TC-Helicon VL3X Reference Manual Download

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English Reference Manual

Summary of Contents for VL3X

Page 1: ...English Reference Manual VL3X ...

Page 2: ... 48 Using Global Key Scale 49 Setting Key Scale manually 50 Let s try Harmony 51 Using the HIT footswitch 52 Using individual effects 53 Change a button from Latched to Momentary mode 54 Remapping a footswitch 55 Talk Tuner Mode 57 Guitar Effects 58 Editing HIT 59 Using ALL HIT 60 HIT Dynamic versus Snapshot 61 Storing Presets 63 Tapping tempo 65 Using Global Tempo 66 Editing an Effect 67 Defining...

Page 3: ...omp ression effect block tab 117 Wah Wah Wah effect block tab 118 µMod effect block tab 119 Octaver effect block tab 120 Guitar Rhythmic effect block tab 121 Guitar Buttonmap block tab 122 The Looper 123 Introduction 124 Loop button parameters 125 Basic loop concepts and terms 128 Entering and exiting Loop mode 129 Your first loop 130 The Utility menu 134 Loop limits 139 Loop import 140 Loop Mixer...

Page 4: ...Safety information VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 1 Safety information ...

Page 5: ...placement of the obsolete outlet 10 Protect the power cord from being walked on or pinched particularly at plugs con venience receptacles and the point where they exit from the apparatus 11 Only use attachments accessories speci fied by the manufacturer 12 Use only with a cart stand tripod bracket or table specified by the manufacturer or sold with the ap paratus When a cart is used use caution wh...

Page 6: ...ing voltages require the use of different types of line cord and attachment plugs Check the voltage in your area and use the correct type Voltage Line plug according to standard 110 to 125 V UL817 and CSA C22 2 no 42 220 to 230 V CEE 7 page VII SR section 107 2 D1 IEC 83 page C4 This equipment should be installed near the socket outlet and disconnection of the device should be easily accessible To...

Page 7: ...ever there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If this equipment does cause harmful interfer ence to radio or television reception which can be determined by 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 b...

Page 8: ...ert the user to the presence of unin sulated dangerous voltages within the unit s chassis that may be of suffi cient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock to humans The exclamation point triangle is used to alert the user to presence of import ant operating and service instructions in the literature accompanying the product ...

Page 9: ...Before you begin VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 6 Before you begin ...

Page 10: ...ng and operating your VL3X You can download the most current version of this reference manual from tc helicon com support manuals To get the most from your TC Helicon pro duct please start by reading the printed quick guide that came with the product Then proceed with this reference manual Read it from start to fin ish or you may miss important information ...

Page 11: ... VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 8 Getting support If you still have questions about the product af ter reading this reference manual please get in touch with TC Helicon Support tc helicon com support product ...

Page 12: ...touch with the latest news tips and tricks VoiceSupport key features include Professionally authored preset libraries Direct access to product manuals Drag drop Preset management Customizable content about your products Firmware upgrades Account management Access to TC Helicon support You can download VoiceSupport for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X from tc helicon com products voicesupport ...

Page 13: ...r your VL3X To register your VL3X using the VoiceSupport software launch VoiceSupport and click on the ACCOUNT button You can also go to account tc helicon com Registration of your product is NOT required to use VoiceSupport download presets update firmware or contact support ...

Page 14: ...Introduction VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 11 Introduction ...

Page 15: ...o what s NEW In a word well four words Backing Tracks and Automation For more information see Using Backing Tracks and Backing Track Sequence Record ing Automation As you discovered in the Quick Start Guide the short manual that came in the box VL3X is easy to use at the top level but offers unpre cedented depth in both control and editing We recom mend you treat your VL3X like any other new instr...

Page 16: ...switch the effects associated with the six effect footswitches labeled µMod Delay Reverb HIT Double Comp Harmony Drive will change from vocal effects to guitar effects or looping backing track controls You can even remap footswitches within a Lay er or from one Layer to another This approach solves one of the most common requests from our massively popular VoiceLive 2 unit I love it but I want the...

Page 17: ...er the Setup menu and navigate to the Sys tem tab using the horizontal Arrow buttons Dial the Control knob until the line saying All Guitar FX Global Off is highlighted Turn Mix knob 3 or Mix knob 4 under the dis play until Off changes to On Done Every Preset will now have the same guitar sounds Set All Guitar FX Global to On to use the same guitar effect in all Presets Make sure a particular effe...

Page 18: ... of a song like a verse and chorus and quickly moving between them Looper Swap feature Loop length no longer matters In some loop ers your longest Loop Track will dictate the length of all others which can be a big hassle Imagine a beat box style rhythm that is 1 bar long and a guitar progression that is 8 bars long In the past you would have to record 8 bars of the beat box segment in order for t...

Page 19: ...them to a Preset and then record your effect changes throughout the song When you hit the stage your carefully de signed performance can be presented to your audience keeping your eyes up and feet free to better deliver a compelling performance No more tap dancing on the effects buttons No more external track player Just a great per formance where you can concentrate on what you do best playing mu...

Page 20: ... guitar and loop sounds The incoming monitor IN does not get passed back out of the unit so you can rest as sured that it won t cause feedback Headphone Mix VL3X s headphone mix is independent of the output mix allowing you to hear what you want in your headphones or IEMs without af fecting what comes from the main outputs Headphone Mix This monitoring capability can literally eliminate the need f...

Page 21: ...Introduction VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 18 Top panel overview Click or tap on an interface element to jump directly to its description Push for Favorite Record Audio Record Sequence ...

Page 22: ... store Presets Tap once to activate the store procedure Tap again to confirm For more informa tion see Storing Presets Home button Use the Home button to return to the top level interface The screen will show the number of the current Preset and any ef fects associated with the current Layer Control knob Use the Control knob to move through Presets and scrolls up down when in an edit screen When t...

Page 23: ...pa rameter shown right above it in the display Arrow buttons When you are on the Home screen you can use the Ar row buttons to move through Presets When you are on an Edit screen use the Arrow buttons to move between tabs NP LED The NP LED lights when Nat uralPlay chord information is received via Guitar MIDI Aux Looper or RoomSense Level LEDs Read the level LEDs as follows If you play your guitar...

Page 24: ...Introduction VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 21 Footswitches overview Click or tap on an interface element to jump directly to its description 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ...

Page 25: ...udience You can still tap the Preset Up and Down Preset buttons while in Talk Tuner mode to change pre sets This is great for changing presets while ad dressing the audience to queue sounds for your next song To exit Talk Tuner press any button other than Preset Up or Preset Down For more information see Talk Tuner Mode Layer footswitch To switch between the Vocal and Guitar effects layers tap the...

Page 26: ... particular Layer Vocal or Guitar and have access to a key effect or effects from another Layer Remapping footswitches allows you do to just that This is best referred to as a mixed Layer This is a more advanced operational mode that we will cover later Step footswitch To move to the next Step with in the current Preset e g from 1 to 2 tap the Step footswitch Not all Presets have Steps To move to ...

Page 27: ...e information about Steps see Using Steps µMod footswitch Tap the µMod footswitch to turn the micro modulation µMod effect on or off The µMod block encompasses effects such as Chorus Flange Detune and Rotor This effect can be configured and used sepa rately for the Vocal and Guitar layer For more information see Editing the Vocal Layer and Editing the Guitar Layer Delay footswitch Tap the Delay fo...

Page 28: ... HIT footswitch Tap the HIT footswitch to activate or deactivate HIT HIT can control Vocal HIT blue Guitar HIT red All HIT purple HIT is covered in greater detail in Using the HIT footswitch Double Comp footswitch On the Vocal Layer tap the Double Comp footswitch to turn the Double effect on or off Double encompasses effects such as 1 Voice Tight 2 Voices Wide and 4 Voices Wide For more informatio...

