Another interesting oddity is Boss’s new effects pedal for live vocal performance, the VE-20. It has a range of effects which vary from useful and clever to superfluous and gimmicky to downright annoying. The best effect is the harmonizer; by entering in the key of the song, the VE-20 can augment your vocals with two or three part harmonies of impressive quality. Additionally, if you find the default settings unsatisfactory, you can set your own harmony intervals. If that sounds like a bit of cheat, the phrase loop allows you to record up to 38 seconds of singing, which you can then loop and provide your own harmonies to. The VE-20 also has the ability to provide real time pitch correction if you need it. The reverb is nice enough, if a smidge tinny on the upper registers. Now to the superfluous. Let me put it this way: how many of your songs require a strobe effect on the vocals to work? (Incidentally, if the answer is ‘several,’ I don’t think I want to go see your band.) The ‘distortion’ and ‘radio’ effects (exactly what they sound like) are subtler and therefore have wider application, but are still unlikely to become staples of one’s live show. Finally, there is ‘electric’, a truly bizarre and relentlessly undulating faux auto-tune effect which doesn’t even succeed in achieving its completely unwelcome aim. At $299, the VE-20 is certainly not overpriced, but produce a cheaper version shorn of all the nonsense and my recommendation would become entirely unreserved.
CHARLIE LEWIS
