TC Talkbox Synth: secret weapon for ... backing vocals

yek

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A while back I researched alternatives for my MXR Talkbox, to cut down on stuff to carry to gigs. It came down to the Boss VO-1 and TC Talkbox Synth. I chose the latter, for several reasons.

I still take it with me to every gig these days. But not anymore for its talkbox simulation. I now use its “vocal polishing” features.

Because TC Helicon includes some of their tricks for vocal enhancements in this pedal: EQ, compression, subtle pitch correction (no auto tune), de-essing, gating. And so simple: one button turns it on, one knob sets the intensity. Reverb can also be added, separately.

You connect your mic to the pedal and the pedal connects to the mixing board.

I’m not a great singer. But being in a 4-man band requires me to do backing vocals. This device certainly covers up my flaws. And now the other guys in the band use one too, except the lead singer.

The pedal is damn cheap too. Under 100 bucks.

It can run on batteries, if you want it close to your feet (not necessary for the vocal stuff) and don’t want to use 9V power. This way you can also use its quite capable talkbox, synth and vocoder sounds.

I don't ven need it on the floor, because it’s set-and-forget for the vocal stuff.
 
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Currently nothing. None of those songs are in our playlist. On occasion I do bring my MXR Talkbox. The real thing is the best, in this case.
 
I’ll check this out. I used to use a VoiceLive 3 and I like what it did to my vocals; just the basic tone stuff, not effects. A little help is great singing 3 hours 3x or more a week. It’s too big to take out with the Axe/ax8, so I was considering their Mic Mechanic 2 pedal.
 
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Seems like the Mechanic offers the same features for vocals, with more control, plus delay. Without Talkbox and Synth.
 
Currently nothing. None of those songs are in our playlist. On occasion I do bring my MXR Talkbox. The real thing is the best, in this case.

I see.....the demos sound pretty darn good. Drawback I see is that you must actually be pushing audio through your mouth to activate the Talkbox. There's an option to have the gtr audio always on I see, ......and talkbox kicks in along with the guitar audio once you start singing or talking into the mic.

Seems negligible though and will work extremely well.
 
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@yek
How do you wire this up? Looks pretty cool.

For vocal only? Mic into TC (XLR), and XLR Out to FOH.

For talkbox and synth: box goes between guitar and AX8 or Axe-Fx, just like a regular pedal.

For the talkbox effect you need to hum/sing into the mic, like Reclavea already mentioned. Unlike a real talkbox where you can keep silent and just form the vowels.
 
For gain/drive tones.... with the Talkbox Synth...shouldn't it be preferable to have the AX8/AXII/AXIII ...be driving the Talkbox as opposed to the guitar signal by itself?
 
No, because the pedal itself offers the choice between a clean talkbox sound and a dirtier one. It doesn’t depend on outside gain.
 
For vocal only? Mic into TC (XLR), and XLR Out to FOH.

For talkbox and synth: box goes between guitar and AX8 or Axe-Fx, just like a regular pedal.

For the talkbox effect you need to hum/sing into the mic, like Reclavea already mentioned. Unlike a real talkbox where you can keep silent and just form the vowels.

Thanks. Does the guitar effected sound then go out on the mic channel or to the Axe?

If I understand correctly, it will go out on the mic channel and the talk box does ALL the heavy lifting. No processing at all by the Axe FX.
 
Thanks. Does the guitar effected sound then go out on the mic channel or to the Axe?

If I understand correctly, it will go out on the mic channel and the talk box does ALL the heavy lifting. No processing at all by the Axe FX.

To the mic channel.

If you want it the other way: integrating the talkbox signal into your regular guitar signal, going into the AX8/Axe-Fx, choose the Boss VO-1. That device doesn't depend on a separate mic output signal. You only connect a mic to the Boss to allow forming the vowels

It also has some other cool fx (choir). But it doesn't provide the tools for vocal improvement that the TC has.
 
I take it the Axe could activate the unit with scenes or the like? ie...external amp switching

Yeah, just put the device in an I/O 3 or I/O 4 loop, at the beginning of the grid, set at unity gain. This lets you enable / bypass it per scene, or with an IA switch.
 
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