Page 29: ...ct on or off Harmony encompasses effects such as High 3rd up Low 4th below and Low Lower 4th below and 6th below For more information see Harmony effect block tab On the Guitar Layer tap the Harmony Drive footswitch to turn the Drive effect on or off Drive encompasses effects such as Boost Boost Drive and Drive For more information see Drive effect block tab ...

Page 30: ...d 2015 07 16 27 Back panel inputs and outputs VL3X offers extremely robust input and output routing Using the Monitor IN THRU and dedi cated Guitar outputs effectively you can greatly reduce the amount of gear you need to take to a performance ...

Page 31: ... 1 8 Stereo Aux and XLR Monitor input jacks Please note that Aux input and Monitor input are mutually exclusive Only one may be used at a time 5 MIDI Input 6 Footswitch Connect a TC Helicon Switch 3 or Switch 6 here You can also connect a second expression pedal here see Working with a second expression pedal 7 Expression pedal input 8 USB Host port ...

Page 32: ...carry Vo cals Effects If nothing is connected to the Guitar outputs Main outputs also carry Guitar signals 5 Guitar Outputs The Guitar outputs carry the Guitar signal If only one output is connected guitar output is automatically in MONO When you connect the Guitar Out s to your amp s guitar sounds will be removed from the Main outputs 6 MIDI Out The MIDI Out jack sends MIDI Con trol Change messag...

Page 33: ...VL3X overview VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 30 VL3X overview ...

Page 34: ... MIDI keyboard if applicable Headphones The Guitar Headphone cable that came with your VL3X If you would prefer to use VL3X via your PA you will need one or two additional XLR cables to connect VL3X s XLR outputs to inputs at your mixer A lot of PAs are mono and only require one XLR connection If you have a stereo PA you will want to connect both VL3X XLR outputs to your mixer Connecting VL3X to y...

Page 35: ...r other instrument 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 Monitor Mix XLR Male XLR Female Power Input 1 8 inch jack GRND Lift USB Type A Mixing Board 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 P A XLR Male XLR Female Combo Jack Power Inpu...

Page 36: ... image 2 Outputs from VL3X will be to the right of the back panel image 3 There are two boxes on the bottom of each diagram The VL3X box on the left shows what you hear from your VL3X headphone output The P A box on the right 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 ...

Page 37: ...ting Output Mode to Stereo Changing VL3X from Mono default to Stereo output Press Setup Use the or Arrow buttons to move to the Output tab Use the Control Knob to move the selection bar until XLR Output Mode is highlighted white Turn the Mix Knob directly below the XLR Out put Mode box on the screen until the mode changes to Stereo Press Home to exit When choosing Stereo ensure the PA is ac tually...

Page 38: ...your mixer Dual Mono can be espe cially effective at a venue with a sound tech The guitar and vocal signals are separated and can be controlled independently making the tech s mixing job easier Setting Output Mode to Dual Mono Changing VL3X from Mono default to Dual Mono output Press Setup Use the or Arrow buttons to move to the Output tab Use the Control Knob to move the selection bar until XLR O...

Page 39: ... same from Preset to Preset Follow the instructions in Stereo PA connection for vocals and guitar if applicable to change your output mode to Stereo Turning speaker simulation off Press Setup Use the or Arrow buttons to move to the Guitar tab Use the Control Knob to move the selection bar until Speaker Sim Enable is highlighted Turn the Mix Knob directly below the dis play until the setting for Sp...

Page 40: ... and In Ear Monitor s 7 XLR Outputs carry stereo vocals to the PA 8 Guitar Outputs carry stereo guitar sounds to amps 9 Switch 3 and an Expression pedal for extra controls 10 MIDI IN for NaturalPlay chord information from a keyboard NaturalPlay will listen to Guitar Keyboard over the AUX input and will automatically switch between Guitar Key board if they are both plugged in 11 MIDI OUT to control...

Page 41: ...nput tab Change the Input Type parameter to Con denser Yes Is your PA receiving signal Check your PA manual for details on how to check input levels Turn up channel input trims until you see signal If you have a separate mixer amplifier Is the PA turned on Are the speakers connected I m not hearing my guitar Check that your guitar is turned all the way up Have you connected your guitar to an amp I...

Page 42: ...Getting to know VL3X VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 39 Getting to know VL3X ...

Page 43: ...rying them for your self If you want to get an idea of VL3X s potential plug in a microphone connect VL3X to a set of speakers or your fa vourite headphones select Preset 10 and press the HIT footswitch which in this Preset is associated with the Backing Track playback function so it is shown as Track in the dis play You should now hear Amazing Grace After the intro start singing and be amazed ...

Page 44: ... you on a tour of VL3X from a practical use standpoint If you follow along on your VL3X while reading the following pages you will get a good grasp of most of the key features in the box It may seem as though we jump around through various menus and operations but trust us that this is a good way to get to know the unit while making practical changes in the process Stick with us ...

Page 45: ...itar or Vocal For more information on accessing and edit ing effect settings see Editing the Vocal Lay er and Editing the Guitar Layer Backing Track if assigned Play Stop Pause indicators next to the preset number BT or SEQ if a Backing Track is assigned to the preset SEQ is shown in place of BT when a se quence FX automation has been recorded More more information see Backing Track Sequence Recor...

Page 46: ...l move up through Presets Turning the knob counterclockwise right will move down through Presets Pressing the control knob while on the Home screen will set the current Preset as a Favor ite For more information see Using Preset Genres and Favorites On an Edit or System screen the Control Knob acts as a vertical scroll control Use it to navigate up or down through parameters and settings ...

Page 47: ...en use the Arrow but tons to move through Presets To select the next Preset press the right Arrow button To select the previous Preset press the left Arrow button On an Edit or System screen the Arrow but tons allow you to move left and right through the tabs in that menu For example the Vocal edit screen has a sep arate tab or page for each vocal effect The Arrow buttons move from left to right t...

Page 48: ... 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 com puter recalls all of their custom settings Depending on how you like you to work with ef fects you may find that you like to use a few gen eral purpose Presets and turn effects on a...

Page 49: ... move be tween them for each part of the song It s totally doable but a bit more work that necessary Enter the STEP If you treat the Verse Preset as your starting point perhaps name it simply with your song name you can add Steps to that initial Preset to cover the other sections of your song in the or der that they are needed So let s assume that you have created the three different presets that ...

Page 50: ...confirm your se lection The Genre button will be flashing to remind you to press it After selecting a Genre you will notice that scrolling through Presets gives you fewer op tions than before Presets are now filtered and only show options contained in your chosen Genre To return to seeing all Presets Tap the Genre button Use the Mix Knob to change the Genre to All Press Genre again to exit Using F...

Page 51: ... for any Harmony voices or HardTune effects You don t need to make any changes to the system for this to work Just play your guitar normally chords work best and sing Similarly if you connect a MIDI enabled key board using a MIDI cable VL3X will follow your playing to determine key scale for Harmony voic es and HardTune If you sing to pre produced tracks and don t have a guitar or MIDI keyboard co...

Page 52: ...ging and change Presets without having to change the Key setting each time Press Setup Use the and Arrow buttons to navigate to the System tab Using the Control Knob to highlight Global Key Scale Change the Global Key Scale to ON This will set one global key scale for all Pre sets in VL3X You can change this global key scale on the fly later Press Home to exit Using Global Key Scale Once you get m...

Page 53: ...t the Vocal Layer by pressing the Layer footswitch Press and HOLD the Harmony footswitch until the Set Key Scale screen appears Press the Preset up Preset down footswitches until the key reaches C If the scale is not already Maj 2 tap the Step button repeatedly until the display shows Maj 2 Let the Key Scale screen time out and dis appear by not doing anything for a few sec onds Setting Key and Sc...

Page 54: ...ou can play your guitar and sing now You should hear a har mony following your lead vocal and also hear some guitar effects If you are a singer and if you have set the key scale correctly in the previous step the harmo nies should follow your lead melody correctly Even if you play an instrument that could be used for NaturalPlay you may want to try setting the key scale manually Why The manual set...

