Good afternoon.
This is my 1st attempt at posting a question, so please forgive me if I make mistakes. I am trying to connect up my new T-C Helicon Voicelive3 unit to audacity2.1.1 (Windows7) so that I can SEND TO IT 1 or 2 tracks already recorded in Audacity, process them via the Voicelive3 and return them to 1 or 2 new tracks in Audacity. The Voicelive comes with a user manual which AVOIDS connecting it to PC recording software. Their approach seems to be a matter of “Why would you” rather than provide some detail. Their youtube tutorials are equally vague. Even here in Audacity, when I type in “voice live” the system seems to infer that I wish to record my voice!
ANY help that anyone can give would be much appreciated. I use a Tascam US122 as an interface/soundcard (please excuse if I am not calling it by the right name - I am 65 years old) when I record from guitar and microphone. I am/was planning to use the same for the voicelive but don’t know where to send the tracks out to the voicelive and return them (processed) back to the PC and Audacity.
The TC VoicLive is an effects unit for live use. It has only one input. It doesn’t work together with your Tascam interface, as there is already a USB interface in the TC VoiceLive.
If you use it like the manufacturer intended it, you connect your vocal mic to the input and the stereo out to the FOH mixer. In this config, you can record the stereo signal over USB in Audacity, if you select the TC Electronic from the dropdown list above Audacity’s main window.
If you want to use it like you intended, there are two possibilities:
You can use the Tascam’s output, combined to mono and attenuated to mic level, fed into the TC Electronic’s input. Disadvantage is that making this kind of two-interfaces setup isn’t easy or reliable in Windows.
Maybe you can also play over the TC Electronic’s USB connection*, but I couldn’t find anything about it and I’ve never even seen this device in the flesh. The manual should contain something about it, I reckon.
Hi Cyrano
Thank you for such a quick reply. I shall try the connection suggestions which you have made and see if I can get anywhere via that route.
As to the USB (there are 2 on the Voicelive) the company seems to proudly proclaim (in the manual and elsewhere) that these are for upgrades and the like NOT for use to send receive signals from DAWs. A bit bizarre in this day and age but that seems to be their policy. Anyway, thank you for your help and I shall also have a look at the Soundonsound link given.
The Voicelive 3 uses two inputs, typically one for a microphone and one for a guitar. You need to be careful about signal levels - microphones signals are MUCH smaller than the signal level that comes out of the Tascam. You should never feed a line level signal into a mic input because it will massively overload the input and could cause permanent damage.
The Voicelive does have a “line level” input (1/4" jack into the Mic/Line combo socket), so you could connect one output channel from the Tascam into that.
“Instrument” inputs are typically a bit more sensitive than “line” inputs. It is sub-optimal, but you could connect another output channel from the Tascam into the guitar input, but you will need to take care to keep the output level from the Tascam fairly low so as not to overload the guitar input.
The “L (mono)” mic output from the Voicelive may be connected to a “mic in” on the Tascam and a guitar out from the Voicelive may be connected to a “guitar in” on the Tascam.