TC-Helicon Critical Mass Pedal for Gang Vocals, Melodic Vocals & Reverb

Critical Mass, from TC Helicon, accomplishes a very specific function simply and effectively. This pedal, designed for vocalists on stage, creates the sound of gang vocals—that rare moment in the club in which you actually get everyone to sing along with your song. If that vocal sound is integral to an arrangement, you don’t have to rely on apathetic audiences anymore to make it happen for you. This pedal can do it all by itself.

With the Style knob, you can choose among four different kinds of audience-approximating vocals: unison, octave up, octave down, and a combination of the two—octave up and down. However, this pedal isn’t only for so-called gang vocals. Four melodic settings are also offered, proffered in the same intervallic relationships. Whereas gang vocals is a decidedly scrappier, sometimes off-key sound, melodic tracks pitch with you, without necessitating a key or scale input. Some TC Helicon pedals require you to plug your instrument into their trigger input to dictate the harmonic content of the choral accompaniment, but the Critical Mass only seeks to give you unison/octave vocals; it does not require any such external influence.

In addition to the choral processing, this pedal provides three studio-grade reverbs, as well as TC Helicon’s adaptive tone button, which automatically adjusts EQ, compression, de-essing, and gating for a consistent vocal sound. The Critical Mass pedal can be powered with four AA batteries or by a separately available power supply. It can provide phantom power to your microphone, should it be needed.