TC-Helicon Play Electric Vocal Processor

No longer available at zZounds
Mash up a VoiceLive vocal FX processor with a guitar multieffects/looper pedal, and you get the TC-Helicon Play Electric -- a solo performer's best friend!

A compact wonder of complete vocal and guitar processing, the TC Helicon Play Electric vocal processor allows you to rock out with confidence! The hottest vocal sounds, including perfect backing harmonies, combined with best-selling TC Electronic guitar FX and enough amp emulations to quench anyone's thirst for tone, make Play Electric the standard for singing guitarists everywhere.

What Every Singer Deserves

Keep your vocals clean with a tight reverb or simple harmony -- or go all out with tasty delays, thick doubling, edgy hard tuning, cool modulations, and raw distortions -- the choice is yours. And don't worry about setting the key for those harmonies; Play Electric follows your guitar chords automatically for harmonies that stay in tune and in time.

All-You-Can-Eat Guitar FX

Whether you're a shredder, blues picker, power soloist or a campfire chorder, Play Electric serves up tailor-made guitar FX from TC Electronic that'll light every note on fire. Electrify your guitar in bestselling effects from the Flashback Delay, Hall of Fame Reverb, and Corona Chorus TonePrint pedals. Cool compression, evocative modulation FX, and distortion/overdrive pedal emulations round out the sonic smorgasbord.

- Reverb: TC Electronic Hall Of Fame styles, Selection of Plate styles, Halls, Rooms, Springs
- Delay: TC Electronic Flashback styles, Slap Echo, Mod Echo, Tap tempo Delay, Ping Pong, Multitap, Spring Echo, Filtered Delay
- uMod: TC Electronic Corona Chorus styles, Chorus, read more Flanger, Detune, Rotor, Panner, Tremolo, Auto Filter
- Compressor: Subtle Tube, Subtle Sustain, Sustain Attack, Sustain Pop, Pumping
- Distortion/Overdrive (part of the Amp Modeling): TC Electronic Dark Matter Pedal, OD Pedal, Dark OD Pedal, Distortion Pedal

Personal Sound Engineer Included

Equipped with our trademark Adaptive Tone, Play Electric acts as your personal sound engineer providing the one feature no singer should be without: automatic and intelligent control of Compression, EQ, De-essing, and Gating, giving your voice the impact and presence to always stand out in the mix.

Premium Amp Tones

Lifted from the improved engine of their flagship processor -- VoiceLive 3 -- comes a powerful and comprehensive selection of amp emulations, complete with editable control of style, drive, volume and a 3-band tone stack. Ranging from vintage British to classic American these amp styles will thrill the room when bringing a heavy amp and cab isn't practical; you may even find you prefer plugging direct to the PA/monitors or an FRFR (full range frequency response) cab. If you're still rockin' it old school, the dedicated guitar output ensures signal fidelity all the way from Play Electric to your favorite amp.

- Amp Models: Clean Brit, Cali Clean, UK Clean, Deep Clean, Bright Switch, Warm, Little Thing, Chicken Picker, Brit OD, AC Crunch, Chunky Brit, Lil Champion, Chime Drive, 2x12 Combo, 4x12 Crunch, Swamptone, Nasaltone, Brown, Scooped, Metallic, TC Electronic Dark Matter Pedal, OD Pedal, Dark OD Pedal, Distortion Pedal, Acoustic (Flat), Acoustic (Shaped/BodyRez)

Intuitive Controls and Dedicated I/O

Operating and navigating Play Electric is as straightforward as it gets. Use the Up/Down footswitches or central knob to easily browse factory presets, or use the GENRE button to find styles that you like. Dedicated VOCAL FX and GUITAR FX buttons let you access effects directly, and the intuitive user interface makes editing simple and fast. Create your own library of presets with the FAVORITE feature for easy "setlist" recall.

Separate outputs for vocals and guitar make it painless for any sound engineer to mix the levels perfectly for your audience, or you can create your own custom panoramic stereo mix.

Make It a HIT

HIT is a performance-inspired feature for building intensity into any vocal performance. Press the HIT button to turn on multiple effects at once and create quick A/B scenes for each preset. Use it to add dazzling vocal effects for the chorus, or strip it down for the verse -- it's your call.

