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 Basics

Play Electric – Reference manual (2014-07-16) 19

In the Genre menu, use the control knob to 
navigate through the available options. Select a 
Genre.

Press the BACK button to return to the main win-
dow, where you will see only the presets con-
tained within the Genre that you have selected.

Presets can be associated with multiple genres.

Setup button

Press the SETUP button to open the Setup 
menu, which controls the general functions of 
the device. This button is described in its own 
chapter: “Setup button/section”

Summary of Contents for Play Electric

Page 1: ...English Manual Play Electric ...

Page 2: ...r page 3 8 32 System page 4 8 33 System page 2 5 8 34 Loop page 6 8 34 Switch 3 page 7 8 36 Product Info page 8 8 37 Vocal FX button section 38 Harmony page 1 7 40 Harmony Advanced page 41 Double page 2 7 42 Delay page 3 7 43 Delay Advanced page 44 Reverb page 4 7 45 HardTune page 5 7 46 Transducer page 6 7 47 Transducer Advanced page 48 µMod page 7 7 49 Guitar FX button section 50 Guitar amp page...

Page 3: ...Important safety instructions Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 1 Important safety instructions ...

Page 4: ...icing to qualified service per sonnel Servicing is required when the ap paratus has been damaged in any way such as power supply cord or plug is dam aged liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into the apparatus the appara tus has been exposed to rain or moisture does not operate normally or has been dropped Caution You are cautioned that any change or modifi cations not expressly approved...

Page 5: ...y turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the separation between the equip ment and receiver Connect the equipment into an outlet on a cir cuit different from that to which the receiver is connected Consult the dealer or an experienced ra dio TV technician...

Page 6: ...Before you begin Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 4 Before you begin ...

Page 7: ...he potential of your TC Helicon product and stay in touch with the latest news tips and tricks VoiceSupport key features include Professionally authored preset libraries Direct access to product manuals Update messaging helping you stay up to date with the latest software Drag drop preset management Customizable content about your products VoiceCouncil feeds for the latest advice for singers Firmw...

Page 8: ...Introduction Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 6 Introduction ...

Page 9: ...ng icons are used in the diagrams in this manual XLR Male XLR Female Combo Jack MIDI Jack 1 4 inch jack Power Input Mini USB 1 8 inch jack GRND Lift USB Type A USB Type B Microphone XLR Male XLR Female Combo Jack MIDI Jack 1 4 inch jack Power Input Mini USB 1 8 inch jack GRND Lift USB Type A USB Type B Electric Guitar XLR Male XLR Female Combo Jack MIDI Jack Power Input Mini USB 1 8 inch jack GRND...

Page 10: ...s from Play Electric will be to the right of the back panel image 3 There are two boxes on the bottom of each diagram The Play Electric box shows what you hear from your Play Electric headphone output The P A box shows what you hear from the P A speakers 4 We don t account for other inputs instruments when showing what you hear from the P A so you won t see pictures of drums etc 5 In a lot of case...

Page 11: ...Basics Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 9 Basics ...

Page 12: ...t Play Elec tric to read your chords for NaturalPlay key scale detection plug your guitar into the IN connector and connect the THRU connector to your amp pedalboard Any guitar sounds internal to Play Electric are muted when the THRU connector is connected to another device Guitar Out connector This is a direct guitar out Connect this to your guitar amp or a channel on your mixer When Guitar OUT i...

Page 13: ...tion for details on assigning controls to each Switch 3 button USB connector Connect to your computer with the included ca ble Use the VoiceSupport software to manage presets and update the product s internal soft ware firmware You can download VoiceSupport here tc helicon com products voicesupport Stereo audio input and output via USB is also supported at 16 bit resolution with 44 1 or 48 kHz sam...

Page 14: ...loading and b you ve got powerful lungs Setting the guitar level The control for your guitar input is on Page 1 of the Setup menu You can access the Setup menu by pressing the SETUP button and then use the or buttons to move to Page 1 Press the soft button next to the Guitar IN box and use the Control knob to adjust your level Reading the LCD Display The Play Electric display The LCD display of yo...

