Backing Vocals and Harmonisers

[Woodinblack]

Might help with confidence

[Happy Jack]

1 hour ago, cetera said:

I have to sing bv's in various bands but, due to a major vocal surgery about 10 years ago, my voice is weaker than it used to be and I often find myself just a little bit flat on certain notes. Would subtle use of the pitch correction in the TC Helicon Mic Mechanic 2 help me sound better?

 

Almost certainly Yes. The default (detente) position is at 12 o'clock which is "mild" pitch correction ... only someone with acute hearing will spot that it's even happening. I tend to keep mine set at 1 o'clock which is  - obvs - a bit more aggressive, but then I'm using it in front of a harmoniser pedal.

 

If you can find your way to Harrow, you're welcome to come and try out my selection.

[MoJoKe]

On 16/02/2026 at 20:33, Lozz196 said:

And if a single voice on BVs isn’t enough do what they did years ago and get 2 different mics, tape them together and eq them a bit differently, make said one voice bigger.

Ah, the joys of owning a digital desk, One mic, two separate channels! Great idea!

[MoJoKe]

On 16/02/2026 at 19:58, Happy Jack said:

On harmoniser pedals, though, the only limiter is your own imagination.

 

The one I use offers eight different settings in each key, so straight away that's a lot of options.

 

thank you for the info!  So, where is best to start, pedalwise..?  I can pick up a TCHelicon Harmony Singer pedal for about £80, but will it do anything useful? Would I be better spending twice as much on a Boss VE-2 or something else?

[Happy Jack]

3 hours ago, MoJoKe said:

 

thank you for the info!  So, where is best to start, pedalwise..?  I can pick up a TCHelicon Harmony Singer pedal for about £80, but will it do anything useful? Would I be better spending twice as much on a Boss VE-2 or something else?

 

Do bear in mind that I always have my harmoniser pedal at waist height so that I can set it (accurately) before each song. I never have it on the floor as a stomp box.

 

My go-to remains https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/TC-Helicon-VoiceTone-H1-Intelligent-Harmony-Vocal-Processor/FXN?origin=product-ads&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22236638134&gbraid=0AAAAAD_kjLSYoaPe6Vki0IoZkWZzVzzfh&gclid=Cj0KCQiA49XMBhDRARIsAOOKJHY-Tzg4DBE4he920WXLzBmRI_WU576QgGSrAn_FsciO1nnn4gCQ8SwaAgsdEALw_wcB

 

I've used mine at hundreds of gigs, on every type of stage, and I am completely comfortable with it ... how it works, what it does. As previously mentioned, I have some pitch correction in front of it to avoid trainwrecks, which is particularly important when singing BVs (which is exclusively what I use it for) since a Cher-style warble would likely throw off the lead vox too.

 

The TC Harmony Singer seems to be only operable by your guitar (?or bass) but costs the same as the TC Helicon VoiceTone H1, so that's an easy no-no for me. The key issue here is that I must be able to dictate to the pedal exactly what key to base its harmonies off, rather than relying on it to recognise the harmonies I want from my bassline. That's what the H1 delivers for me with no risk of suddently going off piste.

 

I'm not familiar with the offerings from EHX and others so I really can't comment - though I will say that the EHX Intelligent Harmony Machine looks deeply scary.

 

If you're talking lead vocals and need to add auto-BVs then you should probably take a look at the TC Helicon Voice Live series but please don't treat that as a recommendation ... personally I'm not a fan, and I think a lot of these pedals are obsessed with the number of silly noises they can make.

 

Biggest surprise is probably the Mooer Harmonier. I have a lot of time for Mooer pedals and their sensible pricing strategy was most welcome when they emerged a few years back, but this pedal is just strange. It manages to combine maximum awkwardness in live use with a price double that of the TC Electronics equivalent. Go figure.

 

 

 

 

[MacDaddy]

 

 

As an aside to this thread, remember these pedals don't come with a rule book. I have the one above (the only one from the range that Jack doesn't seem to have 😆) and last night at rehearsal we used it with the trumpet. The octave down setting made for a useable tenor sax sound, and the group setting made for a useable brass section type sound.

[Happy Jack]

OK, I have to admit that using one of these pedals with a trumpet was just not on my radar.

[uk_lefty]

4 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

OK, I have to admit that using one of these pedals with a trumpet was just not on my radar.

Keep up, Jack! 😂

[Woodinblack]

I used the critical mass with the sax and it sounded great

[Phil Starr]

I must admit to struggling with these. I've tried a VoiceLive 2 and the Critical Mass and just hated the sound of them. It may be me and lack of patience but they all seem to go from doing nothing to full on Pinky and Perky in the tiniest tweak of a setting. I can get a much better effect (to my ears) by using reverb and delay on the mixer. My lead singer gets a bit more reverb and I put a bit more delay on my voice which does fill everything out and makes it sound like more than two of us. I just pull out of notes I know I can't hit. Most of the time the audience are singing along anyway which helps.

 

I do have a dislike of any hint of pitch correction in recorded music which makes listening to most current pop a no-no. So dislike of these things on my own voice is probably a personal taste thing. For me it takes the human voice into the uncanny valley of not quite human. I don't really understand why it is applied by record producers to singers who have good, or great unaided voices. I've officially turned into my dad

Edited 1 hour ago by Phil Starr

[PaulWarning]

I've tried using pitch alteration in Audacity, up a third, and it didn't sound right at all, nothing like me actually singing a third higher, are harmonizers different from Audacity?

[Woodinblack]

8 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

I must admit to struggling with these. I've tried a VoiceLive 2 and the Critical Mass and just hated the sound of them. It may be me and lack of patience but they all seem to go from doing nothing to full on Pinky and Perky in the tiniest tweak of a setting.

 

The critical mass I only use flat out - i use it for the 'hey teacher leave them kids alone' bit of brick in the wall. 

I think it sounds horrible in in ears where you can hear it perfectly, but in the PA into an audience, it sounds great.

 

Like you, I don't like pitch correction and I don't use it, I do the BVs but also do the high bits of some songs (beatles songs etc) where I fade in and the singer fades out. 

[Happy Jack]

Harmoniser pedals are a great example of Less Is More.

 

I'm not a big fan of either the Critical Mass (owned one & used it live) or the TC Helicon VoiceLive (watched a lot of videos), but the H1 pedal is absolutely my sweet spot.

 

I do 70 gigs a year using that pedal frequently during 3-hour gigs. It sounds great every time and draws a lot of positive comments.