I'll take some misbehaving against a metallic, phasey robot that ONLY sings when I'm singing..!

Actually, if backing singers didn't do drugs and run off with bass players, where do you think the next generation of keyboard players would come from?

+ + =

LOL! My mum wondered what she was smoking, and my dad is still trying to get that Green Onions riff down on his Precision. I'm not a bad lad, though.

To my ear(s), vocals through a keyboard sound anemic at best. I'd put that first on arranger improvements----before styles, right-hand voices and all the rest---especially for those who sing and perform live.

Well uncle Dave I am sure you use the harmoniser judiciously. I just believe having actually heard you that you are over thinking this issue a little bit . I don't know you at all really other than as an online acquaintance but I would say that from my point of view there is gold in your voice . Harmoniser or not . Certainly the korg harmoniser is adequate for what it is doing. But why cover gold with silver ?

Wow, such inspiring words-thanx all!
Well, I just finished the first trial run with what I believe is my answer.
Last night, the place was packed beyond belief all night, and I was in vocal heaven. I had no time to rethink anything, and the combination of the voice live touch2 and the iRig mixer seems to be the ticket for my dilemma.

All my concerns have been answered:
The vocal harmonies are top notch, again
The guitar comes through the speakers, AND triggers harmonies
The iPad plays my tracks and mp3 files with EQ available from the mixer ( internal mp3 is a tad quiet)

I can do a guitar job, and not loose the vocal harmonies or get used to a different tonal setup. The vlt2 comes with me and hangs on a stand. Easy-peasy.

I will do some recording for you all very soon. And Diki, if you think all harmonies need to be contrary lines to the lead, then it's probably best that you don't sing. Simon and Garfunkel, Phil and Don ... C'mon, man - harmony is an art form - complex, or simple. It's beautiful to create the lush complimentary tones on the fly ... And yes, the people DO notice. The trick is to spotlight the right songs, and sing within the ensemble, as a part of the group sound. I'll show you what I mean in another post.
You play chordal harmonies all night as a keyboardist ... Vocals benefit from the same treatment. If any of you think harmonizers are cheesy, gimmicky, or robotic ... Please stay away from them so my audiences can appreciate the art form in its respected state.

It's kind of what I expected. The vocal harmonizer sounds okay but external units do a lot job better in many cases. There might be a few tricks that could make the vocal harmonies sound a lot better and I see where Dave has experimented with various settings to get a desired result. Korg apparently put in a lesser quality unit than what's in the Pa3X, although that's just my opinion based on what I've heard from various online demos, including Dave's. Others have stated the same thing so it seems the observation is a correct one. You have to pay thousands of dollars more for a Pa3X which makes the trade off a lot less appealing. In other words, the Pa-900 is a lot better deal for the money and thus most people probably won't mind the less than stellar harmonizer on the Pa-900.

Dave's voice is really good to begin with and so it's somewhat of a disappointment that the harmonizer isn't up to snuff, which would have made the song(s) even more enjoyable if in fact it was up to snuff. Oh well.

Another possibility would be for Korg to provide a software update to improve the vocal harmonizer. Whether they choose to do it is another story. To my ears it sounds about as good as the PSR-s950 harmonizer. Korg could really improve overall sales on their mid-range arrangers if they decided to put in stellar harmonizers. Same goes for Yamaha. I'm guessing roughly 50% of keyboard players like to sing along when playing. Charge a $100 more and put in an excellent harmonizer. Makes sense to me.

Perhaps TC-Helicon conspired with Korg to make owners somewhat dissatisfied in an effort to get people to shell out big bucks for an external unit from TC-Helicon! A little farfetched perhaps but stranger things have happened. In conclusion, it appears the Pa-900 harmonizer lacks somewhat and therefore an external unit is advisable, especially if you perform live in front of a crowd.

All the best, Mike

Hey Mike,
Thanx for the kind words. After 3 high energy hours at a jumpin' South Jersey Casino tonight, I am convinced that the TC harmonizer with the RIGHT mic is worlds ahead of the VH2 that Yamaha puts out. I had more fun tonight than I have had in years ... Diana Krall even sat in!
(well, not really - but she sure does LOOK like her!)
The best thing Korg could have done to this kb would be to use an XLR mic input - t would make everyone sound good right out of the box.
TC developed the technology, buy Korg builds the units themselves, and they told me that the 900 does, indeed have a similar unit to the 800.
Could be better, but it's still WAY usable.

If only she had red hair . . .

DonM

She does, but she had to die it blonde to keep Dave at bay.

Gary