I think the VL3X (and the VL3) have their uses. I suppose the danger is to become enamored of the technology and try to use it on everything because it sounds so good. This thing does a LOT of cool stuff. You just have to check out YouTube to hear a small part of it's capabilities.

I'd prefer real voices to computer generated harmonies IF I have folks available that want to spend the time to lay down real harmony parts. And in fact I usually record my own parts when time is not an issue. But for a songwriter who wants to create something where harmonies are a big part of the creation the VL3X can help you get the effect you're looking for quickly. Not unlike using BIAB to create a new song and get a feel for how it would sound fully produced.

As for the technical quality, even 16 bit stuff works for me for this kind of work. I use BIAB EP rather than Audiophile and I've never been unhappy with it. In fact the last 10 albums I produced had quiet a few BIAB songs on them.

Note that the VL3X manual provides the following DA/AD conversion specs as:

"D to A Conversion 24 Bit, 128 x oversampling bitstream, 115 dB SNR A-weighted"

"A to D Conversion 24 Bit, 128 x oversampling bitstream, 110 dB SNR A-weighted"

While the quality of and accuracy of the harmonies are as good as I've ever heard they are still computer generated and if used "as is" can sound a bit mechanical. But it's not so apparent that I'd decline to use it. Again you have to decide if the final product you're creating is worth the additional effort and cost of using real harmonies. There are a number of professional groups using the VL Rack in their performances and I imagine in their recording work.

The old TC VoicePrism required a midi guide track for creating vocal harmonies. Whereas the VL3Z accurately reads audio input to create tracks, whether its a guitar, keyboard, or a full audio file. Here's a clip from our initial woodshedding experiments with the VL3X with just my guitar. Don't laugh now, it's what it is. But the harmonies follow the guitar perfectly; the only limitation to accurate harmony creation is my dodgy vocal performance. Again this is one-take stuff and totally unedited:

VL3X Test 1

VL3X Test 2

If this is how I can sound doing a one-take performance I'd have no qualms about taking the VL3X to the stage. Also, just sitting down with a guitar and playing around with the VL3X you get all kinds of ideas for a song or lyric, very much like you do with BIAB. It's inspirational. Not much else can do that these days. What a great recording recording partner the VL3X is when used with BIAB. Some cool stuff there, boy! cool

Later,
Rob

BIAB 2018 ULTRA
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