TC-Helicon Play Acoustic

I've been using this unit for about two years now as a one man band. I used it in different venues, form big and small, and different systems.

I would definitely say the pros of the product are that it has a lot of options in general in a relatively small unit and it seems very well built.

But, even though there are a lot of options for a unit small like this, there are also some essential features that should be there but aren't, as for example, vocal compression and limiter.

I found the LOOPER totally useless, it has a problem with keeping being in the rhythm, you have to be very very precise to get something usable out of it, and I've been using RC-3 looper for years and now I'm using EHX 22500, so I'm not a beginner in looping.

I'm disappointed in the VOCAL EFFECTS, especially the reverb. I couldn't get a nice direct normal reverb like you have on every basic available DAW, it is like it's always "somewhere in the background", whatever I do with the parameters.

The BODY REZ function doesn't necessarily improve the sound to make it sound more like a natural acoustic guitar, definitely not as it is marketed. It is ok to add compression to the guitar, but you have to really play with it, or it can even make the sound worse.

I think that since this is a digital unit, TC should maybe consider updating some of the effects, especially vocal reverb, add compression to the vocal because this should be a must on a VOCAL processor unit.
I use the unit as a travelling musician and would much prefer that TC offers a unit as this is in an even smaller size, maybe without the looper option (since it is useless).

In general, it is still the best thing in my knowledge that comes in this compact size. I need to have something as a travelling musician when I end up on different gear without any reverb or compression, etc. I was considering just buying my own mixer, but the problem then is switching the effects and playing at the same time.

So I could recommend the unit if you really need it, but in general, I think it could utilise more useful functions.

Use it live all the time. Lasted through years of really really hard gigging almost every weekend (I mostly use it as just an vocal pedal for the rock band I'm in... some of the shows we play don't have stages and the crowds get really wild... the pedal gets jumped on, beers spilt on it... all the above) And it still works great!

Sounds great! lots of options for different harmonies ect... Won't do a show without the pedal anymore.

Makes the acoustic guitar shine as well when I do acoustic shows. The looper is just as good as any other one, and the chord tracking works just as promised. There is some eqing that puts the guitar behind the vocals in the mix, so it sounds wayyyyyyyy better than if you were to plug your guitar and vocals into a PA and hope for the best.

Giving 4 starts for quality just because there is a knob in the center of the pedal that can be broken... Mine went through an unreasonable amount of damage, I'm sure... However, there could have been a more durable option considering how well the rest of the pedal is put together. I've found other consumers of this pedal that had the same central knob break. You can still use the pedal, but you can't create custom effects. You can still download presets from the TC helicon website (which is pretty cool) but, if that knob breaks, the only way to make additional presets is to find a friend who has one of these pedals, create the preset on theirs, save it to your computer and then upload it to your pedal... However, the rest of this pedal can really really take a beating.

But, when it finally breaks, I will buy the exact same product immediately. Really impressed with it!

This pedal was originally bought for doing acoustic gigs where I just wanted backing vocals. Having played with the unit for a week and realising the amount of pre-sets you can download from the manufacturers website (listed by artist, song and genre!!) I haven't even needed to get into programming this thing yet. I also didn't realise that it had other functions such as looping, and the guitar effects I am now using as my go to pedal when recording acoustic guitar (and sometimes amp mic'ing) in the studio.

As the unit takes an audio input from the guitar to work out the harmonies, the unit is now setup as an aux effect (along with my other rack effects) to my mixer, so when a client comes in wanting harmonies to go along with any instrument, it works a dream. I've used it for creating harmonies when recording anything from dance tracks to basic acoustic set ups. This seems to get faster results than any plugin I've used. The only slight let down, was that the unit came with a US and EU plug adapter for the power supply, but no UK plug - so I am having to use an ugly adapter, as the manufacturers won't replace or sell me one!!!! All in all, this has definitely been a good purchase.

Bought the unit in 2020, the reviews were exciting... The reality is that it can't handle even harmonic minor, only natural minor (which I don't use at all). If I do any key change on a guitar, like playing G C Am G F# -> E7!! Am F C G C -> G, the unit gets crazy, it even doesn't stop its "harmonies" when it can't offer any of the ones it "is aware of". It pretends I sing 1 semitone out of tune, the guitar is temporarily out of tune as well, but the Unit is right with its harmonies. Last week I had some time and opened the box where I put the unit back 5 years ago just to see if I'm missing something. No. It's by design. I found a chart on the Internet where it's clear that the unit isn't able to harmonize C# and G# notes in key of Am. In the table there's a dash (no harmony). So if there's a A7 or E7 chord in Am key, the unit will play harmony for the closest note it has in its table, for instance, when I sing g# over E7 guitar chord, it generates something totally out of tune so that I can't even continue to sing my part. Will try to sell it, maybe someone will benefit from singing some simple songs along with it, like "Music is my fashion" that's used as a demo.
From A technical side, there's no option to send the generated back vx to a separate XLR out (because there's just single one!) and main vx to another one. When recording or even on stage where there's a sound engineer on a mixing desk who can at least turn volume off for back vx if the unit gets weird, this feature could be essential.

It's a very durable, sturdy piece of gear. The sound quality is great and I have no complains whatsoever about this. There is also an incredible amount of parameters to tweak. But the one thing I have to point out is the little control over compression that the user have. I find this very strange as there are so many parameters one can change, but such an important one as compression for the vocals is very poorly managed. There are only a few general options such as "no compression", "normal compression", and "extra compression", and this setting then applies to every preset at once (not individually). I find this strange. As for the rest, really no complains at all!

Having wanted as combined solution for acoustic and voice I thought this was it. Overall the sound is good if you can put up with the channels on the back not actually being separate. No matter what I tried, either using Stereo , Mono , Supposedly Seperate channels the Vox and Guitar elements seems to be somehow overlapping, and coming out of One channel or the other. Neither were ever totally separate!. Annoying. Interface isnt great for live adjustment, although good for general processing, Vocal effects are great and easily useable out of the box. Guitar Sounds leave something to be desired and need adjustment. Settings in general hard to trim to a Desk / Monitoring process easily, and not that easy to do if something is wrong levels wise. Found it a pain in general but usable , have gone to a Headrush Prime in the end as much better adjustability and separate Channels!