BluesKing777 Posted August 6, 2016 Posted August 6, 2016 I was watching as an old Gibson got sold online to some lucky Jo, knowing it was too much and no place to put it anyway and trade 5 guitars for ....and...and etc etc and associated small pieces of heartbreak... So I bought the only brand new Boss VE-8 Harmoniser pedal in the country, possible the world. After the other TE Electronics one, it was a cinch to get happening - mostly the same except the knobs do a lot of the set up instead of software clicking. That clicking can be done to get to deeper settings on the Boss.... So first track, my version of Neil Young's "Comes A Time" with a Shure SM58 for vocal and my Martin Aura guitar on Easy Mode setting no 3: https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/comesatime777b BluesKing777.
blindboygrunt Posted August 6, 2016 Posted August 6, 2016 Better or worse than the other machine BK ? Which one would you recommend now you have both ?
EuroAussie Posted August 6, 2016 Posted August 6, 2016 Exactly. Whats the pros and cons of both and overall preferance, plus why. Better or worse than the other machine BK ? Which one would you recommend now you have both ?
BluesKing777 Posted August 6, 2016 Author Posted August 6, 2016 Don't know just yet - I only just got it today! But I do like use of knobs for general settings like the guitar volume and vocal volume etc. and you could for example,hold a chord say, pause a sec and tweak those a whisker while you are playing. Whereas the TC you would need to go into a menu. The track above is 'live' - I didn't do a thing to it on the computer. The mix of guitar/vocal, the reverbs on guitar and vocal are separate and the vocal channel has a knob called 'enhance' which probably adds a few things like compression and eq to bring the vocal forward a bit. I may have to resort to reading the manual more. .......eek....to get to the truth of it! <_< <_< <_< But I would be pleased if it sounded like my track above live in a PA, though I may have added a bit much reverb, but I like reverb! BluesKing777.
kwalker201 Posted August 6, 2016 Posted August 6, 2016 I thought is sounded well blended. It wasn't over done with reverb with what I could hear
BluesKing777 Posted August 6, 2016 Author Posted August 6, 2016 Next day! A couple of things have changed - main one being that between posting the test track above and this morning, somehow I got a little cut on my thumb right where I pluck the strings . That will slow me down on the testing... Not to be deterred, I will strum some tunes with my index finger. Next - one of the things from the ad for the Boss that appealed to me a lot was the 'record direct from USB'. I had success with my mixer straight by USB to the old iMac, and thought this would be good with the Boss. Boing, no good, have to download Boss gadget drivers for it to work and my Imac is too out of date. I could do it with my laptop, but just wanted to keep it all in my music room equipment for now. But I like it a lot so far - it has more lights than the TE Electronics unit!!! <_< Also has guitar lead plugs for out if I want it, and it can run on 6 AA batteries as well as the supplied power chord (wall wart style - boing, don't like). BluesKing777.
BluesKing777 Posted August 7, 2016 Author Posted August 7, 2016 Well, another test track below... I used my 1959 Gibson LG3 which has the plain jane Fishman undersaddle pickup that loves to quack a bit, not as bad as some though. So as a test, I plugged straight in to the Boss, set up the reverb and a little delay then added the "Acoustic Resonance" dial to about half. I like the sound below....a fraction quacky still but quite pretty...prefer my Aura guitar and pedal, but could get through an emergency gig with just the pedal if needed. It is a preamp, mixer and DI as well.... Set the vocal the same sort of way with the knobs, reverb, 'vocal enhance' and the harmony....also worked how to save the settings to memory... https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/weekend777b BluesKing777.
MissouriPicker Posted August 7, 2016 Posted August 7, 2016 I know very little about the pedal or what's being tweaked, etc., but of the two recordingx you've given us, I like the first one best. I think it sounds more pure and natural than the second one. The second one sounds good, but a bit manufactured when I listen to it immediately after hearing the first one.
BluesKing777 Posted August 7, 2016 Author Posted August 7, 2016 I know very little about the pedal or what's being tweaked, etc., but of the two recordingx you've given us, I like the first one best. I think it sounds more pure and natural than the second one. The second one sounds good, but a bit manufactured when I listen to it immediately after hearing the first one. Yes thanks MP, a good point, I have probably turned the backing gadget up too much. It will always be artificial, especially around my town, because not one person I know could sing like the machine. They have more of the, cruel I know, chicken being killed by a fox sort of harmony, even after practice after practice. And then when you think they are getting better, a live gig makes them mute. Waste of time setting that mic up for them! I would still be happy to use the gadget live, leave the harmonies off a bit, but the ability to have your own balance of acoustic guitar and vocal that you have practiced at home with, with reverbs and compression and DI - just plug straight in a PA, a balance that is something that even the best soundpeople take a few songs to get and the worse ones not at all. So yes good point about overdoing it. BluesKing777.
BluesKing777 Posted August 8, 2016 Author Posted August 8, 2016 I am enjoying trying guitars through the Boss VE-8's Guitar channel... So I did 2 test tracks, 1 with the J45, 1 with the d18e. I recorded a short tune with just the standard J45 Baggs u/s pickup/preamp, then each track after I added the options i like - the 'acoustic resonance', then reverb, then delay: https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/j45test1 The Martin D18e is an Aura guitar, so I recorded first up the plain Fishman u/s pickup, added the 'acoustic resonance', then reverb, then delay, but then I turned the resonance off and added the Aura easy preset 3, and then added an Aura image with Neumann KM84: https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/d18e-test1 (took longer to type this than record!) BluesKing777.
