswitch, the
Home display will show you which effect has
been remapped. If you forget where you have
remapped a button, look there.
– Vocal effects have a small microphone image
next to them, Guitar effects have a small guitar, and system controls have a small wrench.
This can help you to see what the remapped
footswitch will affect.
– When remapping footswitches from one layer
to another, footswitches from another layer
(Guitar effects used on the Vocal layer and
vice versa) will be dimly lit in either blue (Vocal) or red (Guitar) when they are off to remind
you that pressing that footswitch will activate
an effect from a different layer. This is a good
reminder showing you at a glance which interlayer remappings you have made.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 65
Editing the Vocal layer
Remapping Loop Triggers
Loop triggers allow you to map a specific loop
to a specific button, PER PRESET. This can be
used for a loop you have saved and want to integrate into every performance of a specific song
or can even be used to store an entire backing
track that you can associate with the Preset.
Remapping a Loop Trigger is slightly different
from the Vocal or Guitar effects because you
need to define a couple of additional parameters.
For more information about the Looper, see “The
Looper”.
First, you need to set which particular Loop (slot)
the trigger will use tracks from.
Next, you determine which track or tracks that
particular footswitch will trigger when pressed.
Essentially the Loop Trigger acts as a simple
start/stop for the tracks you have recorded.
The available options are Track A, Track B, Track
C, Track A&B and Track A&C.
Delay footswitch remapped to triggering Loop
track B from Loop Slot 3
Keep in mind that tempo/metronome settings
are saved with each Loop. Accordingly, triggering a Loop using a remapped footswitch will invoke these settings. This means that when you
have mapped Loop tracks from two different
Loop slots to two footswitches and they have
different tempos, the other tempo-dependent
effects in your VoiceLive 3 – such as Delay and
Rhythmic – will change tempo to follow the newly
activated loop.
A footswitch remapped to a Loop trigger has a
special “loop” icon and shows which loop slot
and track is associated with it in the display.
! You can assign multiple footswitches to different loop triggers and switch between them at
will.
µMod footswitch remapped to Loop Slot 3 /
Tracks A and C, Delay footswitch remapped to
Loop Slot 3 / Track B
µMod footswitch remapped to triggering Loop
tracks A and C from Loop Slot 3
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 66
Editing the Guitar layer
Editing the Guitar layer
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 67
Editing the Guitar layer
Press the Guitar button to enter the Guitar edit
screen. For more information about editing Style,
Level, Control and other parameters associated
with each effect, see “Editing an Effect”.
Amp block / ta b
The Amp effect not only simulates physical amplifiers, but also provides controls for
– EQ (pre and post)
– Gain (pre and post)
– Tube/Transistor simulation and
– speaker emulation.
The level of EQ control in the Amp block is huge,
providing controls for both the pre-gain and
post-gain stage parametric EQ – something that
most real-world amplifiers don’t offer.
There are multiple controls for each low, mid and
high EQ including bandwidth (commonly known
as “Q”) and frequency.
If you don’t like one or more of the factory Amp
Styles, the EQ options allow you to change it to
suit your particular taste and tone requirements.
Tips and tricks for working
with Amp simulation
– On some amplifiers, what is called “PreGain”
and “PostGain” in VoiceLive3 is called “Gain”
and “Volume” respectively.
– More PreGain results in more distortion at
high levels. If you want a crunchy or distorted sound, turn down the PostGain, adjust
PreGain until you reach the amount of distortion you like, then turn up PostGain until the
output volume is similar to that of other guitar
Presets. You can do this by ear.
– Styles that have “Clean”, “Crunch” etc. in their
names can still be adjusted to have more, less
or no distortion using the PreGain and Post
Gain controls.
Adjusting Amp EQ settings
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 68
Editing the Guitar layer
Drive b lock / t ab
VoiceLive 3’s Drive effect can act as a Boost,
Drive or both.
Essentially, the Drive block has its own set of
PreGain and PostGain parameters, which are independent from the Amp simulation block. When
Boost is active, these settings replace the currently active Amp settings, changing your sound.
There are a few preconfigured Drive styles –
make sure you give them a try.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Drive effect
– Since the Amp settings are replaced by the
Boost settings when Boost is active, it’s possible to make your amp quieter or less distorted when Boost is active.
– You should probably avoid setting PreGain
and PostGain for the Amp and Boost blocks to
wildly different values. You may encounter unwanted feedback or drastic volume changes.
Test settings in rehearsal before trying them
out at a gig.
– Boost can be used when playing acoustic gui-
tar, simply to raise the level slightly for a solo
etc.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 69
Editing the Guitar layer
Guitar Delay block / tab
The Guitar Delay block works in the same manner as the Vocal Delay block. Please see “Vocal
Delay block / tab” for an overview of the Vocal
Delay block.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Guitar Delay effect
– There are benefits to using the same Delay
division for both guitar and vocal effects. You
can sync up the “taps” of the echoes on both
signals and create some very interesting effects.
