Not sure which forum to put this query in because it's about the vocal fx unit (VE-20), and I thought it might get lost if I put it in the guitar fx section.
I just got a VE-20 for using during live performances (we do small gigs for a bit of fun... you know the sort of thing... pubs, parties, village halls).
The VE-20 presets give a good general starting point for different song styles, but I want to get stuck into making some more complex user-definer settings.
We play 60s to 90s rock / pop / punk, so I'd be really interested to know if anyone has any suggestions for vocal settings for any of the following... or anything else for that matter !
Hendrix, Stones, Cream, Who, Kinks, Deep Purple, Bad Co., Free, Neil Young, Steppenwolf, Quo, Skynyrd, Bowie, Undertones, Sham 69, Sex Pistols, Nirvana
...you get the picture.
Anyway, any help or advice much appreciated, and as I develop a few user settings of my own, I'll post them up.
I've been playing about with it for a couple of weeks, and have got a few rudimentary settings already... trying to replicate the sort of generic sounds for (e.g.) stadium rock bands, garage punk, etc.
Got to say that it's quite convincing, and the harmonies work really well.
In some respects, the beauty of this for me is its relative simplicity for a live gig. Just turn up, plug my mic into it, and an XLR-XLR extension lead to the PA, and off you go.
The traditional "stomp box" construction works a treat too... only 2 pedals and a rotary knob to select which sound you want.
As you say, the down-side is that there is no way to "back-up" the settings, but I've made a note of my user settings in case I have to send it back to the factory, etc., and it's a doddle to programme.
If anyone has one of these, and has figured out some user settings for particular styles of vocal, let me know.
I'll post a few of my own when I have figured out something worthwhile !
I've owned a Boss VE-20 for about six weeks now and really like it a lot. Because its so new I've pretty well had to figure things out on my own but it wasn't that hard.
I play guitar and sing and prefer to have have the controls near my hands rather than on the floor. It makes it much easier to change from song to song.
I've used # 31 and up to pre-set different notes so I don't have to play around with it as I preform. You can easily change the the letters on the screen. For example my # 31 now shows Pitch.....A. So I know that it was taken from #28 Pitch Control modified to suit my needs and saved in the key of A.
Spent all day fiddling about with it to get some good general setting which seem to work under most circumstances.
As with all fx units, I think "less is more"... the more options you layer one on top of the other, the more muddy it becomes... same with very high / low settings for each parameter.
Most of the settings have a huge range... far bigger than you would normally want to use, without the result sounding extreme.
In general, I've found that you don't want to stray too far from the mid-point (unless you're looking for something deliberately "freaky").
A prime example is the "gender" setting, which you can't really put more than +/- 2 or you start sounding like a chipmunk !
I'll put a few ideas up on this thread soon... just as soon as I've got my favourites nailed down.
Hi Stu, I'm pretty much in the same situation as you (musicwise) and have had my VE-20 for two weeks now. My observations are as follows:
1. I set up the unit on headphones at home, where it sounds perfect but when I use it through the PA it sounds much coarser and harsh. I'm sure/hope that this can be solved with the correct use of the pre-amp.
2. It would be great if the pre-amp was in a separate section so that when its edited for a particular room/gig all the sounds were updated instead of having to go through each one separately (this is a pain in the A).
3. Whenever you edit a user setting the new edits are "saved" without writing them, it would make more sense to me if they were only saved when you said "write" this way you could fiddle with a sound and then go back to the original settings just by going forward a sound and then back again. It's very easy to start fiddling and then forget what the original settings were. I know that you should copy the sound to a empty number first but I keep forgetting (old age).
4. Some way of storing sounds on a USB would be better than having to write them all down. Has anyone produced a chart yet with all the parameters on? If not I will produce one over the next few weeks and post it as a pdf. (can I post a pdf here?)
I will of course post some settings as soon as I have this beast under control.
Please feel free to correct me if you think that any of my observations are incorrect. You're never to old to learn.
