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Post subject: Digitech voice harmonizer 3
Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:57 am
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Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 5:06 pm
Posts: 46
Location: Just north of Calgary Alberta
My friend told me about this wonderfull little gismo today. So i U tubed it watched a bunch of demos, read some reviews and pretty well made up my mind on getting one. I'm a strong vocaliist but just a pretty well basic rythem man with a 314 Taylor and the Passport 500, which in my opinion is the best bang for the buck of a PA System i've ever sang in and just totally impressed with this thing. Does any one here have any experience with this unit plugged in the 500? - Thanks Louis- Calgary Alberta


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Post subject: Re: Digitech voice harmonizer 3
Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 5:52 pm
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
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While I lack experience with this device, I did pull up the owner's manual from the manufacturer's web site. There are a couple things to keep in mind when using this device with the Fender Passport 500:

1. By design, the harmonizer is a stereo device. While it can be used in mono mode, part of the spacial effect from the box is a stereo chorus for the guitar. Nobody ever talks about a mono chorus guitar effect.

2. The two output jacks for this device are XLR.

3. A quote from the manual about the output level from these XLR ports: "These balanced XLR outputs provide a stereo mix of Lead Vocal and HarmonyVoices.The signal level coming from of the outs could be described as a “hot” mic-level signal. It should be compatible with both the mic input of a mixer (with the input trim turned down somewhat) and with a line input on the mixer (with the level set higher)."

Most sound sources are either mic level (quieter) or line level (louder). For some reason, instead of sticking to one standard or the other, the engineers who made this device decided to aim between the two standards. That might make the device a little awkward to use. Here's the problem:

If you want that stereo sound, you'll need two cables that are female XLR at one end (as if they were plugging into a microphone), and male 1/4" TS or TRS at the other end so that you can plug them into the two 1/4" inputs on one of your two stereo input channels on the Passport (channel 7 or 8). These 1/4" inputs expect line level signal, and what they'll get from this box will be pretty quiet for line level. Maybe if you crank that channel's volume all the way up, you might get enough sound out of it. No guarantees here, because this signal is not quite loud enough to really be line level. Line level is a standard, and the harmonizer's engineers have ignored the standard.

If you don't care about stereo, then you can use a normal XLR cable to connect one of the two output XLR ports on the harmonizer, make sure the harmonizer is switched to mono mode, plug the other end of the cable into any of the six XLR input ports on the Passport with the Pad switch off and turn the channel volume on the Passport really low. You might have to experiment to figure out if it sounds better turned low with the Pad switch off, or with the channel volume cranked really high and the Pad switched on (so the button is lit). The Pad button switches the appropriate input level from mic (Pad off) to line (Pad on) for XLR inputs. It doesn't affect 1/4" inputs, because they are always assumed to be line level.

I can't predict how awkward this might be. The Passport was designed to handle line or mic level. It wasn't really designed to handle a signal somewhere between mic and line level. Likely, it can handle it, but the volume level on the channel won't be in what your experience has thus far taught you to expect as normal.

Maybe it won't be an issue. I don't know. I can't test it. But the choice to not fit either the mic level or line level standard concerns me. This is the first piece of equipment I've seen that does this. It won't be a problem when used with amps that have a wide-range gain control for inputs, since in that sort of amp, you'd just aim the gain straight up, instead of the more typical settings closer to 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock for line or mic level signals. The Passport didn't take that approach because the vast majority of equipment follows the standards of line or mic level signals.


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Post subject: Re: Digitech voice harmonizer 3
Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:40 pm
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Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 5:06 pm
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Location: Just north of Calgary Alberta
Boy oh boy, you sure don't play around when you check some thing out do you :D i'm gonna tell my friend to read this post because he has got the same as i do but he has the 800 series Taylor and the Passport 500. And that's exactly why i posted this here is because i fear having the volume or quality of my voice jeperdized in any way possible. I'm gonna print out this page for future reference, umm now i have some thinking to do.. Can't thank you enough for the thorough research you did for me. Louis


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