Page 15: ...ght corner of the display when a loop is running but you are currently not on the Loop mode screen GB Guitar Boost indicator The GB Guitar Boost indicator is shown in the lower left corner of the display when guitar boost is active Genre indicator If you have set the Genre selector to any other value than All the currently selected genre is shown in the upper left corner of the display In the scre...

Page 16: ...f a song with a particular effect e g Harmony TALK mode When you press and hold the HIT Hold for TALK footswitch Play Electric enters TALK mode In TALK mode all vocal effects are bypassed and the microphone input is passed directly to the output TALK Tuner mode If you have a guitar plugged into the GUITAR IN you will enter TALK Tuner mode activating the guitar tuner built into Play Electric The gu...

Page 17: ...e There is also an alternative mode where pressing the DOWN and UP footswitches simultaneously will allow you to set key scale You can set this mode on System page 5 under UP DN Function When you have activated this alternative mode pressing the UP and DOWN footswitches simul taneously will allow you to set Key and Scale us ing these two footswitches If you don t know which Key and Scale a particu...

Page 18: ...ike a simple Re verb or Harmony sound But a Preset can also represent a specific song or portion of a song via multiple effects and settings A good modern analogy for a Preset is a user ac count on a computer Even though each user has access to the same hardware CPU RAM etc each user can change their desktop wallpaper icons on the desktop program behaviors and much more When each user logs in the ...

Page 19: ...numbers Press the STORE button again to complete the process Storing a preset to another location To save the current preset to a different preset slot location press the store button once then press the right Blue soft Button and use the control knob to select the destination number for the preset Press store again to complete the process If you change your mind and don t want to save the changes...

Page 20: ...cribed in its own chap ter Guitar FX button section Mix button Press the Mix button to open the Mix menu which allows you to adjust the levels of the sig nals This button is described in its own chapter Mix button section Favorite button You can tag a preset as a Favorite This allows you to e g mark all presets you want to use in a show and filter out all others This means that you can use Favorit...

Page 21: ... the BACK button to return to the main win dow where you will see only the presets con tained within the Genre that you have selected Presets can be associated with multiple genres Setup button Press the SETUP button to open the Setup menu which controls the general functions of the device This button is described in its own chapter Setup button section ...

Page 22: ...Connection diagrams Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 20 Connection diagrams ...

Page 23: ... outputs Mixer setup For connection to your mixer or PA check out this Craig s Corner video youtube com watch v qq0AOtafIjs It s very important to follow gain staging instruc tions in order to get the best signal to noise ratio SNR from your device and prevent distortion in the signal chain Play Electric back panel inputs and outputs SWITCH 3 OUT THRU IN GUITAR MIC IN OUTPUTS RIGHT LEFT AUX Play E...

Page 24: ...l right or use a single Stereo channel on your mixer Vocal Guitar level mix is achieved within Play Electric In Mono output mode you have control over the vocal and guitar sounds independently at the PA mixer In Mono mode do not pan the channels left and right The Aux input may be removed from the XLR outputs in the setup menu if you wish Setup Aux In Type PLAYELECTRIC OUT THRU IN GUITAR MIC IN OU...

Page 25: ...o vocals and guitar amp This configuration works well when you want to pass your guitar signals to an amplifier and your vocal signals to a mixer or powered PA speaker PLAYELECTRIC OUT THRU IN GUITAR MIC IN OUTPUTS RIGHT LEFT AUX Setup example Mono vocals and guitar amp ...

Page 26: ... signal to a mixer or PA For additional control you can opt to plug a mu sic player into the Aux channel on the FX150 instead of Play Electric giving you control of Vocals Guitar and Aux independently Signals will still be summed to mono at the output of the FX150 For more information on FX150 see tc helicon com products voicesolo fx150 FX150 OUT THRU IN GUITAR MIC IN OUTPUTS RIGHT LEFT AUX Setup ...