– With the above in mind, using similar – but dif-
ferent – Delay divisions can also be very effective. For example, try ¼ note on your Vocal
and 1/8 note on the Guitar.
– “Slap” echo is a very common guitar setting
for classic country music sounds.
– Using Delay effectively can make a very sim-
ply played guitar passage sound much more
complex. “The Edge” from U2 makes heavy
use of Delay.
– Using Delay briefly can highlight a portion of
a song quite effectively. Listen to “Tangerine”
by Moist. In the verses, they use a brief “Ping
Pong” type delay to expand a mono guitar to
the stereo field. (0:42 into the video)
youtube.com/watch?v=6tkY81YGB44
(Sorry for the less-than-awesome video qual-
ity on this one.)
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 70
Editing the Guitar layer
Guitar Reverb block / tab
The Guitar Reverb block works in the same manner as the Vocal Reverb block. Please see “Vocal
Reverb block / tab” for an overview of the Vocal
Reverb block.
Using surgical skills that would make Victor
Frankenstein green with envy, we have transplanted TC-Electronic’s popular Hall of Fame
Reverb pedal into VoiceLive3’s Guitar layer. Now
you can enjoy the classic HoF sound alongside
your vocal effects!
Guitar Reverb block set to TC Electronic’s Hall
of Fame Plate reverb
Tips and tricks for working with
the Guitar Reverb effect
– Try using same style of Reverb for both Vocal
and Guitar. This helps “glue” the two sounds
together into a shared physical space.
– Using a very obvious Reverb during a solo
section can help differentiate the solo from the
rest of the song.
– If you are playing very fast, heavy music you
may be tempted to use no Reverb at all. Typi-
cally, if you listen to a recording of this type of
guitar sound, there will be a small amount of
Reverb used. Try one of the “Cozy Corner” or
“Wool” type Reverbs for a very subtle addition
of the effect.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 71
Editing the Guitar layer
Comp(ression) block / t ab
Compression is used across almost all modern
music production styles, from studio to live. In a
nutshell, Compression “brings the loudest bits
and quietest bits” of the music closer together in
apparent volume, creating a more even sound.
For guitar, using compression can
– enhance sustain or attack,
– limit levels and/or
– smooth out your overall sound.
For acoustic guitar, it is common to use some
compression full-time, while compression is often used during solos and boosted sections
for electric guitar. That being said: Like with any
other effect, there are really no rules. Use what
sounds good to you!
In studio recording, Compression is common on
almost every track or group of tracks.
Tips and tricks for working with
the Compression effect
– “Threshold” is the level at which the Compres-
sor begins to affect the sound. The lower the
Threshold (-30 dB is lower than -20 dB), the
sooner the Compressor will engage.
– “Ratio” determines “how much” Compression
takes place. Ratio is typically defined as “1:X
ratio” where “X” is the number of decibels (dB)
of reduction in level for every 1 dB over the
“Threshold” value. This can sound confusing,
but simply try to think of “lower Threshold and
higher Ratio” as “more Compression”.
Compression can raise the output level of your
guitar – so be aware that it can also contribute
to feedback.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 72
Editing the Guitar layer
Wah (Wah-Wah) block / tab
If you haven’t heard “Voodoo Child (Slight
Return)” by Jimi Hendrix (or later Stevie Ray
Vaughan) go listen to it now. That’s Wah in a nutshell.
youtube.com/watch?v=d81fdU8EP28
(In fact, there’s also some interesting delay ef-
fects and reverb in there, too.)
Wah is basically a carefully constructed EQ filter
that you can sweep up and down the frequency
spectrum with a foot-operated pedal.
Tips and tricks for working
with the Wah-wah effect
– Our Wah effect block also includes a few
“Touch Wah” styles that simulate moving a
foot pedal based on your playing volume and
pace. If you don’t have an expression pedal,
try one of the “Touch” styles.
– Playing with Wah can increase your chances
of feedback, since this effect is boosting a
range of frequencies. Of course, Jimi would
have a great argument for feedback being a
good thing!
– Try combining the Wah effect with Octaver for
a Wah-Bass sound.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 73
Editing the Guitar layer
µMod block / ta b
Similar to the Vocal version of this effect, µMod
provides micro-pitch shifting and timing effects
for your guitar. Some of the most famous µMod
effects include Flanger, Chorus and Detune.
We have conspired with TC-Electronic’s guitar
pedal gurus – namely Tore Mogensen – to recreate two of their best modulation effects for
VoiceLive3: Vortex Flanger and Corona Chorus.
Guitar µMod block set to Corona Chorus Fast
style
Tips and tricks for working
with the Guitar µMod effect
– Modulation effects aren’t just for electric gui-
tars. Styles like “Silky Detune” and “Medium
Detune” can really enhance the sound of an
acoustic guitar.