Page 55: ...ighlighted effects Practice using HIT to turn the Harmony on and off at interesting points in the song This skill is essential for using the effects in time with your music It may take a while to get the hang of things if you have never used footswitch based effects before Don t worry if you are not very good at it right away As you sing your song with guitar or without try tapping the HIT footswi...

Page 56: ...ted 2015 07 16 53 Using individual effects Next turn off Harmony using the HIT button Try tapping the Double button to add the Double ef fect to your voice Do the same with Delay and µMod Try a few of the effects together and see what it sounds like ...

Page 57: ...p to the far side of the effects Preset pages This can save you some time while editing Curious about all those tabs and their param eters Don t worry we will cover all the Vocal effects later Now press the left Arrow to navigate to the Buttonmap tab Buttonmap menu Use the Control Knob to scroll down and high light the line starting with HIT Selecting HIT in the buttonmap menu Use the Mix Knob rig...

Page 58: ...d footswitch to HardTune Press Home If you look at the top left corner of the screen you should see HardTune there µMod will be gone µMod footswitch remapped to HardTune When you press the µMod footswitch you will see that HardTune is now controlled by that but ton Remapping can be performed for any effect in VL3X Vocal and Guitar effects are not restricted to their home layers This means that you...

Page 59: ...imultaneously without having to leave the current Layer you can assign Vocal HIT to the HIT footswitch and Guitar HIT to the footswitch right next to it Double Double footswitch on the Vocal Layer remapped to Guitar HIT Remember that remapping a Guitar effect to the Vocal Layer needs to be done via the Vocal Buttonmap ...

Page 60: ...y vocal effects will re moved from the signal The vocal effects are re moved so you can talk to your audience without effects cluttering up what you are trying to say While in Talk Tuner mode you can still use the Preset up and Preset down footswitches to change Presets This is especially handy if you are tuning changing guitars or addressing the audience between songs and want to have the next ne...

Page 61: ...ffect names have changed and there is a small guitar icon in each of the boxes there are small microphone icons in each Vocal Layer box Guitar Layer active While playing your guitar tap some of the footswitches to turn the various guitar effects on and off Change a guitar effect to Momentary mode as described in Change a button from Latched to Momentary mode However press the Guitar button instead...

Page 62: ... effect that is currently off For this example try µMod Preset 2 HIT on Press HIT Notice that µMod and Harmony turns off Preset 2 HIT off Press HIT again You will see that µMod comes back on in addition to Harmony which was previously activated by pressing HIT If you save the Preset your new HIT assign ment will be saved and you can control both µMod and Harmony with the single HIT button the next...

Page 63: ...ble effects pages Use the or button to locate the Buttonmap page Use the Control Knob to scroll down and high light the line starting with HIT Use the Mix Knob to change the HIT assign ment from Voc HIT to ALL HIT HIT footswitch remapped to ALL HIT Press Home Now the HIT footswitch controls HIT for both Guitar and Vocal effects in this Preset When you press HIT you will see that it now lights up p...

Page 64: ...only when you have turned on HIT HIT ON You start the song with HIT turned off so you just have Reverb but no Harmony voices on your voice You decide that it would be nice to have some delay for a particular section so you turn Delay on Then the chorus section of your song comes up so you press HIT to activate Harmony Reverb stays on and Delay goes off just as you would expect Now when you press H...

Page 65: ...ging HIT mode from Dynamic to Snapshot Press the Setup button Use the or buttons to navigate to the Sys tem page Use the Control Knob to scroll down to the HIT Behavior parameter Change HIT Behavior from Dynamic to Snap shot Changing HIT Behavior from Dynamic to Snapshot ...

Page 66: ... Presets In the upper part of the Store screen you will see the current name of the Preset Use the Mix Knobs under the display to control the following functions Cursor assigned to Mix Knob 1 Use Mix Knob 1 to move the cursor the current ly selected character This is handy for quickly navigating to a position in the Preset name Letter assigned to Mix Knob 2 Use Mix Knob 2 to select the letter numb...

Page 67: ...ill be displayed in the upper part of the screen Using Store To is handy when you would like to make several Presets with similar sounds You can create a master Preset and store it so a few different locations using Store To You can then edit those copies further if you wish Store menu When you are finished naming and assigning your Preset simply press Store again to com plete the operation Storin...

Page 68: ...e the Delay effect with its footswitch You should hear your Delay taps trail off in time with the music There is another function in the tap tempo win dow that you may find handy Let s try it Enter Tap Tempo mode the same way you just did You will notice that the Preset up and Preset down footswitches are lit solid blue These footswitches allow you to increase or decrease the tempo in 1 BPM increm...

Page 69: ... your Presets simply set the tap tempo as de scribed in Tapping tempo and save the Preset If you would like to set one tempo and have all Presets follow it you will need to head into the System menu Press the Setup button Use or to navigate to the System tab Use the Control Knob to scroll down to the Global Tempo option Use the Mix Knob to change the value to ON Press the Home button Global Tempo ...

Page 70: ...with the Reverb example Decay time is located here 3 Parameter 2 Again this control will vary from effect to effect but is commonly the Level control which controls the overall vol ume of the effect 4 Control control sets the state of the effect and how it is controlled Off The effect is inactive On The effect is active regardless of the status of the HIT button HIT On This effect is active only w...

Page 71: ...ifferent controls and parameters on each effect tab DON T PANIC Typically advanced parameters are defined and loaded with the Style you choose and should sound pretty darned good as they are If you have got some audio engineering experience or own one of our other products like VoiceLive 2 you may recognize some or all of the advanced controls If you don t recognize anything there are two paths yo...

Page 72: ...ou can change this to any other Preset if you like However we recommend making yourself fa miliar with editing the Global Preset and turning Global ON in other Presets before you reassign the Global Preset Global Preset set to Preset no 491 If you invest some time into creating effects that you like in your Global Preset you can then ac cess these effects in any other Preset by simply setting one ...

Page 73: ...s the Vocal or Guitar button depending on which effect you would like to edit Navigate to the effect tab for the effect that you would like to link to the Global Preset e g Delay Delay effect block settings Use the Control Knob to scroll down to the Global parameter It should say Off Global set to Off in the Delay block Change it to On using the mix knob right be low the parameter Setting Global t...

Page 74: ...ter if you are not prepared for it Using the Global Preset to copy effect settings into a Preset As you just read the link between the Global Pre set and other Preset goes both ways However you can also use this feature temporarily to copy effect settings from the Global Preset to another Preset and then edit them independently Select a Preset Select an effect that should use the settings from the...

Page 75: ...n external device computer keyboard sampler etc to VL3X and have it maintain the same tempo as the Master device To enable MIDI Tempo navigate to the SETUP MIDI menu and turn MIDI Tempo ON Setup MIDI menu VL3X can act as a MIDI Tempo slave only It can not generate or send MIDI Tempo For more information see Looping and MIDI Sync ...

Page 76: ... drive with FAT32 can be found here wikihow com Format FAT32 Next you need to copy some Backing Tracks to the USB flash drive Copying audio tracks to your USB flash drive VL3X can only import MP3 or WAV audio files Insert the USB flash stick into your computer and drag drop your Backing Tracks onto the drive You can also use a file manager appli cation Make sure to copy all audio files to the root...

Page 77: ...e To import all tracks from the flash drive choose IMPORT ALL on the TRACK IM PORT tab Press and HOLD the Control Knob to begin the import process A confirmation dialogue will appear Importing a single track or selected tracks from a USB flash drive Use the Control Knob to scroll the list of tracks on the TRACK IMPORT tab To select a track for import tap the Control Knob when this track is highlig...

