Quintet Vocal Harmony + Reverb USER’S MANUAL
IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS The lightning flash with an arrowhead symbol within an equilateral triangle, is intended to alert the user to the presence of uninsulated "dangerous voltage" within the product's enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock to persons.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS EMC / EMI. This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B Digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in residential installations. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications.
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION MIDI IMPLEMENTATION Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Text Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Parameters Accessible via MIDI . . . .21 MIDI Implementation Chart . . . . . . . .21 SPECIFICATIONS BASIC OPERATION Front Panel . Rear Panel . Signal Flow . Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 . . .
INTRODUCTION Thank you for purchasing the TC-Helicon Quintet Vocal Harmony and Effects processor. Quintet is the affordable key to great live and recorded vocals. Drawing upon the TC-Helicon heritage, the Quintet is fast and easy to use. It supports simple editing and control of harmony and effect parameters either from the front panel or via MIDI. Quintet is a state-ofthe-art product and creates the world's most natural sounding harmonies.
FRONT PANEL POWER KEY On/Off switch for the unit. In order for altered SETUP and current preset parameters to be saved, the unit must be powered off using this switch. Powering down by removing AC power will result in loss of changes to these parameters. LINE INPUT LEVEL KNOB Adjusts the Line Input level. Range: 24dB INPUT METER Peak meter shows Input level. The Meter range is: 0 to -40dB. INPUT CLIP LED Indicates that the input level is too high, possibly causing digital distortion.
FRONT PANEL LEVELS KEY Press to adjust overall harmony, lead and reverb levels. Press repeatedly to cycle through the various level parameters. Not pressing this key for a few seconds causes the unit to revert back to the preset recall mode. EDIT/HOLD FOR SETUP KEY Press to enter the edit menu. Press repeatedly to cycle through preset edit parameters. All parameters in the edit menu are stored in the preset and include parameters related to harmony and reverb. Press and hold to enter the setup menu.
REAR PANEL Balanced Mic Input Balanced Jack Analog Input Balanced Jack Analog Outputs The 1/4” analog Input and Output connectors on the Quintet are balanced 1/4” jacks. Optimal connection to balanced equipment is achieved using balanced cables. However, if your equipment is NOT balanced you will generally have no problems using standard mono-to-mono cables as illustrated below.
SIGNAL FLOW 9
APPLICATIONS Live Setups Using the Quintet live is like bringing four professional backup singers to your gig! You’ve got several options when it comes to controlling the Quintet Live. For best results you can use (in various combinations) the Switch-3 footswitch, a MIDI keyboard, a MIDI CC controller, and of course the controls on the front panel. We’ve provided setup examples below for a few common situations.
APPLICATIONS Computer Based Studio Setup The Quintet’s pristine -128dB EIN (Equivalent Input Noise) mic preamp and 24 bit A/D conversion alone justifies its place in your Studio rack. The ability to create high quality, solo-able harmony vocals makes the Quintet a must-have for anyone working with Vocals. We’ve put together an example below for a basic studio setup. Studio Setup • Connect a microphone to the XLR mic input on the Quintet.
PRESET HANDLING Parameter types The Quintet has many useful parameters and a user interface that lets you easily view and edit them. Some parameters are preset based and some are setup based. Preset parameters are all the parameters found under the edit menu as well as the selection of voices by the VOICE KEYS. Each preset has its own set of these parameters. Setup parameters are global and do not change when a different preset is recalled.
VOICE KEYS VOICE KEYS These are the keys with the musical note icons. Pressing these keys results in the enabling/disabling of the individual harmony voices and selects the voicing. There is a maximum of four voices that may be activated at a time. The keys provide different results depending on the harmony mode of the preset. A quick guide legend is printed above the VOICE KEYS on the front of the Quintet. Scale Mode Presets In this mode the VOICE KEYS produce scalebased harmonies.
VOICE KEYS - LEVELS KEY- EDIT/Hold for Setup KEY UNISON Enables a voice that is in unison with the input note. ABOVE Enables a harmony voice that is a fifth above the input note. TOP Enables a harmony voice that is an octave above the input note. Thicken Mode Presets In this mode, the voices are all unison with the input voice but slightly detuned and time randomized.
