TC Helicon VoiceLive Play Review

Summary:

• Pros: The TC Helicon VoiceLive Play is a great vocal effects unit with a simple, user-friendly layout and a small footprint.
• Cons: Looping functionality is lacking, especially the lack of memory slots and short loop time. No option to use with instruments.
• Overall: A decent pedal if you’re just looking for vocal effects in a basic package. If you get really into looping, you can probably do better.

Compare Prices:

• Amazon: TC Helicon VoiceLive Play
• zZounds: TC Helicon VoiceLive Play

Full Review

The rise of vocal-focused loopers has really helped open the benefits of looping up to more musicians. As guitarists, most of the pedals we talk about at least have the option to plug in an instrument. That doesn’t capture the whole world of looping these days, though. The VoiceLive Play from TC Helicon is a combination of a looper pedal and a vocal-focused multi-effects unit, all packaged in a fairly compact and very user-friendly device. The only question is: does it work as well in practice as it sounds on paper? Why would you choose this over the more capable VoiceLive 3, and how does it compare to other vocal-focused loopers like the Ditto Mic or Boss’s RC-202?

VoiceLive Play: The Basics

The VoiceLive Play has a pretty straightforward layout, reflecting the user-friendly intent of the pedal. The unit is pretty compact for a multi-effects pedal, measuring just 20 cm (7.9 inches) wide by 15.6 cm (6.1 inches) back to front. This gives it a fairly manageable on-stage footprint. The pedal itself has two main sections. The are three footswitches on the bottom portion of the pedal while the LCD display screen, buttons and dial are on the top portion.

Using the Footswitches

The footswitches on the bottom section are metallic and fairly rugged. They’re also spaced far enough apart that you can easily tap them when you’re on-stage even in the middle of a song. The footswitch functions are pretty limited, however. Two are for changing presets. The third is for bringing in more effects or activating bypass so you can talk to the audience without effects. Most of the actual sound-shaping has to be done using the buttons at the top of the unit.

Importantly, the switches do take on different roles when looping, but we’ll cover that in more detail down below.

Menu Features and Controls

The top section is really where most of the action happens. There are six buttons surrounding the LCD display. These are all labeled but also work dependent on context when you’re in the menus on the VoiceLive Play. Their base functions are: Genre (to browse the groupings of presets), Setup, Effects, Favorite (which allows you to mark presets as a favorite for easier recall), Practice (a mode to help you practice your singing) and Mix (to adjust the output levels, USB input level and the level for the in-built mic).

When you’re in a menu, these controls have context-dependent functions. You use the left and right arrow buttons and the control dial below to navigate the menus and adjust selected parameters. There are also Back and Store buttons either side of these. You use these to step back a menu level and save any changes that you’ve made.

It might sound complex, but once you get the pedal in front of you and start using it, the process is almost intuitive. Compared to the behemoth menus of the VoiceLive 3 and the VoiceLive 3 Extreme, the 32-page guide to the VoiceLive Play reflects how simple the pedal is to get to grips with.

In short, to get going, you select a preset (using either the dial, genre menus or footswitches). Then you press “Effects” to view the component effects. You navigate the options that appear using the arrows and the context-dependent buttons. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do for on-the-fly editing, but you can assign specific effects to the “Hit” footswitch. This allows you to bring effects in or remove them mid-performance hands-free.

All the Connections You Need

The back panel offers plenty of connectivity options. You get an XLR mic input, stereo outs, a 3.5 mm auxiliary in, a micro USB port and a spot for an additional control pedal, along with the expected spot for the power supply. While these are fewer connections than the VoiceLive 3 and VoiceLive 3 Extreme, they’re enough to cover the basics.

Vocal Effects

The VoiceLive 3’s layout and menu system does a great job of making it easy to access the features you want. The two basic groups of features are vocal effects and a looper pedal.