Page 78: ... format directly from the signal source e g your DAW you can save up to 60 of the import time If your audio files are MP3 files or WAV files with another resolution or sampling rate they need to be converted When the conversion is done you can start using these tracks This process can take a while Please note that VL3X will NOT show up as a hard drive when connected to your computer A USB flash dr...

Page 79: ...ntrol Knob to navigate to the far right BACKING TRACK tab On the BACKING TRACK tab you will find a Backing Track parameter that allows you to choose a Backing Track Selecting a Backing Track Use the Control Knob to highlight the Backing Track parameter Use one of the Mix Knobs to select the Back ing Track you would like to use from the list of tracks you have previously imported see Backing Track ...

Page 80: ...iate a Backing Track with multiple presets you ll need to adjust the Track Gain pa rameter in each one Playing Backing Tracks associated with a Preset There are three ways to play Backing Tracks Playing Backing Tracks using the Backing Track interface Press and hold the LAYER button to enter the Backing Track player Backing Track interface You will now see transport and sequence re cording control...

Page 81: ...ulti layer Undo feature Circle R icon Use this to initiate Sequence recording Press and hold to change to Se quence Overdub mode More on this under Overdubbing Playing Backing Tracks using a footswitch Buttonmap assignment Once you have associated a Backing Track with a Preset you can map any of the six effect footswitches in this Preset to play pause and stop the Backing Track Here is how to assi...

Page 82: ...knob to change the button as signment to TRACK START There are also controls for STOP FWD and BACK if you want more control Assigning Backing Track control to a footswitch on a Switch 3 using the Buttonmap Please note that the Switch 3 Switch 6 and STEP assignments are global and will work for any Preset that you have assigned a Backing Track to This is useful because you don t have to sacrifice a...

Page 83: ...ted automatically This means that you can theoretically perform an entire song with just one touch of a button on your VL3X To do so you would simply press the track start button and everything else happens as you recorded it into the sequence What gets recorded into the sequence When recording a Sequence any vocal or guitar effect footswitch you toggle including HIT and ALL HIT plus any STEP chan...

Page 84: ...u can still use any of the Record Overdub methods described below but stick to just the one instrument until it s just right Then make sure you re in Overdub recording mode so the guitar or vocal changes you have already record ed will be preserved change to the other Layer Guitar or Vocals and begin building up the re maining effects Fixing Sequence Recording mistakes If you have made an error wh...

Page 85: ...activated indicated by the Circle icon Once you are in overdub mode pressing the button again will begin an overdub recording This will add any new button presses into the sequence while preserving existing ones To de activate Overdub mode press and hold the RE CORD button again ...

Page 86: ...en press the Pre set UP button to enter the Function menu Press the Reverb button USB flash stick icon to export your performance A notification is shown when export is com plete Performance Export function USB flash stick in the Backing Track function menu Performance Import With your USB flash stick inserted press the STORE button Use the arrow button to navigate to the PER FORMANCE IMPORT tab P...

Page 87: ...E and SETUP buttons simultaneously again for about 2 seconds Notes about Direct to USB Recording Each time you start and stop recording a new file is generated on your USB flash drive The audio captured is a direct mirror of the main output signal This recording is always in two channel stereo format and also includes Backing Tracks or loops if you are using these features Recordings have a maximu...

Page 88: ...the XLR Out and Guitar Out jacks Main Mix controls Use the Mix knobs to adjust the levels of the signals shown on screen Scroll down using the control knob to see and adjust additional levels Guitar Looper Aux Main Out Metronome Track Keep in mind that if you are connecting the Gui tar Out jack to a guitar amplifier you likely want a fixed output level In the Guitar tab of the Set up menu you will...

Page 89: ...and still hear them in your headphones Headphone Limiter parameter Use the Headphone Limiter parameter to set the limiter level for the headphone output 0 dB allows for maximum potential headphone output Levels below 0 dB 3 dB etc will restrict or limit the maximum potential headphone out put When using in ear monitors you may want to set the limiter in order to prevent hearing dam age by transien...

Page 90: ...Put another way You can have the Vocal Lay er active blue LEDs will show that you can use footswitch to control the vocal effects but sim ply press the Guitar button the blue one on the top panel to enter and edit the Guitar effects Editing Guitar effects while on the Vocal Layer Editing Vocal effects while on the Guitar Layer As there are no effects linked to the Looper Lay er we will cover Loope...

Page 91: ... default That s OK it just shows how remapping works Press the Home button to return to the Home screen You will see that the effect you have chosen is now shown in the top left corner of the screen and will activate if you press the µMod button Typically remapping footswitches is great for three situations That darn button is in the wrong place I hate where it is and want to move it I would like ...

Page 92: ... make large easy to perform movements with the ped al without changing the level of the harmonies too drastically Setting Expression Pedal MinPos and MaxPos It can be useful to limit the expression pedal range for parameters such as Guitar Volume Harmony Volume Delay Feedback Rhythmic Depth etc Working with a second expression pedal If you want to you can use a second expression pedal with your VL...

Page 93: ...im controls on the Preset tab for Vocal or Guitar to make ad justments There is also a Pan control available in both the Vocal and Guitar Preset tabs that allow you to pan the vocal or guitar signal left or right The default setting is C for Center It can be especially useful to assign Guitar Pan to an ex pression pedal if you would like to create stereo guitar loops which we will discuss later Ad...

Page 94: ...Editing the Vocal Layer VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 91 Editing the Vocal Layer ...

Page 95: ...Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 92 Introduction Press the Vocal button to enter the Vocal edit screen For more information about editing Style Level Control and other parameters associated with each effect see Editing an Effect ...

Page 96: ...ow Frequency High Gain High Frequency Mid Gain Mid Frequency Mid Bandwidth Global Tips and tricks for working with the Harmony effect Subtle is often better when using any Har mony effect Typically when we hear com plaints about the created voices sounding robotic or fake it can be attributed partial ly to the Harmony voices being overly loud in the vocal mix Level settings of 6 or dB lower can of...

Page 97: ...e guid ed by an instrument NaturalPlay or defined by a fixed key and scale In VL3X you can define a different method of harmony note output for each voice The new Mixed Mode harmonies allow you to for example set one voice to follow your guitar Natu ralPlay the second voice to follow a key scale a third voice to only sing a single Fixed note and a fourth voice to only sing the root note of any cho...

Page 98: ...ice Panning for each voice Gender for each voice Voicing for each voice Portamento for each voice Portamento Smoothing for each voice Lead Level Global Tips and tricks for working with the Double effect Tight Double styles will have less pitch and timing variation than Loose styles will Tight styles therefore tend to be a bit more subtle even at higher effect levels Try turning the Lead Level para...

Page 99: ...ighlights within a performance but can like Reverb become distracting or over whelming when used too heavily Stereo Delays can be especially interesting if you are performing with a stereo PA or for studio re cording Delay effect block parameters The Delay effect block has the following parame ters that allow you to adjust the effect Delay Style Feedback amount Level Hit Control Source Tempo Filte...

Page 100: ...More Feedback cre ates more echoes while very low amounts of feedback can create Call and Answer style effects Try out the various Filter Style options within the Delay Edit screen They allow you to make the echoes of your Delay sound different These filter styles can add interesting effects to your delays such as megaphone radio or lo fi sounds or mimic the sound of classic analog and digital har...

Page 101: ...verb Delay to Reverb Choir to Reverb Lead Level Width Global Tips and tricks for working with the Vocal Reverb effect Timing your Reverb to the song you are per forming can really enhance your overall son ic landscape Try picking shorter Reverbs lower decay time for faster songs and longer Reverbs higher decay time for slower songs A 1 3 second Decay Time is very common for mid tempo popular music...

Page 102: ...Editing the Vocal Layer VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 99 least the same Style for each so the listener gets the impression of vocals and guitar being in the same simulated physical space ...

