Name: TC-Helicon VoiceWorks
Brand: TC-Helicon
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

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HARMONY AND TUNING

Diatonic and Chromatic

We've described scalic and chordal harmonies

as diatonic, and shift harmonies as chromatic;

but what do those words mean?

Look at a piano keyboard. Between middle "C"

and the next "C" there are twelve keys - 7

white keys and 5 black keys. Each of those

keys are pitched one semitone apart for a total

of, you guessed it, 12 semitones. The chro-

matic scale uses all twelve semitone notes

opposed to the diatonic scales. Thus there is

only one chromatic scale, but 12 each of the

major, minor, etc. diatonic scales (C major, C#

major, D major, etc). Most of us have grown up

hearing the traditional "doh ray me fah so la

tee doh" diatonic scale, so that harmonies

based on the diatonic scale sound correct.

What does this mean, harmony-wise?

Diatonic scale harmonies can only use notes

within specified scale or chord, so a “third

above” harmony voice actually varies between

3 and four semitones above the lead note

where the chromatic harmony would stay

exactly 4 semitones (a major 3rd) above each

note.

To recap: we have three different harmony

modes that use chromatic or diatonic scales.

Shifting, which uses the chromatic, 12 semi-

tone 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, pitches the harmony voice to the near-

est note contained within the scale:

Lead Voice C C# D Eb E F F# G G# A Bb B

MAJ1

3rd Above E nc F nc G A nc B nc C D D

5th Above G nc A nc B C nc D nc E F F

MAJ2 3rd above E nc F nc G A nc C nc C D D

5th above G nc A nc C C nc E nc E F F

MAJ3 3rd above E nc F nc G A nc Bb nc C D D

5th above G nc A nc Bb C nc D nc E F F

MIN1 3rd above Eb nc F G nc Ab nc Bb C nc D nc

5th above G nc BbBbnc C nc D Ebnc F nc

MIN2 3rd above Eb nc F G nc A nc Bb C nc D nc

5th above G nc A Bb nc C nc D Eb nc F nc

MIN3 3rd above Eb nc F G nc Ab nc B C nc D nc

5th above G nc A Bb nc C nc D Eb nc F nc

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TC-Helicon VoiceWorks Specifications

Analog Inputs

impedance balanced	3.6 kOhm
impedance unbalanced	1.8 kOhm
line input level at 0 dBFS	24 dBu to 0 dBu
line sensitivity at 12 dB headroom	-12 dBu to 12 dBu
mic input level at 0 dBFS pad off/on	-14 dBu/6 dBu to -51 dBu/-31 dBu
mic sensitivity at 12 dB headroom pad off/on	-26 dBu/-6 dBu to -63 dBu/-43 dBu

Analog Outputs