TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor  (Used)

Comments about TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor:

I owned vocal processors from other brands and I can tell that this is the best ever! Solid case, professional look, easy to use and the harmonies sound realistic. Very well done!

Comments about TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor:

Wow! What can I say? I should have bought this a Long time ago. I bout the VLT (Voice Live Touch) because is was a pole mount version of this unit that has a cool touch interface. BUT the only draw back was that it DID NOT have all the deep editing functions of the Voice Live 2. Don't get me wrong, I love both Units BUT the VL2 is on a whole other level.

The VL2 has over 1000 sound presets available through the Voice Support App. And here is the kicker ... you can tweak each of them to your liking. This is KILLER news for a "twiddly knobs" guy like myself. That means I make the unit sound like me. It does what I want it to do. No limits to shaping MY sound. I added in the MP-75 Mic for additional functions (Loop, Harmony Hold, other Shortcuts) to free up my feet to dance. Am I loving this or what!

Stop reading this review and buy this thing RIGHT NOW! You will be pleased. Your audience will be pleased. Why are you still reading this? Do it!

Comments about TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor:

This is an amazing product, very versatile, with endless possibilities. TC Helicon have thought of pretty much everything you can think of in terms of personalization of every effect. It's amazing for live performances.
The only problems I saw was that some important effects like reverbs are not yet fully great, which makes this pedal unusable for professional studio recording.
Also, the harmonies need a lot of time spent programming for each different song.
It is still the ultimate voice modulator available on the market so far. I would recommend it to anyone.

Comments about TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor:

Simply the best at what it does. A great sounding floor unit for vocals. Well designed. Well thought out.

If you are considering something to give you control of your live vocals, I am convinced this is the best floor unit you can get.

Comments about TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor:

Upon switching from a regular mic through the PA to my TC Helicon MP-75 mic enhanced with the VoiceLive 2, the first words from my sound techs' mouth were, "Wow, listen to how clear that is."
The audience sat up and took notice that my setup made the same crummy-sounding PA system sound much, much better...and that was with no tweaking done to the sound board on the PA itself...nor had any tweaking been done on the VL-2 except for having the TONE, and PITCH buttons on, and set to automatic! Woohooo!
Many of the upper grade PA systems like, Mackie, Soundcraft, PreSonus, and Yamaha, have pretty decent effects built into themselves. However, after hearing the TC Helicon VoiceLive 2's smooth, studio-like compression, de-essing, world-class reverb, and delays, every sound man and musician who was there the day I auditioned my TC Helicon VL-2 and MP-75 were just blown into the 21st century of state-of-the-art sound technology. Besides being blessed with a great voice, using the VoiceLive2 along with it's companion MP-75 microphone have given me an advantage over other singers that I never thought I'd ever have. The TC Helicon VL-2 and MP-75 has renewed in me an old self confidence I thought I'd lost a long time ago. I used to enjoy and depend upon that inner-confidence while singing. With my new equipment from TC Helicon, and lots of practice using it, my old self-confidence has begun showing up at my performances and even rehearsals, once again. My audiences are noticing my renewed self-confidence too, and I get more applause than ever. If you can afford a VoiceLive 2, and an MP-75 along with some quality cables, I urge you to go out and invest in yourself, and your equipment. It really can make the difference between sounding like a week end amateur, or a complete professional!
VoiceLive 2 gives us professional quality vocal effects in one attractive, durable floor unit. It has 10 foot push buttons on the unit itself (many with more than one function), 6 of those buttons are dedicated to simply turning particular effect blocks on or off (or setting tap tempo). There are foot switches for Harmony, Doubling, microModulation, Reverb, Delay, and FX. VL2 has a shortcut button that is assignable. One thing you can assign to it is the single button looper that can be used to loop voice or guitar, or both. Up to 15 seconds of stereo looping, or 30 of mono looping. A single button control for play, overdub, stop, undo, and erase. If you're using a TC Helicon MP-75, the control button on that mic can be used to trigger and control the looper feature, instead of the temporary button on the VL2! In fact, the control button on the TC Helicon MP-75 can control just about any of the effects found in the VL2. So cool, you have to try it!
The VL2 works very hard for any singer/ musician looking to improve their vocal reproduction and sound quality during any live gig or even studio recording session. It's designed specifically for performers to use during live performances, and gives the performing artists themselves more say and control in the final outcome of their voice in the mix. VL2 is packed with today's state-of-the-art vocal effects, and even a few more that you may have never heard of yet. The VL2 has it's own very accurate and easy to see guitar tuner, along with a dedicated guitar effects block section including all your favorite effects. Compression, a multi-band EQ, a modulation section (including chorus, detune and flange), and several high quality reverb to round out the guitar effects section. Phase reversal is also included in the guitar section for possibly reducing feedback. The separate guitar effects block seems to be geared more for acoustic-electric guitars as it has no distortion section, but I've made nice use of these effects with my electric double hum-bucker guitar.The guitar effects are global, and switching to new are not changed when changing presets for vocal songs.

