In this demo the VH2 sounds pretty good to me.
What do you think?
Eric

Eric nice find ...BUT....
regarding this video and what we are talking about is this
....if you notice this guy is wearing a headset mic...
with that on your head and your mouth SQUARELY pressed on top of the
mic when singing is fine to a point, but certainly not the
quality at all of a TC Helicon unit. That said if you don't use a headset mic and sing with a traditional hand held one and your coming
to the mic from different angles while your playing & singing it is a whole new ball game,....first and foremost power singers use distance dynamics to control nuances in their voice with different head gestures in, out, side, etc,....the Yamaha VH2 is notorious for DROPOUTS, especially with TRIO harmony, that's why so many Yamaha players although there is VH2 on-board still use an external TC Helicon unit for their vocals.. I should know that vs a TC Helicon unit which has a superb TRACKING mechanism inside,
....and no drop outs no matter how you approach the mic, superb tracking, much better vocal harmony, robust sound quality.
IMO If you really care about your Vocal Harmony TC Helicon outmatches VH2 by a mile every time.
Yamaha needs to update VH2 in a big way, It's just how it is sorry.

I agree with you.
That's why I still use my TC VL3 ...
However this was still a good demo IMHO
For certain people this might be just enough.
Eric

This type of singing is perfect to showcase the VH2. It's not very expressive, it's compressed, and highly rhythmical. His voice, while very nice, is more a part of the drum section than a melody. (IMHO) My style is more fluid, and very spontaneous. I need to punch in and out of a harmony, sometimes 2 or three times in the same sentence. I try to sound like the 4 freshman, 4 tops, Mills bros, Beach Boys .... that lush, wall of sound with moving voices in the chord. A simple third above can me made to sound great for Everly Bros, and the like, and most other styles, but my signature has always been more of a Manhattan Transfer-ish approach to vocals.

The biggest problem is not with the tone of the vocals ... it's the erratic behavior when you try to sing with more expression.

Yamaha VH2 needs a solid, steady vocal with little or no variance in dynamics. The compressor, and noise gate help make it more usable, but it's been said many times ... even the Digitech units from 30 years ago performed better. The TC stuff blows it away. (Go ahead Fran ... tell us how much you love the G-70 processor)

There are no power singers on this forum - NONE! I see lots of power singers on America's Got Talent and BGT, but not on the Sythzone.

I've used both the TC Helicon Harmony-M and the VH2 on my S-950. When properly tuned, the VH2 worked equally as well, no drop outs for someone that does not use the pull-away effect (proximity effect), and utilizes vocal control instead. It really doesn't make a bit of difference if you use a headset mic or handheld mic. I have achieved equal results with both types of mics. Keep in mind that if you use the proximity effect, you pull the mic out of effective signal range, which would, obviously produce dropouts with any vocal processor. They all, including the best TC Helicon, need adequate signal strength in order to process the signal. Maybe the gain on the TC is set higher by default than the VH2, but the VH2 can be set to any level you wish. However, when the gain is increased, so is the possibility of feedback.

I know several performers that use the proximity effect, but none are what I consider power singers. This is not to say they are not good singers, but when they attempt to hit notes that are obviously out of their vocal range, they tend to pull that mic away and hope that no-one notices they cannot hit that particular note.

Vocal control takes a bit more concentration and training. I learned it many years ago when I was a newscaster for a local radio station. You had to be able to place emphasis on certain words of a news story while maintaining the same audio level. Under these circumstances, the proximity effective would be totally useless.

Just my .02 cents worth,

Gary

Good discussion,
Maybe Yamaha will read the forum and update their Harmonizer in the next generation?
Meanwhile its TC VL3 for me.
Eric

Thanks, guys:

Interesting exchanges of opinions, solidly developed over the years as vocal harmony methods have been invented and improvedd. It is the weakest link in my pitiful array of "armor" to hide an ancient set of vocal chords and lack of singing experience. I am thankfully, not a performer like most of you. I only need to get one good performance out of a recording session.

It's almost too late to justify acquisition of any of the great VH products out there. Dave's indirect support of Eric's chosen video artist and his headset mic makes me wonder if it might work for what I do.

Wish I had the experience and vocal (plus other) capabilities of my highly talented and respected Uncle Dave. (He's really not my uncle... but I'd be proud if that turned out to be the case! LOL!)

----West Mayberry Dave

I doubt it Yamaha couldn't give a rats A$$ about vocal harmony or else they would certainly have come up to the quality of TC helicon or better yet licensed Tc helicon units to be used in their keyboards for singers.

Like most things in life, we choose VH's based on how they appeal to us, which is usually based on how they are used - 1 part, 2 part 3 part harmony or more (if the VH is capable) ...
The only person I have heard on this board use multi part harmony to a large degree and with great success is Uncle Dave ... most others use 1 or 2 part harmony with varying degrees of success ...
I do believe that some VH units perform better than others, just as could be the case with any electronic device ...
I agree with Gary in that the proximity of the mic has a lot to do with the quality of the harmony parts - too far away and there could be drop off, too close and there could be distortion ...

On the subject of 'power singers', to ME, Donny comes closest to what I consider to be a 'power singer', based on what I call the timbre, and/or depth of his voice ... Dave and Gary are obviously excellent singers, but their voices - to me - are very different from Donny's ...

IMHO, a 'good' singer should not be singing a song in a key that they could not hit the highest or 'biggest' note of the song without sounding like they are straining, or needing to hold the mic far away, so that no one hears that they can't hit that note ... Some, if not most, of the top performers - the likes of Sinatra, Bennett, Whitney, Buble, etc. all used or use the 'proximity' effect, because they are well versed in vocal and mic use techniques ... and they certainly are hitting those notes ... Of course, THEIR harmony comes from the very talented back-up singers behind them ...

So the 'battle' of VH vs VH will rage on and on, with a lot of rhetoric based on our own bias towards certain brand names, and as with KBs, it doesn't REALLY determine that one is better than another, just how well it works for the individual ...

There's my humble opinion, and it may not even be worth 2 cents ...

What I enjoy most about the T.C. Helicons are the processors. They make my voice sound decent automatically.