EH Voice Box - early thoughts -

[Jimmy WebPage]

I've had the new Electro Harmonix Voice Box for a few days now.

Here are some random thoughts from my early experiences with this pedal:

The modes break down into different emphasis on the Harmony parts for your vocal. I would really have liked this pedal more if it were offered in the same slider layout as the new POG2 pedal instead of the less tweakable mode style layout EH are using so much lately.



The Harmonies are very natural sounding and track very well. At extreme settings the doubled vocals begin to stand out more but don't go to sonic craziness levels as you might expect from other EH stuff. This pedal is more practical than experimental.

The Unison+Whistle mode is uninspiring and useless, imho.

The Vocoder is fairly good but is less tweakable than I would have liked. It responds very well to chordal embellishments especially sixths and suspended chords which make the vocal shift in a very musical way. A compressor might be wise as I found it surged up more than the other modes.



You basically get a Harmony mode which is extremely organic and useable.
A very basic Vocoder which is alright.
Low, High, and Octaves which could probably have been a single mode or two instead of FOUR.
The Unison + Whistle is a waste.

I was not overly impressed with the reverb. I could be wrong but I bet it is one reverb that both feed into, not just the same type but also not processed discretely. I would have preferred two different types of Reverb offered on both of the two channels feeding into one type clockwise and a different type counterclockwise from 12 oclock.

That would have been very cool. Past 12 the Reverbs seem less effective and useable anyways. Delayed or slow attack Reverb would have been a stellar option on the harmonies. Asking too much here probably. This thing is digital though right, why not dream.

Please keep in mind that you are not able to sing through the Voice Box with Reverb on your main vocal line while the Harmony effect is bypassed or disengaged. This may be a problem for those who want to sing through this and then kick on some Harmonic Backing for the Chorus sections of songs. When the pedal is off it is all off.

Very useable Harmony Vocal Accompaniment.

If you want a VOCODER wait for the new EH Vocoder pedal instead.

I'll be taking this one back mostly because I'm a crappy singer (and reviewer). I would probably have kept it if it offered more options for what it excels at (Harmony) making it essential.

Final thought: Would it have been difficult to have a switch which would have fed the guitar input through all of these effects? (With or Without the Vocal) The input is already there. I can see the appeal of that as an option over a lame whistle mode. Might have been cool.

Just my opinion. I hope it helps someone out there. Please don't take any offense.