Boss VE-22 Vocal Performer

If you’re a solo performer who needs to control vocal harmonies and effects on stage, could this little box be all you need?

When you’re a solo artist performing live, you already have multiple things to worry about if you’re to keep the momentum of your performance going and the audience engaged, especially if you’re singing and playing an instrument too. So it’s always handy to have something that you can just stomp on for accessing and controlling your vocal effects. I always found Boss’s VE‑20 pedal great for this but in this updated version, the VE‑22, you get added functionality and a nice big (320 x 240mm) LCD screen to make your life even easier — even with my ever‑increasing shortsightedness, I could see the selected patch easily, and the colour‑coding helps even more in a dark environment!

Orientation & Control

The VE‑22 is sturdily built and logically presented, with three button‑style footswitches taking the place of the two larger rectangular pedals of its predecessor. On the top panel, as well as the screen and footswitches, you’ll find a volume knob, and three press‑turn encoders for accessing various functions and setting up your effects.

On the back, there’s a USB‑C socket for recording, as well as a quarter‑inch jack input for adding a footswitch (the Roland FS‑6 and FS‑7, for example, but with a splitter cable you could use two single footswitches such as the FS‑5U), or an expression pedal. TRS mini‑jack sockets provide a stereo aux input and a line/headphones output. Two XLR outputs can be configured to deliver a stereo or dual‑mono signal, or one wet and one dry mono out, and there’s an XLR input for the mic. This mic input has a phantom power option, as well as a small knob for adjusting the input sensitivity.

Though designed primarily with performance use in mind, the VE‑22 doubles up as a USB audio interface.

The VE‑22 is supplied with four AA batteries, so it’s possible to get up and running right away, but when phantom power is enabled the current draw increases from 180 to 260 mA. If you’re gigging regularly, then, you’ll almost certainly want the external power supply and probably also the CB‑VE22 carry bag, both of which are optional extras (though some retailers do seem to offer the VE‑22 and a suitable PSU as a package). The bag is fairly rigid, with a large outer pocket, and offers space for a mic, cable, PSU and other accessories.

This pedal really is intuitive, and you can get up and running with the 50 factory presets quickly. The Menu button obviously takes you into a menu area, and when you’re there the Harmony, Effect and Echo knobs become controllers for whatever parameter you’ve selected using the Memory knob. You can press these...