I wonder if you guys could help me and list some songs that work well with a harmonizer ? I haven't done much with it, and that is next on my list. Preferably, older ones this old guy will know.

Anything that was originally done with harmony works - all Everly Brothers songs, for example.
For Country, I usually use one additional voice a third above my own, with the harmony voice a little softer. This actually will work for any genre.
On some old songs, such as Mills Brothers, additional voices can be used the same volume as the lead voice.
A good idea would be to listen to recordings of the songs you do to see where the harmony originally was used. However, feel free to make the song your own arrangement.
It's easy to overuse the harmony. Like seasoning food, be discreet and use it sparingly for best results.
DonM

Bernie,
I feel the vocal harmonizer s a great tool –but by far over used. I tried to use the unit as an addition to my voice, a section of a song that adds harmony voices for a short period. It takes away from hearing only my voice all night. Using the unit for a long periods will make it’s artificial more apparent.

When I began my career in music we had a large bass player who had a good voice, he did sing every song plus the repeats. My voice was just beginning to surface, when I was asked to sing, which might have been 2 to 3 times in an evening I received the longest and loudest applause – I did not have a better voice, they just enjoyed the variation, the change. This is my value on the vocal harmonizer.

What songs are best? Most any song, since you are only adding an effect it can be used anywhere in just about any song.

I do use the unit for a entire song when I feel my voice does not fit the venue of the song. Y.M.C.A. – I Will Survive – never on a Sinatra tune, that’s a no, no.

My impute, John C.

Thanks to Don and John for their replies, it is helpful. I assume from the lack of specific songs that a more general, judicious approach is the answer, and it doesn't have to be songs from the Four Freshmen, Lads etc.

For what it's worth Bernie, I use harmony on about 75% of my material and whilst the PA2 can generate three voices most of the time I use one, sometimes 2 and never three.

I agree with the others about listening to songs and use harmony where the original did, but I also use a single voice harmony line on songs that originally had no harmony, as I feel it sounds better than jsut adding a chorus effect.

Dennis

Some tunes I use my harmonizer on:

Hey Good Lookin
You belong to me
Angels among us
baby face
Blue xmas
Blue hawaii
Brown eyed girl
Corrina, Corrina
Doctor my eyes
Danny's song
Dream lover
Hello mary lou
have you ever seen the rain
heartaches by the number
jump, jive & wail
lazy, hazy crazy days of summer
life is like a mountain railway
mister sandman
my girl
there's a tear in my beer
Any everly brother stuff


Like the others, I use it about 3/4 of the time, I think. You have to find the right volume level for the harmonies so they don't overwhelm your lead vocal.

I also use 2 or 1 additional harmonies, usually above my lead line...

If the harmonizer also carries effects, like most will, watch your reverb especially, I usually zero out the reverb effects on my box amp and just use the effects on my Digitech...

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Bill in Dayton

[This message has been edited by Bill in Dayton (edited 08-03-2008).]

[This message has been edited by Bill in Dayton (edited 08-03-2008).]

Another “My thought” – I am selling my voice, it’s prime. To that I sometimes add a single voice to give the vocal more body -- or a voice a third above to get a blues type of sound. If it’s two or three I add sparingly.

It’s my voice and what helps me sell the song.

John C.

Bernie, if you still want a list of songs I can do.

But whatever you do... Tape yourself, and listen critically to the harmonizer. I'm sorry, but I am not a big fan of most of the harmonizers in arrangers, compared to dedicated units, being much cheesier and chipmunk-y than the best hardware units.

Tape yourself, and ask yourself does the effect distract, or add to your singing? It's a cool effect, when you are playing, but often, in the light of a cold, objective listen after the fact, it doesn't sound anywhere NEAR as impressive as when you were actually playing!

JMO....

AMEN!!!

There are a few members here who endorse the harmonizers contained within various arrangers, but I'm not one of them...

I've played with the settings,with no luck...

I think, generally speaking, the results from using a stand alone unit will usually out perform those "included" with a keyboard...

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Bill in Dayton

Ketron and Korg arrangers use the best VPs out there. As good as any standalone unit. Roland is a close second, Yamaha; a distant third.

The PA800 has as good of a unit as I ever worked with. I have a Digitech VR gathering dust at home because of it. Anyone want to swap me something for it?