– Flanger creates a very “obvious” effect and
can make an electric guitar part stand out
from the rest of the song.
– Chorus sounds great for both acoustic and
electric guitar.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 74
Editing the Guitar layer
Octaver block / ta b
When we released VoiceLive Play GTX, lots of
folks loved the guitar processing, but kept on
asking for a single guitar effect addition: an Octaver. The ability to “play bass” on your guitar
opens up a whole new world of song composition, especially when looping.
The Octaver is a monophonic pitch shifter that
allows you to play single-line guitar parts and
have them shifted to another note. The most
common use, as we mentioned above, is to simulate a bass guitar – but there are other implementations as well. You can blend your original
guitar signal with a shifted signal to create some
great sounds!
Tips and tricks for working
with the Octaver effect
– When using the Octaver effect, remember to
play one note at a time. Unlike some of our
other pitch shift processing, Octaver is mono-
phonic, not polyphonic.
– Try turning the Mix % control up or down to
blend some of your regular guitar sound with
the shifted effect.
– When simulating a bass line, it helps to “play
like a bassist” . Your bass parts will sound
much more convincing if you approach them
with a bass player’s ear.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 75
Editing the Guitar layer
Guitar Rhythmic block / tab
The Guitar Rhythmic block basically works in
the same manner as the Vocal Rhythmic block.
Please see “Vocal Rhythmic block / tab” for an
overview of the Vocal Rhythmic block.
For the Guitar Rhythmic block, we have included
an improved “tremolo” sound to better replicate
the classic effect.
Tips and tricks for working with
the Guitar Rhythmic effect
– Using Chopper or Pan based Rhythmic ef-
fects can add a lot of flavor to your sound, es-
pecially when used as a special effect.
– Similar to the suggestions for Delay, experi-
ment with using the same Delay and Rhythmic
divisions for guitar and vocals. Conversely,
try different divisions to create more exotic
sounds.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 76
Editing the Guitar layer
Guitar Buttonmap block / tab
The Guitar Buttonmap works in the same manner as the Vocal Buttonmap. Please see “Vocal
Buttonmap block / tab” for an overview of the Vocal Buttonmap.
Keep in mind that the Vocal and Guitar Buttonmap settings are independent of each other, representing the Vocal and Guitar layers respectively. To learn how you can create inter-layer mappings, see “Remapping a footswitch”.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 77
The Looper
The Looper
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 78
The Looper
VoiceLive 3 has a three-track
Looper, which is an extremely
powerful performance tool. We
have taken our experiences from
past products – including VoiceLive Touch 2 and VoiceLive Play
– to create our most exciting and
flexible Looper ever.
Basic Loop concepts and terms
Let’s make sure that you understand the basic
concepts and the terminology used in this chapte r.
– Loop: A “loop” or “loop track” is a basic re-
cording of music (or any kind of audio, for that
matter) that can be recorded and then played
back repeatedly.
– Overdub: Something that is recorded while
another, previously recorded piece of audio/
music is being played back. In theory, you
could pile up hundreds of overdubs, turning
one basic loop into a complex piece of music.
– Loop track: In each Loop slot (see below),
VoiceLive3 allows you to store three separate
Loops: Loop track A, Loop track B and Loop
track C. Depending on the setting you made
in the Sync sub-menu (see “Sync sub-menu”),
you can either switch between these three
tracks or play them in certain combinations
(Loop tracks A and B or Loop tracks A and C).
Remember that each of these Loop tracks can
encompass one or many overdubs.
– Loop slot: A Loop slot is a place where you
can store the Loops you have recorded. Each
Loop slot can contains three Loop tracks as
described above (A, B and C).
Loop Slots / Loop Tracks,
Presets and the Buttonmap
You can assign Loop Slots and Loop Tracks to
footswitches using the Buttonmap feature, and
these settings are stored as part of every Preset. This allows you to select a Preset that will
not only contain your Vocal and Guitar settings,
but also the basic building blocks for a song,
mapped to your VoiceLive 3’s footswitches.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 79
The Looper
Entering and exiting Loop mode
To enter Loop mode, press and hold the Layer
button. The LED of the Layer footswitch will turn
purple, and the screen will display loop tracks
and other information.
The loop screen shows a combination of controls, which relate to the six footswitches, and
track “thumbnails” that show you what you have
recorded.
To exit Loop mode and return to the previously
active layer (Vocal or Guitar), press and hold the
Layer button.
Loop mode activated
Your first loop
Just to get you started, let’s make a quick loop.
– If you are not already on the Looper layer, go
there now by pressing and holding the Layer
button.
Setting up the metronome
– Let’s turn on the Metronome (MET) so you can
make your loop to a consistent beat.
As you can see, there are six segments in the
display, which correlate to the six footswitches. The lower left segment is labeled “MET”
and represents the HIT footswitch.
