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Title: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: sam saponaro on January 05, 2014, 05:14:59 PM
 So the band I regularly run sound for the female singer uses one of those Boss Double footswitch Vocal processor pedals inline with her mic to the snake.Uses it for a doubler and harmonizer effect on a handfull of songs.
 I dunno much about it cept that it sucks the body outta the tone.I usually can't get a great input level off her mic either(gain almost cranked to get to zero on the meter).Asking her to bring up the output of the device just makes more megaphone tone.The internal EQ on this thing is bypassed.
 Is there a trick to this or is this thing just a lo-fi POS?
She(and the rest of the band)are using Audix OM-5 mics.
With out this thing inline I get a whole lot more signal to the mixer and better tone so it definetly is the Boss pedal.
 
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Tommy Peel on January 05, 2014, 06:09:36 PM
The first thing that comes to my mind is to split the mic so that you can get a "clean" mic signal for when she isn't using the pedal. This assumes you have an extra mic input on your board/snake. As far as the pedal being a POS I'll let others who have used it give their opinions.
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Scott Olewiler on January 06, 2014, 04:38:30 PM
So the band I regularly run sound for the female singer uses one of those Boss Double footswitch Vocal processor pedals inline with her mic to the snake.Uses it for a doubler and harmonizer effect on a handfull of songs.
 I dunno much about it cept that it sucks the body outta the tone.I usually can't get a great input level off her mic either(gain almost cranked to get to zero on the meter).Asking her to bring up the output of the device just makes more megaphone tone.The internal EQ on this thing is bypassed.
 Is there a trick to this or is this thing just a lo-fi POS?
She(and the rest of the band)are using Audix OM-5 mics.
With out this thing inline I get a whole lot more signal to the mixer and better tone so it definetly is the Boss pedal.

Have her buy a Helicon, then you'll have so much gain it will burn your eyes out. Tone will remain pretty much the same, you'll just have to back the gain knob on the pedal down to match the mic without the pedal and it works pretty good after that.
  None of these vocal stomp pedals seem to output the same level that is inputted into them which complete baffles me as a consumer. Why would I not want the exact same level coming out as goes in?  First couple of times I did sound for bands that were using them it drove me nuts. Haven't run into this particular pedal yet, so rather than help I'm really just venting I guess..
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Dave Bednarski on January 06, 2014, 06:34:29 PM
The first thing that comes to my mind is to split the mic so that you can get a "clean" mic signal for when she isn't using the pedal.

This works well... depending on the "artist" they may not be aware you're doing it if you have the ability to be clever (sneaky) with the placement of the splitter/cabling to get your clean feed.

Also depending on the "artist", you can play the room acoustics angle if they give you hell for splitting... blah blah that having the dry signal allows you to control the balance of the effect at FOH with respect to the room.
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Steve Oldridge on January 07, 2014, 12:14:38 AM
So the band I regularly run sound for the female singer uses one of those Boss Double footswitch Vocal processor pedals inline with her mic to the snake.Uses it for a doubler and harmonizer effect on a handfull of songs.
 I dunno much about it cept that it sucks the body outta the tone.I usually can't get a great input level off her mic either(gain almost cranked to get to zero on the meter).Asking her to bring up the output of the device just makes more megaphone tone.The internal EQ on this thing is bypassed.
 Is there a trick to this or is this thing just a lo-fi POS?
She(and the rest of the band)are using Audix OM-5 mics.
With out this thing inline I get a whole lot more signal to the mixer and better tone so it definetly is the Boss pedal.
NO experience with the Boss, but have with Digitech and TC Helicon's VL2, Play and GXT.. lots of gain and plenty of FOH signal if setup correctly...
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: TonyWilliams on January 07, 2014, 01:23:26 AM
I've mixed a band with a female vocal using a Beta 87 into a TC Helicon Mic Mechanic. I never could get the vocal to sound amazing until we removed the unit from the signal chain. It was one of those 'pull the blanket off the speakers' moments plugging the mic in straight through.


- Tony Williams
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: sam saponaro on January 08, 2014, 12:43:02 AM
Yea she wants to use it cause she paid like $300 for it.But the dry signal is so much more realistic and full.
How would I split the signal.Mic out-XLR Y cable,one side to effect and out to mixer,second side to second mixer channel? No hum issues? Do I need to lift the ground on one side of the Y cable?
This sounds like an idea I wanna try.
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Tommy Peel on January 08, 2014, 12:29:16 PM
Yea she wants to use it cause she paid like $300 for it.But the dry signal is so much more realistic and full.
How would I split the signal.Mic out-XLR Y cable,one side to effect and out to mixer,second side to second mixer channel? No hum issues? Do I need to lift the ground on one side of the Y cable?
This sounds like an idea I wanna try.
If it was me I'd try an appropriate XLR Y-cable and see how that works. The safer way would probably be to use something like this ART Splitcom Pro 2 (http://amzn.to/1ghi2ob) which provides a ground lift and some other options.

IMO effects are best handled at the mixer by the sound guy... but that's hard to explain to some vocalists. ::) Good luck getting it figured out.
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Tim McCulloch on January 08, 2014, 12:37:21 PM
Yea she wants to use it cause she paid like $300 for it.But the dry signal is so much more realistic and full.
How would I split the signal.Mic out-XLR Y cable,one side to effect and out to mixer,second side to second mixer channel? No hum issues? Do I need to lift the ground on one side of the Y cable?
This sounds like an idea I wanna try.

Yes, a plain old XLR "y" cable will work.  Tommy P's suggestion of a nice splitter box is good, but in a pinch you can use something like a Rapco ISO-BLOX transformer on your side of the "Y".
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Dave Bednarski on January 08, 2014, 01:03:51 PM
No complaints here for under $100, http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Split1x2
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Mac Kerr on January 08, 2014, 01:47:04 PM
No complaints here for under $100, http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Split1x2

The iso splitter box is great if you are sending the signal to 2 different places, but in the case of sending 2 versions of the mic to the same console a simple FMM twofer will work as well.

Mac
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Dave Bednarski on January 08, 2014, 02:10:49 PM
The iso splitter box is great if you are sending the signal to 2 different places, but in the case of sending 2 versions of the mic to the same console a simple FMM twofer will work as well.

Mac

For educational purposes/benefit, what is the difference between sending 2 versions of the mic to the same console or two separate consoles?

Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Cosmo on January 08, 2014, 02:45:47 PM

For educational purposes/benefit, what is the difference between sending 2 versions of the mic to the same console or two separate consoles?

In a perfect world, none.  But in real situations, a monitor console (for example) may be powered from a different AC source than the FOH console, so you *could* develop a ground loop, a.k.a. hum.  Sending one signal through a transformer eliminates the loop.

Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Mac Kerr on January 08, 2014, 04:41:04 PM
For educational purposes/benefit, what is the difference between sending 2 versions of the mic to the same console or two separate consoles?

In the case of the vocal pedal being discussed, it lets you set the gain and eq for the effect separate from the clean mic. Since the pedal currently reduces the gain significantly this would be an advantage.

Perhaps a better option is a switch box which lets the artist decide when to use the effect and when not to. This takes that responsibility off the soundman. Whirlwind among others makes a footswitch that does this.

Mac
Title: Re: Boss Vocal Pedal
Post by: Tim Perry on January 09, 2014, 02:08:43 AM
The VC-20 or the RC-30?