TC-Helicon Voiceprism Manual User Manual

Page 36

VoicePrism User Manual

“SCALIC” (SCALE) HARMONY MODES

“Scalic” harmonies use key and scale information to create musically correct, dia-

tonic harmonies. Most popular music uses a single scale, so you only have to input

the information at the beginning of your song. “Scalic” harmonies are more dynam-

ic than the chordal harmonies because there are unique harmony notes for each

input note. The subsequent illustration shows the harmony notes for the C major

scale with a voicing selection of a C major scale and a single “third above” harmony

voice.

You can see that the “Scalic” harmonies are intelligent and closely follow your lead

voice for a tighter sound.

VoicePrism has two harmony modes based on this type of harmony,

STEPPED SCALE

and

SMOOTH SCALE

allows the harmony voices to follow your input pitch, errors

and all, whereas

STEPPED SCALE

jumps to the next scalic harmony note, kind of like pitch

correction on the harmony voice.

VoicePrism has five preprogrammed scales: three major, three minor and one cus-

tom. Use the following process if you truly want to create a custom scale, to view the

harmony notes for each and every input and harmony note for your custom harmo-

ny scale:

1. Select a scalic preset.
2. Press

VOCALS

3. Tab over to the

SETUP

4. Click the

EDIT SCALE

softknob until you have selected the input note.

5. Twist the

EDIT SCALE

softknob to scroll through the different input notes.

You'll see the harmony notes change as the input note changes. This is also where

you can modify the scale for any incorrect harmony voices, provided you know the

input note. In the beginning it might be better to try all the scales to see if one of the

other factory scales might work.

It is also tricky to pick out the key in some songs. An example is “Sweet Home

Alabama”. Listening, you might think this song is in the key of “D”, as that’s the first

chord, but the harmonies actually work best in the key of “G” -- try running the song

through VoicePrism to hear for yourself.

Setting the scale can also take a bit of practice: for songs centered around the third

or root of the scale it might not sound like there’s any noticeable differences between

the three major or three minor scales. This is because your song doesn’t hit any of

the scale’s altered notes. A melody centered around the fifth of the scale, (such as B

in the key of E), highlights the differences between the scales. Try the “Sha Lala Lala

...La Tee Daa” chorus of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” (key: E, scale: major,

3rd above voicing) with each major scale to hear the audible difference between

them. For the minor scales, Santana’s “Evil Ways” (key: G, scale: minor, 3rd above

voicing) highlights the differences between the three minor scales.

A-4

Appendix A: Harmony

The C Major scale, showing third

above diatonic scalic harmony,

as used in VoicePrism’s

TEPPED

CALE

and

MOOTH

CALE

harmony

modes.

Black = lead

Gray = harmony