Boss unveils the VE-500 Vocal Performer
If you’re a singing guitarist, you’ll want this on your pedalboard.
As a singing guitarist, it’s often easy to overlook vocals when you’re focusing on tone. Boss’ new VE-500 Vocal Performer, however, gives you the option of dialing in vocal effects from the comfort of your own pedalboard.
The VE-500 can perform a bunch of functions, including automatic pitch correction, EQ, and of course, effects that are specifically designed for the human voice. It also tracks your guitar signal for harmonizer and vocoder functions, has looping capability, and is optimized for the stage.
One of the stompbox’s highlights is its multi-part vocal harmonizer. It automatically tracks the chords you play to produce smooth two- or three-part harmonies in real time. The engine has various harmony modes, and can be driven by either guitar or MIDI.
Another interesting feature is its vocoder, based on Boss’ VO-1 Vocoder, that transforms your guitar tone into ‘robot voices.’ This includes talk box sounds—without the need for a mouth tube. Richie Sambora fans, take note.
It wouldn’t be a Boss device without effects, and the company has thrown in dozens of them. Vocal compressors, de-essers, chorus, flanger, reverb, ring modulation, distortion… they’re all in the VE-500, and you can use up to nine simultaneously. Add automatic pitch correction—either to clean up your vocals or produce Auto-Tuned warbles—and you’re left with a box that doubles-up as a bandmate and studio engineer.
The pedal is optimized for live performance, too. Its large display and programmable footswitches notwithstanding, there are 99 slots for storing presets for instant recall while you’re on stage. There are also three knobs that can be assigned to various parameters for on-the-fly tweaking.
Check out the brand’s demo here:
Lists for $499. More information at boss.info.