Boss VE-8 Acoustic Singer Pre-Amp
Boss VE-8 Features
The VE-8 Acoustic Singer offers professional BOSS sound every time you perform, giving you that extra edge you need to stand out and shine. The VE-8 is a single-unit studio voice and guitar effects processor that includes amazing real-time harmonies and looping in a tiny, go-anywhere package. You’re destined to bring down the house everywhere you play because of the great sound and powerful creative features at your disposal.
For studio-quality sound on any stage, the Boss VE-8 Acoustic Singer Pre-Amp might be your new best friend. Build rich harmonies and pitch correct using a phantom-powered mic preamp, then add genuine Boss effects like the Mod Delay and Chorus all from the convenience of a single box. Process your guitar and vox in real time.
VE-8 Acoustic Singer – Sing
The VE-8 makes it simple to get professional studio vocals right away. Add ambiance, clarity, and control with the Enhance feature by just plugging your mic into the XLR input and dialing up some nice ambience. To add some contemporary zest to your acoustic performances, you can even summon hardtuned electronic voice sounds, distortion, and radio voice tones.
Boss VE-8 – Play
Your acoustic axe will sound as good as your vocals thanks to the VE-8’s dedicated guitar channel. The sterile piezo “quack” that afflicted typical undersaddle pickups in plugged-in acoustics is magically eliminated with Acoustic Resonance. There are also cool BOSS effects like Octave, Mod Delay, and more available in the reverb and chorus sections. A built-in tuner, which is required for stage performance, is included. You also have fingertip access to eliminate any feedback problems immediately they arise with the phase switch and notch filter.
Take your music career to the next level with this Boss VE-8 acoustic singer pre-amp. This pre-amp will transform your acoustic guitar into an amazing sounding electric guitar, and it’s perfect for the beginner musician. If you’re looking for a simple way to improve your sound then this is the product for you. With this pre-amp, you’ll be able to get more out of your acoustic guitar and make it sound like a real electric guitar.
All you need is a standard acoustic guitar and the Boss VE-8 acoustic singer pre-amp, and you’re ready to start making some amazing music!
Boss VE-8 Acoustic Review
While the VE-8 is very capable, it is very un-intuitive, complex and ‘tweaky.’ The small LED readout display is difficult to interpret and it’s easy to get lost, which then requires a factory reset procedure. True sophistication should make complexity transparent. Once set, the unit sounds very good, although harmonies seem under-strength, even with the vocal level set according to instructions.
With the VE-8, every configuration to varying equipment requires a separate ‘edit’ of the box setup. The documentation does not feature a connection scheme that matches my configuration (monaural guitar and voice through analog mixer), and has no tips for use with audio interfaces. The mic sensitivity levels are almost impossible to set and remain consistent, and the harmony section is weak.
The guitar section is strong, but the vocals section (including harmony) is sufficiently complex and difficult, it would be challenging to use this pedal ‘on-the-fly’ in a live performance or busking venue. The VE-8 seems most appropriate for a studio venue where the user can set up, play, stop, re-set, and so on (ugh). Replacing with a close competitor, the TC-Helicon VoiceLive Play Acoustic which while customizable has a much more intuitive interface and initial setup.
It’s a great pedal if you don’t need to adjust anything on the fly. I like the easy of knobs. Looking for something more simple with great effects so I bought the Boss VE-8. The quality paled in comparison. The guitar effects were lackluster and not impressive, the Harmonizer sounded really synthetic. The most disappointing was the looper. You cannot erase the last loop you layer down if you make a mistake. You have to start all over again. Aggghhhh. That alone is a deal killer. All in all, as much I was hoping to love this, I did not. So for me it’s back to my pedal board with a reverb, chorus, acoustic Rez, tremolo, TC Harmonizer, and separate loopers. So far nothing can beat the quality and ease of use of separated pedals. Still hoping something new will come out that will blow me away.
Conclusion
Not overly impressed. My acoustic guitar honestly sounds better NOT running through this. The harmonies on the VOX section when in auto mode are not even close to being right, when you select the key in manual mode, sometimes it nails it, sometimes it does not… either way it sounds robotic. The looping portion seems to work well. I however have never worked with a looper pedal before, it seems a little clunky to get used to while playing a song but I am sure that is more me than the pedal itself. I bought this to use while Live-Streaming during the COVID lockdown, after the first use I scrapped it and went back to feeding everything through my mixer, everyone watching said it sounded better without it… It’ll probably go up and get sold here at a reduced price… Its an expensive pedal to keep around just for looping, I may not ever use the looping.
