Hey, I hope I'm OK asking this on her. I'm struggling to get it sorted.

I've been given a Voiceworks Plus rack unit. I've weird it as the manual says. I can't get any sound through the mic to the speakers.

The mics an SM58.

Thanks in advance.

Tell us more about what you are doing. Did you just plug in a mic and start singing and there is no harmony coming out of it? (This is a vocoder type product, right?) I have an OLD Skool vocoder and I have to play a midi controller as I sing into it and it "plays" (sings) along, singing harmony on the notes I play. This may be far newer technology that doesn't need midi input to give itnotes to sing. I am not familiar with that device at all, but I took a guess.

trouble shooting 101
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FACTORY RESET
the first place I'd start is with a factory reset. Here's the process:




INPUT/OUTPUT
One of the notorious problems with rack mounted devices is that it's so dark back there where all the connections are made.
1) Get a flashlight and make sure the mic is plugged into the right place
2) make sure the speakers or mixer is connected to the OUTPUT L and OUTPUT R jacks
3) make sure the cables work in other devices
4) test the headphone jack with headphones. This gives you a 2nd way to see if the device is getting a signal


HARDWARE
it's possible that the unit itself has a problem. The Voiceworks is old enough that it's probably no longer supported by TC Helicon, but I guess you can ask. You're more likely to get results by googling a local electronics repair person. These devices are cool enough to merit spending some money to repair it, especially since you got it for free. There are currently 3 of them for sale on ebay, one of which is being advertised for $749 USD


SAVED MIDI SETTING
These devices are popular among people who like to use MIDI to control it. It saves the current setting by default, so if the previous owner used MIDI to fade the volume to zero (but neglected to restore the volume after the song ended) its possible that the internal volume is still set to zero. If so, you can fix it by sending a value of 127 to continuous controller #87 (master output)

So this is NOT a vocoder type device where you have to play in what you want it to sing, right? You just sing and the device uses those notes as a guide track and generates the BGVs?

This old Digitech Vocalist II of mine does what it was made to do but it requires being extremely accurate with the timing of the keys you press because the key is the trigger that opens the envelope. If you are early or late you get weird attacks. I only experimented once doing this, but I once played in the chords for a harmony part into Pro Tools, went to the MIDI editor and selected and dragged every note to where it was perfectly placed (Quantizing didn't do it 100% right) and made it sound right, but it took me 2 hours to do that on 8 bars of harmony. I won't be doing that again.

I have to go and find youtube examples of this thing at work to hear what it does. I never knew how it knows what I want it to sing without me playing it in.

More confused than ever now. In some of the videos done by TC Helicon themselves it shows the demo guy playing his keyboard but I don't know if he is playing the harmony part in and in some it just generates along with the voice. I can't find a demo video of it where someone is just singing.

In +++THIS video+++ there is a break where its just vocals with no keyboard input so I assume it can create harmonies with just a voice as the trigger. That kind of eliminates a MIDI channel issue.

Hi all, sorry for the late reply work took over.

Right after a factory reset we are up and running.

Thank you foe your help.

Alright you Pat Marr you! You got it right the first time and got him back up and running!

Awesome! Thanks for letting us know!

I think you'll like the voiceworks... it's probably my favorite vocal processor of all time... especially if you use MIDI to control it. Pretty much everything you can do with this device is MIDI controllable. Being able to change parameters in real time via continuous controllers embedded in your sequence makes this MUCH more useful than the same device set to one setting for the entire song.

But even if you don't use MIDI to control it, its pretty cool.

One good thing about the voiceworks is that its been around for long enough that there are multitudes of videos and articles about the product.

One of the things on my bucket list is to start a youtube channel on how to control music gear with MIDI... but I'm not sure how much demand there is for that information. I do know there isn't a lot of information on youtube about the subject, because I've looked. Its a topic that runs deep and could easily provide interesting material for hundreds of videos. Anybody here think that would be a good use of the time I have left on the planet?

Yes, I think that would be a good use of your time. It maybe difficult as every piece music gear has different methods and CCs to control their units but a general how to do it might just work.That is this is how this works on my unit and although yours may be a little different the concept is the same.

Pat, I think you should start this conversation on an independent thread.

Pat, I think your idea for the YouTube channel is a great idea. Go for it.

Charlie

Well I'll be. This also worked for me. Pat, you saved me. I've had this thing sitting on the shelf collecting dust for probably 10 years or more. Now it's back in the mix and now I have to relearn how to use it all over again. Well done my friend and reading further... I agree on the YouTube channel.