Boss VE-500 Vocal Performer Effects Pedal Reviews

Used this type of gear better, then moved away from it….however I jumped back in with the Roland, and I'm glad I did. So many choices and ways to use it…and simple, way simple to use. Look at the manual or a quick video, but that's it. Great for solos but with a full band it's a game changer. Buy it, you won't regret

This is an amazing piece of equipment Im still unlocking its potential using it every weekend out and Im amazed at its capabilities My voice sounds incredible with just little enhancements here and there my voice is fuller and fills the room I havent tried the harmonies yet just a little reverb and the doubler I would highly recommend this piece of gear to any vocalist that is performing at any venue !!!!!!!

Imagine my surprise to begin rehearsal for the weekend shows and my Boss VE-500 screen has white out...tried power supply, hard reset (after using the VE editor to backup setting) and still no response with the screen. The VE editor has no perimeter for screen adjustment. Now that being said I needed another VE quickly....enter the Sweetwater sales staff. I explained my situation and they quickly decide to overnite a new one!!!

I have been purchasing from this group for 25 years and.....this is how good business is done. Thanks!!!

Now Let's get this straight right off. This is for vocals only and not guitar. Your guitar signal goes through this unit to trigger the harmonies but it goes through to the amplifier unchanged from when it went in. What I like about this vocal processor is it sounds professional and you can tweak to your personal desires. But what I realy like about this unit is I can send my electric guitar signal through it without this unit effecting the guitar sound. I like to play Country and Ballads with my Les Paul Standard guitar through my Fender Deluxe 65 Reverb reissue amplifier. So I found that if you add what effects pedals for your guitar, you have to run them it through your guitar pedals first before you run it through the VE-500. So your VE-500 is the last pedal before going into your electric amplifier. This way my guitar is unaffected at all by the vocal processor but the guitar signal trigger's my harmonies perfectly. Even when I tune all the strings down 1/2 note/step the VE-500 still will Harmonize. I did try to put the VE-500 before my other guitar pedals and the amp would not play. I had to put the VE-500 the last of the chain of pedals before it goes into the guitar amp and it worked like magic.

There are so many possibilities, this thing is awesome! Needed a wide variety of vocal effects, and this really delivers! Already taking my recordings to the next level and beyond.....

The VE-500 is the real deal! I worked with the TC Helicon Voice Tone H1 and Boss VE-2. Both had some very good harmony functions, and VE-2 added some rudimentary effects. But I decided to look for a next-level unit. I looked at demo videos for several others before settling on the VE-500. It definitely delivers! A plethora of effects, including the usual suspects but even an easy-to-use talk box (unlike my old Heil unit), plus three available harmonies as opposed to the usual two, all very customizable without too much trouble. I've just had it a month, and my mind continues to race with the new sonic possibilities. Also, I didn't find editing and creating custom settings particularly difficult, contrary to what some others have said (intending no disrespect). The owner's manual was way too short on that topic. So I just watched a few YouTube demo videos, and though they could have been much more helpful, it was enough to point me in the right direction. Thank you Boss, and thank you Sweetwater for a very quick delivery!

It does it all, although I would recommend downloading and printing the manual. The presets are great, and midi was plug and play. No regrets after a year.

You will never need anything else , I have a mic , guitar ( acoustic and Electric ) a Yamaha Workstation , I play harmonics through it its best when plugged in to a computer monitor. The Pictures. shows just som of the effects

Great product! Does what I was looking for quite well.
Harmonies come across without sounding unnatural.
Good volume balance. Does not sound fabricated.
Highly recommend!

Purchased this from SW as the companion to my Boss RC 500 looper. Personally I have no need or use for pitch correct function and I may only use the harmony feature for a song or two. The best use for me is dialing in a great vocal mix which this unit does effortlessly. The enhance, compression, de-essing features are amazing. Couple that with a fantastic eq section and outstanding effects and this unit is a winner for any vocalist.

I noticed one important point -- the most important I was looking for was professional sound quality. This delivers on the professional sound quality.

With the pitch correction and effects it's helping with 'so-so' voices in recording. Solid unit and well built. (I haven't been able to put it through 'all the paces' but enough to use it.) Got the computer Editor Boss VE-500 to work.

My only dissapointment is my own fault -- I thought it had EQ and as far as I know it doesn't. I didn't research that enough.

This pedal has literally every effect a vocalist needs in a live or audio situation. There’s so much under the hood, that the learning curve is a little steep. Stick with it, though, and you’ll be vastly rewarded.
The only theee small beefs I have with this unit are (a) there’s no power switch, (b) there’s no headphone jack, and (c) the manual does not do nearly enough to describe some of the functionality.
On the plus side, the vocoder is *stunning*. Harmonies are generally very accurate and not overwhelming. Auto-tune and pitch correction are highly customizable. There are tons of effects, including some very creative ones like a slicer and freeze. All the effects can be stacked, so you don’t need to sacrifice an effects slot to get a particular sound. The front panel isn’t highly intuitive, but the computer app more than makes up for this.
I highly recommend this pedal, though it isn’t for the beginning vocalist.