– Tap the HIT footswitch.
Metronome settings
The HIT footswitch will begin flashing purple,
indicating that the Metronome is now active.
If you are using headphones, you should hear
a Kick Drum Metronome.
– If you don’t hear a metronome sound over
your headphones:
– Press the Home button.
– Move any of the MIX knobs to access the
Mix page.
– Navigate to the Headphone Mix page using
the Arrow buttons.
– Turn up the Metronome Level.
– Press and hold the Layer button to re-enter
the Looper.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 80
The Looper
If you are connected to a PA, you should hear
a Kick Drum Metronome.
– If you don’t hear a metronome sound over
yo ur P. A . :
– Press the Home button.
– Move any of the MIX knobs to access the
Mix page.
– Navigate to the Main Mix page using the Ar-
row buttons.
– Turn up the Metronome Level.
– Press and hold the Layer button to re-enter
the Looper.
– The flashing HIT button now represents Tap
Tempo, so you can tap in a new tempo now
if you wish. While you are tapping, the current
tempo will be displayed.
When you stop tapping, the unit will return to
the main Loop screen.
– If you haven not tapped a new tempo, press
BACK (µMod footswitch) to return to the main
Loop screen.
Start recording
– When you are ready to start recording, press
the footswitch associated with REC A (the
Harmony/Drive footswitch) to begin recording
your first loop track. You can sing, play your
guitar, or do both.
– When you reach the end of the segment you
want to record, try to press the REC A footswitch as close to the beat as you can. Our
LoopAssist feature helps with this, but try to
be as accurate as possible.
Set + Overdub vs. Set + Play
– While recording your first basic loop, you will
see two new options on the screen:
Set + Play and Set + Overdub
– To finish recording the current loop and imme-
diately have it played back, tap the footswitch
associated with Set+Play (Ha rmony / Drive).
Your new loop will be played back.
– To finish recording the current loop and im-
mediately go into overdub mode (allowing you
to record additional takes over the first one),
tap the footswitch associated with Set+ODub
(Double / Comp).
Your new loop will be played back, and you
can record additional takes. This is a great
feature to use if you have rehearsed your loop
performance and want to quickly build up loop
components on top of one another
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 81
The Looper
Overdubbing
– For this example, let us end your first basic
loop recording by tap the footswitch associated with Set+Play (Harmony / Drive).
You should hear your loop (Loop track A) play-
ing back.
Next, let’s overdub something on Loop track A.
If you think of your Loop track A as a cake, that
first recording is the base layer of the cake, and
overdubs are more layers of cake, or jam, or
whipped cream… Mmm. Cake.
– When you are ready, press ODUB A (Harmo-
ny/Drive footswitch) and record an overdub.
– When you are finished, press END ODUB
(Harmony/Drive footswitch).
Ready for overdubbing
Recording Loop track B
– Now, while Loop track A is still playing back,
we will record something else onto Loop track
B. Yes, it’s another cake!
– When you are ready, press REC B (Reverb
footswitch).
Recording an overdub
– If you would like to add several different over-
dubs, you can keep the overdub recording
running and add new parts each time the loop
begins again.
Recording Loop track B
– Now what makes working with separate Loop
tracks so interesting is that your second Loop
track (Loop track B) can be longer than Loop
track A. Still, you will get the best results when
Loop track B is a multiple of the number of
beats in Loop track A.
– For example, if Loop track A is four beats (one
bar), make Loop track B 8 or 16 beats (two or
four bars).
If you record longer than one multiple, but less
than two, silence will fill in the gap.
– You will see the same Set+Play and Set+ODub
options you saw when recording Loop track A.
Choose one, and press it when you are fin-
ished recording.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 82
The Looper
High Harmony
High
Harmony
Low Harmony
Low
Harmony
Lead Voice
– If you chose Set+Odub, continue to record
overdubs until you are finished, then tap END
ODUB.
Understanding loop track length
To get a better understanding of how loop tracks
of different lengths are played back in SMART
Sync mode (see “SMART”), start by recording a
simple loop of just counting numbers.
– Loop track A: Record the words “one, two,
three, four” as close to the metronome beats
as you can.
– Loop track B: Record the words “one, two
three, four, five” as close to the metronome
beats as you can.
When playing back, you will notice that the
two tracks line up for the first “four”, then
Loop B says “Five” and goes silent for three
more beats, then repeats.
ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE
LOOP B
Undo and Redo
Have you made a mistake, maybe in your fourth
or fifth overdub? No reason to throw away the
whole track. You can easily undo your last overdub (i.e., remove it from the Loop track) – and if
you change your mind, you can restore it.
– To undo the last overdub, tap the Looper foot-
switch.
– To redo (“undo the undo”, thereby restoring
the last overdub), tap the Looper footswitch
again.