The vocal section of the VL2 is crammed with vocal possiblities, and it's chock full with completely professional, adjustable, and programmable vocal effects. Automatic microphone volume adjustment. Phantom power Professional high quaility reverbs with ducking capability, tap-tempo capabable in the echoes and delays section also with ducking capabilities, micro-modulations such a detune, flangers, choruses are offered in the umod section. It features hardtune abilities, also. It's harmony section is extensive and inlcudes a "HOLD" feature that is foot-triggerable. One to four harmonies are available in any gender (eight with keyboard or MIDI, also gender adjustable), along with a separate and totally fantastic doubler effect that has many editable parameters (including 1 to 4 doubles, gender adjust for each double). It also features rhythmic and tone sections, Not only that, it has a USB port for future upgrades, or uploading or downloading other users' presets.Downloading presets to computers for future reference and recall has many benefits.
The VoiceLive2 has MIDI IN, OUT, and THRU for complete flexibility with computers, keyboards, and other MIDI-oriented equipment. Harmonies within the VL2 can be controlled by a connected GUITAR, MIDI IN, and AUXILIARY IN (such as mp3 or CD's). However, harmony can be derived strictly by using KEY & SCALE mode. In KEY & SCALE mode, the VL2 will ignore the AUTO INPUT SENSE and harmonies will be rendered . I AUTO INPUT SENSE the unit decided which of the guitar in MIDI IN, and AUX IN you are currently playing through so it derives it's harmonies from one of those. Inputs and outputs are very complete, and the unit produces stereo effects.