Page 27: ...nual 2014 07 16 25 Mono vocals via FX150 and a guitar amp Here you can send the vocal signals to an FX150 and guitar signals to an amplifier FX150 OUT THRU IN GUITAR MIC IN OUTPUTS RIGHT LEFT AUX Setup example Mono vocals via FX150 and a guitar amp ...

Page 28: ... to a PA In this setup you can use the Headphone Out from Play Electric to send Guitar Vocal and Aux signals to your FX150 and send a stereo mix to the PA via the Play Electric XLR outputs FX150 OUT THRU IN GUITAR MIC IN OUTPUTS RIGHT LEFT AUX Setup example Guitar and vocals via FX150 and stereo out to a PA ...

Page 29: ...ar Headphone cable If you own our Guitar Headphone cable sold separately you can use an external monitor send to the Aux in on Play Electric to create a headphone IEM mix PLAYELECTRIC OUT THRU IN GUITAR MIC IN OUTPUTS RIGHT LEFT AUX Setup example Stereo PA and guitar headphone cable not included ...

Page 30: ...Setup button section Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 28 Setup button section ...

Page 31: ...mbient signal into an in ear monitor mix to give you room sounds with your direct microphone feeds Ambient Auto setting With the Ambient Auto setting RoomSense uses the onboard microphones and passes that signal via the headphone output The onboard Room Sense microphones will also listen to musical information from the surrounding environment a single chord based instrument or even your whole band...

Page 32: ...es the Gate function from the NORMAL setting LESS BRIGHT NG setting The LESS BRIGHT NG is the same as the LESS BRIGHT setting but with the Gate function re moved NG No Gate WARMTH NG setting The WARMTH NG setting is the same as NORM WARMTH but with the Gate function removed MORE COMP NG setting The MORE COMP NG is the same as MORE COMP but with the Gate function removed Pitch Correction Pitch Cor ...

Page 33: ...a the LEFT XLR output and your effected guitar sounds are sent via the RIGHT XLR output Vocal Cancel function The Vocal Cancel function attempts to remove the vocals from a piece of music Off setting With the Off setting no processing is performed on the Aux input signal On setting With the On setting Play Electric will attempt to remove lead vocals from a piece of music This process can create Ka...

Page 34: ...nherent in their signal Sometimes it is desirable to set a gate to cut off or mute the guitar when the incoming signal is very low We have set the threshold pretty low by default but you may want to raise it to suit your style Having a higher gate threshold can be effec tive when playing quick chords with rests in be tween Global Guitar FX parameter Use the Global Guitar FX parameter to take the c...

Page 35: ...l None setting No delay compensation is used Voice Sync setting The lead vocal is delayed an amount equal to the maximum latency of the system with all effects turned on Auto setting The lead vocal will be delayed by an amount equal to the latency of the currently enabled effect blocks Using more effect blocks will in crease the latency compensation amount Tune Reference parameter Use the Tune Ref...

Page 36: ...ones to become muddy sounding The built in high pass filter al lows you to reduce this kind of rumble Mic Boost parameter If you are a quiet singer you can use the Mic Boost parameter to increase the microphone gain Some artists sing more quietly than others re quiring the Mic Gain knob to be turned up quite far To offset this we have added a Mic Boost feature which allows 6 Low or 12 High dB of e...

Page 37: ...0 volume the loop you are working on would get louder and louder and LOUDER so you would end up with a distorted output signal The purpose of the Loop Feedback parameter is to prevent this volume increase from happening When you record a new pass to the existing loop it is recorded at 100 volume but the existing loop is blended with it at the Loop feedback set ting The calculation works like this ...

Page 38: ...tr Boost Gtr Compressor Gtr µMod Gtr Delay Gtr Reverb Harm Moment and Delay Moment When you have selected the Custom setting two menu items work slightly differently from the oth ers Harm Moment and Delay Moment With Harm Moment and Delay Moment the respective effect harmony voices or delay is active only as long as you press down the foot switch Some users prefer the precision offered by this mod...

Page 39: ...2014 07 16 37 Product Info page 8 8 The System Info page contains information about the installed firmware version serial number and manufacture date for your device If you need to contact support please have this information handy See Support resources ...

