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  #1  
Old 09-14-2016, 10:39 AM
Carbonius Carbonius is offline
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Default Boss VE-8

Anyone try this one out? I searched but came up with nothing here on the forum.



I'd like to know, are the foot switches are quiet?

I have been using a POD HD500 for looping but the switches are so LOUD when you press them. In a quieter atmosphere, it's just nasty!

Yes, I know that there are many looper pedals. Probably the Boomerang is very quiet, but also very expensive. I REALLY like that this Boss pedal has some effects + notch filter AND all the vocal features in one fairly small pedal (all being considered). If this is as good as it seems, it's all I would need.

https://www.boss.info/global/products/ve-8/
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Old 09-15-2016, 11:30 AM
Carbonius Carbonius is offline
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Nothing yet, well it is fairly new gear.

I have been checking out some videos and this unit is pretty cool for it's designed purpose. You can set it so that the vocal harmonizer listens to your chord arrangement and adjusts the vocal harmony accordingly. The key can also be set (to eliminate possible confusion I would assume when one is doing non-traditional playing). You can also loop guitar, voice or both (need external pedal or you bend over a lot).

Here's 2 video's. The first one gives an overview with a short demo



In this second video, the guitar doesn't sound near as good. Based on the 1st video it has more to do with her guitar than the pedal. However the vocals sound very good. Especially when the intelligent harmony tracks her chord changes in the 2nd song. I notice that I can't hear ANY "clicking" form the pedals pressing in this live video, but I would still like to know for sure.

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Old 02-23-2017, 09:55 PM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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I just got one last week. I really like it. I also had a TC Helicon Voicelive 3 which I gave to my son. It was too complicated, large, had features I don't use, and didn't run on batteries. The single button loop pedal is tricky. I got one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Saturnworks-.../182456700122?

1) No undo on loop record.
2) Just one loop.
3) Guitar and vocal are separate channels though so you can run your vocal (with loop) through a PA and your guitar (with loop) through an acoustic amp. 4) Flexible routing through four outputs (two 1/4 inch, two XLR).
5) Powers up and down silently with no pops.
6) Great sounding body rez feature.
7) Notch filter and phase switch.
8) Useful hidden features like three band EQ (with high pass filter and Q and center frequency adjustment).

Much of the stuff I want to adjust once and leave is in the hidden menus, and the stuff I want to adjust on a gig is done with dedicated knobs and buttons. When you get to the EQ page, the controls become hardware EQ controls and it is easier to feel out the sound that you are looking for than it would be going through menue options.

The VE-8 is nowhere near as flexible as the Voicelive 3, but in my case it is all I need.


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Old 02-24-2017, 09:13 AM
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See ---- http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=425444
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Old 02-24-2017, 10:45 AM
brokenpretzel brokenpretzel is offline
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Ikingston
wondering what that switch you got does?
does it somehow make it a two button looper?
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Old 03-13-2017, 10:07 AM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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The two button switch works great. You can choose the function for both switches. I am using one for stop/erase on the looper (two button) and the other to choose the looper source guitar, mic or both).


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Old 03-13-2017, 12:24 PM
pjbelsch pjbelsch is offline
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I have one and it works great. its fun to play around with the harmonies and the foot switches are so quiet you cant hear them if you try. everything is kind of right there for you to see. the only thing that was a little complicated was the initial set up and figuring how to output correctly on the unit but that took 5 minutes top. otherwise the effects on the guitar sound great as well. i want to use more enhancement on my voice tonight when i play just to hear how it sounds maybe ill be on of them fancy rock stars after i do that =]
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Old 03-13-2017, 01:39 PM
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I tried out on solo work. and it's great unit.. but voice part is not that good as I thought so I returned it and bought TC helicon Play acoustic.

It's far better unit~
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Old 03-13-2017, 08:24 PM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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I would expect that my Voicelive 3 is a better unit than the Play Acoustic, and yet I find the VE-8 preferable in several ways to the Voicelive 3. Here are a couple: I like the batteries. I like that when my guitar is feeding back, I can reach right down and grab the notch filter instead of going through a menu while my guitar is feeding back. When I go into EQ mode on the VE-8, all the knobs become dedicated guitar and vocal EQ controls. It makes dialing in a decent sound really fast. The VE-8 doesn't pop when you turn it on. The Voicelive 3 makes a horrendous noise when it powers up. I really like the standard 9v power supply. I use a 1 Spot with a 10 foot cable. With the Voicelive 3 I have to use the TC power supply plus an extension cord.

As far as the sound quality goes, I am happy either way. The Voicelive 3 has far more control, but the VE-8 has three band EQ with a sweepable and Q adjustable mid, and several high pass settings. That is really all I need.

I play around with the harmonizer and looper, but I'm mainly interested in getting a good vocal and guitar sound. Every time I try to use either harmonizer, it sounds really cool, but not as good as just a straight vocal. I want to do at least one looper sound, but I do mostly jazzy versions of songs with lots of chord changes and variations. Loopers seem best for simple vamp type stuff and that really isn't me. I'm going to make myself do at least one or two songs before I pass judgment though.