Page 103: ...the following pa rameters that allow you to adjust the effect HardTune Style Gender Shift Hit Control Key Source Rate Amount Window Manual Key Manual Scale Note Select Note Enable Global A neat little bit of music history The Beatles used pitch correction on their al bums How Back then a control called VariSpeed on their tape recorders was used to manipulate the play back speed and therefore the p...

Page 104: ...rmal to hear some phasing type sounds as your natural voice interacts with the cor rected voice output from VL3X Check out this Craig s Corner video for more about phasing youtube com watch v KWrEIuiDXsA If you would like subtle correction that still re spects any key scale you have set for Harmo ny try the Correct Natural style To emulate some of the effects used on the Beatles recordings try the...

Page 105: ... effect block parameters The Synth effect block has the following param eters that allow you to adjust the effect Synth Style Gender Level Hit Control Carrier Lead Mix Note Source Carrier Shift Carrier Mix Resonance Global Tips and tricks for working with the Synth effect When using the Synth block to generate the well known talk box effect of the seventies it really pays to know exactly the notes...

Page 106: ...on or EQ filter effect can be very prone to feedback so bear this in mind when con necting your VL3X to a 50 000 watt stadium PA or the system at your local pub Use of Gate within the Transducer advanced edit parameters can reduce the chances of feedback when the effect is active Set the threshold such that the gate opens to let your voice through but closes mutes very soon after you finish singin...

Page 107: ...Global Tips and tricks for working with the Vocal µMod effect Try combining µMod set to one of the Clone Wider or Thicken styles with your Harmo ny or Double effects to increase the depth of sound Songs like Believe by Lenny Kravitz use Flanger to create its iconic sound If you use styles like Cylon or Alien Voice over it s probably best to use them for small sections of a song or for a fun effect...

Page 108: ...y itself too which can give its own unique flavor to the vocal Choir effect block parameters The Choir effect block has the following parame ters that allow you to adjust the effect Choir Style Level Hit Control Lead to Choir Harmony to Choir Global Tips and tricks for working with the Choir effect When using Choir with Harmony start with a low level setting and move up from there Us ing too much ...

Page 109: ...on Type Global Tips and tricks for working with the Vocal Rhythmic effect Using Vocal Rhythmic in combination with Guitar Rhythmic can create some really inter esting sounds Try increasing and reducing the Depth pa rameter to alter the relationship between the lead or harmony voices and the Rhythmic ef fect Setting the Target parameter to Harm Level and using a long division makes the Harmony voic...

Page 110: ...learn when to press the stutter button in relation to your singing in order to get a good working sample Take some time to experiment with the timing of footswitch pressing and the division parame ter to see how the two interact There is a Direction parameter that can play a reversed version of the sample Try changing it from Forward to Reverse Stutter is much easier to control and integrate into ...

Page 111: ...itch to Momentary mode using the Mix Knob under the Mode column Tips and tricks for working with the Buttonmap There are separate Buttonmap tabs on the Vocal and Guitar edit screens They are in dependent of one another so you can remap footswitches for each Layer When you have remapped a footswitch the Home display will show you which effect has been remapped If you forget where you have remapped ...

Page 112: ...for the tracks you have recorded The available options are Track A Track B Track C Track A B and Track A C You can assign multiple footswitches to different loop triggers and switch between them at will µMod footswitch remapped to triggering Loop Tracks A and C from Loop Slot 3 Delay footswitch remapped to triggering Loop Track B from Loop Slot 3 Keep in mind that tempo metronome settings are save...

Page 113: ...Editing the Guitar Layer VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 110 Editing the Guitar Layer ...

Page 114: ...eference manual updated 2015 07 16 111 Introduction Press the Guitar button to enter the Guitar edit screen For more information about editing Style Level Control and other parameters associated with each effect see Editing an Effect ...

Page 115: ... settings Amp effect block parameters The Amp effect block has the following parame ters that allow you to adjust the effect Amp Style Pre Gain Post Gain Hit Control Low Post Gain Mid Post Gain High Post Gain Pre Gain Stage Parametric EQ parameters Low Pre Gain Mid Pre Gain High Pre Gain Low Frequency Pre Gain Mid Frequency Pre Gain High Frequency Pre Gain Low Bandwidth Pre Gain Mid Bandwidth Pre ...

Page 116: ...n results in more distortion at high levels If you want a crunchy or distorted sound turn down the PostGain adjust Pre Gain until you reach the amount of distortion you like then turn up PostGain until the output volume is similar to that of other guitar Pre sets You can do this by ear Styles that have Clean Crunch etc in their names can still be adjusted to have more less or no distortion using t...

Page 117: ...s The Drive effect block has the following parame ters that allow you to adjust the effect Drive Style Pre Gain Post Gain Hit Control Global Tips and tricks for working with the Drive effect Since the Amp settings are replaced by the Boost settings when Boost is active it s pos sible to make your amp quieter or less distort ed when Boost is active You should probably avoid setting PreGain and Post...

Page 118: ...obal Tips and tricks for working with the Guitar Delay effect There are benefits to using the same Delay division for both guitar and vocal effects You can sync up the taps of the echoes on both signals and create some very interesting ef fects With the above in mind using similar but different Delay divisions can also be very ef fective For example try note on your Vocal and 1 8 note on the Guita...

Page 119: ...rameters that allow you to adjust the effect Guitar Reverb Style Decay Level Hit Control Early Reflections Reverb Tail Level Predelay Ducking Low Color High Color High Factor Diffuse Global Modulation Speed Modulation Depth Ducking Threshold Ducking Amount Ducking Time Width Global Tips and tricks for working with the Guitar Reverb effect Try using same style of Reverb for both Vocal and Guitar Th...

Page 120: ... recording Compression is common on almost every track or group of tracks Compression can raise the output level of your guitar so be aware that it can also contribute to feedback Compression effect block parameters The Compression effect block has the following parameters that allow you to adjust the effect Compression Style Threshold Ratio Hit Control Attack Release Makeup Gain Global Tips and t...

Page 121: ...tyle Resonance Level Hit Control Type High Cut only for Type Manual Pedal Minimum only for Type Manual Pedal Maximum only for Type Manual Frequency Maximum only for Type Touch or Auto Sensitivity only for Type Touch Response only for Type Touch BPM only for Type Auto Shape only for Type Auto Order Global Tips and tricks for working with the Wah wah effect Our Wah effect block also includes a few T...

Page 122: ...ffect block parameters The Guitar µMod effect block has the following parameters that allow you to adjust the effect µMod Style Level Hit Control Speed Detune Depth Dry Gain Width Phase Wave Inverse Phase Delay Left Delay Right Low Cut Frequency High Cut Frequency Feedback Left Feedback Right Cross Feedback Left Cross Feedback Right Global Tips and tricks for working with the Guitar µMod effect Mo...

Page 123: ...ere are other imple mentations as well You can blend your original guitar signal with a shifted signal to create some great sounds Octaver effect block parameters The Octaver effect block has the following pa rameters that allow you to adjust the effect Octaver Style Shift Mix Hit Control Global Tips and tricks for working with the Octaver effect When using the Octaver effect remember to play one ...

Page 124: ...sic effect Guitar Rhythmic effect block parameters The Guitar Rhythmic effect block has the fol lowing parameters that allow you to adjust the effect Rhythmic Style Target Depth Hit Control Division Type Global Tips and tricks for working with the Guitar Rhythmic effect Using Chopper or Pan based Rhythmic ef fects can add a lot of flavor to your sound es pecially when used as a special effect Simi...

Page 125: ...e same man ner as the Vocal Buttonmap Please see Vocal Buttonmap tab for an overview of the Vocal But tonmap Keep in mind that the Vocal and Guitar Button map settings are independent of each other rep resenting the Vocal and Guitar layers respective ly To learn how you can create inter Layer map pings see Remapping a footswitch ...

Page 126: ...The Looper VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 123 The Looper ...

