With the ability to run on four AA batteries and if required, still supply your mic with phantom power, the VE-20 is an excellent choice for buskers. It’s powerful, rugged, reasonably priced, and comes with a shallow learning curve that makes it accessible to just about anyone with a voice. Perhaps most importantly, it enhances the pleasure of singing, which at the end of the day is what it’s all about. Like other vocal effects processors, the VE-20 offers several versatile voice-manipulation tools, including layered vocals and far-out special effects. Unlike many processors, however, it also affords users an enjoyably intuitive plug-and-play experience and a level of ruggedness and adaptability that promises to make it an asset to even the most demanding audiophiles.

Let’s be clear—Boss’s VE-20 Vocal Performer is not a toy. It’s a sophisticated piece of technology intended to expand solo vocalists’ sonic repertoire in a performance setting. If you’re just looking for a way to add fun effects to pre-recorded audio at home, there are all sorts of free programs and plugins that you can play with on the internet. TC Helicon’s Play is a handy vocal effects processor that provides a slew of pro-grade effects, chief among them being the natural-sounding harmonies, which some users consider superior to those generated by the VE-20. It is also compatible with guitars, undoubtedly an attractive extra for instrumentalist singer-songwriters. The VE-20 is a lot of fun, sounds pretty good and will be easy to use onstage once you've set up all your patches, if you don't mind bending down and selecting them between songs.

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The VE-20 also includes a pair of novelty pitch correction effects, “Electric” and “Robot,” which let users transform themselves into overproduced pop idols or droning automatons with the touch of a button. Special Effects

Sing, record, loop, and overdub with the onboard Phrase Looper, inherited from BOSS’s popular RE-20XL Loop Station. You get 38 seconds of mono record time to loop and layer phrases, and you can do it all in real time onstage. From doo-wop to human-beatbox, this tool will wow audiences! Special FX Of course, another vocal harmonizer might be a better fit, and fortunately, there are plenty of options. Conclusion I conducted a thorough review of user testimonials to get a sense of what people do and don’t like about the Boss VE-20. What I found was overwhelmingly positive: Alternatives Who says stompboxes are just for guitarists? The new, easy-to-use VE-20 has been designed from the ground up for singers, featuring some of the finest vocal-effects technology on the market. Here are a few of the best vocal processor options that are worth a look if we haven’t yet sold you on the VE-20: TC Helicon Play Acoustic Vocal Effects Processor

To this end, editing is dead easy, with perhaps the two most crucial parameters instantly available - one being the previously mentioned reverb level and the other being the key for the harmonies, which is accessed by a single press of the right cursor - the rotary knob choosing a key other than the default C major setting.