BluesKing777 Posted August 8, 2016 Author Posted August 8, 2016 And one more test track with the Boss....VE-8 (Virtual Energizer?) This time I was sick of the guitars plugged so experimented with putting the Boss on the correct key I was doing © and mic'd my Martin D28 as well and all to my mixer. Fun belting out a solo version of Neil Young's "Harvest" on my D28 with my bare thumb, now sore! Thanks Neil for the tunes from the online site with every Neil tune ever invented! https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/harvestwithd28777b BluesKing777.
BluesKing777 Posted August 9, 2016 Author Posted August 9, 2016 I did another track with the Boss on simple setting for vocal with plain old 'enhance' and reverb, no tricks. It really is a first class operation for mixing acoustic guitar and vocal. Guitar was my Martin CEO7 with a Fishman Neo-D humbucker I put in the hole when in the mood and dangle the wire out front. On the Boss, I added a whisker of 'resonance', which is supposed to only help undersaddles, but I liked whatever it did - eq I suppose. I then added a flick of room reverb and simple Roland type delay... I played my version of an old 30s Frank Stokes tune called "Mistreatin' Blues' and I liked it so hit the record button and did it again: https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/mistreatin-blues777 BluesKing777.
blindboygrunt Posted August 9, 2016 Posted August 9, 2016 So the guitar here is the sound of the sound hole pickup ?! 😕 Surely not . I'm confused by all this sh!t
EuroAussie Posted August 9, 2016 Posted August 9, 2016 Its interesting that it seems more of your tweaking is related to the guitar effects and ehancements, quite the opposite to me. On the play acoustic i actually dont run the guitar at all through it but rather through the Aura Spectrum and G3 effects unit, and just use the play acoustic for vocal ehancement and effects. In that last recording i thought both guitar and your voice sounded real good, especially your voice, gave it a bit more punch than what is usual in your recordings BK.
BluesKing777 Posted August 9, 2016 Author Posted August 9, 2016 So the guitar here is the sound of the sound hole pickup ?! Surely not . I'm confused by all this sh!t Yep - the Fishman Neo-D Humbucker is small, light and NO battery! Which means it does not have much 'level'. So if I ran it through my acoustic amp with vocals and guitar both with the same amount on the volume control, the singing would be really loud but the guitar way too quiet. So then we need to turn the vocal down and the guitar channel right UP and then we start to get hiss. So we need a nice clean pre-amp to bump up the guitar level before it gets in the amp. The Boss gadget is a little preamp for my recording to my mixer. I turned up my master level on the mixer, otherwise the recording would be really quiet. I think if I was at a gig, running the Boss with the guitar and Neo-D into a guitar amp, it would just NOT be loud enough. Does that make sense, BBG? So for a live gig, I would need at least a pickup with a little preamp like a Fishman Rare Earth...... (But I would take my Aura Martin - case closed!). But I do like the sound of my Neo-D in the gadget. A bit 'electric' but pretty nice. BluesKing777.
blindboygrunt Posted August 9, 2016 Posted August 9, 2016 Makes absolutely no sense to me at all And it's not your explanation, it's my ignorance . I'm just amazed at how nice the acoustic sounds using one of these sound hole pickups , three or four hundred for one of these baggs or amulets ... I'm giving up , don't be worrying about me 😄 Sounds great pal
BluesKing777 Posted August 9, 2016 Author Posted August 9, 2016 Its interesting that it seems more of your tweaking is related to the guitar effects and ehancements, quite the opposite to me. On the play acoustic i actually dont run the guitar at all through it but rather through the Aura Spectrum and G3 effects unit, and just use the play acoustic for vocal ehancement and effects. In that last recording i thought both guitar and your voice sounded real good, especially your voice, gave it a bit more punch than what is usual in your recordings BK. More 'punch' in the vocal is what Boss promised if I used the 'enhance' knob. It works! And the guitar has the Neo-D pickup, which is a way narrower band of sound than a mic'd guitar. (uses the whole soundscape if not carved out by eq'ing). So the vocal is eq'd and compressed and the guitar narrowed, leaving lots of space in the 'soundscape'. It would probably come out good in a mix with a band, for the same reasons. Good, eh? Except, I get a bit bored with the pickup sound after a couple of songs - it gets 'samey'' (Wonder what happens if I hook up the TE Play Acoustic to the Boss VE-8? An explosion?) BluesKing777.
BluesKing777 Posted August 10, 2016 Author Posted August 10, 2016 I did another track with the Boss on simple setting for vocal with plain old 'enhance' and reverb, no tricks. It really is a first class operation for mixing acoustic guitar and vocal. Guitar was my Martin CEO7 with a Fishman Neo-D humbucker I put in the hole when in the mood and dangle the wire out front. On the Boss, I added a whisker of 'resonance', which is supposed to only help undersaddles, but I liked whatever it did - eq I suppose. I then added a flick of room reverb and simple Roland type delay... I played my version of an old 30s Frank Stokes tune called "Mistreatin' Blues' and I liked it so hit the record button and did it again: https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/mistreatin-blues777 BluesKing777. After listening back next day, I am not sure I like the soundhole pickup sound.....I bought it after reading good reports everywhere, but don't know. Once used, the Aura system in pedal or guitar form is hard to beat, IMO. Lots like the soundholers though. BluesKing777.
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