baddacatt_smith's forum posts

hi guys,

so for a long tome I've been obsessed with Brian Eno.... recently i've also fallen in love with the Imogen Heap song 'hide and seek'..... after doing a little research, I found the key to both of these sounds was a little device called the - Digitech vocalist workstation EX (the EX is important)

So I went about tracking one down.... it took a while, but I finally got my hands on one.... it sounded great...so good infact, I decided to buy a back up.....just in case.... (you never know with vintage equipment).

So I found another one... and i was pumped.... when I plugged it in however.....i was shocked..."what on earth!" i thought...this one has to be broken...right??

.It sounded so much different..... when i say different i mean bad....

so I sent it to my tech to have it serviced and repaired.... it came back and he said everything was functional and it was operating correctly.. whatever....it must be a bum unit i told myself....

I ended up buying another two of them over the course the next three years...

and much to my surprise, there was a huge variance in each of them...their tamber, how noisey they were, and how they behaved..... I even ended up tracking down a Digi tech studio vocalist EX rackmount unit...so that gave me five to mess and test with....

at first i was puzzled....but after a few more mmonths of reaearch and so brillant advice from retired IVL employees....it started to make sense...

First off the Digitech vocalist workstation EX was manufactured in three different countries.... Canada, America, and China.

The big sound difference I was originally noticing was between the Chinese and North American versions... in my experience the Chinese versions tend to be rather noisy.

There is a slight sound difference between the Canadian and American versions.... and that’s really a preference deal as to which one you prefer (the american one sounds way more Eno/Imogen to me).... the biggest difference between the Canadian and American models, however I have to do with the "intelligent harmonizing" ... and thats a HUGE DEAL...

The miracle of this unit has directly to do with it’s harmonizing tendencies..... the Canadian model makes harmlny choices that are often times more complex. but they sound far less hip and mundane than the American one..

this is a real bummer.... as those interesting choices in tonal movement is what makes this device so brilliant.

The rackmount unit seems to have been programmed identically to the Canadian workstation units.... very complex interval choices and movements......but extremely square and predictable... to add insult to injury, the Studio vocalist EX rackmount unit seems to have a more advanced tonal processing unit..... It sounds far too clean.... as a matter of fact, it sounds far more like the newer. Did you take vocalist units.... the nasty rastered dirt in the original EX units gives it a lot of character in my opinion.

in short:

china model - bad sounding, noisy, and unreliable.

the USA and Canada units - both are reliable and have a lower noise output...however.....the Canadian model is super square...and lacking and hipness.

The USA model is where it’s at!!

the canadian model makes vasty different artistic choices reguardung harmonies than the USA version.....

(although the Canadian model chooses more complex harmonies, its harmonies are often square predictable when compared to what the USA units do. )

Lastly, the Studio vocalist EX rackmount unit......well its as square as the Canadian unit in regards to its artistic choices in harmonies.......but it’s also cursed with having far to clean of a processing unit..... it sounds more like The more moden VR units...!...so bad as well.

digitech voclaist workstaion non EX ....bad digitech vocalist workstation EX (china).....bad digitech vocalist workstation EX (canada).....not as bad but really square and unhip digitech studio vocalist EX (rackmount ) ......as square as the canadian unit, but also WAY to clean...sounds like a VR unit

the digitech vocalist workstation EX from the USA......... AWESOME SOUNDING & SUPER HIP IN ITS HARMONIES!!!

im sorry if this upsets some of you.....it sure as heck upset me as i was learning about it...and wasting tons of money on vintage garbage.

let me know if i can help in any way...

best wishes,

Scott Smith

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