20 Best Vocal Effects Processor (2022 Updated)

This is my first time using a dedicated vocal processor, so take that into consideration when reading this review. Out of the box, the built-in clamps did not fit my fixed mic stand, but did fit my telescoping stands.

Once attached to the telescoping arm, its at a pretty severe angle to the performer, but still usable. It’s angled so that the crowd would never see the lights and buttons this way. Not a good or bad setup, but that’s the only way it would mount to my stand.

Also, once I got the mic, guitar, power and cables connected, nothing on the mic side would light up when pressed. Eventually, it did start working, tho, but I can’t tell you why. Prior to the VG, I was using the built-in FX processor that my mixer/amp has.

I would say that it can do similar Echo and Reverb, but the VG can give more depth & range. The VG can dial it in much smoother in addition to having better usable range. I can pretty much just set it and forget it.

can’t say the same for the harmonizer. Some songs sound better with different harmonies (3rd/4th/octaves) or none at all. Once you find what sounds good to you, write down those settings!!! Keep it close by so that you can make adjustments in between songs for as little downtime as possible.

I like how easy it is to set the mic level so that when you are singing, you can turn the dial to increase/decrease the harmonies or guitar or line input (mp3) on the fly. I don’t feel that this thing is a gimmick, but I don’t feel that it’s pro-level, either.

Something different to play with, for sure. My boys (both pretty good musicians) thought that it sounded good and improved the dynamics or quality of the song I was creating. For the record, my voice is more suited to the old Pop Standards (Crooners) compared to anything modern.

I haven’t used this in a real gig yet, but have done a number of karaoke sessions with it in my living room.

I purchased this unit as a temporary replacement for the Voice Live which was damaged in a flood. I like the idea of having controls at arms reach as opposed to on the floor like the more expensive Voice Live.

The voice sounds are what you would expect from TC Helicon. The dial lights are a very nice visual way to make choices and adjust effects. Quite a few options available for harmony. Great must have tool for the vocal performer accompanied by a guitar.

Guitar effects are quite good but I imagine the result will be highly dependent on the type of pickup used on the guitar and on the guitar itself. In the studio, a mic for the guitar might be a good way to go although a clean signal (no effects) can be obtained directly from the guitar THRU output on the Perform VG.

The idea here is that the output can be used to bring just the guitar sound to an amplifier or PA where outboard effects can be applied. A control to dim the LED buttons would have been nice. The lights are quite bright.

But this is everything essential at an affordable price. A very nice unit. Happy to own it.

Love the small footprint and ease of operation. only thing I don’t like is the harmony activation. My other tc Helicon has a setting to temporarily turn harmony on and off simply by stepping on the button for “on” then lifting your foot off the button for ” off “.

With the addition of this piece of equipment to my home studio, i finally get to achieve the professional sound i’ve been looking for. It has a built in compressor that is easy to manage, a ton of various vocal presets, that i can also manually adjust to make it my own, two different sets of EQ so i can dial in precisely the vocal sound i’m wanting, and my personal favorite, a built in tube warmer that i have complete control over the warmth of my vocals.

And last but not least , it comes with auto tune, if you’re into that.

Have been confident in TASCAM products since the reel-to-reel days (telling my age here). This processor does not disappoint. Bit of a learning curve, but results sound more natural and subtle than the plug-ins of a DAW.

Of course, the capability is there to go wild, if that’s your thing. Overall, am impressed with the TA1VP on a professional level (not for the novice) and would highly recommend for the serious studio and music producer alike.

I bought this to bring with me to gigs when it isn’t practical to bring a whole sound board. The vocal processing is good, giving you various styles of reverb, echo, tone and pitch correction, and harmonies when you run your MIDI keyboard into it.

I wish it had a way to control the vocal volume output from the unit. You have to try to balance the keyboard and vocal levels using the master keyboard volume control to try to achieve the right mix.

I am a semi-pro singer, had used a friend’s for recording to Audacity. Loved how it improved the quality of my vocal recordings. So bought this one for myself. It’s easy to use, seller delivered quickly- works just as designed.