Get an overview of the TC Helicon Play Electric Vocal Harmony and Effects Processor in this video demo:


Loop Around

The VLOOP performance looper allows you to create complete guitar and vocal loops for solo jamming or impressive layered live performances. VLOOP is also handy for soundcheck; record a short phrase and walk out into the audience to check levels while your "virtual you" plays!

In-Ear Monitoring

Use the embedded RoomSense mics to pick up the sounds from the room, the stage, or the instruments around you and add ambience to your personal headphone mix when performing or practicing -- or you can use the AUX input to feed an external monitor signal straight into Play Electric (and turn the AUX signal off the main output). Additionally, our handy Guitar & Headphone Cable facilitates inexpensive in-ear monitoring with a convenient twist: two signals, one cable.

Sing Along with Vocal Cancel

Singing along is a great way to practice and perform. Plug in your MP3 player via the AUX In connector and use the Vocal Cancel feature to make your voice stand out over the vocals on the original track. You can also record and play back your singing using the USB connection to your computer and DAW.

Free Preset Downloads

Fire up our VoiceSupport app for access to hundreds of additional song and effects based presets as well as firmware updates and the latest news.

More Control

Add the TC-Helicon MP-75, MP-76, or Sennheiser e835 fx mics with Mic Control, or the Switch-3 footswitch for additional control of performance, effects and looping.

Features:

- Complete vocal path including Tone, Harmony, HardTune, Reverb, Double, Delay, Mod (chorus/flange, etc.), and Transducer (megaphone/distortion FX)
- Global Adaptive EQ, Compression, De-ess, Gate & Pitch Correction
- Note-perfect Vocal Harmonies using Auto Chord Detection from guitar input
- 2 Voices of NaturalPlay Harmony, plus 2 voices of humanized Doubling
- TC Electronic guitar FX with styles from Flashback Delay, Hall of Fame Reverb and Corona Chorus
- Wide range of additional popular guitar effects with lots of styles
- Wide choice of guitar amp emulations from VoiceLive 3, including "no amp" and "Acoustic Shape" (BodyRez) setting
- Dedicated Guitar and Vocal FX access/edit buttons
- Separate vocal and pro-quality guitar outputs or stereo mix
- Different amp settings per preset or global lockdown to one
- Low-noise Mic-preamp
- VLOOP(TM) performance looper for vocal and/or guitar with undo and redo
- Loop time: Stereo: 15 seconds with Undo (30 seconds without). Mono: 30 seconds with Undo (60 seconds without)
- Simple effects customization with styles and icons
- RoomSense microphones for monitoring and practicing
- Key/Scale harmony mode for setting specific song keys via the footswitches
- Plug in and practice with your mobile device via AUX or stream tracks and record over USB including a Vocal Cancel function
- Navigate factory presets by Genre and mark Favorites
- USB for audio streaming and connection to VoiceSupport, a free app for firmware updates, preset management, and tips & tricks
- Compatible with the MP-75 or MP-76 Modern Performance Vocal Microphone and Sennheiser e 835 fx microphone with Mic Control
- Optional Switch-3 for additional performance control
- Headphone output
read less

Size:
- Height: 1.8 inches (45 mm)
- Width: 7.9 inches (200 mm)
- Depth: 6.1 inches (156 mm)

Weight:
- Weight: 2.2 lb. (1 kg)
- Construction
- Dual die-cast clamshell design
- Acrylic Lens
- Punch-cut Metal connection panel
- Rubberized footings
- Backlit Graphic LCD Display

VOICE:
- Connector: Balanced XLR
- Input Impedance Balanced: 3 kOhm
- Mic Input Level @ 0 dBFS: -39 dBu to +14 dBu
- EIN @ Max Mic Gain Rg = 150 Ohm: -127 dBu
- Mic SNR >100 dB at typical mic input gain
- Phantom Power: +48V (on/off via setup menu)
- A to D Conversion 24 Bit, 128 x oversampling bitstream, 110 dB SNR A-weighted

GUITAR:
- Connector: 1/4 phone jack
- Guitar Input Impedance: 1 MOhm
- Guitar Input Level @ 0 dBFS: +13 dBu
- Guitar Input SNR >108 dB
- A to D Conversion 24 Bit, 128 x oversampling bitstream, 115 dB SNR A-weighted

AUX:
- Aux: 1/8 stereo mini jack
- Aux Input Level @ 0 dBFS +2.5 dBu
- Analog Outputs