Using Swap
Swap is a great new feature that allows you to
maintain your Loop track A, while moving seamlessly between two additional tracks (Loop track
B and Loop track C).
We are still following our “Your first loop” example, and at this point, you should have recorded
Loop track A and Loop track B. Let’s move on to
recording Loop C.
– When you are ready to record a new Loop
track as Loop C, tap Swap.
Loop track B will stop playing, and you will
begin recording LOOP C.
ONE TWO THREE FOUR ONE TWO THREE FOUR
Other Sync modes are discussed in more detail
later – see “Sync sub-menu”.
Next, let’s try Swap.
Using Swap
– You will see the same Set+Play and Set+ODub
options you saw when recording Loop track A
( see “Set + Overdub vs. Set + Play”).
– Choose one, and press it when you are fin-
ished recording.
– If you chose Set+ODub, continue to record
overdubs until you are finished, then tap End
ODub.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 83
The Looper
– Now, tap Swap. You will see in the display that
Loop track C continues to play until it reaches
its end, then VoiceLive3 automatically switches to Loop B!
Press ALL STOP to stop recording
– Stop loop playback by pressing ALL STOP
(HIT footswitch).
This completes our tutorial.
The Utility menu
We will now explore the UTIL(ity) menu, where
you will find many of the Looper options.
– Tap the footswitch linked to the Utility menu
(the µMod footswitch) to enter the Utility menu.
– If you see “SWAP” in the top left menu seg-
ment, press and hold the µMod footswitch to
enter the Utility menu. This press/hold action
is designed to allow the Swap button to do
double duty, depending on whether you have
a “B” and “C” loop recorded.
Once you have entered the UTIL menu, you
will see several new menu options.
Utility menu
Back
Tap BACK (µMod footswitch) to move “up” from
the Utility menu or one of its sub-menus until you
are back on the main loop screen.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 84
The Looper
Input sub-menu
Tap INPUT (Delay footswitch) to open the Input
sub-menu. In the Input sub-menu, you choose
which input(s) the Looper will record. This feature
allows you to use a specific input or inputs for
various loops (e.g. your microphone for a beatbox section and your guitar for a chord progression), while preventing sound from other inputs
entering your loop.
With the above in mind, you could be playing
guitar and singing simultaneously, while only recording your voice or your instrument into the
Looper. This gives you a lot of flexibility.
The available input options are:
– Voc+Guit: For recording your vocals (with ef-
fects) and your Guitar.
– Guitar
– Aux: (for recording the signal at your Voice-
Live3’s Aux jack).
– Voc: For recording your vocals (with effects).
– All: For recording vocals, guitar and the Aux
signal.
Loop input sub-menu
– Select the option you want to use by tapping
the respective footswitch.
– Press BACK to exit the INPUT menu.
Save
– Tap SAVE (Reverb footswitch) to store your
loop to the current Loop slot.
The current Loop slot number is shown below
the UP and DOWN arrows on the far left of the
Loop display.
– To switch to another Loop slot, press the Pre-
set up and Preset down footswitches.
The Loop slot number is saved with your oth-
er Preset information and is automatically recalled when you load a Preset.
– Undo/Redo information is NOT stored with the
Loop when saved.
Saving your Loop to the current Loop Slot
Metronome sub-menu
Tap MET (the HIT footswitch) to enter the Metronome sub-menu. In the Metronome sub-menu,
you can turn the metronome on or off and
change its sound.
Metronome sub-menu
The options in the Metronome sub-menu are:
– MET ON: Tap MET ON (Double / Comp foot-
switch) to turn on the metronome and all related sync features.
The Metronome is more than a simple “click
track”. It generates an audio signal guiding
you when you are recording loops – but it also
syncs with and controls the tempo.
– MET MUTE: Tap MET MUTE (Harmony / Drive
footswitch) to mute the audio output for the
Metronome. If you mute the Metronome, it will
still be active for tempo and LoopAssist™, but
it won’t make any sound.
– MET OFF: Tap MET OFF (Delay footswitch) to
turn off the metronome and all related sync
features.
Please note the difference between MET OFF
and MET MUTE: When you turn the Metronome off, VoiceLive3’s LoopAssist™ no longer guides your recordings, and the Loop may
fall “off time” with other time based effects like
Delay or Rhythmic.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 85
The Looper
– TA P : Tap TAP (HIT footswitch) rhythmically to
define a new tempo. While you are tapping a
tempo, the Preset Up and Preset Down foot-
switches will be lit in blue, indicating that you
can use them to fine-tune the tempo in BPM
steps.
– SOUND: Tap SOUND (Reverb footswitch) to
open a new sub-menu where you can choose
which sound the metronome should make.
When you have chosen a sound you like,
press BACK.
Metronome sound sub-menu
Metronome level
As you can adjust the audio output for the Main
Mix and Headphone Mix independently (see
“9. Mix knobs”), it’s your choice if the audience
hears the metronome or not.
you would have to delete the Loop completely or
switch to another Loop slot.