Highly recommended.

The (Should be included) Power Wall-Wart was replaced by a well used inferior substitute, and it was almost impossible to connect to the TC Helicon website in order to update the Firmware (as stipulated in the instructions.

) I finally got it to communicate and was able to get the update. It now works just fine. I wish I didn’t have to replace the Power Supply though.

Buyer beware, if u are a professional vocalist looking to sing and record your vocals DO NOT BUY. You will have wasted your money. There are two effects that MAY be effective. 1. Chorus (which basically sounds like an additional reverb; there is already a reverb knob on the device) 2.

The second is possibly useful feature is the harmonizer. It has not been perfected on this device. Also, harmonies end up sounding like they are autotuned or coming out of a voice box. Not useful if you are a professional vocalist looking to record straight ahead quality vocs that are not gimmicky.

The rest of the features like ‘child’s voice, telephone, deep, robot, dormant character, whistle, talk box, distortion, and beat box’ render this doggone thing a toy. At best. I’m not even joking. It’s sad.

I wanted to love this but it is a complete and utter waste of money. You can get a vocal processor that is strictly for vocalists for less money which is what I should have done and avoid this at all costs.

Speaking of costs, this thing costs 200 bucks AND you have to turn around and buy an adapter separately but only the adapter made by ZOOM will work and it is hard to find. If you choose to use 4 AA batteries which is required for it to function, those batteries will only work 2 1/2 hours at best.

Then you need 4 more AA batteries. Not efficient or convenient when you are in the middle of writing and recording. PLEASE DO NOT BUY. You will not only waste your time but your money. And this is from someone who REALLY wanted to love this product especially considering I spent my money on it and saw those very misleading promo videos which led me to buy it.

We are currently using this as our vocalist controlled FX unit for live performance. Fairly solid sound comes out of the box, but the reverb and delay are unusable. Giving this 5-stars, as we have tested pretty much every tabletop vocal effects unit, and the portability (super light-weight) combined with easy access to functions and reasonable sound quality, this is our go to unit for live performance currently (although I strongly desire something more powerful).

Another annoyance is no XLR out (stereo TRS only).

Product is great all around, effects sound really good, but the only problem I encounter is that you cannot use an instrument like a guitar or keyboard for the harmonizer which is a big problem, since that will help your vocals by adjusting the harmony to the instrument and not to a key.

Songs are complex and sometimes using a key to harmonize won’t work. Other than that is a great tool.

I’m a singer working in a duo, and that might be coming to an end soon, in which case I’ll probably go solo. I’m used to having a great singer harmonising with me, and I know I’ll miss that. While I appreciate that there’s probably no machine that will take the place of a real voice, it seems to be the only way forward for me.

I saw some videos of various different machines online, and having written to one of the reviewers decided this was the best machine for me. Not being a musician as such I need a processor that doesn’t need t be told what key I’m in when I’m using backing tracks, and so far so good this does the job.

Obviously during the current pandemic I can’t trial it live, but it’s giving me some nice harmonies when I hook it up at home. There are also some cool vocal effects which I’ll be able to utilise when I’m doing jingles for a friend’s radio show.

Here’s the but. Having shelled out 179 (just a shade over $231) I expected a power supply to be included. Not so, had to buy one separately after it arrived, which kinda took the shine off it a bit. Otherwise I’m happy with my purchase and would gladly recommend it to anyone in my situation.

I love this little vocal box, which is packed with functions. But the instruction manual barely touches on all the things it can do, or how best to use it. Once I understood how to use the pre-programmed settings, and what they did.

I was able to customize them for the individual songs we play, name them, and save them for later. Even in the order of the setlist! Super cool. The trickiest thing to make sound good are the pitch correct and harmonies.

the key is figuring out what KEY the song is in, as you really should set that for each individual song if you want the harmonies and PC to sound right. And what key is your song in? Well unless you now music theory and scales, that’s not easy to figure out.

But I found one site that has a whole list of popular SONG KEYS, though different people think the song is a different key. And another site that has a chart, so you can look at the notes/chords and figure out the key yourself.

