New Harmonizer: Boss VE-22

[Chriscom]

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...d-looper-pedal

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k9_OX3sAw8&t=1s

Quickstart Guide: https://static.roland.com/assets/med...up_eng01_W.pdf

Full Manual: https://static.roland.com/assets/med...22_eng01_W.pdf

Does a zillion things, but also claims This compact stompbox offers the company’s best vocal effects yet --haven't had time yet to see if the quality is less robotic. Random features pulled out of the Sweetwater page:

• It comes equipped with 50 factory presets to give you a broad range of sounds for experimentation. The factory sounds range from subtle sweetening to all-out computerized vocals straight out of the early 2000s....The VE-22 allows you to create and store your own presets. Once you craft the perfect vocal patch, you can save it into one of the 99 user preset slots (plus the factory presets)
  
• Has a switchable harmony generator you can use to layer vocals and crate lush chords that follow your singing. There’s also pitch correction to lend a more professional sheen to the signal. From there, you can add reverb and delay to taste
  
• Can record your voice
  
• Has a looper
  
• Edit:Hotroad noticed it doesn't have a guitar input to automatically adjust harmony to key. Far as I can tell, you have to set that manually. Bye!

[hotroad]

Does this pedal require a guitar input for the harmonizer to work? Most harmonizers do. I don't see any instrument input on the pedal. Makes me wonder how accurate the harmonies can be without that.

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by hotroad

Does this pedal require a guitar input for the harmonizer to work? Most harmonizers do. I don't see any instrument input on the pedal. Makes me wonder how accurate the harmonies can be without that.

Good eye--it doesn't seem so. Apparently, and I would love to be wrong, you have to select the key you're playing in. That's an option on the old VE-8, but not mandatory.

I'll add these links to my first post, but first is the downloadable quick start guide--which doesn't mention key at all, far as I can tell--and second one is the fuller manual, which references a menus selection: HARMONY Selects the type and key of the harmony

So in short forget it, lol I'm not doing that live.

https://static.roland.com/assets/med...up_eng01_W.pdf

https://static.roland.com/assets/med...22_eng01_W.pdf

[Robin, Wales]

Blimey! That seems complex to use......

Luckily, when I want harmonies on songs I just call on a device known as a "mark 1 friend". You can't buy the unit but you can rent one for a couple of beers (or perhaps a bottle of wine). I've got local access to around 20 or so different patches from bass harmony up to alto - and you can stack them. The patches are very intuitive - they know when to come in (no buttons to press) and they will stay on pitch even if you drift or hit a bad chord on your guitar.

[hotroad]

So no guitar input makes this unit not usable in a live situation. Huge mistake in my opinion. Or I could play every song in my set in the same key!!

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by hotroad

So no guitar input makes this unit not usable in a live situation. Huge mistake in my opinion. Or I could play every song in my set in the same key!!

I think that you can pre-set patches (a quick look at the manual suggest this). So as long as you can remember which patch is for which song you'd be fine!!!

[JackB1]

Weird demo video from Boss! Not the best singing and weird sounds that I would never consider using. But the biggest negative is NO GUITAR INPUT!
Can't fathom why they would do this?

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

Luckily, when I want harmonies on songs I just call on a device known as a "mark 1 friend"....

This is a thread about a new harmonizer for those who would like to discuss that topic.

Originally Posted by hotroad

So no guitar input makes this unit not usable in a live situation. Huge mistake in my opinion. Or I could play every song in my set in the same key!!

Agreed. Weird miss.

Based strictly on a quick listen, which may not be fair, it doesn't sound as if they've improved the harmonizing voice's natural sound. The "company's best vocal effects yet" appears to refer mainly to lots of different sound effects, distortion and so on, which are certainly useful for certain styles. All the stored patches and everything can certainly be useful too. But I think those of us hoping for a more natural-sounding output are still waiting.

The "weird sounds" Jack references are... weird, but there are a number of songs out there that start with an odd effect and then bloom into full EQ and I can see myself doing that. The Way by Fastball is one of those where the first verse is very constricted EQ, think no bass and weak mids, and then a full modern sound starts on the second verse. There's a "radio" effect on my VE-8, think AM radio, where that was fun when I was using it.

[MarkF_48]

While it doesn't have a guitar input for harmonies, I was thinking the AUX input might be able to have the harmonies track with its input, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I have a couple TC Helicon effects boxes and a Digitech VocalistLive that can use the AUX in for harmony tracking and I've used the AUX in occasionally to send a guitar or keyboard signal into.

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by MarkF_48

While it doesn't have a guitar input for harmonies, I was thinking the AUX input might be able to have the harmonies track with its input, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I have a couple TC Helicon effects boxes and a Digitech VocalistLive that can use the AUX in for harmony tracking and I've used the AUX in occasionally to send a guitar or keyboard signal into.

I eyeballed that too but didn't have time to check the reference manual until now but yeah, doesn't sound like it:

AUX IN jack - When you connect an audio player or other device that uses a stereo mini plug to this jack, the sound from that device is mixed and sent to the OUTPUT connectors and the PHONES/LINE OUT jack. This lets you practice singing along with backing tracks.

There were a couple comments other than mine in the promo video's comment section about this missing functionality, I'm going to see if there's any more. The use case for this seems bizarrely limited. Then again these guys presumably don't build things without a clear idea about who's going to buy them, so...

Edit: Apparently Boss came out, at least two or three years ago, with the VE-20 which is broadly similar, per this comment over there:

I think everything they showcased was literally everything the VE 20 already did and sounded like. Just looks like they made it "prettier" i hear zero difference. I hoped they would acknowledge the live show feedback situations and how you have to fine tune it to every single song in every single venue, that literally no one has time for.

I think the -22 is more capable, e.g. I gather you can cycle through presets via its foot pedal unlike the -20, but the lack of guitar input seems dead clear unfortunately. A number of the -20 Amazon reviews complain about that too.