If you record a Loop with the Metronome OFF,
you can still change the tempo later.
Sync sub-menu
Tap SYNC (the Double / Comp footswitch) to enter the Sync sub-menu. In the Sync sub-menu,
you can define how VoiceLive3’s Looper should
sync to a given tempo.
The options in the Sync sub-menu are described
below.
SMART
Select SMART to use all features of VoiceLive3’s
LoopAssist™. LoopAssist™ chooses how and
when to trim and extend loops, based on what
you have already recorded.
Pressing the SWAP button will toggle between
Loop track B and Loop track C, making the
change when you reach the end of the current
loop. Loop tracks A and B or Loop tracks A and
C can play simultaneously.
SMART enforces a relationship between the primary Loop track (track A) and Loop tracks B and
C. In other words: Loop tracks B and C can exist
as a multiple (in bars) of Loop track A, but they
cannot be shorter.
Tempo and Metronome
As long as you haven’t recorded anything into
a Loop slot, you can freely define the tempo for
your loop using the TAP button.
See the QUANTIZE section below for a step-bystep comparison between SMART and QUANTIZE. It’s much easier to hear and see than to
read about!
Once you have recorded a Loop with the Metronome ON, the tempo will be locked – meaning it
cannot be changed later. To change the tempo,
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 86
The Looper
SERIAL
When you choose SERIAL in the Sync submenu, Loops are played back one after the other,
waiting for each loop to finish before proceeding
to the next.
In SERIAL mode, Loop tracks A, B and C play independently and cannot be played at the same
time.
This mode is useful if you have three song sections or progressions and want to alternate between them. Of course, you do not have to progress from Loop A to B to C in that order – you
may play back loops in any order.
QUANTIZE
Just like SMART, QUANTIZE uses VoiceLive3’s
LoopAssist™ feature. It will make your loops fall
onto the nearest beat of the current tempo. But
other than SMART, QUANTIZE does not extend
or trim Loops.
For a good example of the difference, try this:
– In the Sync sub-menu, select SMART.
– Record a short loop on Loop track A.
– Record a longer loop on Loop track B.
– Let them play back and take note of how it
sounds (and looks in the display).
– Delete both loops from Loop tracks A and B
(see “Erase sub-menu”).
– Now, record a longer Loop on Loop track A.
– Record a shorter Loop on Loop track B.
– Notice that the shorter “B” loop is automati-
cally extended with empty space to match
Loop track A.
– Once again, delete both Loops.
Our apologies for such a long list of steps – but
it’s probably best to see and hear the differences in action to fully understand how Smart and
Quantize modes work.
– In the Sync sub-menu, select QUANTIZE.
– Record a longer loop on Loop track A.
– Record a shorter loop on Loop track B, and
try to make it divisible into Loop track A.
For example, if Loop track A is four bars long,
make Loop track B two bars.
Notice how Loop track B now loops multiple
times for each loop of Track A.
This is a better mode if you would like to re-
cord a longer Loop track A (perhaps a chord
progression) and a shorter Loop track B (perhaps a beatbox section).
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 87
The Looper
FREE
This one’s easy to explain: No metronome or
other sync. Loops are all recorded completely
independently and can take any form/length. Go
crazy!
Erase sub-menu
Tap ERASE (the Harmony / Drive footswitch) to
enter the Erase sub-menu. In the Erase submenu, you will find options for erasing your
Loops:
– Erase Loop track A
– Erase Loop track B
– Erase Loop track C
– Erase All Loop tracks
Erase sub-menu
Erasing loops directly
You can easily delete a single loop without having to go to the Erase sub-menu.
Loop limits
– The total loop time available in VoiceLive3 is
45 minutes.
– Individual loop Tracks can be up to 8 minutes.
While you are on the main Loop screen, simply
press/hold the ODUB button for a Loop track
(Reverb or Harmony footswitches respectively).
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 88
Setup
Setup
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 89
Setup
Setup contains all of the system-wide parameters for
VoiceLive3. Each page or tab
is described in its own section
of this chapter.
– Tap the Setup button to enter the system
menu.
– Tap the Arrow buttons to switch between the
tabs of the system menu.
Input tab
The Input page contains settings for all of the inputs in VoiceLive3.
Input Gain parameter
Use the Input Gain parameter to adjust the input
level for the Mic input.
If you have completed the Auto-Gain procedure
from the Quick Guide, you likely won’t need to
adjust this.
To adjust the gain manually, do the following.
– Plug in your microphone.
– If you have a condenser microphone, change
Input Type to Condenser.
– Sing at your loudest.
– Turn the Input Gain parameter up until only the
green and yellow LEDs of the Level indicator
light up.
– If you see the red LED light, turn Input Gain
down until the red LED no longer lights.