Page 127: ... 16 124 Introduction VL3X has a three track Looper which is an ex tremely powerful performance tool We have taken our experiences from past products in cluding VoiceLive Touch 2 and VoiceLive Play to create our most exciting and flexible Looper ever ...

Page 128: ...Slot you re on Mix Looper to NP parameter Use the Mix Looper to NP parameter to mix the audio output from the Looper into the Natu ralPlay algorithm This is not an individual audio path like guitar but rather is mixed into the existing audio to sup plement it If for example you play guitar chords into the Looper you could sing a cappella with the recorded loop part and it would keep Harmo ny HardT...

Page 129: ...rameter to ON the Metronome will mute when you finish your first recording on any track ODub Decay parameter Use the Overdub Decay parameter to reduce the level of any previous loop per track when an Overdub is recorded This prevents audio level overloading Typically 98 is a good setting but lower levels will allow you to creatively morph from one loop into something completely dif ferent as older...

Page 130: ...ack s loop If you press ODub at any point during playback the ODub will hold off until the track comes around again then will automati cally begin the ODub Met Follows Playback parameter If you set the Met Follows Playback parameter to ON the Metronome will mute and unmute auto matically whenever the Loop is playing This pre vents the metronome from continuing after you press STOP ...

Page 131: ...Track A Loop Track B and Loop Track C Depending on the setting you made in the Sync sub menu see Sync sub menu you can either switch between these three tracks or play them in certain combinations Loop Tracks A and B or Loop Tracks A and C Re member that each of these Loop Tracks can encompass one or many overdubs Loop Slot A Loop Slot is a place where you can store the Loops you have recorded Eac...

Page 132: ...footswitch will turn purple and the screen will display Loop Tracks and other information The loop screen shows a combination of con trols which relate to the six footswitches and track thumbnails that show you what you have recorded To exit Loop mode and return to the previously active Layer Vocal or Guitar press and hold the Layer button Loop mode activated ...

Page 133: ... hear a metronome sound over your headphones Press the Home button Move any of the MIX knobs to access the Mix page Navigate to the Headphone Mix page using the Arrow buttons Turn up the Metronome Level Press and hold the Layer button to re enter the Looper If you are connected to a PA you should hear a Kick Drum Metronome If you don t hear a metronome sound over your P A Press the Home button Mov...

Page 134: ...k To finish recording the current loop and im mediately go into overdub mode allowing you to record additional takes over the first one tap the footswitch associated with Set ODub Double Comp Your new loop will be played back and you can record additional takes This is a great feature to use if you have rehearsed your loop performance and want to quickly build up loop components on top of one anot...

Page 135: ...l fill in the gap You will see the same Set Play and Set ODub options you saw when recording Loop Track A Choose one and press it when you are fin ished recording If you chose Set Odub continue to record overdubs until you are finished then tap End Odub Understanding Loop Track length To get a better understanding of how Loop Tracks of different lengths are played back in SMART Sync mode see SMART...

Page 136: ...ollowing our Your first loop exam ple and at this point you should have recorded Loop Track A and Loop Track B Let s move on to recording Loop C When you are ready to record a new Loop Track as Loop C tap Swap Loop Track B will stop playing and you will begin recording LOOP C Using Swap You will see the same Set Play and Set ODub options you saw when recording Loop Track A see Set Overdub versus S...

Page 137: ...enus until you are back on the main loop screen Input sub menu Tap INPUT Delay footswitch to open the Input sub menu In the Input sub menu you choose which input s the Looper will record This feature allows you to use a specific input or inputs for various loops e g your microphone for a beat box section and your guitar for a chord progres sion while preventing sound from other inputs entering you...

Page 138: ...menu In the Metronome sub menu you can turn the metronome on or off and change its sound Metronome sub menu The options in the Metronome sub menu are MET ON Tap MET ON Double Comp footswitch to turn on the metronome and all related sync features The Metronome is more than a simple click track It generates an audio signal guiding you when you are recording loops but it also syncs with and controls ...

Page 139: ...ter To change the tempo you would have to delete the Loop completely or switch to another Loop Slot If you record a Loop with the Metronome OFF you can still change the tempo later Sync sub menu Tap SYNC the Double Comp footswitch to en ter the Sync sub menu In the Sync sub menu you can define how VL3X s Looper should sync to a given tempo The options in the Sync sub menu are described below SMART...

Page 140: ...p on Loop Track A Record a longer loop on Loop Track B Let them play back and take note of how it sounds and looks in the display Delete both loops from Loop Tracks A and B see Erase sub menu Now record a longer Loop on Loop Track A Record a shorter Loop on Loop Track B Notice that the shorter B loop is automat ically extended with empty space to match Loop Track A Once again delete both Loops In ...

Page 141: ...rive footswitch to enter the Erase sub menu In the Erase sub menu you will find options for erasing your Loops Erase Loop Track A Erase Loop Track B Erase Loop Track C Erase All Loop Tracks Erase sub menu Erasing loops directly You can easily delete a single loop without hav ing to go to the Erase sub menu While you are on the main Loop screen simply press hold the ODUB button for a Loop Track Rev...

Page 142: ...Tracks can be up to 8 minutes Your total remaining loop time across all slots and tracks can be displayed by pressing and holding the GENRE button for two seconds Look for FREE LOOP STORAGE to find out how much you have left It should be a lot Press any button to exit the About screen ...

Page 143: ...h will throw off the tempo guessing fea ture and loop tightness For example in Reaper you will find this pa rameter in Options Preferences Rendering under Trail length when Rendering project or stems or Freezing Tracks The bar length the number of 4 beat bars in the loop of all imported loops has to be a power of two in order for tempo guessing and syncing to work correctly Acceptable bar lengths ...

Page 144: ...f you re geeky you can actually name your loops such that the Import screen will automatically populate with the correct slot track and vocal guitar tags To do this name your Loops as follows SLOT _TRACK_VOC_userinfo for vocal loops or SLOT _TRACK_GTR_userinfo for guitar loops The Slot track and vocal guitar tags will deter mine what goes into the import screen The last underscore and text allows ...

Page 145: ...o the Guitar sub track Use the Control Knob to navigate up and down through the audio file list and set the Slot Track and Vocal Guitar parameters using the Mix Knobs Tap the Control Knob to flag each audio file for import A will appear next to each select ed file Press and hold the Control Knob to begin the import process Loop import confirmation dialog If you re importing a large number of files...

Page 146: ...hear your vocals and guitar clearly alongside the drum track Remember that you can also use the Guitar control on the Main mix page to further blend the guitar with the vocals and Loop Track If you overdub a vocal or guitar or aux perfor mance on top of the drum loop that you just turned down the newly overdubbed part will not be turned down It will be recorded exactly as you hear it After hearing...

Page 147: ...ll LOOPER level control is simply a mir ror of the LOOPER level control on the Main Mix page and it is still global We just put it on the Loop Mix page for convenience You ll also find MET levels if you scroll down on the Loop Mix Page Those levels are global as well ...

Page 148: ...that you have plugged into the device Exporting a loop Press STORE and navigate to the Loop Export tab using the or arrows Scroll to the Loop Slot you d like to select us ing the Control Knob and click the Control knob once to select it A small X will appear next to a selected Loop Slot If you d like to export all Loop Slots simply click on the SELECT ALL option at the top of the list Press and ho...

Page 149: ...behaves are contained in the UTIL menu on the Looper Lay er Parameters such as Metronome on off Met ronome sounds the Sync mode Loop Input etc are all here These parameters are saved when you use the SAVE command in the UTIL menu The UTIL menu on the Looper Layer Saving via UTIL stores the settings and loop au dio to the selected Loop Slot not to the Preset While the UTIL menu is displayed you can...

Page 150: ...Looper Lay er If you do this and happen to change to a Pre set that will normally load a Loop Slot it won t Why Since you are already in the Looper Layer we assume that you are performing recording a loop and just want to use the effects from other Presets To use a Slot associated with a Preset you moved to while recording a Loop in a different slot you will need to move away from the Preset and b...

