Any TC Helicon VoiceLive Users?

I don't have any suggestions for you, just curious....

My keyboard, when transposed, still transmits the same MIDI note values,

what keyboard do you have? I don't know, Dave, but that just seems wrong - why would a keyboard mfg allow you to transpose the audio but leave the MIDI unaltered? Is that normal? I'm going to have to go check my keyboards when I get home, I've never tested that!

Well, I found the answer to my dilemma on Motifator.com. Beagle, even though you didn't have an answer, you got me thinking - it should be the responsibility of the controlling synth, not the effect. And sure enough, my MO8 actually has two ways to transpose, one that affects only the audio and one that affects both audio and MIDI. Woohoo! I can play with my new toy this weekend.

losguy, I was just about to order the MIDI Solutions box when I found my answer. If it had been $50 I would have ordered it immediately, but it was $150 or something so I hesitated. Good thing I did. It wouldn't have been the first time I rushed to buy some box that would end up in my junk drawer!

As long as I brought up this topic, I probably ought to say more about the VoiceLive unit in case anybody stumbles onto this thread while researching it.

1. There are a lot of them on the used market. Many users are put off by the programming required. If you're a presets-only type of user, it may be more of hassle than you're willing to tolerate. But if you're a tweaker by nature, you can benefit from those users who are trying to dump them. Don't pay $800 for one; used ones are available for $350-400. I paid $400 for mine.

2. This really isn't a great solution for guitar players. I saw a demo at NAMM last January, performed by a guitarist, that was quite good. However, I now know that in preparation for that demo he had to spend a LOT of time programming the thing. It's going to work much better when controlled from a MIDI keyboard.

3. Out of the box, many of the settings sound robotic. You have to tweak the vibrato and EQ to get useful sounds out of it.

4. Don't get this unit with the idea of using it for recording. It's just not a high-enough quality and is too noisy for recording. I've recorded a test song in SONAR, but I suspect the only thing it's really good for is background oohs. It's so noisy that it has a noise gate built in, and if you don't adjust the gate threshold high enough the hiss will be noticeable, even in a live venue.

5. It has a really good reverb. I wouldn't have a problem using the reverb for recording. My next experiment will be using it as an external hardware insert. That could be fun, since you'd record a dry vocal and then add the MIDI control track later, allowing you to fiddle with the harmonies in the PRV as if it were a synth. You can set the box up so that each harmony responds to a different MIDI channel, so you could even program each vocal part as a separate MIDI track.

ORIGINAL: bitflipper
losguy, I was just about to order the MIDI Solutions box when I found my answer. If it had been $50 I would have ordered it immediately, but it was $150 or something so I hesitated. Good thing I did. It wouldn't have been the first time I rushed to buy some box that would end up in my junk drawer!

Aw, then your junk drawer would just have been one box happier.
Small side note, I'm glad that a small company like MIDI Solutions still exists. Back in the 80's-90's, guys like these were a dime a dozen. Now they're all gone. I only wish MS had a good MIDI router/mapper. That would be helpful to me in my multi-keyboard studio.

Glad that the box was expensive enough to not be an impulse buy, and most of all, that you got it sorted out in your keyboard settings.

You know, I'm like Beagle on this one. I'm not sure how different keyboards have such a thing implemented. It may vary depending on the brand and/or model.

Wow, I hate veering off the Helicon, sorry, but I can't resist asking this...

Since you mention MIDI over USB... do you find that it is less precise that MIDI over PCI? For example, I find that my ReMote SL (over USB) sometimes "clumps" notes, like they get buffered up and then belched out all squished together. It's subtle, just 10-20 msec or so (roughly) at the extremes, but it's noticeable, and definitely not what I played.

I'm trying to rule out if it's my system's USB implementation (MSI Neo2 Platinum MOBO) or just WinXP USB handling. I suppose that it could be the ReMote itself, but I doubt it. I'll be running some experiments with MIDI out from the ReMote to the MIDI In on my Terratec EWS-88D PCI card, to see if I can tell a difference. But mainly, I was just wondering about any impressions you may have from your experience on your system(s). TIA

Right... I'm thinking the same thing. Since I have both options, I'll try PCI next time I'm moving cables in the studio.

Sorry if I'm being pedantic, but when you say "Nothing but 5-pin DIN here", do you take MIDI into your PC somehow, or do you keep it just in your synth workstation?

Thanks, BF. I'll take that under advisement as I dig further into my system's timing problems.