EDIT/Hold for Setup KEY Setup Menu Parameters Pressing and holding the EDIT/HOLD FOR SETUP key gives access to the setup menu parameters. Once the setup menu is entered, repeatedly pressing this key will cycle through the following parameters: MIDI CHANNEL Sets the base MIDI Send and Receive channel. MIDI FILTER With this parameter you can cause the Quintet to ignore certain MIDI commands and data. P ignore program changes. SX ignore system exclusive messages. DRY LEAD On, Off.
FOOTSWITCH CONTROL The Quintet has been designed to work with the Switch-3, three button footswitch. **The Quintet must be powered up with the foot switch plugged in for proper operation.** The footswitch buttons provide the following control: BUTTON 1 This allows selection of the Main and Alternate settings for use with Scale Presets. BUTTON 2 Pressing this button is the same as pressing the BYPASS key on the front panel.
HARMONY AND TUNING Harmony Here's where we can go into a little more depth about harmonies. We've tried to keep it practical, focusing on what Quintet can do for you. Harmony Modes Quintet has five different harmony modes, which give five unique methods of creating harmony. Once we get into describing the more complex harmony modes, we’ll be showing you examples based on the C major scale. If you are unfamiliar with this scale we’ve shown C major here.
HARMONY AND TUNING Dim7 C Dom7 Dom7b5 Aug Aug7 Sus Sus2 Sus7 C C C C C C C Eb E E E E F D F Gb (equiv. G Gb G# G# G G G Bbb to A) Bb Bb Bb Bb Scale (Scalic) mode Harmonies use key and scale information to create musically correct, diatonic harmonies. Most popular songs use a single scale, so you usually only have to set the Quintet to that same scale at the beginning of your song.
HARMONY AND TUNING nc nc D F nc nc C Eb nc nc Ab C B D nc nc D F nc nc C Eb nc nc A C Bb D nc nc D F nc nc C Eb nc nc Ab C Bb D D F D F C E nc nc nc nc nc nc G Bb nc nc Shifting, which uses the chromatic, 12 semitone scale, changes the input pitch by a fixed number of semitones: Chordal, which uses the root, third, fifth and sometimes seventh of the many diatonic scales, pitches the harmony voice to the closest note contained within the chord: Scalic, which uses one of many diatonic scales, pitche
HARMONY AND TUNING Theory aside, the best way to get great sound is to experiment with all of Quintet' possible harmony modes. Not only will you develop an intuitive sonic sense of what works best where, but by investigating different permutations and combinations you could discover some delightful sounds you might otherwise have missed.
MIDI IMPLEMENTATION Parameters Accessible via MIDI We’ve made the Quintet as simple as possible to use from the front panel - providing you with the parameters that are necessary to get 95% of what you need as quickly as possible. If you need to dive in a little further, we’ve made additional parameters available through MIDI. In order to be able to use these parameters effectively, a few concepts must be understood. The Quintet has 4 voices of Harmonies.
MIDI IMPLEMENTATION Parameter Name Voice 4 Level Voice 4 Gender Voice 4 Vibrato Style Voice 4 Vibrato Amount Voice 4 Pan CC# 25 27 3 105 83 Harmony Mode Root Harmony Level Smooth Humanization Style 29 30 12 36 40 Humanization Style Amount Tuning Mode Harmony Notes Attack Harmony Notes Release Harmony Latch Harmony Bypass 41 42 44 45 95 110 Reverb Level Reverb Type Lead Level Lead Pan Notes 4 channel Mix Global Setup Output Level Reverb Global Bypass All Global Vibrato Control 91 59 13 73 74 86 87 88
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS Digital Output Connector: Formats: Sample Rates: Processing Delay: Frequency Response DIO: RCA Phono (S/PDIF) S/PDIF (24 bit), 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz 0.1 ms DC to 22/23.9 kHz ± 0.01 dB @ 44.1/48 kHz Analog Inputs Connectors, balanced: Impedance: Balanced/Unbalanced Line Input Level @ 0 dBFS: Line Sensitivity @ 12 dB headroom: Mic. Input Level @ 0 dBFS: Pad Off/On Mic. Sensitivity @ 12 dB headroom: Pad Off/On Line, Mic. @ Min gain, Dynamic Range: NF/Vi @ Max. micamp.