Page 40: ...Vocal FX button section Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 38 Vocal FX button section ...

Page 41: ... Control parameter Use the Control parameter to turn an effect block on and off Off setting The effect block is inactive no signal process ing occurs On setting The effect block is active and will process the signal according to the selected style HIT setting The effect block is assigned to the Play Elec tric HIT button or the button on a microphone supporting Mic Control and will become active wh...

Page 42: ... control the overall level of the harmonies Press the upper right soft button to select this parameter and use the control knob to adjust the level 0 dB is the maximum volume for the effect Key parameter Key is the most important setting for creating harmonies Get it right and things sound amaz ing Get it wrong and they will sound well bad Auto setting With the Auto setting key is set automaticall...

Page 43: ...r TC helicon products Portamento parameter Use the Portamento parameter to control the amount of slide between notes as you sing The more Portamento you use the more the Harmony voices will slide instead of jump from note to note The 0 setting turns Portamento off 100 is the maximum setting Using high amounts of both Humanize and Por tamento can make your harmony voices sound as if they ve well be...

Page 44: ... Style parameter Use the Style parameter to set the number of voices and the timing of the double Choose from the following styles 1 Voice Tight 1 Voice Loose 2 Voices Tight 2 Voices Loose Shout 1 Voice Oct Up 1 Voice Oct Down 2 Voices Oct Up 2 Voices Oct Down Oct Up Oct Down Tight and Loose refers to how closely the double is timed with the lead vocal Loose tim ing can feel larger or more effecte...

Page 45: ...d Triplet Sixteenth Ping Pong 1 Ping Pong 2 Ping Pong 3 Multitap 1 Multitap 2 Multitap 3 Multitap 4 Multitap 5 Multitap 6 Classic Slap Set Time Level parameter Use the Level parameter to control the overall level of the delay effect Press the right upper soft button to select this parameter and use the control knob to adjust the level 0 dB is the maxi mum volume for the effect Feedback parameter U...

Page 46: ...i Cut 3 Low Cut 1 Low Cut 2 Low Cut 3 Some of the delay filter styles are consistent meaning that the sound is affected like mega phone and all subsequent delay taps sound the same Some delay filter are cumulative e g analog where processing is applied throughout the feedback loop which changes the sound of the delay over time Experiment with the styles to find what works for your particular sound...

Page 47: ...late Soft Hall Amsterdam Hall Broadway Hall Snappy Room Library Dark Room Music Club Studio Room Warehouse Bouncy Room Cozy Corner Bright Chamber Wooden Chamber St Joseph Church Dome Chapel Hockey Arena Museum Indoor Arena Warehouse Thin Spring Full Spring Level parameter Use the Level parameter to control the overall level of the reverb Press the right upper soft but ton to select this parameter ...

Page 48: ...ameter Use the Style parameter to determine the accu racy speed and aggressiveness of the tuning effect Choose from the following styles Pop Country Gliss Robot Correct Natural Correct Chromatic not scale based Drone Gender Bender Shift parameter Use the Shift parameter to shift the note you are singing up or down by one or more semi tones You can shift your voice up or down by up to 36 semitones ...

Page 49: ...se from the following styles Megaphone Radio On The Phone Overdrive Buzz Cut Stack Tweed Combo Drive parameter Use the Drive parameter to control the amount of overdrive applied to the signal More drive will distort the signal and create megaphone style effects Filter parameter Use the Filter parameter to apply an EQ filter that will make the Transducer sound thinner or more muddy depending on the...

Page 50: ...n effect For example if you are using a delay no effect will be applied to the ini tial tap of the delay but subsequent taps will have the Transducer effect applied Gate Threshold parameter Transducer effects are very prone to feedback via a PA or monitor The Transducer block has an independent gate that can be set to help al leviate feedback Raising the threshold will cause the effect to kick in ...