Starting a new acoustic project that requires me to sing, which I am mid at best. Played around with it for about 2 hours as soon it showed up and was surprised at how much better I sounded. I may actually be able to pull it off, and this for sure boosted my confidence. My rep Todd was spot on and helped sort through all the options, and glad I went with his suggestion.

As my title suggests I'm a vocalist with a rock cover band and because of that I've worked through several vocal processors. I like being in charge of my own effects and customizing for the song to make it sound authentic. I have the Boss VE-2, TC Helicon Harmony-G XT, and the TC Mic Mechanic2 that I paired with the G-XT so that I could have a tap tempo delay option for songs like In The Air Tonight and Purple Rain. My lead guitarist bought the VE-500 and I borrowed it to play with it and immediately ordered one. The ability to dial in very specific quality effects, delay (when needed), and the overall quality of the sound it sends to FOH is top notch. For instance for In The Air Tonight I found that using a T-Wah, Reverb, and Delay gave me the Phil Collins sound then in the build up added a talk box effect to the harmony pedal. Really makes the vocals stand out on that song...till the killer drums come in 2/3 of the way through :-).I had problems with the G-XT clipping and creating artifacts in the signal so I had to be very careful on the input knob. My main issue on the VE-500 is I've hit the FX2+Harmony button a few times when I was trying to hit the Harmony only which then goes into bypass mode. I know it needs an easy to get to bypass option but seems my big foot hits those buttons more than I would like. Overall if you want a very flexible vocal processor that allows you to dial in vocals and has a friendly computer app that honestly needs a little work but is very nice just the same then this is the pedal for you. Don't waste your time or money like I did buying cheaper options that will leave you disappointed.

After researching various vocal processors I chose the VE-500. I was interested in having pitch correction and most vocal processors have a scale/key pitch correction that will reference an instrument signal input when using it as a harmonizer. What distinguished the VE-500 from others is that you can still get a scale/key pitch correction when not using a harmonizer function. Other vocal processors were limited to just chromatic pitch correction in a solo mode meaning that correction was to the closest note instead of correction to a legitimate note in the scale. BTW the vocoder setting works really well. The VE-500 gives you plenty of control over parameters. I suggest using the VE-500 editor app to make changes via the USB port. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 star rating is because the chassis construction is on the light side. I wish it was a solid box so that it wouldn't move away while stepping on the foot switches.

I've been having a lot of fun with this. It's extremely powerful with loads of different effects and I feel like I'm just scratching the surface. I got this for a few acoustic gigs I have coming up. I wanted a little reverb and compression to add to an otherwise dry vocal signal. The vocoder feature is by far the most fun to play with. There is a YouTube video about the specific effects that helped me get up to speed with it and learn to use the editor on the computer. Check that out if you're on the fence about it (search Boss ve 500 FX demo).

The Good:
Powerful, lots of stack-able effects, Harmony works well for simple songs, Stereo out.

The Bad:
Price, the UI is complex on the unit (creating patches on your PC solves this), Can be a little overwhelming with all the options.

Well, I haven"t tried everything this unit will does so I will only address some of the features. I did not try the looper. Very good build quality. Metal plate exterior. Smooth feeling dials and knobs. I have not been too happy with any harmony machine that I have ever owned including this one. It could be a problem with my singing. Let"s say if your doing a song in C and you do a E major chord. The notes fed from my keyboard would make a harmony to an E chord but didn"t seem to work with the key of C.
Maybe if you set the machine to the key of C that may work. If I sang a simple part and hit the keys ahead of singing so the unit knew the chord to go with it sounded fine.
I got this so I could plug a mike directly into a powered speaker trying to make a small rig for solo gigs. This looks to work very well for this. I am happy with the unit.

After using the VE-500 for about a week, I must say this is a Great unit for adding to your vocals. The harmonies ( you can add up to 3 ), are spot on. The Menu and user interface are easy to use, and editing ( adding harmonies, reverbs, fx, etc. are quite easy. Having previously owned a VE-20, one great improvement here is the ability to turn functions on/off with the optional footswitch FS-5L or 5U.. Very compact too.

I Wanted to love this pedal. I"ve been looking for an upgrade for my VE-20, especially one that had reverbs I actually liked. But while I love all the features and customizability of this new pedal, its baseline tone simply pales in comparison. I have tweaked the heck out of the EQs (something I never had to do with the VE-20) in order to add warmth, a broader dynamic response, and hopefully more naturalness to the vocal tone. But it simply isn"t as clear and sweet. So though I will miss all the feature upgrades, I"m going to stick with my VE-20 (and an additional reverb that I actually like).

