USER’S MANUAL Manual v1.
Harmony4 User’s Manual Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Support Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Chapter 2: Descriptions The Main Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 The Voices Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter 1: Introduction Thank you for purchasing the Harmony4 Pro Tools® TDM plug-in from TCHelicon. This product is a landmark in that it is the first time our harmony technology has been made available as a Pro Tools plug-in. You can now add vocal sparkle and depth to your songs, advertising jingles, spoken word content, video games and more from within the Pro Tools environment. All you need is a nicely recorded vocal track to send to Harmony4.
System Requirements WINDOWS and MAC • Digidesign Pro Tools|HD® running Pro Tools® version 7.0 or newer • Available TDM DSP resources in project Parameter Inputs Mouse Click/Drag Single-clicking and dragging the mouse vertically is supported in any text edit field or on the harmony “heads”. Direct Input Double clicking in any edit field allows you to type in an exact number. In a text field, you need only type in the first few characters and press enter.
Support Information The TC Support Interactive website www.tcsupport.tc is designed as an online support and information center. At the site you can find answers to specific questions regarding TC-Helicon software and hardware. All known issues are stored in a database searchable by product, category, keywords or phrases. Under the section "My Stuff" you can login to check the status of your questions, download materials such as product manuals, software updates and new presets.
Chapter 2: Descriptions The Main Interface Here we discuss getting around the GUI. More detail on parameters follows later in the manual. 1 2 5 8 6 3 7 4 1. Host Area - Here you will find, among other features, the Settings drop down menu with a selection of pre-configured parameter values grouped by harmony mode. Consult your Pro Tools manual for more information on this area. 2. Visualization Area - Here you can see at a glance information about the current preset.
The Main Interface (cont.) 1 2 5 8 6 3 7 4 3. Tab Editing Area - This is composed of 4 tabs containing parameters that are grouped by function. Generally, each voice has its own vertical column of parameters. The slider on the right side of this window can be used to reveal more parameters if they exist in the harmony mode the preset is based upon. 4.
The Main Interface (cont.) 1 2 5 8 6 3 7 4 6. Harmony Mute - Pressing this button will quickly turn the harmony voices off. 7. Musical Info/Various - Each preset in Harmony4 is based on one of the 4 harmony control modes. Each harmony mode has different requirements in order to make the voices produce musical sounding harmonies. It’s important to read the “Harmony Modes Background” section later in this manual to fully understand each harmony mode’s control requirements.
The Voices Tab The Voices Tab allows editing of settings you need most for each harmony voice. The number of parameters differs depending on the harmony mode in the current preset. Level Here you can mix the relative levels of each of the four voices. There is also an "Off" value which will disable any voice. Setting all four voices to 0dB (full) will most likely cause output clipping with hot inputs. If this occurs, you can either reduce the input level with the IN slider or reduce the level of each voice.
Note Source and Input Note (Only available in Scale Mode) These parameters help you to create custom scales for times when the lead voice melody, the harmony voice(s) and the musical accompaniment don’t sound correct on certain notes. You can edit the individual harmony notes of all four voices (if they are all enabled) for each input note. When Note Source is set to "Manual", you can select the Input Note with your mouse and then edit the resulting note or notes produced by the harmony voices.
Pitch Randomize Small amounts of this parameter apply a unique, moving pitch shift to each voice that is derived from the study of human singing. It is used to remove the sometimes mechanical sound of perfectly in-tune harmonies. Time Randomize No group of singers is able to start their harmony notes at the exact same time. Lower values of this parameter create slight timing differences to the onset and sustained portions of each harmony note.
Mode: Chord In Chord Mode, musically correct harmonies are produced by chords recognized from the incoming MIDI notes. Mode: Notes & Notes 4CH In this Mode, incoming MIDI notes determine the pitches of up to four harmony voices. When "Notes" is selected, a single MIDI channel controls the 4 harmony voices. When Notes 4CH or “Notes Four Channel” is selected, each harmony voice is assigned a unique MIDI channel in the Setup tab which has many benefits including: 1.