Starting with the upper left finger control buttons on top of the VL2...These are what TC Helicon refers to as their "live engineer". It's important to note that these TONE PITCH and GUITAR FX controls are global, that means they have an affect on all the sounds within the VL2, and affect the sounds in all the numbered presets! Although these controls can be used automatically (as designed), they can also be used in manual mode to override the automated engineering aspects of the VL2. In manual mode, there are several more options given for adjusting the equalizer settings, so some people (lik
e sound engineers), may find that useful, however for most of us ordinary users/singers, I urge you to let the automation we pay for in this item to do it's job...it's generally better than we are. After using the VL2 at several personal venues, I've yet to turn the automated features found in it to manual operation. It simply seems to work best in it's automated mode, making it a lot less likely for the sound to get messed up.
"TONE" button controls, Adaptive Shape EQ, Adaptive Compresssion, De-Ess, & Adaptive Gate.I have never found a reason to turn off the "Tone" button, or even take it out of automated mode. It's simply wonderful technology that works hard, and well for me.
The compressor is wonderful, and makes my singing sound more musical. The compressor is adjustable if needed. I've yet to find a De-Esser that works better in an all-in-one unit such as this one. The "Pitch" button located directly to the right of the "Tone" button. Pressing the PITCH button activates auto chromatic pitch correction. It's automatic setting is at 50%, and is usually all that is required. There is no need to set Key or Scale, all notes that you sing in the 12 tone western chromatic scale are corrected to the nearest scale tone. **I've never heard it working when I sing, unless I increase the value above it's normal 50%.
I only gave features an 9 because something this expensive and important in a singer/musician equipment package should come standard with a protective storage case. Already, some VL2 users have come up with their own homemade padded and reinforced travel cases to withstand the rigors of traveling. I and many other VoiceLive 2 users have also found a cheap dust cover would have been a nice extra, and many of us have either built our own, or are using cheap plastic shower caps (which seem to work pretty well). I'm looking to TC Helicon to remedy these problems in the future, as they are an excellent company who really listens to their customers.
I would also love to see owner/customers/porgrammers program more classis cover songs into the TC Helicon website database for everyone to try.
Quality of build, effects, and quality of genius electronic engineering from the people at TC Helicon are either on par with the industry's very best, and an many cases go well beyond the accepted norms for excellence in the industry. TC Helicon sets the new bar for excellence in floor-based, user-controlled voice effects. The units are designed in Canada, but are manufactured in China (so I take off one point for that). I and many other VL2 users have noticed the effects foot switches are a bit loud during operation...making for awkward switching during quiet passages of music during live performance, and can be problematic in studio situations as well. I took off one point from being excellent because of the mechanically noisy switching. The noise is not electronic in nature. However, the switches are very heavy duty, and lighted, and should provide years of trouble-free switching even on dimly lit stage areas. On very loud stage environments these relatively noisy switches should not be a problem given all the other noises in live arenas and stages.
To me, even though the VoiceLive 2 MP-75 package seems a bit expensive at the retail level, TC Helicon's VoiceLive 2 makes certain you're getting what you pay for...top quality professional vocal effects (normally only found in the best of studios), placed in a heavy duty stage-ready case with multifunctional lights surrounding the stomp buttons, all in an attractive floor unit designed for use by singers during live performances. Singers, and sound people could pay thousands of dollars more for multi-effect units that don't perform as well, or have near the capabilities of the VoiceLive 2. A singer being able to control their own effects in real-time while performing is a great idea for many.
On the downside of value, if TC Helicon wanted to provide a bit more value for their customers who are already shelling out many hundreds of dollars for the VL-2, they should also either provide a custom-built expression pedal with the unit, or list it as an optional extra. I'd really like my expression pedal to cosmetically match my VL-2 and carry the TC Helicon trademark. Also, the whole expensive effects unit is completely worthy of a hard shell case made by TC Helicon and thrown into the the deal from the manufacturer from the get go. ...Not the little soft shell case currently being offered by TC Helicon's website to protect a several of their electronic items...I want one specifically made for the VL2! It's worth it!

Comments about TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor:

I can put the Digitech and the T.C.Helicon up side by side comparision the T.C. Helicon's effects are much better and pristine sounding delays and reverbs. The harmony in it is way faster and hits less errors when you use it with a guitar. Having presets is way nice too, you can go back and forth to different patches without any glitches pops or clicks. Every time I use it I find something new and interesting and it can be up graded to new versions of software , I can now do 15 second loops with it and do some creative things withit. There is a hold button where you can hold a chord the chooir is doing while you start singing something different. I can't wait to plug it in again and see what I will come up with next.
This thing has about every vocal effect you can think of and sounds great too.
It is built like a tank and the size of it really fits in my set-up nice. It has a handle built into it to carry it, they really thought this thing out well.
Though the price is kind of high, you pay for what you get. I had a digitech vocalist Live3 and it worked pretty good but it is no match for the quality of T.C. Helicon's engineering. It sounds 10 times better.

Comments about TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor:

Truthfully, I haven't tried other vocal processors, but can't imagine any surpassing the VoiceLive 2. Using it with no harmony, doubling, FX, etc., it's still a great tool for adding richness to your voice. While I can carry a tune, I've always been a little ashamed of my VOICE; I think it sounds almost boring and lifeless. But, with the VL2, I'm actually pretty blown away by what I'm hearing! As has been mentioned in other reviews, if you really can't sing (in tune) don't waste your money, spend it on singing lessons instead, seriously; this will not improve your singing, only your voice.

On the other hand, if you are a good singer but just don't have perfect intonation, the pitch correction compensates beautifully without that robotic sound so prevalent in a lot of R&B music today. But it's not that the VL2 can't do that, it can if that's what you want, I just don't like that sound personally.

The unit is easy to use, but it will take a bit of patience to learn to get the best settings and sounds for your particular tastes and style, and it's worth the little bit of work it takes. If you can't find what you need among the 200+ presets, it's pretty easy (and fun) creating your own, and you can control so many aspects of what comes out that it's amazing.

