band of brothers

Apologies for yet another music relate blip but the postman’s just been and delivered this.

This is a very clever box.  If I plug my microphone in and then sing, it not only sends my voice to the amplifier, but throws in a couple of harmonies to keep it company.

Non-musicians may ignore the next paragraph.

I can choose to have one or two harmonies in the following combinations; one above my voice and one below; two above or two below.  Not only that, the harmonies are based on thirds or fifths or a combination of thirds and fifths.   

OK …. 

…. so - I plug it in, switch on and give a go; hey presto - The Elderly Brothers.

Of course, the box may be very clever, but it’s not a mind reader.  It can’t guess what I’m going to sing, it needs a clue of some sort.  It gets the clue in one of two ways.  If I set the knob on the far left to ‘guitar’ and plug my guitar in, it will analyse the chords I’m playing and choose harmonies based on that.  

But if I don’t want to play, I can set the knob to a particular key (from C round to B) and simply sing into the microphone and it will choose the appropriate harmonies that way.

The arrow heads round the middle knob indicate harmony voices above or below the main voice.

The right hand knob, labeled Dry/Wet does not forecast the weather, although that would be really clever, it refers to the mix of voices.  When the knob is set to Dry, only the main voice is heard and when set to Wet, only the harmony voices are heard.  The middle position is a mix of both.

The result is surprisingly good - it doesn’t sound artificial at all.  And it tracks the main voice with unnerving accuracy.  There is no pitch correction - and therefore no hiding place. If I sing flat or sharp, then the harmonies will be flat or sharp as well.  If I sing with a cough or croaky voice, then it sounds like a smokers convention at a karaoke night.

It’s hard to convey just how much fun this little box represents - as someone who hasn’t been able to sing for four years - to suddenly have two brothers is just amazing.