VoicePrism User Manual
“SCALIC”
(SCALE)
HARMONY
MODES
“Scalic” harmonies use key and scale information to create musically correct, dia-
tonic harmonies. Most popular music uses a single scale, so you only have to input
the information at the beginning of your song. “Scalic” harmonies are more dynam-
ic than the chordal harmonies because there are unique harmony notes for each
input note. The subsequent illustration shows the harmony notes for the C major
scale with a voicing selection of a C major scale and a single “third above” harmony
voice.
You can see that the “Scalic” harmonies are intelligent and closely follow your lead
voice for a tighter sound.
VoicePrism has two harmony modes based on this type of harmony,
STEPPED SCALE and
SMOOTH SCALE. SMOOTH SCALE allows the harmony voices to follow your input pitch, errors
and all, whereas
STEPPED SCALE jumps to the next scalic harmony note, kind of like pitch
correction on the harmony voice.
VoicePrism has five preprogrammed scales: three major, three minor and one cus-
tom. Use the following process if you truly want to create a custom scale, to view the
harmony notes for each and every input and harmony note for your custom harmo-
ny scale:
1. Select a scalic preset.
2. Press
VOCALS
3. Tab over to the
SETUP
menu
4. Click the
EDIT SCALE softknob until you have selected the input note.
5. Twist the
EDIT SCALE softknob to scroll through the different input notes.
You'll see the harmony notes change as the input note changes. This is also where
you can modify the scale for any incorrect harmony voices, provided you know the
input note. In the beginning it might be better to try all the scales to see if one of the
other factory scales might work.
It is also tricky to pick out the key in some songs. An example is “Sweet Home
Alabama”. Listening, you might think this song is in the key of “D”, as that’s the first
chord, but the harmonies actually work best in the key of “G” -- try running the song
through VoicePrism to hear for yourself.
Setting the scale can also take a bit of practice: for songs centered around the third
or root of the scale it might not sound like there’s any noticeable differences between
the three major or three minor scales. This is because your song doesn’t hit any of
the scale’s altered notes. A melody centered around the fifth of the scale, (such as B
in the key of E), highlights the differences between the scales. Try the “Sha Lala Lala
...La Tee Daa” chorus of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” (key: E, scale: major,
3rd above voicing) with each major scale to hear the audible difference between
them. For the minor scales, Santana’s “Evil Ways” (key: G, scale: minor, 3rd above
voicing) highlights the differences between the three minor scales.
A-4
Appendix A: Harmony
The C Major scale, showing third
above diatonic scalic harmony,
as used in VoicePrism’s
STEPPED
SCALE and
SMOOTH SCALE harmony
modes.
Black = lead
Gray = harmony
