Could someone post a link or information about how to set up an external vocal harmony pedal that will operate “live” with BIAB chord changes on a laptop? I do a lot of vocals, while playing guitar with BIAB. Would like to be able to add vocal harmony here and there where appropriate in a tune. Not sure what’s required for that purpose.
I haven't done it yet, but BIAB can send real-time chords to an external device. I had researched it for use with the TC Electronics Voice Live Touch. The BIAB command is: Preferences, Output Ch. Then check the checkbox in the upper left. There are other options you can set in that dialog box.
Search for the word
'harmonies' on this web page. There are a couple of examples, although not using a separate pedal.
Jazzmandan: that video demo was outstanding, so useful. Thanks.
DE
J. Larry:
Did any of these suggestions work for you?
Out of curiosity, which external vocal harmony pedal are you using?
Good luck!
LLOYD S
Everyone: Many thanks for the links. Good information. The video was helpful. I’m still researching the whole topic. I presently use the TC Helicon Harmony Singer that tracks chords played on guitar. It works pretty well. But, I want to try the chords coming from BIAB to trigger vocals on live gigs. I presume I’ll need a pedal with midi connections. I also use arranger keyboards a lot. There, I use the built-in harmony features that work very well. Good vocal harmony can turn heads, if performed well and sparingly.
I use my guitar to drive the harmonies so I only tried once to drive the harmonies from BIAB, but it worked fine. It follows very well on the Voicelive 2 so should work fine for other TC Helicon units.
If you want, you can set up patch changes and cc changes via midi by putting them into the melody or solo step writer and set the vocal harmony unit to receive midi commands on the same midi channel. It's really painless once you know how to do it albeit a bit time consuming.
A great video. Ironically, I have the same software editor but I only use it for editing the Voicelive 2. Now I have some more options (lol). New options.....
Have use various rack-mounted units in the past, but there is no real difference between pedals and rack units.
The most important thing is that the Output Chord in BB must send on the same channel as your unit, in order for it to receive the chord information.
Then most units only work more or less correctly if you use chord symbols that represent 3 or 4-note chords. In other words; C7#5 is ok, but C9 is not OK etc.
In spite of the fact that both BB and most vocal harmony units claim they follow the international MIDI protocol, not all chords are represented correctly. I have taken this up with both PG-music and TC Helicon, but to no avail.
So sometimes small mistakes can happen, like e.g. C6 been seen as Am7 or Cmaj7 as Em7.
I hope this helps.
Brgds,
Tonnie
Thanks for the additional information. That’s what I suspected----these units work best with simple, basic chord progressions. I’ve watched the TC-Helicon demos with guitar and vocals. Most are playing basic chords for several measures, without any quick changes. Most are singing pop/rock material, which is not my thing. What about tunes that have 3 or 4 chords per bar, with jazz-like voicings? Many of the standards I play have some pretty slick changes. I’d like to see a good vocal harmony demo featuring tunes like that.
Larry,
I have used the vocal harmony to create my version of "The Four Freshmen", so as long as you stick to four note chords (like I mentioned before) it is OK to have as many chord changes per bar (max. 4, due to the limitations of BB) as you like. *)
However when you would sing the notes E, F, G over e.g. a Cmaj7 chord, the other voices will only change at the E and the G.
At a half step move (E to F) the other notes of the harmony stay put.
So you might want to reharmonize with passing chords; in this cage e.g. Cmaj7 (for the E melody note), Ddim7 or Dm7 (the F) to C6 (the G).
Brgds,
Tonnie
In the past I have posted a message on how to let BB play three chords over the half of a 4/4 bar. Like for instance in bar 5 of "It`s a Blue World" by the Four Freshmen.