If you’re a solo performer who needs to control vocal harmonies and effects on stage, could this little box be all you need?
When you’re a solo artist performing live, you already have multiple things to worry about if you’re to keep the momentum of your performance going and the audience engaged, especially if you’re singing and playing an instrument too. So it’s always handy to have something that you can just stomp on for accessing and controlling your vocal effects. I always found Boss’s VE‑20 pedal great for this but in this updated version, the VE‑22, you get added functionality and a nice big (320 x 240mm) LCD screen to make your life even easier — even with my ever‑increasing shortsightedness, I could see the selected patch easily, and the colour‑coding helps even more in a dark environment!
Orientation & Control
The VE‑22 is sturdily built and logically presented, with three button‑style footswitches taking the place of the two larger rectangular pedals of its predecessor. On the top panel, as well as the screen and footswitches, you’ll find a volume knob, and three press‑turn encoders for accessing various functions and setting up your effects.
On the back, there’s a USB‑C socket for recording, as well as a quarter‑inch jack input for adding a footswitch (the Roland FS‑6 and FS‑7, for example, but with a splitter cable you could use two single footswitches such as the FS‑5U), or an expression pedal. TRS mini‑jack sockets provide a stereo aux input and a line/headphones output. Two XLR outputs can be configured to deliver a stereo or dual‑mono signal, or one wet and one dry mono out, and there’s an XLR input for the mic. This mic input has a phantom power option, as well as a small knob for adjusting the input sensitivity.
Though designed primarily with performance use in mind, the VE‑22 doubles up as a USB audio interface.
The VE‑22 is supplied with four AA batteries, so it’s possible to get up and running right away, but when phantom power is enabled the current draw increases from 180 to 260 mA. If you’re gigging regularly, then, you’ll almost certainly want the external power supply and probably also the CB‑VE22 carry bag, both of which are optional extras (though some retailers do seem to offer the VE‑22 and a suitable PSU as a package). The bag is fairly rigid, with a large outer pocket, and offers space for a mic, cable, PSU and other accessories.
This pedal really is intuitive, and you can get up and running with the 50 factory presets quickly. The Menu button obviously takes you into a menu area, and when you’re there the Harmony, Effect and Echo knobs become controllers for whatever parameter you’ve selected using the Memory knob. You can press these knobs once to switch them on/off, which is great because these are easier to use than the main switches during setup, while a double‑press gives you quick access to the corresponding menu page. You can write to one of the 99 available user patches by pressing the Exit and Menu buttons together.
Although the VE‑22 is designed primarily as a performance unit, the availability of phantom power and USB‑C audio interfacing means it could also work well for anyone wanting to use the unit for recording. The A‑D conversion is 24‑bit/48kHz, using Boss’ now‑familiar Adaptive Focus method to maximise the signal‑to‑noise ratio, and the D‑A converters are 32‑bit, with 32‑bit floating‑point processing being used inside.
Processing & Effects
The incoming mic signal can be cleaned up a little using the low‑cut filter, which can be turned on/off; there’s no information given on its frequency or slope but it works well in cutting out rumble, and there’s a separate EQ that I found really useful in eliminating the boominess that I was hearing from a headset mic. You can also select Low, Mid or High parameters, to adjust the frequencies at which harmony and pitch‑correction effects are added, and this can be handy for preventing unwanted artefacts or feedback. A dynamics section provides access to simple but effective compression and de‑essing.
When it comes to the effects, there are three banks to play with and you can use them in any combination, including using all three banks at once. The first caters for the harmonies, while the second is for general effects, including delay, chorus, flanger, phaser, vibrato and distortion. The third focuses on delays and reverbs, with four main reverb types, a delay and then four additional options with the reverb and delay combined. You also have access to some combination effects, plus a few more esoteric options including ring modulation, a slicer, and both radio and lo‑fi effects if you like to get a little more creative, and you can edit these to make them as subtle or intense as you like. The effects are of the quality we’ve come to expect from Boss, which is to say generally pretty decent, and you have a reasonable amount of control over them too, being able to edit such parameters as level, low cut, high cut, rate and depth.
In the Harmonies bank you’ll find a few different intervals to choose from, and doubling and tripling the vocal really can add some great punch to a solo singer’s performance. The harmonies themselves, though, I sometimes found a little trickier to work with. For example, while you can select the key in which you sing, there’s no guitar input or MIDI control to change the chords, so you’re stuck with those fixed intervals and if your track modulates then you’ll need to get a little creative. There are two ways to get around this: you can bypass the harmonies in certain sections of a track; or you can set up patches for different song sections, stomping up and down between them as required. The change between patches is pretty much instant, which makes the latter approach possible, but you do have to be careful about cutting off the tail end of your delay and reverb‑based effects. For me, the best auto‑harmony results came from dropping the harmony volume levels and panning them slightly left and right, to get them to sit behind the main vocal — this tended to sound more natural than placing the harmonies up front and centre.
Of course, Auto‑Tune‑style pitch correction is a popular real‑time process for gigs too, whether you’re going for smooth and natural‑sounding correction or extreme T‑Pain effects, so it’s good that you not only have access to such a facility here, but that you’re given a useful degree of control. This effect is found in the central bank, and it was something I felt was a particularly useful feature when mixing in the harmonies — it can really tighten up the sound.
Looping demonstrates just how clean and quiet the inputs are: I got up to eight individual parts going using the overdub feature without any noticeable degradation of the signal.
Looping & Other Features
While the VE‑22 isn’t a dedicated looper pedal, there is a simple‑to‑use looping facility, and it’s a nice bonus: you can either build up a track with overdubs, or simply use it for some fun little interludes during a performance. The learning curve isn’t daunting even if you’re not used to looping, it’s a lot of fun to play with, and it demonstrates just how clean and quiet the inputs are: I got up to eight individual parts going using the overdub feature without any noticeable degradation of the signal. The recorded phrase can’t be saved internally and will be wiped once you leave that mode, although you can record the output to another device using the USB connection.
Another nifty feature is the ability to sync effects to a tempo (in bpm) and, importantly, you can tap that tempo in if you assign this feature to a pedal or button. That’s ideal if your performance is totally live, as you can keep these things in sync even if the tempo changes.
Finally, the ability to process not just mic signals but also line‑level sources is also a handy feature, not least when it comes to getting your patches set up. Feed your backing tracks in and put your headphones on, and you can fine‑tune with ease — without wearing out your voice — before heading to the rehearsal room.
Verdict
It seems to me that the VE‑22 has been designed primarily for vocalists who need an easy‑to‑use and lightweight effects unit for either solo or band gigs, but Boss have also paid attention to the needs of creatives who might be looking to incorporate unique effects into their performances. Of course, Boss have a range of devices based on similar technology, and singing musicians may well prefer the VE‑500 model. While that device does lack the appealing screen of the VE‑22, it includes some more advanced features, such as the sort of instrument control of your harmonies that I discussed above.
Boss aren’t without competition in this area, from the likes of TC‑Helicon’s VoiceLive range and Zoom’s V‑6. But overall, this is an impressive package for the price. It’s easy to use, it boasts a fantastic amount of functionality, and it delivers some high‑quality effects — and the external pedal support, looper and USB interfacing are pleasant bonus features. Well worth checking out.
Summary
The VE‑22 packs a great collection of effects in a compact pedal, and lets you quickly craft your patches, take elements in and out, and switch between patches during a performance. A very appealing tool for vocalists.
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