Page 151: ...the same way You can think of each Loop Trigger as a pointer to a specific Loop Slot Track s You can assign up to eight A H Loop Triggers in each Preset Assigning Loop Trigger footswitches Assigning Loop Triggers to VL3X footswitches You can assign Loop Triggers A to H to VL3X footswitches using the BUTTONMAP tab on the Vocal or Guitar Layer Simply pick the footswitch Delay Reverb Harmony etc and ...

Page 152: ...oop Slots and Tracks to Loop Triggers Simply choose which Loop Slot and Track s you want to trigger with each button and you re done Additionally if you d like to globally assign Loop Triggers you can turn on Global Triggers at the bottom of the menu That makes all of the Trigger assignments the same across all Presets Global Triggers parameter Don t forget to save your Preset press STORE twice af...

Page 153: ... the end of a loop When the end of a loop comes around it will attempt to restart the loop on the next MIDI Tempo beat This allows for minor drift in the in coming MIDI Tempo value Again it s not intend ed for changing tempo during the performance with the looper running but can adjust to slight variations Additionally the looper will respond to MIDI Tempo values with precision higher than 1 beat ...

Page 154: ...Setup VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 151 Setup ...

Page 155: ... Introduction Setup contains all of the system wide parame ters for VL3X Each page or tab is described in its own section of this chapter Tap the Setup button to enter the system menu Tap the Arrow buttons to switch between the tabs of the system menu ...

Page 156: ... Level indicator light up If you see the red LED light turn Input Gain down until the red LED no longer lights This is your optimal Input Gain setting Input Type parameter Use the Input Type parameter to select your mi crophone type Choose the one that best match es your setup The available options are Dynamic Mic E g SM58 OM5 MP 70 etc Condenser Mic Activates 48V phantom power This will tem porar...

Page 157: ...number of effects and their latency Voice Sync Your lead voice is dynamically delayed ever so slightly so that any generated voices such as Harmony are lined up together perfectly The amount that your lead voice can be delayed is dependent on the number of generated voices Auto Similar to Voice Sync Auto delays your lead voice relative to the overall latency of all active effects not just generate...

Page 158: ... Cancel VL3X will attempt to remove vocals from recorded stereo music coming into the Aux input Please note that the ability for Voice Cancel to work its magic is highly dependent on the mix of the incoming music Stereo recordings with vocals directly in the middle and instruments panned far to the left and right tend to work the best Monitor Level parameter Use the Monitor Level parameter to cont...

Page 159: ...tect parameter to add the RoomSense microphones built into your VL3X to the available NaturalPlay sources Parameter settings On VL3X will listen to the RoomSense micro phones for Key Scale information if no Guitar MIDI or Aux signal is present Off VL3X will ignore any music heard by the RoomSense microphones ...

Page 160: ...o vocal channel The right XLR output jack carries the summed with effects mono guitar channel XLR Output Level parameter Use the XLR Output Level parameter to set the relative level of the signal going to the XLR out puts Parameter settings Mic Level Typically the best setting when connecting to a mixer PA This level closely replicates that of a microphone going directly into the mixer Line Level ...

Page 161: ...s are bypassed Setting the Talk Trim parameter to OFF allows you to mute the microphone during TALK TUN ER mode When used in combination with press ing holding the Preset UP DN buttons to enter TALK TUNER which mutes the guitar you can effectively mute both guitar and vocal output from VoiceLive 3 This can be used as a break mode if you re away from the stage Aux signals still pass to the outputs ...

Page 162: ...vert the phase of the guitar signal Parameter settings Normal Signal phase is maintained as it is at the guitar input Inverted Incoming signal phase is reversed It can sometimes be beneficial to invert the phase of a guitar to prevent feedback from stage monitors This is especially applicable to acoustic guitars Speaker Sim Enable parameter Use the Speaker Sim Enable parameter to switch the speake...

Page 163: ...e XLR outputs always allow variations of guitar level via the mix screen as long as no guitar outputs are con nected Gate Threshold parameter Use the Gate Threshold parameter to set the threshold for the guitar gate A gate closes or mutes the sound when it reaches a specific low volume threshold To set the gate effectively play a note or chord letting it ring out for a while You will notice that i...

Page 164: ... IN port MIDI Tempo parameter Use the MIDI Tempo parameter to ON to have VL3X follow the MIDI tempo from an external MIDI clock source e g a DAW Input Channel and Output Channel parameters Use the Input Channel parameters to set the MIDI Channel that VL3X listens to Use the Output Channel parameter to set the MIDI Channels that VL3X uses for sending MIDI data These parameters are useful if you hav...

Page 165: ...red Notes setting Input Channel Only MIDI Note information is filtered Notes CC setting Input Channel Only MIDI Note and Control Change messages are filtered Notes PC setting Input Channel Only MIDI Note and Program Change messages are filtered Notes PC CC setting Input Channel Only MIDI Note Program and Control Change mes sages are filtered Transpose parameter Use the Transpose parameter to shift...

Page 166: ...t Note parameter to define a split point Use the Split Direction parameter to control whether notes above or below that note are included Parameter settings C 1 to G9 Split Direction parameter It is possible to define a specific area of your keyboard for VL3X to respond to Use the Split Note parameter to define a split point Use the Split Direction parameter to control whether notes above or below...

Page 167: ...he modulation data received via MIDI is added to the vibrato already applied to Har mony voices Manual The modulation data received via MIDI is directly controlling the Vibrato amount Sysex ID parameter Use the SysEx ID parameter to set the Sysex ID that is used for addressing devices If you are using VoiceSupport for firmware up dates and or Preset management you need to set the SysEx ID to 0 ...

Page 168: ...hey are applied globally We recommend using the Adaptive settings for Compression EQ and Gating as a starting point and only adjust these components of the Tone block manually if you run into specific issues Tone parameter Use the Tone parameter to switch the Tone block on or off De ess parameter Use the De ess parameter to adjust the amount of adaptive de essing removal of sss sounds that should ...

Page 169: ...omatically adjusts compression settings as you sing Manual Compression settings are static and manually set Compress parameter Adaptive Compression mode only Use the Compress parameter to control the amount of adaptive compression applied to your voice 50 is the default Threshold parameter Manual Compression mode only Use the Threshold parameter to set the signal level where compression should be ...

Page 170: ...hreshold value Gate parameter The gate turns down the volume of the micro phone line signal when the input signal falls un der a certain threshold Use the Gate parameter to choose between adaptive automatic and manual compression Parameter settings Off No Gate is applied Adaptive The Gate is adjusted automatically Manual The Gate threshold can be set by the user Lead Atten uation parameter Adaptiv...

Page 171: ...nual Gate mode only Use the Threshold parameter to set the thresh old for the Gate When the signal level falls under this value the gate is activated and attenuates the signals as specified by the Atten uation pa rameters EQ Mode parameter Use the EQ Mode parameter to choose between adaptive automatic and manual equalization Parameter settings Adaptive Automatically adjusts equalization settings a...

Page 172: ...0 Warmth parameter Adaptive EQ mode only Use the Warmth parameter to adjust the charac ter of adaptive equalization When you set it to On the equalization will sound warmer Low Mid High gain parameters Manual EQ mode only Use the Low Mid and High Gain parameters to set the amount of signal boost gain or attenu ation that should be applied to the low mid and high bands of the EQ Parameter range 12 ...

Page 173: ...mode only Use the Low Mid and High Freq uency param eters to set the frequencies of the low mid and high bands of the EQ Parameter range 20 to 20480 Hz Mid BW parameter Manual EQ mode only Use the Mid BW parameters to set the band width of the EQ s mid band Parameter range Narrow 0 11 to 8 77 Wide ...