Just tuning maintains the exact relative ratios between pitches,creating perfect harmonies. Just Tuning will sound natural the majority of the time. Barbershop tuning differs from Just tuning only in Chord Mode and is best used for a cappella applications. Hold This control engages the Harmony Hold feature. When set to "On", Harmony Hold will wait until the pitch of a sung note has remained stable enough to allow “freezing” or looping of the harmony voices while allowing the lead voice to ad lib over top.
Notes Transpose In Notes mode only, this setting works in tandem with the Split Zone and Split Note settings to allow you to play high harmony notes on the lower section of your keyboard and vice versa. Split Zone & Split Note You can use these settings to isolate which section of your MIDI keyboard will control Harmony4. This is mostly used when playing live with keyboard sounds triggered from one side of the keyboard and harmonies triggered from the other.
Chapter 3 - Producing Harmony Harmony Modes Background A quick description of why the harmony modes are required is that they help Harmony4 “sing the right notes”. Each harmony mode requires different input from you and is capable of producing different harmony sounds. We will use a little allegory to explain. When you and a fellow musician get together to play and sing, typically some musical information is passed from one to the other before commencing the song.
The Notes harmony mode requires a MIDI keyboard and other MIDI source to dictate to Harmony4 what harmony notes you’d like to hear. Once a harmony note or notes are held down on your MIDI keyboard or MIDI track, this is where they will stay regardless of your changing vocal melody. Shift mode shifts the pitch of the lead melody by a fixed interval. This is most useful for doubling, special effects or Gothic-sounding 5ths.
² While Harmony4 has excellent pitch detection, it may have trouble finding a pitch in growled or extremely raspy voices. 2. Connect a MIDI keyboard to your computer and create a MIDI track to pass the live MIDI notes through to Harmony4. You can also use a pre-existing track or record a new one to control Harmony4. 3. Follow the procedure for creating an auxilliary send and return buss for your version of Pro Tools. In the return buss/channel, load Harmony4 as a TDM plugin from the Pitch Shift menu.
You may want to record a scratch MIDI chord track in Pro Tools during the song sections where harmony is required so you can try the different Chords presets without having to play at the same time. 3. You can now listen to how the different Chord presets sound as the song plays. At this point you can also start learning about editing. A good place to start is with parameters in the Voices Tab. Here you can move the Voicing up and down and hear the effect of different Gender settings on each voice. 4.
the preset. Editing the voicing parameters will give you a good idea of what is possible with this harmony mode. If you’ve stayed with this text up to this point, you’ve received a good overview of what Harmony4 has to offer. From this point onwards you can work with presets in the harmony modes that suit your workflow best.
Chapter 4: Appendix Troubleshooting For the more extensive and up to date troubleshooting information please visit www.tcsupport.tc I don’t hear any harmony voices, but the input meter to Harmony4 shows input level - nothing on the output? There are several common reasons harmonies are not being produced when the plug-in shows input level: 1. Harmony Mute is enabled: disable it to hear harmonies 2. A Notes or Chord preset is selected: make sure there is MIDI being sent through the correct path in Pro Tools.
nc nc nc nc nc nc D F D F D F D F nc nc D F nc nc D F nc nc D F C E D F C E D F C Eb B D +2 Octaves ++7 ++6 ++5 ++4 ++3 ++2 +1 +7 +6 +5 +4 +3 +2 nc nc G Bb Ab C nc nc C Eb Bb D nc nc G Bb A C nc nc C Eb Bb D nc nc G Bb Ab C nc nc nc nc Bb D nc nc G Bb nc nc A C C E nc nc G C nc nc A C B D nc nc Bb A C E G nc nc E G B Eb A C F# G# The symbol “nc” means no change, in that the harmony voice will simply stay on the previous note until the lead voice changes to a non “nc” n
Chord Types and Voicings Table The following gives additional detail on Chords mode. It shows the range of chords recognized by Harmony4 based on a chord root of C in the left column. To the right in the table is the combination of notes that are required to be played in order for Harmony4 to recognize each chord type.
