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One is your voice (or lead instrument) and the other is MIDI information from your keyboard. To produce chordal harmonies, the MV5 needs two inputs. Having dealt with the hardware, let's look individually at the MV5's four modes of operation. There is a fortune awaiting the inventor who can design a powering system that is as convenient for the manufacturer (allowing them to sell identical units worldwide) as a wall‑wart and works for the user, too. This is easily done, since they seem to come in an endless variety of different voltages and polarities. I'll continue to complain about these devices as long as manufacturers use them because, as well as being inconvenient, I know that the easiest way to destroy equipment is to get your warts mixed up. Also on the back is the input for the 'wall‑wart' power supply. A single momentary action footswitch may be used to control the Bypass function. Another socket is provided for the Digitech FS300 footswitch, which can be used to control the Set Key, Harmony Mode, and Bypass functions. A front panel XLR is provided (sadly, without phantom power) for a microphone input.įor those of you who are as interested in the back of equipment as in the front panel, the principal features are a line input, stereo outputs, and the normal trio of MIDI sockets. It's a quick and easy way to create the harmony voicing you are looking for and the MV5 will select the actual pitches for you.īypassing for the moment a group of six buttons which select the mode of operation and the key of the song - more on these later - we come to three rotary controls which set the input level, the output level of the lead vocal (the source signal) and the level of the harmonies.
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These six buttons allow the user to select four harmonies spaced above or below, or in unison, with the input note. It's simply a design feature, but the fact that they slope at an angle does represent the relative pitches of the harmonies, if not the actual notes. If you were thinking that the positions of the buttons on the staff meant something, then you had been fooled too. Taking a look at the front panel first, the most obvious feature is the group of six buttons set into a musical staff with a treble clef. Up to four harmonies are allowed in four distinct and useful modes of operation. (Brian May soundalikes may substitute 'guitar' for 'vocal' in the previous sentence, because the unit is not restricted to vocal processing.) Being intelligent and bestowed with a certain amount of good taste, this is not a unit for creating weird, delayed feedback pitch‑shift effects, although you can certainly construct such sounds with the aid of a delay unit and a little bit of mixing console know‑how. This means that it 'understands' the rules of harmony and can add harmonies to a lead vocal that are appropriate to the key of the song. The Digitech MIDI Vocalist is an intelligent pitch‑shifter.
Digitech mv 5 midi vocalist review manual#
You will need the manual to get started, because this device performs tricks other effects units cannot, but with only 10 minutes experience under your belt you can let your creativity take over and have fun! Intelligence Counts The MV5 is a step in the right direction - it does what it does cleanly and simply. Perhaps it's a phase I'm going through since I threw out my studio computer (shock! horror!) and started listening to the music I was trying to create, but I really do feel the time has come for manufacturers to concentrate on giving us the features we need in a particular unit, rather than simply making the feature list as long as possible, with the result that many devices are so complex that 95% of their features never get used.
Digitech mv 5 midi vocalist review full#
These features alone tell me that the MV5 is going to be friendly to use, not fiddly, that I am likely to get quick results from it, and that I shall be able to exploit its full potential. The David Mellor Singers provide the tune.Ĭompared to many effects units, the Digitech MV5 MIDI Vocalist is extraordinary on two counts: it has no LCD display and it features large, illuminated, user‑friendly buttons. Offering 5‑part harmony at a budget price, the MV5 is Digitech's easiest to use pitch‑shifter yet.