I chose the VL2 over other products because while I do play both guitar and keyboards, I don't play either well enough to play and sing (I'm a bass player really), so I needed a device that had the capability of setting a key to create harmonies. Even better is being able to play a music track from my digital recorder and have the VL2 build harmonies off of that, which are then fed back into the recorder for beautiful vocal tracks.

Now, the thing is expensive, almost prohibitively so, but if you can in any way swing it, I'd highly recommend it. As a recording musician only (I don't play live anymore), it's one of the best investments I have made for my studio. I recently needed a particular harmony sound for a song, and wound up creating a new preset, and it turned out so well that, honestly, I can't stop listening to the song because the harmony sounds like something a "professional" band would have done.

All in all, I'm pleased with the VL2 and doubt there is anything better on the market short of something a major recording studio might drop 3 grand on! The more I get into the settings, the more creative ideas and uses for it I come up with. About the only drawback is the temptation to overuse it.
Awesome features; multiple effects, harmony, doubling, delay, reverb and any or all can be on or off at will with the press of a button. Easy and detailed editing assure you can get almost any sound you may want vocally. Automatic voice EQ, compression and de-essing are excellent; gives your voice some "ooomph" without a pro-level engineer at your disposal.
Solidly built and looks beautiful. Large and easily readable display, intuitive button layout. Noiseless footswitches and buttons mean that if you use it desktop (like I do) those sounds don't get into the mix. Kinda chintzy AC power brick though.
It's expensive, and if you are not really serious about what your vocals sound like, especially as a solo or duet act, or if you really believe they are good enough, then it probably won't be worth it to you.

Comments about TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor:

Again, not very impressed. got some nice-sounding harmonies to come out for a minute in practice, but they were muffled. It is extremely difficult to tell what the presets are. It is extremely difficult to see the buttons onstage. It is extremely difficult to read the display, especially on stage. I just can't see any reason why a musician would buy this unit when they can have a similar one with a really sweet sounding warm preamp, too. I am returning this to my friend today.
Pro gigging musician here. Read the manual several times- it is vague, incomplete, and poorly-written. I had this unit for several weeks to try to help a fellow musician figure it out. Could not even get it to work at all. I already have the digitech vocalist 4, which I was using several years ago the day I picked it up with no issues. According to the manual, it appears that you have to somehow calibrate this device to whatever system you are playing it thru via a vaguely described set of commands/button presses each time you use it. With a similar pedal, you plug and play, and the gain/output nobs are right there- simple. Why does the tc have to overcomplicate what should be a simple part of the process? And again, why does the manual leave out so much detail? How they are selling so many of these things is a mystery to me. A lot of them must be getting returned.
Anything that does not do what it is designed for gets a terrible rating. If an experienced musician cannot get to square one with this after 3 weeks, what does that tell ya?
A device that is unworkable is of no value.

Comments about TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor:

I'm an old rocker.. love Beatles and also like new stuff.. Matt Kearney Pearl Jam, etc.. I've owned this box for over a year and use it 1 1/2 hours /day practice/performance. I have to say this thing is really FRIGGIN UNBELIEVABLE. I HAVE AN ok VOICE. IN TUNE SUITABLE FOR CHURCH. but with this box WOW.. When I use preset 91.. I am rubber soul. The presets are fantastic and the choir effect.. unbelievable. Lat week I just started playing a track at church and then put on the Harmony Choir and people stopped in their tracks and turned around to look.. the sound was so awesome. If you love harmonies and want to sound better as a solo performer. get my rig.. this box, the Rolland Boss 800 drum machine/guitar effects processor ( use 35 for acoutic guitar. great effect)...throw in a couple of Fishman fish sticks and a Senhauser wireless headset mic and most important of all... ROCK ON!!!

Comments about TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Floor-Based Vocal Processor:

The only problem I've ever had with the Voicelive 2 is difficulty with sound levels at live performances. The harmonies, delays, etc are all awesome, but all seem to sound slightly different on the many sound systems I've used. It always seems difficult to tame the sound even on sound systems I am familiar and comfortable with. Besides that, this machine is amazing. The harmonies sound great along with the many other cool FX. This is a great buy, although make sure you check out the Voicelive touch. It has a lot of the same cool features with a great looper for half the price. It just depends what you are looking for.Good Luck,Matt