Takes a little research, but now the box makes me sound WAY better! Love it!.

Yes its business Great little machine. Used on a gig for the first time today. Great using the three available favourite buttons and even created one of my own. Takes a little time using and learning the edit button.

Not used the loop yet as not really my thing but who knows. Great when practicing through heads and plugged into mixer. I have even practiced with the built in mic and harmonies function. Yes very pleased better than the blue boss unit which is still pretty good but now replaced with this one.

It’s a must to get yourself a electric adapter especially gigging but also handy to have batteries for emergencies. 10 out of 10 well done Boss.

TC make some great stuff – they’re pedals are generally made extremely well and the construction of this one is no exception. The vocal effects and ease at which to change is pretty easy. The downside is their back end software isn’t very compatible with Windows 10 – works great on Windows 7.

I tried everything to get it working on win10, tried it on USB3. 0, then down to USB 2. 0, tried it with adapters, updating drivers, various version of there software and nothing worked. Contacted MusicTribe support (because Behringer’s support also do these).

Generally MusicTribe is pretty good for support. In this case I didn’t get any satisfactory help. When trying to explain there’s an issue with win10, support basically said it works on their win10 machine, so it should on mine.

Well it doesn’t, never has so I’ve been using the software on an older machine to update when needed. It’s a great product for what it does, the software is where it’s let down.

The Voicelive 3 is a wonderful multi processor. Any serious musician who plays guitar, sings, and who seeks to create a unique harmony or A cappela harmony performance should be considering this. The guitar effects are excellent, the voice effects are excellent; and though I do not use the looper for looping, I do use the on-board hard drive for creating some things unique to me.

Why have 20 to 40 pedals in front of you, when you can have j u s t o n e (1) and whilst having better sound? 1) I believe that my guitars (6-string semi-hollow body guitar and Baritone) are some of the very best sounding guitars in Santa Fe.

2) I have been told by people listening to me as I perform, that my voice is the best that they have heard in my Santa Fe. When I sing the verse to Deep Purple’s “Child in Time”, Ian Gillan would congratulate me if he were in the audience.

Same with my voice on songs by Harry Connick jr. , Boz Scaggs, Kenny Rankin, Leonard Cohen, Family of the Year, Crosby Stills & Nash, Flatt Lonesome; the VL3 makes it possible. 3) My harmonies are excellent and my a cappella harmonies are actually head turners.

I am one of the very few performers in the USA today performing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Freddie Mercury’s amazing A Cappella harmony intro. If you don’t have a VoiceLive 3, and you are not Pentatonix, then you are not performing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in all its glory.

When I am performing, I use 23 Presets for my 23 songs in my 2-hour performance. When I tap from Preset #1 to Preset #2 (my 2nd song of the night), I am actually making 10 to 100 changes. with just one foot-switch change! Some changes, I do not even need to tap a switch.

but that is another story. I am one of the most popular and successful performing musicians in Santa Fe; I am currently booked for the next 74 days! I wonder if the VL3 helped make that happen (this is not a question).

This thing is amazing! I upgraded from a PlayAcoustic to this to hopefully be able to use the looping with a little more ease with more buttons, and to be able to use it with my electric guitar with my two bands as well.

I’m still learning how powerful and versatile this thing is. It’s BIG compared to the PlayAcoustic. And you really have to put more thought into each preset individually if you want to really use it to its full potential.

I would not recommend this to someone that’s not techy and willing to put some time into learning how to use such a powerful musical tool. Sure there are some cool presets that you can just plug and play and sound pretty good.

But if you’re willing to read the manual and watch some YouTube videos you can really do some amazing things that will add some wow factor to your life performances. I thought the “talk box” feature was a really awesome addition.

And the step feature is definitely good for changing effects on the middle of a song.

Pluses: this thing is very powerful. I mainly compose and record at home as a hobbyist but I have been doing it a long time. The effect on my projects was immediately noticeable – the harmonies for vocals and the basic effects etc.

i’ve only recently started to dive into the guitar effects as it takes quite some time to get the intuition of this thing. That being said, I find all of the guitar effects amazing but i don’t expect to use the presets.

