TC-Helicon Play Electric

The TC-Helicon Play Electric is a vocal and guitar multi-effects pedal, unveiled at Summer NAMM 2014 and due in stores in August 2014 at an estimated US price of $349.99¹. It is aimed at the singing guitarist: one unit that handles both the voice and the guitar signal, rather than two separate pedalboards.

What it does

TC-Helicon describes the Play Electric as packed with "all the studio-grade vocal effects that TC-Helicon are renowned for". The vocal side covers harmonies, delays, reverbs, doubles, modulations, hardtuning and distortions¹. For the guitar, the pedal draws its effect styles from TC Electronic's TonePrint range of pedals, so the guitar effects come from that same family of designs¹.

On the output side, the pedal is flexible about how the two signals leave the unit: it can send separate vocal and pro-quality guitar outputs, or a single stereo mix¹. That matters in practice, because separate outputs let a player send the voice to a PA and the guitar to an amp, while the stereo mix suits a simpler setup.

Where it sits in TC-Helicon's range

MusicRadar described the Play Electric as "a sort of simplified [VoiceLive 3]", positioning it below TC-Helicon's flagship unit¹. Players comparing it within the range might also look at the TC-Helicon VoiceLive Play GTX, an earlier multi-effects unit aimed at singing guitarists, or the TC Helicon Voice Live Play. For the current flagship, see the TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 Extreme. More units of this kind are covered on the Multi-effects Pedals and Vocal Pedals pages.

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