VOICE:
- Connectors: balanced XLR
- Output Impedance Balanced/Unbalanced: 260/130 Ohm
- Output Range 0 dBFS: -6 dBu
- Dynamic Range >108 dB, 20 Hz to 20 kHz
- Frequency Response +.3/-0 dB, 20 Hz to 20 kHz
- D to A Conversion 24 Bit, 128 x oversampling bitstream, 115 dB SNR A-weighted

GUITAR
- Connectors: 1/4 TRS
- Output Impedance Balanced/Unbalanced: 300/150 Ohm
- Output Level at 0 dBFS: +6 dBu
- Dynamic Range >105 dB, 20 Hz to 20 kHz
- D to A Conversion 24 Bit, 128 x oversampling bitstream, 108 dB SNR A-weighted
- HEADPHONE: 1/8 Mini stereo jack, 50 Ohm, +12 dBu max

GUITAR THRU:
- Buffered Guitar Input
- Connector: 1/4 TRS
- Output Impedance Bal/UnBal: 540/270 Ohms

Control:
- USB: USB A, Mini-B
- Pedal: 1/4 TRS phone jack
- Mic Control using TC-Helicon MP-75 or MP-76 Microphone or Sennheiser e 835 fx mic

Included with Play Electric:
- Region specific power supply
- USB cable
- User guide

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Web: https://www.tc-helicon.com/service.html

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars. (5 ratings)
Submitted October 7, 2014 by LF B in Philadelphia, PA

"TC HELICON PLAY ELECTRIC IS GOOD FOR VOCAL AND GUITAR FX"

Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
I've had the Play Electric for about 6 weeks. I've used it solo at home and in rehearsals and a show with my band. I've also watched all the the TCH instructional vids (from the general overview ones to the advanced deep editing ones). This is a fantastic pedal for out of the box guitar and vocal fx processing. The starting presets that TCH devised are nicely varied and tweakable. With that new 500 preset mega download they just released, there's no way you won't find tons of usable presets for almost any style of music. My favorite thing about this pedal is the vocal harmony options. The pedal really does a great job of following your guitar progression and providing interesting harmonies based on the chords you're playing. I also play bass (where you don't get clear harmonic information while playing) and often set the keys I'm playing in in the pedal beforehand. The vocal harmonies I get back using that approach are fantastic too. It's cool that they have 3 variations each of major/minor harmonies that you can set/change. I can spend all day just trying different settings with the harmonies alone. The guitar FX and amp sims are pretty cool, too. There's great variety and (again) everything is tweakable. If you're looking for a certain band's signature sound, you're likely to find it well reproduced in the presets. I'm really impressed. Where this pedal disappoints is with the looping functionality. I've used loopers in pedal form in the past and the learning curve for read more hitting the RECORD and STOP footswitches in just the right places, so that your loops line up properly is just ridiculously bad on this pedal. It shouldn't take this long to master that and be able to nail it consistently. I bought this pedal for live performance primarily. Not being able to depend on nailing the loop timing is a big minus for me. The TC Electronic Ditto looper was easier than this as was the Boss RC3. I've used both and was up and running for performances almost immediately. Too, You only get 30 secs of looping time on the Play Electric unless you go into deep editing mode and sacrifice the UNDO functionality. Then you get 60 secs looping time. That's pathetic. TC Helicon needs to re-think the looper on this pedal from the ground up. I don't care how many 'in-performance' vids they have up showing folks using the looper on this, it doesn't work as seamlessly as it could. Though you can make edits to presets and store them at the pedal-level itself, the best way to rename, reorganize and tweak presets is via the VoiceSupport software by connecting your pedal to a computer via usb. I find that software very easy to use and a very helpful way to back up my settings and to really just get my arms and brain around all of the presets at once. There are potentially hundreds of presets to manage. So, in conclusion: this is a stellar guitar and vocal fx pedal with a good software interface but that has a shamefully underwhelming onboard looper. I'm keeping it for the former, but I still have my other loopers (TCE Ditto and Boss RC3) on my pedalboard. I was hoping to be able to downsize my rig with this pedal, but I can't because of the looping issues with this.

Musical Background:
semi-pro/weekend warrior playing in indie bands

Musical Style:
pop, soul
read less
8 of 8 people (100%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!