Here’s why: i’ll Prob grab a vocal preset and then easily create a simple guitar preset for the vocal preset because you can’t separate the guitar and vocal presets. And I don’t want one global guitar sound – sorry.

Minuses: so far, really only the learning curve. It is steep but I think worth it in the end. And it’s fun learning something new, but if you have a lot going on and can’t dedicate some time to this, there are some simple things you can do to get going right away, but it becomes immediately obvious that you’ll need to put in the hours to unleash some serious potential.

I mean, why cut corners?.

Size: The pedal is dead small so very easy to take with you to gigs or stash away in the drawer when you aren’t using it. Features: The built in reverb/echo/delay is great and very adjustable. The memory function is great.

Easy enough to switch to a saved setting, although I do wish the actual button was bigger so I could switch to another memory mid song. Sometimes you want different harmonies on different sections. The bypass pedal is great.

Very easy to tap whilst playing. Auto-Harmonist: I bought this pedal specifically for this function. The harmonies definitely sound more natural and fit in with the song better because it follows the chords you are playing.

But, I tend to use unconventional chords and I felt that the harmony struggled sometimes. Without the auto-harmony it was more difficult to keep the harmonies in tune. If you stray even slightly, it sounds terribly out of tune.

Variety: I liked being able to switch between whatever harmonies I wanted. Unison, a third above or below etc. I did find however, it always sounds best when you use two harmony lines instead of one.

The flaws are too obvious when just using one. You have to be so so precise. I found that less is more with this device. I balanced the sound very much in favour of my lead vocal with the harmonies reasonably quiet in the background to compliment the lead.

Overall I’m very happy with the purchase and would recommend it as it gives your performance that something extra. PMT were great. Delivered right on time and very quickly. Not issues whatsoever.

I lead worship services on guitar and have 20 years as a professional classical singer. Because I occasionally lead a service by myself, I thought this might be a useful tool for adding some richness to a song.

I found on simple, single-key pieces, it chose well about 85% of the time, which is probably fine. If the piece was more complicated, it would often scramble and choose a sour note, or just struggle to stay in tune, singing the minor third in a major triad, for example.

It also seems to think singing the flat seventh of any chord is a reasonable choice, and sometimes it isn’t. If you’re a singer-songwriter doing mostly three- and four-chord songs where it’s more about the writing than anything else, this could be a very cool piece of equipment in your arsenal.

If you’re looking for spot-on perfection in performance, this isn’t worth it. You won’t be happy and it won’t do what you want it to do. If you’re considering using this in a band context, stop considering that immediately :).

The natural differences between tuning for multiple instruments will just make any mistake the box makes harsher and will ruin whatever you’re trying to do. That said, there’s probably a performance art piece or experimental use for it by plugging in an electric guitar but not amping it and telling the box you’re singing one thing, then having it try to harmonize with you.

Could be very trippy and cool. I am saying I’d recommend it, because I would. if you’re a four-chord singer/songwriter.

I am a keyboard player and I wanted to try let’s see how this harmonizer would work with a keyboard and it works perfect. It’s very simple to use in the sound quality of the harmonies is so realistic and so beautiful that is immediately makes you want to sing.

I would highly recommend this harmonizer to any musician and just because it says it’s for guitarist I am a keyboard player and I love it and even though I have it hooked to my keyboard it works perfect.

I love this.

Using this for about a year now at live gigs and couldn’t be happier. It follows guitar/keyboard very well. Does not sound “robotic” like some of the others. I like the fact that the button is quiet when turning vocals on/off.

So , if you’re recording in a studio or playing a small venue where the audience is close and listening, like a house concert, coffee shop, small club, and want to record your performance, you don’t that distracting annoying unprofessional “click” going on.

A light comes on when vocals are activated , and goes off when no vocals. Glance down to see if it’s on or off. EASY ! ! ! Most times , folks are wondering where the back up vocals are coming from since they assume the pedal must be for the guitar.