Page 51: ...rus Medium Chorus Wide Chorus Mono Chorus Fast Rotor Panner Flanger Flange Feedback Flange Negative Mono Flange Soft Flange Tube Up Tube Down Tube Down Up Tube Rise and Fall Auto Filter Underwater Cylon Mono Cylon Stereo Alien Voiceover Level parameter Use the Level parameter to controls the overall level of the µMod effect Press the right middle soft button to select this parameter and use the co...

Page 52: ...Guitar FX button section Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 50 Guitar FX button section ...

Page 53: ...ar effects are handled in the same way as vocal effects see Vocal FX button section Guitar sounds in Play Electric are customizable per preset meaning that you can simultane ously change your vocal and guitar sounds when you change presets Each guitar effect has a Control parameter simi lar to those in the Vocal FX section However for guitar effects the Control parameter only has On and Off settin...

Page 54: ... Thing Chicken Picker Brit OD AC Crunch Chunky Brit Lil Champion Chime Drive 2x12 Combo 4x12 Crunch Swamptone Nasaltone Brown Scooped Metallic Dark Matter OD Pedal Dark OD Pedal Distortion Pedal Acoustic Acoustic Shape Drive parameter The Drive parameter controls the level going to the preamplifier stage of the amp simulation This control is typically used to control the amount of distortion in th...

Page 55: ... the level of a high band EQ meant to emulate a high or treble control on an amplifier Mid parameter The Mid parameter controls the level of a mid band EQ meant to emulate a middle or mid control on an amplifier Bass parameter The Bass parameter controls the level of a low band EQ meant to emulate a low or bass control on an amplifier Mid Freq parameter The Mid Freq parameter controls the operatin...

Page 56: ...s Choose from the following styles Subtle Tube Subtle Sustain Sustain Attack Sustain Pop Amount parameter Use the Amount parameter to adjust the amount of compression added to the signal This param eter is similar in nature to the Level control in other effects but controls different parameters under the hood Makeup parameter After changing the Amount setting you may need to make up reduced gain t...

Page 57: ... the following styles Corona Chorus based on the Corona Chorus from TC Electronic Corona Fast Corona Slow Vortex Flanger based on the Vortex Flanger from TC Electronic Vortex Fast Silky Detune Medium Detune Mono Chorus Fast Rotor Stereo Panner Flanger Flange Feedback Flange Negative Mono Flange Soft Flange Tremolo Auto Filter Mix parameter Use the Mix parameter to controls the overall level of the...

Page 58: ...s in time with each other Level parameter Controls the level of Delay effects Feedback parameter Feedback defines how many taps of echo there are which means how long the delays last before fading away Style parameter Defines the way the delay sounds including its division 1 4 note 1 8th note etc Choose from the following styles Flashback 2290 Flashback analog Flashback Tape Flashback LoFi Flashba...

Page 59: ...Tempo in the Setup menu is set to ON manually set saved tempo settings will be temporarily overridden but not overwritten Division parameter Use the Division parameter to manually select a Delay Division There are more options here than you will find in the Style list Dly Filter Style parameter Use the Dly Filter Style parameter to add filters to the delay signal that will simulate different types...

Page 60: ...ate Thin Plate Bright Plate Real Plate Real Plate Long Jazz Plate Quick Plate Soft Hall Amsterdam Hall Broadway Hall Snappy Room Library Dark Room Music Club Studio Room Bouncy Room Cozy Corner Bright Chamber Wooden Chamber St Joseph Church Dome Chapel Hockey Arena Museum Indoor Arena Warehouse Thin Spring Full Spring Level parameter Use the Level parameter to control the overall level of the reve...

Page 61: ...Mix button section Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 59 Mix button section ...

Page 62: ...lay Reverb effects across all pre sets This control is useful if you find yourself in a performance environment that has a lot or very little natural reverb and you d like to tune your sound to that room without having to manually adjust all presets Headphone Level parameter Use the Headphone Level parameter to adjust the volume of the headphone output RoomSense parameter Use the RoomSense paramet...