This is your optimal Input Gain setting.
Input Type parameter
Use the Input Type parameter to select your microphone type. Choose the one that best matches your setup.
The available options are:
– Dynamic Mic – E.g. SM58, OM5, MP-70 etc.
– Condenser Mic – Activates +48V phantom
power
– MP-75 Mic – enables Mic Control
– E835 FX Mic – enables Mic Control
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 90
Setup
Global Pitch Correct parameter
Use the Global Pitch Correct parameter to apply
auto-chromatic pitch correction to your incoming microphone signal. This feature is separate
from the HardTune effect block and will be overridden when HardTune is active.
We like to think of Global Pitch Correction as “a
little help”, gently guiding you to the next nearest
semitone at all times. Since this correction is always chromatic, you can still sing a “wrong” note
(relative to the current key/scale of your song),
but it does help with your overall pitch.
Parameter range: 0 to 100%
Try a setting of circa 40% for a transparent
sound.
If you hear “phasing” between your natural voice
and corrected voice, this is totally normal.
Check out this Craig’s Corner video for more information on pitch correction phasing:
youtube.com/watch?v=KWrEIuiDXsA
RoomSense Auto-Detect parameter
Use the RoomSense Auto-Detect parameter to
add the RoomSense microphones built into your
VoiceLive 3 to the available NaturalPlay sources.
Parameter settings:
– On: VoiceLive3 will “listen” to the RoomSense
microphones for Key/Scale information if no
Guitar, MIDI or Aux signal is present.
– Off: VoiceLive 3 will ignore any music “heard”
by the RoomSense microphones.
Lead Delay parameter
Use the Lead Delay parameter to apply latency
compensation between your lead voice and effects.
Parameter settings:
– None: Your lead voice is passed through the
unit as quickly as possible, regardless of the
number of effects and their latency.
– Voice Sync: Your lead voice is dynamically
delayed (ever so slightly) so that any gener-
ated voices – such as Harmony – are “lined
up” together perfectly. The amount that your
lead voice can be delayed is dependent on the
number of generated voices.
– Auto: Similar to Voice Sync, Auto delays your
lead voice relative to the overall latency of all
active effects, not just generated voices.
While this mode is the most accurate in terms
of timing, it can also introduce the most sig-
nificant feeling that “what you sing” comes
“out of the box” a split second later. For some,
this latency is unnoticeable, for others, it’s dis-
tracting.
Try the various modes to determine which one
works best for the “feeling” and the resulting
sound output.
VoiceLive 3 – Reference manual (2014-03-29) 91
Setup
Lead Mute parameter
Use the Lead Mute parameter to mute all incoming lead vocal signals.
Parameter settings: on/off.
When Lead Mute is on, it mutes either microphone or line level signals, whichever is plugged
into the combo jack. Lead Mute is great for “post
processing” prerecorded dry vocals.
Post processing prerecorded dry vocals:
– Send the “dry” vocal from your DAW to the
Mic/Line input.
– Turn Lead Mute on.
– Record the resulting effects-only signal to a
new track in your DAW.
– Blend the original “dry” vocal track and new
“wet” vocal tracks together in the mix.
Aux Level parameter
Use the Aux Level parameter to control the level
of the signal received at the Aux input jack. If you
are getting distortion when connecting an external music source to the Aux input, try turning this
control down.
Aux Vocal Cancel parameter
When you activate Aux Vocal Cancel, VoiceLive 3 will attempt to remove vocals from recorded stereo music coming into the Aux input.
Please note that the ability for Voice Cancel to
“work its magic” is highly dependent on the mix
of the incoming music. Stereo recordings with
vocals directly in the middle and instruments
panned far to the left and right tend to work the
best.
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Setup
Monitor Level parameter
Use the Monitor Level parameter to control the
level of the signal received at the Monitor input
jack. If your incoming monitor mix is distorting,
try turning this parameter down.
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Setup
Output tab
Output Mode parameter
Use the Output Mode parameter to selects the
output mode for VoiceLive3.
Parameter settings:
– Stereo:
– The left XLR output jack carries the left ste-
reo channel.
– The right XLR output jack carries the right
stereo channel.
– Mono:
– The left XLR output jack carries the summed
(with effects) mono vocal & guitar channel
signals.
– The right XLR output jack carries the
summed (without effects) mono vocal &
guitar channel signals.
– The dry channel includes Tone and Auto-
Chromatic Pitch Correction (if applicable).
– The dry channel does not contain HardTune
effect(s).
– Dual Mono:
– The left XLR output jack carries the summed
(with effects) mono vocal channel.
– The right XLR output jack carries the
summed (with effects) mono guitar channel.
XLR Out Level parameter
Use the XLR Out Level parameter to set the relative level of the signal going to the XLR outputs.
