When you want to add some extra sheen to your vocals, a vocal harmonizer is an easy way to do it. It can make your voice sound incredibly rich and thick, as well as adding some cool effects like doubling, panning and modulation. It's ideal for producers who need instant harmonies, songwriters who want to back up their lead vocal with creative color and mix engineers who need a flexible choir effect.
The premium choice here is the TC-Helicon Voice Live 3 Extreme. This model is a heavyweight vocal processor that features a number of different modes that allow you to sculpt the tone to your liking. It comes with a full array of high-quality effects and can be used to create a wide range of vocal styles, including the popular Jacob Collier and Ty Dolla $ign sounds.
There's a whole host of features on this unit, including an auto-harmony function that follows the key of your guitar and can be adjusted with a bank of 12 buttons above the rotaries. You can select from Low, Lower and High harmonies to produce notes below, above or around your original vocal. There's also a cool cue button that sounds your root-note pitch to help you find the right harmony note and a hybrid mode that automatically follows either the guitar or manual key setting.
A simple-to-use pedal that's a great option for live performance, this stompbox from Boss delivers 24 different harmony options and some cool guitar effects. Its straightforward operation makes it a good choice for beginners who've never tried a harmonizer before. The harmonies it produces aren't as sophisticated as the aforementioned models but they still do the job well and sound natural and organic. The unit has a rugged construction and can be run in conjunction with your guitar using the hybrid mode that combines both inputs and keeps them in key. It also provides stereo panning and reverb for a finished sound straight out of the box.