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Old 03-13-2017, 08:29 PM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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A couple more. I like the body resonance modeling of the VE8 more than what I get in the Voicelive 3. It's a personal preference and my particular guitar thing I know, but I prefer the Boss models. I like the LED color coding for reverb types and resonance models. My eyes aren't great and while I can see the Voicelive 3 display well at home, I have trouble reading it under stage lights. With the VE8, I know what color model I want to see and where the line on the knob should be. With the Voicelive 3, all I can really make out is the preset number.

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Old 03-14-2017, 10:46 AM
brokenpretzel brokenpretzel is offline
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to be clear does the switch allow you to have the function of a regular two button looper?
so does one button allow you to start the looping process and then pushing it again chooses the endpoint but keeps the loop playing and then the second button stops the loop (and perhaps erases it if you hold it down)
also do i undertand that you have to use a button to choose to record mic or guitar? rather than on my digitech stereo it recordes either or both at the same time?
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Old 03-14-2017, 01:14 PM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brokenpretzel View Post
to be clear does the switch allow you to have the function of a regular two button looper?
so does one button allow you to start the looping process and then pushing it again chooses the endpoint but keeps the loop playing and then the second button stops the loop (and perhaps erases it if you hold it down)
also do i undertand that you have to use a button to choose to record mic or guitar? rather than on my digitech stereo it recordes either or both at the same time?
I believe so. The original looper button (third one all the way to the right) functions as it did. I set the first assignable pedal on the external button unit as a second looper pedal. It stops the loop with a single press, and if you hold it down it erases the loop.

I have the second button on the external button unit set as a source select for the looper. It alternates between guitar, vocal and guitar and vocal together. Most of the time keeping this input to record both guitar and vocal is probably the best solution, but there are times when you might want to record a guitar verse while you are singing and then play back the loop of just the guitar while you solo.

One thing to note is that the guitar and vocals are recorded separately even though they are controlled together. Thus if you have your vocal running through a PA and your guitar running through an acoustic amp, the vocal part of the loop will play back through the PA and the guitar will play back through your amp.

There is just one loop and no undo function.

There is a parametric mid frequency on both the guitar and mic channels as well as high pass filters preset to Off/60/160 Hz. I use the mid frequency on the guitar to lower the resonance around 200 Hz. That way I only have to use the notch filter if I'm pressing the volume.

There are four outputs, two quarter inch high impedence TS and two XLR. These are quite versatile and you can set the quarter inch outputs and the XLR outputs separately. You can do things like run a stereo mix with reverb to a stereo guitar amp and feed a PA system separate guitar and vocals without reverb through the two XLR outputs for instance.

I'm using it mostly as a guitar / vocal processor and have only a passing interest in the looper and harmonizer functions, though I must admit that they are fun to play with.

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Old 08-01-2017, 04:26 PM
Nama Ensou Nama Ensou is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moga View Post
I tried out on solo work. and it's great unit.. but voice part is not that good as I thought so I returned it and bought TC helicon Play acoustic.
I have no interest in having synthetic harmonies, but did want to use the doubling feature, which unfortunately sounds nothing like doubling done in a studio. After using it a couple times I gave up and have been just using the guitar processing and reverb on the vocals.

Tried the looper a few times this last week, but without a second button for stop, it was pretty awkward.
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Old 08-01-2017, 09:13 PM
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Chriscom Chriscom is offline
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I haven't performed live with this but I've played with it a lot at home, mainly with guitar chorus and the vocal harmonizer. I like the chorus a lot--it's much better than what's built into my Bugera A60, a unit that I like overall.

Sometimes I sound great with the harmonizer, other times not so much. I don't have anything to compare it to, but part of it depends on how well and accurate you're singing--if I'm even slightly off key, it sounds terrible, which unfortunately makes sense. I also think less is more--you can adjust how "forward" the harmony is, and I think a light touch sounds better, usually.

If you go to the link on the VE-8 from last year, on the first page someone links to a demo of its capabilities NOT by Boss, and it sounds tons better.

My own results with the doubler are not so good.

The Acoustic Resonance feature makes my Martin GPRS1 sound better--this is an excellent guitar with the dreaded Fishman Sonitone pickup. Definitely improves the amplified sound.
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Old 08-02-2017, 02:09 PM
JakeStone JakeStone is offline
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I've been using the VE-8 for a couple weeks.

It is really working great... I especially love the guitar features. I use the Acoustic Resonance (sparingly) .. Little goes a long way. Also I love the Chorus and Tremolo ... Reverb is very usable (again a little goes a long way).

But the settings on vocal / harmony need some extra work to be sound proper. I needed to delve into the user manual to find some hidden features.

Maybe this will help others..
Must check the following to get it to work better.

Harmony AC (Accurate)
1) LONG Press the Auto Button
2) Use the Arrow up and down to adjust

From the manual:
Raising the value increases the accuracy with which the pitch of the harmony matches the original pitch of the vocal. With the Default 10 .. The Harmony will sound at an accurate pitch.. So if the pitch of the original vocal is NOT correct, the Harmony will not sound right. In this case Lower the value.

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