digitech vocal 300 review

[randysinger <randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Nov 16, 2003, at 11:10 PM, G. wrote:
>
> Well, Richard Hunter is the only person who talked much about the 
> VC508 to
> begin with   Perhaps you could start the trend with the Digitech Vocal 
> 300.
>
> Glad you found something you like.  Thats the main thing hey?

Hi everyone.  I have been using this unit for over a year now.  I have 
mentioned it in the past, but it seems like it has not caught on in the 
harmonica community. I thought I would give it a nice review, you 
should really check it out.

Here we go...

THE DIGITECH VOCAL 300 has everything you could want for getting a 
great harp sound in a live environment-fast and easy. It is designed 
for vocal mikes and singers so it is super clean or saturated, 
depending upon your custom settings. Therefore, it is an easy 
transition for harmonica players to use it.

It is an all in one floorboard unit and has footswitches to scroll 
through your custom sounds and a volume/expression pedal.  It has 
everything-- Mic pre and voice characters, compression, EQ, noise gate, 
chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, vibrato, strobe, doubler, envelope, 
pixelator, detune, pitch, Whammy, digital delay, analog delay, 
ping-pong delay, 8 reverb types and more. It comes with 38 fully 
programmable studio quality effects (up to 7 effects at once). The 
built-in expression pedal can be assigned to control your choice of up 
to 3 parameters in real-time. Once you find and fine tune your favorite 
presets, you can use the led display to call them anything you want.

It only weighs 3.76 lbs, it has a CD Input: 1/8 in. TRS. It has very 
good converters A/D/A: 24-bit, the sample rate is 44.1 kHz, the inputs 
are quarter inch and XLR !!!! The outputs are stereo quarter inch TRS 
and Mono XLR.

The new version has usb outputs and a rhythm machine, plus a few more 
goodies.

Plus, this thing is built like a tank. It also has a master output so 
if the dunderhead engineer doesn't give you enough monitor, you just 
reach down and crank up the master output knob and you will have plenty 
of volume. Setup is a breeze, plug in the mike, power it up and send a 
cable to the mixer. The assortment of effects and volume pedal gives 
you an edge that guitar players  have utilized.

I have tried some of the guitar effects units for the harmonica with 
limited success. I have found that they certainly could color and 
distort my sound, but if I wanted super clean sounds, the frequency 
response of some of the guitar units were a bit lacking,  I believe 
this baby runs 20-20,000 hz so the top end is super clean.  Plus, this 
is a footcontrolled unit so accessing your sounds become a breeze.  You 
can even use the volume control as an expression pedal to control the 
amount of delay or reverb, for example.

The only drawbacks that I can find is that the bypass switch is placed 
too close to the expression pedal...be careful not to hit it 
accidently. Also, the quality of the reverbs are fine for live 
performance, but I would not use these reverbs in the studio.

Also, I found some of the distortion mike preamps were a bit too 
distorted at low settings. I found excellent results just turning up 
the input knob and overdriving the front end of the unit. So, when you 
play soft, the sound is clear. When you blow it harder, it distorts 
accordingly and naturally.

I have a monday night gig with a jazz band. This unit sounds 
unbelievable with my chromatic playing jazz standards and then gets as 
nasty as you want to be for the diatonic blues. Plus, I can add my 
effects for some of the spatial compositions and life is great!!. And 
the soundman loves it because he does not have to ride my level for the 
ballads to the rockers and adjust reverb levels. And the EQ gives me 
the smoothness or edge that I require.

The price- 200 dollars.

You can find more information at digitech.com

No, I do not own stock in this company-- just passing along the news of 
a great product for harmonica players.

peace and harps,

randy singer in miami