Boss VE-20 Vocal Pedal Review

 

I’m not going to get into the ethics of using a pedal for vocals, as everyone has a different opinion on the matter; Suffice it to say that I use one when I feel like using one. And thus, I’m going to review the BOSS VE-20 Vocal Performer pedal that I got a few months ago and try to give you and idea of how useful it would be to you.

What is it?

An integrated loop and effects pedal for on stage use by vocalists.

Technical Features

-Two pedal system, one to control the loop pedal and bypass and the other to control harmonies and effects.

-You can chain of up to six effects: dynamics, pitch correct, tone/SFX, double/harmony, delay and reverb.

-As well as a  straight forward doubling setting, the editable harmony effect allows you to play around with pitch intervals, pan and gender of the harmony (that is to say it offers unison and up or down thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths and octave harmonies).

-The pitch correction effect allows you to access normal auto-tune tones as well as the standard chorus, flanger, strobe, radio, preamp (for EQ and the like) and distortion effects.

Pros?

-Designed specifically for vocalists, so no messing around with guitar inputs (though this does only apply if you don’t play guitar and sing)

-Simple to use, I literally picked it up, put batteries in it and started using it. Assuming you’re familiar with the ideas of what the various effects do and a rough idea of what you want to sound like, the VE-20 is a pleasure to use and really easy to get to grips with.

-Space for 50 custom presets besides the 30 already supplied, so you’re not going to run out of space for your settings in a hurry.

-Editing presets is a super easy, one button process

-Factory presets are passable. Though nothing I could use immediately, they were solid enough.

-Harmony setting can be used to get some insane Slam/grind tones and completely dehumanise your voice.

Cons?

-The two footswitch system can be awkward. Given that one works for the loop pedal, and the other for effects and harmony, it is forced to integrated the effects and harmonies into a single patch- that is to say they become one ‘setting’. So you can’t turn them off separately, which can become an issue if you want to use a setting for only one section of a song, forcing you to either be really unsubtle and kneel down and change the settings on the pedal manually or be unsubtle and just leave the effect on for the entire song. This could be easily solved by there being two pedals controlling the effects instead of just one as it can get awkward if you want to do anything complicated (e.g. activating just an octave setting for a 20 second section besides the delay setting you already have running through it) – most of the VE-20’s competitors have this ability and are far easier to use in terms of this (though this is reflected in the difference in their prices).

-Doesn’t come with a power adaptor. Which means buying one separately, which is lame when the pedal costs £200 and you can pick up the adaptor for £5 on Amazon. It wouldn’t be THAT much of a financial strain for BOSS to include one…

-No way to quickly switch settings without bending over, as compared with say the TC helicon pedal.

-It can be a struggle to get some of the reverbs to sound natural, but this tends to go largely unnoticed in a live environment.

Conclusions

Really solid pedal, and I really like what I can do with it and in general it's a pleasure to use. It’s just a shame that it’s so fiddly to switch between settings rather than just turn them off. Would definitely recommend it if you’re not doing anything overly complicated, but if you are or you’re significantly richer than I- The TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 is glorious and literally all you could possibly want from a vocal pedal. But the VE-20 is good at what it does, and a sound investment.

-E

Here’s 5 either cheap or everyday things that’ll improve your life as a vocalist no end…

Because Top 5's are fun, and you may not have thought of everything on the list.

Foam Ear Plugs (make sure they have an SNR 30+ dB rating, or they’ll be fairly useless for this purpose)

Why? Tinnitus is awful, and lasting if you abuse your ears enough. Which is very easy to do… and the solution is just as easy, and far preferable in the long term!

How much? You can get packs as cheap as 40 for under £3 on ebay, it really is just a question of shopping around, and even if you do pay a little bit more, the difference is negligible compared with buying 6 ear plugs from a chemist for approximately £3 that won’t work as they weren’t designed to attenuate that much noise, whereas these ones are usually designed for people on building sites, and are amazingly good at blocking out noise.

Recommendations? I use EAR FX, because they’re huge and I have fairly big ears.

Your own microphone

Why? 

Getting your own dynamic microphone (or  a condenser will allow you to record your own demos to a better standard if you’re not looking at gigging all that much) means that you’ll always have a microphone available for a show, which sounds silly given that most venues have microphones, but not all do. And some of the ones that do have them, have awful ones. So, you really can’t go wrong carrying around a small dynamic to every gig. I really regret it when I end up in having to use a crap or not intended for vocals microphone nowadays, and you probably will eventually too!

How much? 

For a passable or second hand dynamic anywhere of £50 upwards, for condensers you can usually find a low end one in your local Pawn Shop/Cash Converters for £30 to £50.

Recommendations? 

I’d recommend buying a cheap condenser off Amazon or second hand as cheap as possible, as you really can’t go wrong having one around- my Red5 audio RV6 never let me down and was very good for its price before I managed to destroy it through clumsiness.

For dynamics the obvious answer is the SM58 from Shure, it’s indestructible and tried and tested. Mine is still going after 4 years of abuse. Alternatively, any of the big name ( e.g. Sennheiser, AKG, Audio Tecknicha) ones are reliable enough that buying second hand is a realistic option and you’ll still get a long life out of them.

Notebook

Why? 

Ideas can’t be planned, and keeping track of them is hard. Having a notebook on you all the time is a great idea as it means you can just jot down ideas for lyrics, song structures or general thoughts for later use. Self-expression is after all a many faceted beast.

How much? 

Under a £5

Recommendations? 

Go to your nearest corner shop, and look near the Cards section or WHSmiths if you’re feeling rich or in need of quality.

Smart phone or iPod

Why? 

In this day and age, you probably already have one and if you don’t you will soon. What’s so useful about them you ask? The fact they have the capacity to store both lyrics and music on the same device, and on a fair amount of them access both simultaneously. This has obvious implications in terms of learning songs and using that wasted time on the bus/train/sitting around when you’re bored.

How much? 

Upwards of £40

Recommendations?

 A second hand 8gb ipod nano of whichever generation is between £40 and £55 depending on which shop you look in or site you use, but it’s a sound investment as once you get into the habit of using your spare time it’s very hard to go back to wasting it! Never mind all the other fun features you get on modern devices.

A textbook on home recording

Why? 

Using a phone or awful direct to USB microphone to record your demos is a thing that most people do when they’re starting out. I should know, and believe me: the only way from there is up. A whole world of improvement can be made to your home recordings with very little effort and a small amount of reading.

How much? Anywhere from £1 to £30.

Recommendations? Mixing Audio- Roey Izhaki for those with money, and the Basics Series by Paul White for those who don’t.

-E