Boss VE-20

[twostone]

Just picked one up.

Great pedal for the small price tag.

Esp for us singing bass players since it doesn't require a instrument

to track with.

 

All I had to do was dial down the reverb and lower the harmony 3rd by a semi tone and it was better match for my vocals.

 

 

It's a great pedal if your on a tight budget and don't wanna mess with pre-programming a patch for every song you do. Just basically plug in a mic tweak the factory settings a touch and play.

 

I tried the digitech vocal pedal awhile back but since it can't track chord changes with a bass guitar I decided to take my chances with the Boss VE-20 pedal. I'm glad I did. It's cleaner sounding then the digitech I tried. Plus it uses batteries which is a nice touch so I don't need another stinking cable up on the stage.

 

The harmonica effect sounds pretty decent using my old Honer harp.

 

My singer really loves the radio effect and the robot effect that makes you sound like a demon. Might come in handy for our helloween metal bash we got in the works.

 

I know the TC unit is better but since we're just a local bar band. I really couldn't justify the cost vs the extra feature the TC unit has. The bars around here don't pay that much. Plus I already have ton in LED lighting rig, The PA system and not to mention my recording rig which I recently upgraded and added more toys to it.

 

Also I got teenagers coming over asking if they can sing on it using the T-pain effect it has on it, because I'm raising teenage kids who listen to today's pop music which all have T-pain effect on it now my house is full of teenagers.

I don't mind as long as they stay away from my last soda

 

Anyway just thought I would toss out my short review on the Boss VE-20 pedal. I'll give a on bang for the buck.

[jwlussow]

Thanks for the info. I have been looking for something like this but I also play bass and the units I looked at needed to guitar to track. I'll check this one out.

[twostone]

 

Thanks for the info. I have been looking for something like this but I also play bass and the units I looked at needed to guitar to track. I'll check this one out.

 

 

Yea I play bass to and that's why I went with the Boss unit because your don't need a instrument to track with.

 

Like I posted earlier it uses 6 AA batteries which eliminate the extra power cord up on stage and it's real user friendly pedal. Took me a whole 5 minutes with the manual and store my own custom patch.

 

I pretty sure you would be happy with the unit since your a bassist that sings like myself and just need to add a little extra to your vocals.

Best bet is to go to a music store and try one out yourself like I did.

[Miket156]

That's a pretty decent price if it works the way you say it does. I have used Digitech Vocalists for 19 years and I have gotten great results with them. If your unit can follow your vocals without any programming that sure can make your life easier. I have spent years creating tracks on my sequences that I feed the chord changes via MIDI to my current Digitech Vocalist Live Pro. It sounds awesome. I have almost 200 sequences, which amounts to years of work.

 

TC Helicon has some great sounding vocal harmonizers too, but they are not cheap. I've read a number of posts on a various Forums and most people say they like the quality of the sound of the TC Helicon units (especially the newer ones) better than everything on the market, with maybe the exception of Eventide. We all know that Eventide is very serious money too. If you're working in bars in a band, $249 sits pretty well.

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Mike T.

[Randyman]

TwoStone,

Thanks for the mini review.

 

So how do you like the reverb and other bread and butter fx on it?

 

How easy is it to bring fx in and out? The TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 is of course much larger, doesn't run on batteries and is more than 3 times the price! But that's pretty powerful the way you can switch fx and harmonies in and out.

[twostone]

That's a pretty decent price if it works the way you say it does. I have used Digitech Vocalists for 19 years and I have gotten great results with them. If your unit can follow your vocals without any programming that sure can make your life easier. I have spent years creating tracks on my sequences that I feed the chord changes via MIDI to my current Digitech Vocalist Live Pro. It sounds awesome. I have almost 200 sequences, which amounts to years of work. TC Helicon has some great sounding vocal harmonizers too, but they are not cheap. I've read a number of posts on a various Forums and most people say they like the quality of the sound of the TC Helicon units (especially the newer ones) better than everything on the market, with maybe the exception of Eventide. We all know that Eventide is very serious money too. If you're working in bars in a band, $249 sits pretty well. Cheers, Mike T.

 

No Mike I was wrong about not programing. It will follow your voice after you select a key.

Better stick with your digitech and midi rig this unit don't have midi and only has 50 user banks. Since now I spend more time reading the manual now.

 

Sorry guys throwing the wrong info out there, but what's ironic nobody notice

at the gig even though I was using the harmony 3rd above in the key C and the song was in F# heck I didn't even notice.

[twostone]

 

TwoStone, Thanks for the mini review. So how do you like the reverb and other bread and butter fx on it? How easy is it to bring fx in and out? The TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 is of course much larger, doesn't run on batteries and is more than 3 times the price! But that's pretty powerful the way you can switch fx and harmonies in and out.

 

 

Well bro I really dig the pedal and the all 3 types reverbs sounds fine to my ears.

The harmonies sound pretty good and tracks really good in the key your in.

The looper is a lot fun to play around like this guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3peXsGzgAUo

 

It pretty easy to program your own custom FX then store them on a user bank. You do have to hold down the pedal for 2 seconds for patch changes on the fly.

Once I hold mine down for 2 seconds I just leave it, that way I can toe tap the next user patch.

 

But we had this disscussion before awhile back. I would take Sean's (abzurd) advice and go ahead and pay the extra for the TC unit. You already got KB's with midi.

This unit would be a huge step down plus doesn't have midi in/out.

[AlexMC]

Resurrecting an old thread here, but I'm in the market for a live vocal FX unit; the Boss VE-20 seems to be a great product at a useable price. Would it be suitable to run into a looper pedal (mic or line level) alongside an acoustic guitar?