Parameter settings:
– Mic Level: Typically the best setting when
connecting to a mixer/PA. This level closely
replicates that of a microphone going directly
into the mixer.
– Line Level: When connecting to a mixer/PA
line inputs, this setting is a good choice.
Links:
– For a tutorial on PA basics, Yorkville has an
extremely useful “PA Primer” guide (PDF):
yorkville.com/downloads/other/basicpaprim-
er.p df
– There is also a great Craig’s Corner video epi-
sode covering Mixer Setup with TC-Helicon
devices:
youtube.com/watch?v=qq0AOtafIjs
– And another with tips on eliminating feedback:
youtube.com/watch?v=VlN1RJ4gcAo
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Setup
Headphone Limiter parameter
Use the Headphone Limiter parameter to set the
limiter level for the headphone output.
0 dB allows for maximum potential headphone
output. Levels below 0dB (-3dB etc) will restrict
or “limit” the maximum potential headphone output. When using in-ear monitors, you may want
to set the limiter in order to prevent hearing damage by transient loud noises such as feedback.
Talk Trim parameter
Use the Talk Trim parameter to adjust the volume
of your lead voice when “Talk/Bypass” mode is
engaged. It’s not uncommon for performers to
want a little bit more or less volume through the
PA when effects are bypassed.
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Setup
Guitar tab
Input Gain parameter
Use the Input Gain parameter to adjust the input
level for the Guitar IN. To set this correctly, do
the following:
– Plug in your guitar.
– Turn your guitar’s volume control to maximum.
– Play the loudest you normally would.
– Turn the Input Gain parameter up until only the
green and yellow LEDs of the Level indicator
light up.
– If you see the red LED light, turn Input Gain
down until the red LED no longer lights.
This is your optimal Input Gain setting.
Phase parameter
Use the Phase parameter to invert the phase of
the guitar signal.
Parameter settings:
– Normal: Signal phase is maintained as it is at
the guitar input.
– Inverted: Incoming signal phase is reversed.
It can sometimes be beneficial to invert the
phase of a guitar to prevent feedback from
stage monitors. This is especially applicable
to acoustic guitars
Speaker Sim Enable parameter
Use the Speaker Sim Enable parameter to switch
the speaker simulation portion of the guitar Amp
effect block on or off.
Parameter settings:
– On: Speaker simulations are active. This is a
good setting for use with a PA or FRFR (Full
Range, Flat Response) speaker.
– Off: Speaker simulations are turned off. This is
a good global setting if you are plugging into a
nice amplifier and want to maintain its “sound”
relative to the guitar effects.
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Setup
Output Mode parameter
Use the Output Mode parameter to specify if guitar output levels should be variable or fixed.
Parameter settings:
– Unity Gain: Maintains a constant guitar level
output, regardless of Mix settings.
If you have an expression pedal connected
and have it set to control guitar volume, the
guitar output level will be affected.
– Variable Level: Changes to the guitar level on
the Mix screen will affect the level of the guitar outputs.
This parameter is only applicable to the ¼” guitar
outputs, not the XLR outputs. The XLR outputs
always allow variations of guitar level via the mix
screen, as long as no ¼” guitar outputs are connected.
Gate Threshold parameter
Use the Gate Threshold parameter to set the
threshold for the guitar gate. A gate “closes” or
mutes the sound when it reaches a specific low
volume threshold.
To set the gate effectively, play a note or chord,
letting it ring out for a while. You will notice that
it reaches a certain volume and then goes completely silent. This indicates that the gate has
“closed”, effectively muting the output. The key
is to find a gate threshold setting that allows for
your instrument to naturally ring and sustain, but
still reduces noise when you are not playing. You
will need to experiment to find the optimal setting for your personal style and needs.
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Setup
MIDI tab
Source parameter
Use the Source parameter to determines which
MIDI input VoiceLive 3 should use.
Parameter settings:
– USB: VoiceLive 3 receives MIDI information
from the USB port.
– MIDI: VoiceLive 3 receives MIDI information
from the hardware MIDI IN port.
Filter parameter
Use the Filter parameter to filter out specific MIDI
information from the incoming MIDI data stream.
This is helpful if you would like VoiceLive3 to respond to certain types of information – like program changes – but not others, such as Continuous Controller (CC) messages. The parameter
setting you choose here tells VoiceLive 3 what
NOT to respond to.
Parameter settings:
– None: All incoming MIDI data is responded to,
if applicable.
– PrgChange: All incoming Program Change
messages are rejected.
– SysEx: Any incoming System Exclusive (Sy-
sEx) data is rejected.
– PC + SysEx: All incoming Program Change
messages and SysEx data are rejected.
MIDI Channel parameter
Use the MIDI Channel parameter to set the MIDI
Channel that VoiceLive3 “listens to” for incoming MIDI information. This parameter is useful if
you have multiple MIDI devices and want to send
specific commands to individual devices.
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