I use it with the batteries when Busking. It’s light , easy to hook up, easy to use, built like a tank, nothing to program, always works, and very affordable. Hope they never change this unit as it’s perfect just the way it is , especially for the gig out live entertainer.

Highly recommend. Those interested, attached is a video taken at Porchfest Quincy, MA using the Harmony Singer 2.

Just learning how to adapt this unit for home studio recording. The surface functions are great so far. No doubt this vocalizer will work well for my song writing and other recordings. Love it so far

The TC Helicon voice Life 3 extreme is absolutely the biggest junk I’ve ever bought in my whole career as a musician and sound engineer. The support from the business was absolutely horrible. I bought this thing with great intentions knowing that I’ve used TC in the past and had great luck with them.

But this thing absolutely the biggest waste of money in my life. Sent it in on a glitch reason for the screen that they all were having to get it back and it has 20 more problems and they wanted nothing to do with it or admit that there was a problem.

I’ve been in the music business almost 40 years now never have I had such a pile of s*** purchase.

First unit I received had a defective chip in it so nothing worked properly, was noisy/distorted. So I travelled to the store to test the replacement in situ. This time seems all OK. It is functionally powerful but does add noticeable noise to your signal chain – be careful how to tweak signal to minimise this.

Unlike boss products which have a comprehensive hi res computer interface software for detailed programming, this machine’s main interface is the pedal’s awful (but readable) low pixel screen, which is functional but 15 years obsolete in terms of GUI interfaces.

Nonetheless it is very comprehensively featured as an all in one digital processor for guitar vocals, which it does well, so still an essential pro piece of kit. In reality it has no competitors at this level of feature richness.

This is a relatively tiny unit, but it packs a tremendous punch-especially at its price point. Dedicated sections for enhancer/compressor/de-esser/EQ, pitch correction, harmony (up to 3 parts)/vocoder, reverb&delay, looper, plus up to 4 additional effects inserted between the harmony/vocoder and reverb&delay sections provide a wealth of options.

You can customize the controls to use the foot switches, an external foot controller, MIDI, or a combination of all three to control effects in real time during performance. The bad news. this does not ship with a USB cable to connect to your computer-and connecting to you computer is a must.

Why? The tiny screen makes setting up and editing patches a Herculean task, but if you download the editor software from Boss it becomes so much easier. MIDI patch changes are straight forward, but CC messages go to the controller section which is customized on a per patch basis rather than globally.

Because of the ability to customize these controller settings there is no CC master list to use when programming your MIDI messages to the unit, so finding the correct CC value is a bit of trial and error beyond simply toggling an effect on or off.

Overall though, this is a great processor for the price. The footprint is small, and would handily fit onto a pedal board. If you have the time to set this up using the editor on a Mac or PC before taking to the stage, the limited on board UI is easy to overlook.

I’m just starting to delve into the capabilities of the VE-500. I was a bit put off at first with controlling the unit from itself, a heck of a lot of paging through options on that tiny screen. But the editing software makes it a breeze to program whatever kind of effects you want and save the patches.

Very powerful! I’m extremely pleased with this purchase, and even more pleased with Sam Ash as a vendor. They listed this item as “used”, but it came in the original packaging with everything inside (manual, cables, unit, etc.

) all in original plastic packaging. Way to go, Sam Ash!.

The Boss Vocal performer was a great addition to my acoustic performances. Especially when you are using a small set up or do not have a person to help with sound. I like being able to adjust my sound, add harmonies, etc and the built in tuner is GREAT.

I do wish it was a little easier to push the pedal to enable the tuner, the two buttons are a little farther away than on the previous model and I have a hard time turning it on and off.

The Enhance feature adds top end and articulation – makes vocals stand out in the live mix. Haven’t used in studio yet. Most of the longer echoes and reverbs are not useful for me but they sound fine.

In live situations for me it’s pretty much set and forget. The pitch correction is less noticeable than I expected, even turned up full. Very happy to get a power supply for free!.

Great little box for gigging and live performances. Can use battery or buy mains lead. Sound quality good and lots of extras. The memory button is a little confusing but you don’t necessary need to use it.

