Happy New Year!

I recently purchased and installed the harmonizer for the Solton X-1. I love it! I had a Digitech Vocalist Workstation and to me the harmonies sound smoother and less harsh.

I have a large collection of Tune 1000 files. The harmonizer does an incredible job of utilizing the vocal track when placed in midi mode. I'm having a problem editing and saving the settings so that each time one of these files is played it comes up with the correct harmonizer preset (midi mode). Some strange things have been happening. When I manually work on the settings I sometimes lose the lyrics. I've looked at the manual and am still stumped.

If anyone could list step by step instructions for editing and saving a Tune 1000 midi file with harmonizer settings it would be greatly appreciated. Also...one other question....for the other midi files with lyrics that I have that are not Tune 1000, is there a way to tell if there is a vocal track included.

Thanks very much for your help!

Bob

Bob,
I started to list the things to do to correct your problem here at home, but without the keyboard in front of me I can't remember exactly which function buttons to push. I'll get on line at my store this morning and give you the right order or just call me.
George Kaye

Hi Bob,
You can tell if a song has a lyrics track by playing it is a sequencer program on the computer. I use Posertracks Pro. It is very good and quite inexpensive. There are also some free ones.
If there is a particular song you want to know about and you don't have a sequencer program, email me and I'll be glad to help.
Don

Bob,
Well I'm here at the store now, and I just wrote down every button i've pushed.
First, let me attempt to explain to you and anyone else reading this what seems to be happening. I don't think the owners manual with the vocal harmonizer explains this to great enough detail.
Out of the box, there are 16 vocal presets solton gives you. For example, one might be a trio harmony, another a mickey mouse sounds and on number 14 there is a midi song track harmony, etc. For use with the vocal harmony track on a tune 1000 song, I've found that these are not important to use. At first, I went to the song and tried to select vocal preset #14 which was the vocal song preset, but I found that when I went to the regestration mode and selected a different preset vocal set up and then returned to the tune 1000 song, the last vocalizer preset I used was now in the gm part #5 display. I thought, "now I'm all screwed up", but really as long as I select vocalize for the part #5 song track, everything works fine. I've probably confused everyone at this point, so let me start with what you need to do.
Just in case you have re-programmed the 16 preset vocalizer setups, and you want to get them back to the factory sets, here's how to do it. (You have to do them one at a time)
1)From the main screen (get out of song mode) Push Effects(F2)
2)Push Vocalize (F5)
3)Select using the Cursor keys (< >) the Set you want to Return to the Factory Settings.
4)After this is highlighted push the SAVE/ENTER button
4)Push Default F9
That's it. Now do this same procedure for each of the 16 vocal presets.


Now, moving on to bigger and better things.
From the main screen
1)push Utility
2)push F8- you want this box to say locked. If it says unlocked you must change it to lock. This is a System 3.0a new addition. You will not find this if you do not use this new software. (but then, if you don't use this software, your vocal harmonizer won't work!)
3)Hit exit to return to the main screen
4)Hit song play so you turn on the song play light.
5)Choose a tune 1000 song that you know is using vocal harmony on track 5. If you are using the Everly Brothers disk call up the first song in this collection called dream, dream, dream. This one has vocal harmony all the time so it's easy to use as an example.
6)Push Start and as soon as the song starts playing (with the lyrics screen OFF, push F1 for GM Parts.
6)Push STOP- the song stops but you are seing in the screen Part 01.
7)Page up until you see part 05.
8)Push Part Mode F8 and keep tapping it until it says "vocalize".

Let me explain what this does: By locking the Vocalizer part in Utility and selecting part 05 to be vocalizer, You can now go to any song you want and the vocal track 05 will be available without making any other changes. However, if you want to play a song that does not have vocal harmony on track five, you will need to unlock the utility function. I think that if I want to unlock the function and save each song that uses vocal track 05 for vocal harmony, I can probably do this by using the save/enter key, but I haven't tried this yet.
What I've discovered is that if I was using a certain vocal set for playing a style or regestration on the keyboard and then go to the song play function and look at GM part 05 that was set for vocalizer on part 05, the name of the last vocal set used will be seen as the vocal set selected for track 05. THIS DOESN'T MATTER. Your vocal harmony track will still sound correct when you sing.
I can't explain this any better, because I'm not an engineer.
When I get to the NAMM show here in California the first week in February, I will have lists of questions for the Solton Italy bunch.
(Bob Wheeler just called me and I explained all this over the phone, but I thought many of you would still find this interesting)
I want to thank John Zahody for letting me know about this lock/unlock function which was one of the new 3.0a functions he found on the paper that came with 3.0a in the vocalizer box. Staying in touch with all of you helps alot to find things out we all need to know.
Good luck,
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George,

Thanks very much for taking the time to explain this in detail in this forum and on the phone. Everything works great now. The fix is much easier to do than it is to explain. I decided not to "lock the channel" since I have other midi files with lyrics that don't have a vocal track on channel 5. It's very easy to change and save each song individually and I can make other adjustments at the same time. Thanks again!

Don, I appreciate your offer to check a song or two to see if it has a vocal track. I've got several hundred midi files with lyrics that are not Tune 1000 so I'll just look for the software. Appreciate your help.

Bob

What do you do with the lyrics files that are not tune 1000 to play them in the X1?

Jerry

Jerry,
If you are asking how to play files AND sing with the vocal harmonizer that are not tune 1000, here's the problem.
Tune 1000 includes a vocal harmony track on channel 5. That is a track written musically to imitate voices sung. Although this track does not appear to play sounds as other tracks do, the volume is just much lower than other tracks.
Other song disks made by others, even though they have lyrics, might not have a track designated as a vocal harmony track. You are free to change the gm part on your X1 to be the vocalizer part, but just keep in mind it might sound real funny if you say pick part 03 which is usually the bass part and now when you sing you will here your voice and a bass line of you when you sing into the microphone. Likewise, other tracks will sound equally funny. Sometimes you just get lucky and pick a track which does a pretty good job. Also remember that not all tune 1000 songs have a vocal part arranged into it and sometimes, certain songs, to sound a play much like the original have only limited vocal harmony throughout the song.
George Kaye

X1 with harmonizer users,

The Tune 1000 files that contain harmony are an absolute blast! As George mentioned not all Tune 1000 files have the vocal track. It seems to depend largely on the song and who popularized it. For example on "Horse with no Name" by America the vocal harmony comes in on the chorus...just like the song. What is really fun is that in many songs the type of harmony will change at the appropriate time in the song just as the band would sing it. If you haven't tried it yet I guarantee it will bring a smile to your face.

Bob