Boss unveils VE-500 Vocal Performer pedal

Boss has announced the latest addition to its 500 series pedals, the VE-500 Vocal Performer harmony/multi-effects processor.

Effects include automatic harmony/pitch correction, a vocoder and deep effects options.

The VE-500 boasts an automatic harmony engine that detects chords and key to generate two- and three-part harmonies in real-time, which can either be driven by a guitar or MIDI input.

Boss’s VO-1 Vocoder functionality is also onboard to transform a guitar sound into synthesized electronic voices - and, yes, it can handle talk box tones. Bon Jovi ahoy.

Other effects include a compressor, EQ and de-esser, plus reverb, delay, modulation, distortion, filtering and others.

Up to nine effects can be used simultaneously, and there’s even a looper onboard.

Love it or hate it, pitch correction is also available, and can be used to stabilise wobbly pitch or to replicate those heavily pitch-altered sounds you hear in the charts from time to time.

The VE-500 is available now for $499/£349/€419. Boss has more.

Michael Astley-Brown

Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.

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