Well made and easy to transport. All in all very good value sound machine.

Has all the features you could want with none of the ones you don’t. Bought this for grown up son and I’ve had various vocal effects from basic to the highest end rack units and you will be happy with this one if budget is a issue.

I didnt like the product at first, the sound was to traveller and harsh. Instruction manual that came with it didnt explain that this could be changed. After a considerable search on Google I finally found instructions to tell me how to fix the problem.

The reverb on the unit is good,But certainly not excellent. The reverb on my inexpensive behringer mixer is better. The pitch correction is excellent, which is the main thing I wanted it for. Overall a good product, especially at the price.

I will certainly be using it on stage.

I?m a guitarist trying to dip my feet in singing and wanted something to give me a little safety net. The pitch correction is definitely effective and not really noticeable in a mix. The echo, reverb, and multifunction tone button really do sweeten my vocals.

I can?t really imagine gigging without it. It seems to be durable and well built. I?d recommend this to anybody.

This works for exactly what I needed it to do: Playing venues with limited sound mixing options, and/or no sound tech. It allows me to quickly dial in a fair amount of atmosphere, because a dry sound is not suitable for the style of music we make.

Not sure quite how the tone button achieves its effect (I suspect it’s a bit of compression, with low cut EQ and a boost in the highs), but it definitely helps add a little bit of polish before the desk.

The autotune seems to work best in small doses, especially in a small room where your natural dry sound will mix with the PA sound. Reverbs and delays sound great, but may be too restrained for some singers though.

I find the sweet spot to be at the max of each reverb/delay type. It’s obviously been designed with some restraint in mind to avoid reverb and delay causing feedback. So don’t expect the effects to get super saturated.

While I don’t need anything more than what this pedal offers, it might be a bit too tame for some.

When this unit works on all cylinders, it’s an awesome addition to any solo, duo, or trio act. It has one fault that I have to deal with constantly in the summer time. It is VERY sensitive to humidity in the air, like after a rain, or when playing beside a boat dock for instance.

It works, but when it senses humidity it comes on approximately one beat after you hit the Stop/Start pedal, which I don’t need to tell you can be VERY frustrating, and make you look like the amatuer you really are in a hurry.

To help remedy this, I wrapped the unit in a towel to absorb any moisture that it might be sniffing in the air. For the rest of the year though, it works like a charm, and produces vocal backup that sounds really close to human.

When it works good, it actually increases my tips for the night! Btw, I still use this pedal to this day because for the money you can’t beat it for it’s quality and value.

I’m just an ok singer and was using the TC Mic Mechanic and liked it. But wanted a more precise correction using the guitar sensor. I would tend to waver a bit on long note back ups and this helped. It will not make you what your not, you have to be very close to the note to sound natural.

It does smooth out minor imperfections and can be undetectable if not over used. To replace the Mic Mechanic I went with the singles T1, C1, and R1. I read somewhere that each pedal adds 5-6 ms latency which tends thicken the sound in this setup and produces a more processed studio vocal.

These 3 w/o the echo seem to do it for me. There’s always room for better so 4 stars.

The unit performs exactly as advertised; easy to set up and use, and it sounds great. The key is plugging a guitar into the unit so that it can adjust harmonies based on the chords being played. My wife and I perform cover tunes in our classic rock electric duo and we each use one of these daisy-chained together with my guitar signal.

That way we can switch off on lead vocals and both provide nice background harmonies (Fleetwood Mac, Doobies, Eagles, etc. ). The harmonies are often what’s in the original recording, but even if not exact, they’re always in key and really fill out the vocals.

For years I enjoyed using the TC Helicon Create XT as a simple addition to live sound. Of course not nearly as good as computer software or my Lexicon but still have a bit more polished, commercial sound.

I heard good things about the Boss VE-20 and figured that it was time to modernize and upgrade. I think this Boss product is pretty terrific. It has lots of solid effects, easy to use, reliable and still compact.

I made the right decision. This was an upgrade and at a reasonable price.