Note: I"m singing through a Neumann KMS-105, so I am accustomed to wide-open, true tone ~ but possibly with another mic the differences won"t be as notable?

The support for this product is absolutely terrible. The manual is the worst manual I have ever seen and lacks a lot of necessary information.

When asking a specific question to Boss support, they did not know how to answer it and I ended up teaching their tech how to fix my issue. It's crazy how little information there is on this pedal on Youtube. If you do find videos, they are not great.

The VE editor manual is crap as well, but it's a nice feature to have given working from the screen can be a nightmare.

Once you spend hours figuring out how to use this, it's not half bad, but it could be so much better if Boss actually cared.

The effects are okay, nothing spectacular. Definitely usable. There is not a whole lot in the market for some reason for vocal effects so this is what I have to use.

I wish fractal made a vocal effects pedal.

As a guitar player I am familiar with many types of multi FX units (Helix, Rocktron, Alesis, TC Electronics etc.). I bought this Boss pedal to avoid particularly the TC Helicon VoiceLive because the programming was so difficult. Well, this Boss unit isn't much better. Also, it doesn't have compression or noise gate which the VoiceLive had. This sounds great but I just don't think it's going to do what I want it to do. The manual does not make it much easier. I like to create FX tailored to the songs my band plays, not use manufactured presets with too much reverb.

This product is great and very transparent with vocal pitch correction, it works great for a solo act such as acoustic guitar and singing but When I tried using it in a full band setting it does not respond well at all. it throws the pitch off very badly, especially with drum bleed and we were using in ears and a drum shield. If you want something that will work in a full band situation I recommend the "Tascam TA-1VP" or the "TC Helicon Voice tone C1". Those both work great!

I've had my Boss VE-500 for about 2 years now. I don't have a lot of extra money for equipment, so this was a sizable investment at 5 bills for me. Because of the cash I sank into it, I stubbornly spent MANY hours messing with the software and with my rig (turned out putting a mic on my amp and running it through a small mixer back to the VE-500 helped considerably) to get this unit to react and sound the way I need, and it still struggles to hit the appropriate harmony notes at times. It just seems to have a slow reaction time when I change chords- I can actually hear it searching around at times-not cool, sounds horrible. My bandmate has a TC Helicon VoiceLive Play (which is less expensive) and his sounds like a million bucks. About six months ago, the USB-C connection stopped responding (and yes, I made sure the cords and computer were good- it's the unit)... so no more computer software tweaks- and it sure seems like there were a LOT more programming options available using the computer interface. Honestly, I tried everything I could, and seriously regret purchasing this unit instead of the VoiceLive. Boss let us down on this one- and there's nobody to ask how to fix/adjust this thing. Sometimes you just don't get what you pay for... Boss, (or ANYone) if you're seeing this and know the solution... ANSWER THIS and I might improve my rating

I bought this to replace a TC Helicon VoiceLive, the third TCH unit I've owned and the third one to die during a gig. I thought a Roland product might be more reliable. That does not seem to be the case.

I intended to use this solely for harmony generation. I've been pulling this sly trick for 15 years, running faux harmonies 12-15 dB below real vocal harmonies, just loud enough to fatten the vocals without being obvious. Audiences are unaware that we're using electronic help but often comment how thick our vocal harmonies sound.

But I never know what this unit is going to do when I turn it on. Sometimes the harmony mode won't turn off. Sometimes the harmonies are all over the map, perhaps with an unchanging drone on the low part and a Micky Mouse squeal up high, or warbling frantically like it can't find the note. I am controlling this via MIDI, so there should be no ambiguity about what notes it's supposed to play. I've fiddled with every setting in hopes it was user error, to no avail. Occasionally it'll magically start working properly and I'll optimistically save the settings, only to have it go crazy at the next gig.

The TC Helicons never had this problem. They were always able to intelligently find harmonies that fit naturally. If I played C8 on the keyboard, it was smart enough to know not to generate a chipmunk squeak but rather pick a note within a human's vocal range.

Two stars because the delay and reverb are OK. But 5 bills is a bit steep for a delay/reverb unit.

I mainly got this for compression and reverb. Reverb is great but the compression is ridiculously confusing and lacking any explanation in the manuals. It's literally just a 0-100 setting, no ratio, no threshold, much less attack/release. I can't tell what it's doing. Besides that there is an effect called "enhance", also with a 0-100 setting and no explanation anywhere of what it actually is besides that it "increases the clarity" whatever the hell that means. And the de-esser would be great if it actually worked. Again, just a 0-100 setting, it sounds like it isn't doing anything at all.