Page 63: ...parameter to adjust the level of the incoming USB audio signal such as back ing tracks This control has no effect if Input is set to USB and you are post processing the received signal via a DAW The track controls within the DAW it self will determine the output level and therefore the Play Electric USB input level ...

Page 64: ...The Looper Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 62 The Looper ...

Page 65: ...und and then re enter Loop mode to add a new overdub to the loop Recording your first loop Press the footswitch assigned to REC PLAY ODUB to start a recording Press the footswitch again to finish recording and immediately begin playback Alternatively you can press the footswitch as signed to STOP ERA se to finish recording and not switch to playback Press the REC PLAY ODUB footswitch again to reco...

Page 66: ...g Undo You can use Undo when you have made a mis take just remove the overdub that went wrong and do it again You can also use Undo and Redo creatively for a part track that you would like to come and go Record a basic chord pro gression for a song add a catchy melody as an overdub undo that overdub so you can sing the verse and use Redo to bring the melody back for the chorus Looping tips When it...

Page 67: ...ec Play Odub Stop Erase Hold for Erase Undo The benefit of having the Undo feature assigned to a separate footswitch is the ability to perfectly time your undo instead of waiting a moment for a hold to be registered Play Electric footswitch assignments when using a Switch 3 When a Switch 3 is plugged in and Switch 3 mode is set to Looping key scale selection is automatically assigned to the DOWN a...

Page 68: ...Troubleshooting Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 66 Troubleshooting ...

Page 69: ...m Guitar Piano etc If you are using an MP3 player to sing along with tracks set the AUX IN TYPE parameter in the Setup Menu to TRACKS Some tracks will work better for NaturalPlay than others based on the mix and instrumentation of the recording If you are using Guitar to control harmony make sure you have got the Key set to AUTO on the harmony effect page None of the effects seem to be making any ...

Page 70: ...Appendix Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 68 Appendix ...

Page 71: ... D D Maj 2 5th Higher Low G nc A nc C C nc E nc E F F Maj 3 3rd High Lower E nc F nc G A nc Bb nc C D D Maj 3 5th Higher Low G nc A nc Bb C nc D nc E F F Min 1 3rd High Lower Eb nc F G nc Ab nc Bb C nc D nc Min 1 5th Higher Low G nc Bb Bb nc C nc D Eb nc F nc Min 2 3rd High Lower Eb nc F G nc A nc Bb C nc D nc Min 2 5th Higher Low G nc A Bb nc C nc D Eb nc F nc Min 3 3rd High Lower Eb nc F G nc Ab...

Page 72: ...Links Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 70 Links ...

Page 73: ...licon com support TC Helicon user forum support tc helicon com categories 20073491 User Forum TC Helicon Play Series forum support tc helicon com forums 21577876 Play Series TC Helicon warranty information tc helicon com support warranty TC Helicon on the web tc helicon com Facebook facebook com tchelicon Twitter twitter com tchelicon YouTube youtube com tchelicon TC Helicon newsletter For more in...

Page 74: ...Technical specifications Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 72 Technical specifications ...

Page 75: ... buttons Design Size and weight Height 1 8 inches 45 mm Width 7 9 inches 200 mm Depth 6 1 inches 156 mm Weight 2 1 lb 0 95 kg Construction Dual die cast clamshell design Acrylic lens Punch cut metal connection panel Rubberized footings Backlit graphic LCD display Connections Analog Inputs Connectors balanced Microphone input XLR Aux input 1 8 stereo mini jack Connectors unbalanced Guitar input Imp...

Page 76: ...eadphone Out 1 8 Mini stereo jack Control USB USB B Firmware Updates Preset Management audio I O Pedal TRS phone jack Details Power External Power Supply Mains Voltage Input 100 to 240 VAC 50 to 60 Hz auto select 12 V DC 0 4 A max output Power Consumption 14 W Safety EMC Complies with EN 55103 1 and EN 55103 2 FCC part 15 Class B CISPR 22 Class B Safety certified to IEC 65 EN 60065 UL6500 and CSA ...

Page 77: ...Technical specifications Play Electric Reference manual 2014 07 16 75 ...

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