The vocal effects are essentially the same as those on the VoiceLive 3. They give you the tools you need to produce pretty much any vocal effect you might want. Broadly, the effects groups include delays, reverbs, harmonies, transducers (anything distorted or overdriven, such as a megaphone effect), HardTune (kind of an extreme auto-tune, think “Believe” by Cher), doubling (which makes your voice sound “bigger,” and works especially well if used subtly), harmony effects and μmod, which is TC Helicon’s name for chorus, flangers and similar effects.

You can combine these effects into a preset, which is essentially a storage location. You get 235 presets as standard, with one blank spot and the ability to overwrite any of the factory-loaded ones with your own. Although this means you’ll have to overwrite some of the existing presets, you can always re-download them if you want to restore the defaults. There are some great factory presets, though. Picking the right one and making some subtle changes is probably all you’ll need.

The VoiceLive Play’s Looper

The looper functions are pretty straightforward and simple. They get the job done if you’re just looking for a taste of vocal looping or some basic song-writing support. The loop time is 15 seconds, though, which is not much time. You can stretch that to 30 seconds if you don’t want to use the “Undo” function though.

To enter the looping mode, you press the up and down footswitches together. After that, the down footswitch (left) becomes “record/play/overdub” and the up footswitch (middle) becomes “stop/clear.” From there, you just loop as you would normally. You pressing the down footswitch to start recording and again to start playback. You can then press it again to record an overdub (another layer). If you press and hold the “down” switch, you can undo your last overdub.

Honestly, as a looper, the VoiceLive Play is pretty limited. Unfortunately, there is not even a way to store your loops. This means that while you can use the feature as a practicing tool or to create songs on-the-fly, it’s not really useful when it comes to performance in the same way as the VoiceLive 3 or VoiceLive 3 Extreme. These bigger pedals allow you to store loops you can call up later during your live set.

Additional Features

There are a few other features it’s worth mentioning, though. First, practice mode is very useful if, like me, your singing isn’t always the strongest. It allows you to practice hitting notes, and gives you statistics about how often you’re hitting the note accurately, how long you can hold notes and how many hundredths of a semi-tone you are sharp or flat on average. It also helps you identify your “problem” notes.

Finally, the built-in “RoomSense” mics can pick up ambient noise from either the room you’re in or the auxiliary input. This can be used to inform the key or scale used for harmony and HardTone effects. You can also use the “RoomSense” mics as your primary mics if you don’t have one to plug in. Plus, if you’re using an auxiliary input to sing along with, the Vocal Cancel feature processes it to essentially create a karaoke version of the track, which is great for practicing.

How Does it All Come Together?

It’s undeniable that the VoiceLive Play has its advantages. The simplicity of the pedal is a big bonus for anybody unfamiliar with loopers and multi-effects units. You’ll probably have to peruse the menu a little if you’re completely new to this type of pedal. Once you’ve grasped the basics, though, it really is easy to use. And once you’ve gotten your sounds set up and planned your presets, it’s really easy to incorporate the VoiceLive Play as part of a live performance. Granted, you are limited in terms of hands-free, on-the-fly changes. Nevertheless, with pre-planning the VoiceLive Play can be a valuable gigging companion.

The sounds are generally good, too. There are some you’ll undoubtedly dislike and many that might not be to your tastes, but the range of sounds is really hard to fault. Plus, there will undoubtedly be some that suit your taste. The VoiceLive Play is also a solid practicing tool for the ability to sing along with backing tracks, the practice mode and the basic looping functionality.

The looper leaves a lot to be desired, however, especially in terms of memory. It really doesn’t offer anything other than a very stripped down, bare-bones looping experience. Even adding “undo” to the set of features cuts the already-short looping time in half. Compared to the masses of storage available on something like Boss’s RC-202 it’s a humongous disappointment.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for an effects unit, you could definitely do worse than the VoiceLive Play, and if you’d only want to dabble with looping, it may well be worth considering. But if you’re more serious about looping in particular, or want to be able to edit on the fly during a performance, there are better options on the market, including TC Helicon’s own VoiceLive 3.

Where to Buy the VoiceLive Play?

• Amazon: TC Helicon VoiceLive Play
• zZounds: TC Helicon VoiceLive Play

VoiceLive Play Product Video