Page 174: ...at should be used as a start ing point reference for all Presets where effect blocks are set to Global ON Usually you will find the Global setting at the bottom of every effect block edit screen As soon as you change Global from OFF to ON within an effect block the corresponding effect settings from your the Global Preset will be ap plied to that effect For more information see Important The link ...

Page 175: ...o or control data coming from the Guitar input MIDI or USB port Aux input RoomSense microphones to determine the key scale that should guide Harmony voices and HardTune Guitar Audio received at the Guitar input is used to determine key scale MIDI MIDI note messages received at the MIDI IN jack are used to determine key scale Aux Audio received at the Aux input input is used to determine key scale ...

Page 176: ...ior parameter Use the Hit Behavior parameter to define how manually switching effect blocks on or off should affect the HIT function For more information see HIT Dynamic versus Snapshot Aux In Type parameter Use the Aux In Type parameter to specify the signal you are feeding to the Aux in jack Avail able settings are Live and Tracks Setting this parameter correctly improves Natu ralPlay chord dete...

Page 177: ...ntrast Depending on the angle that you view the screen from different contrast settings may make things easier to read Mix Screen Time out parameter Use the Mix Screen Time out parameter to set the time in seconds that the mix screen is active before it automatically times out and the display returns to the last used Layer ...

Page 178: ...omp and Harmony Drive both for the Vocal and the Gui tar Layer For more information see Remapping a footswitch In addition to these Preset specific mapping fea tures the parameters on the Setup menu s Mic Control and Footswitch tabs allow you to map features to the switch or switches on your Mic Con trol enabled microphone the Step footswitch on your and the footswitches on your optional Switch 3 ...

Page 179: ... TALK TRIM to OFF in the SETUP menu ALL HIT Preset UP DN Use Preset UP DN as follows to scroll through VL3X presets Tap to use Preset UP Hold to change directions Tap to use Preset Down Repeat hold to change direction again Preset Step Hold to change Preset Tap for STEP Tuner 1 Button Looper Control the Looper with just one button Here is how it works Tap for REC PLAY ODUB Double tap for STOP Doub...

Page 180: ...set the operation mode of the switch on your Mic Con trol enabled microphone Latched Tap the Mic switch to activate the assigned effect tap it again to deactivate it Momentary The assigned effect is on only when you keep the Mic switch pressed For more information see Change a button from Latched to Momentary mode ...

Page 181: ...ending on what you have assigned to it Step Button Function Parameter settings Step Pitch Cor All Mute µMod Delay Reverb Voc HIT Double Harmony Transducer HardTune Rhythmic Stutter Choir Synth Harm ony Hold Set Key Tap Tempo Bypass G µMod G guitar G Delay G Reverb G HIT G Comp G Drive G Amp G Rhythm G Octaver G Wah G Mute All HIT Looper Loop Input Cycle Tuner 1 Button Looper L oop Erase All Backin...

Page 182: ...button from Latched to Momentary mode Footswitch jack parameter You can use the Footswitch jack on your VL3X to connect either a TC Helicon Switch 3 a Switch 6 or a second expression pedal Parameter settings Expression Pedal Use this setting if you have connected an expression pedal to the Footswitch jack Switch 3 Use this setting if you have con nected a Switch 3 optional to the Footswitch jack S...

Page 183: ...Level G Reverb Level G Delay Reverb Level G Rhythmic Depth G Rhythmic Division G Amp Post Gain G Amp Pre Gain G Level G Pan Looper Level Headphone Level G Delay Send G Reverb Send Exp ression Min imum Pos ition parameter If you have connected a second expression ped al to the Footswitch jack use the Exp ression Min imum Pos ition parameter in the Setup menu to define the parameter value that shoul...

Page 184: ...Looper Play Record Overdub LStopErase Loop Stop Erase Loop Undo L oop Erase All Loop Trigger A H Track Start Track Stop Track Forward Track Backward Seq Rec Sequence Recording Seq Undo Sequence Recording Undo Harmony must be active for this to have an ef fect Toggles the Loop Backing Track Layer You may find this a more convenient way of enter ing the Loop Layer quickly compared to hold ing the La...

Page 185: ...ation modes of the footswitches on a TC Helicon Switch 3 or Switch 6 connected to your VL3X Latched Tap the footswitch on your Switch 3 or Switch 6 to activate the assigned effect tap it again to deactivate it Momentary The assigned effect is on only when you hold down the footswitch For more information see Change a button from Latched to Momentary mode ...

Page 186: ...Setup VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 183 Pedal Calibration tab For more information on pedal calibration see Calibrating your expression pedal ...

Page 187: ...duct Info tab contains important informa tion about your VL3X including Installed Firmware Version Serial Number Manufacture Date This information is valuable if you ever need to contact TC Helicon support Make sure you provide this information when creating a support incident ...

Page 188: ...Appendix VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 185 Appendix ...

Page 189: ...Guitar Boost 30 Vocal Harmony Key C C D D E F F G G A A B values 0 11 respectively 31 Vocal Harmony Scale MAJ1 MAJ2 MAJ3 MIN1 MIN2 MIN3 CUST values 0 7 respectively 46 Guitar Reverb 47 Guitar HIT 50 Vocal Vocoder Synth 51 Vocal Rhythmic 56 Vocal HIT 104 Vocal Choir 110 Vocal Harmony 111 Vocal Double 112 Vocal Reverb 113 Vocal HardTune 115 Step value represents Step Number i e 1 Step 1 2 Step 2 etc...

Page 190: ...ntenance Screen You should see the System Maintenance screen immediately If you see the normal VL3X screen without the System Mainte nance banner on top you haven t pushed the button inside the headphone jack correct ly Try again Choose the desired option from the menu us ing the Control Knob Updating the firmware using a USB flash drive If you cannot update the firmware of your VL3X using VoiceSu...

Page 191: ...Technical Specifications VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 188 Technical Specifications ...

Page 192: ...resets Memory for 500 presets 10 steps per preset 10 footswitches 6 preset assignable footswitches for enabling disabling FX blocks Backing track FX automation control via footswitches Detailed editing Genre and Styles preset categories DESIGN SIZE Height 3 inches 76 mm Width 13 8 inches 350 mm Depth 8 5 inches 216 mm WEIGHT Weight 5 lb 2 3 kg CONSTRUCTION Anodized extruded aluminum and steel chas...

Page 193: ...2 dBU to 14 dBu Guitar Input SNR 108 dB A to D Conversion 24 Bit 128 x oversampling bitstream 110 dB SNR A weighted Monitor Connector Balanced XLR Input Impedance Balanced 25 kOhm Monitor Input Level 0 dBFS 16 dBu Aux Aux 1 8 stereo mini jack Aux Input Level 0 dBFS 2 dBu ANALOG OUTPUTS Voice Connectors Balanced XLR Output Impedance Balanced Unbalanced 300 150 Ohm Output Range 0 dBFS Line Level 14 ...

Page 194: ...sion 24 Bit 128 x oversampling bitstream 106 dB SNR A weighted Headphone 1 8 Mini stereo jack 50 Ohm 14 dBu max Guitar thru Buffered Guitar Input Connector 1 4 TRS phone jack Output Impedance Bal UnBal 270 540 Ohms Monitor thru Direct connection to Monitor input Connector Balanced XLR ...

Page 195: ...REGULATIONS POWER External Power Supply Mains Voltage 100 to 240 VAC 50 to 60 Hz auto select Power Consumption 14 W SAFETY EMC Complies with EN 55103 1 2009 EN 55103 2 2009 FCC CFR 47 Part 15B and ICES 003 2004 4th Ed Safety certified to IEC 65 EN 60065 UL6500 and CSA IEC 65 EN 60065 UL6500 and CSA ENVIRONMENT Operating Temperature 32 F to 122 F 0 C to 50 C Storage Temperature 22 F to 167 F 30 C t...

Page 196: ...Technical Specifications VL3X Reference manual updated 2015 07 16 193 ...

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