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Best vocal processor 2018 – [Buyer’s Guide]
Last Updated March 1, 2023
Looking for ways to bring your vocal processor to the next level? Then you’ve come to the right place. I’m Brayden Diaz. After spending over 30 hours comparing at least 19 vocal processor, I am recommending the best vocal processor of 2018
I will go through the main features and what you should consider when deciding which one to pick over the other. So, you will find reviews on some models of vocal processor that impressed me (and a good many other people), and you will find a few informational pages as well.
Best vocal processor of 2018
The best vocal processor will make your fairytale dreams come true! I have a variety of material used in the construction of vocal processor including metal, plastic, and glass. You can make a choice based on the my list as you shop. Now, let’s get to the gist of the matter: which are the best vocal processor for the money?
Test Results and Ratings
| Rank | №1 | №2 | №3 |
| Product |  |
 |
 |
| Total | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.3 |
| Style |
5 points
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5 points
|
5 points
|
| Versatility |
4 points
|
4 points
|
4 points
|
| Durability |
5 points
|
5 points
|
4 points
|
| Price |
5 points
|
4 points
|
4 points
|
| Awards |  |
||
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 |
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How to save up to 86%? Here is little trick.
You must visit the page of sales. Here is the link. If you don’t care about which brand is better, then you can choose the vocal processor by the price and buy from the one who will offer the greatest discount.
№1 – Boss VE-20 Vocal Processor Multi Effects Pedal -INCLUDES- Blucoil Power Supply Slim AC/DC Adapter 9V DC 670mA with US Plug AND 10’ XLR Microphone Cable
| Total: |
4.8
|
Why did this vocal processor win the first place?
I really enjoy the design. It is compact, comfortable and reliable. And it looks amazing! I don’t know anything about other models from this brand, but I am fully satisfied with this product. The material is stylish, but it smells for the first couple of days. I am very happy with the purchase. It is definitely worth its money. The product is top-notch!
5
|
4
|
5
|
5
|
№2 – OMNIHIL AC/DC Adapter/Adaptor for Roland VT-3 Voice Transformer Vocal Effects Processor Power Supply Charger Cord
| Total: |
4.5
|
Why did this vocal processor come in second place?
I really liked it. It is amazing in every aspect. It did even exceed my expectations for a bit, considering the affordable price. Seems that the material is good. It has a very beautiful color but I don’t really like the texture. I recommend you to consider buying this model, it definitely worth its money. This is a pretty decent product that perfectly fitted the interior of our office.
5
|
4
|
5
|
4
|
№3 – TC Helicon VoiceTone Harmony-G XT Vocal Effects Processor
| Total: |
4.3
|
Why did this vocal processor take third place?
We are very pleased with the purchase — the product is great! It is inconvenient to use due to the size. I am going to get something different next time. It doesn’t squeaks nor bents. Looks great in my apartment. This price is appropriate since the product is very well built.
5
|
4
|
4
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4
|
vocal processor Buyer’s Guide
Vocal effects and looping
Not all vocal processors allow you to control a wide range of effects like compression, delay/reverb or EQ. Some are more basic when it comes to this and only offer core effects. If your music style is more experimental it’s probably recommended to look for more exotic voicings.
Product Highlights
Adding some wild possibilities for your vocals, the TC Helicon VoiceTone Ceffects processor looks very promising for those with lower budgets. Among the main features of this compact device we can find sound correction from subtle to jagged HardTune, Mic Control for remote on/off toggling, and the ability to chain the unit with other VoiceTone C1’s for improving your sound even more.
Under the hood of this unit, you can expect to find the same quality processing from TC Helicon’s flagship VoiceLive vocal processors. A quiet mic preamp is also present and its reliability can rival that from high-end touring mixers providing a decent level of quality analog to digital conversion. A USB connection is included for firmware updates. The construction of the device is pretty solid, the metal casing seems to be built with durability in mind.
This vocal processor is capable of opening up some new vocal territory. It all starts with a clean correction of your voice. All that’s needed is to set the key or use the guitar input. The popular pitch-gliding HardTune effect is included and with just a simple knob twist you can sound like an alien in no time. Due to Mic Control, you can take charge of the unit right from your mic commanding both the stage and the audience.
What’s great is how you can chain it to other identical units for mixing and matching effects which create your own personal sound. It can also work nicely with Ditto Mic Looper, the looping pedal for singers. Using the Singles Connect Kit, you can mix and match a maximum of four vocal effect pedals without too much cable clutter.
As long as you understand the capabilities of the VoiceTone Cand its limits you won’t be disappointed. It can’t do magic for your vocals but it provides good correction and decent enhancements for this price. Looking back over its features, this remains a safe recommendation if you have an interest in a relatively inexpensive but great quality vocal processor.
TC Electronic introduced the original Ditto looper as a compact solution for simple rhythm and lead playing. Its multi-functioning single footswitch acts as a record, overdub, stop, undo and redo button. For the more adventurous types, TC Electronic released the bigger brother to the Ditto family called the XWith the added “FX” footswitch, users can assign reverse, half-speed or a stop button with a flick of a switch.
Best for: Players with precious pedalboard real estate wanting to explore looping, practicing solos and making weird noises.
DigiTech JamMan Stereo
Plugging in the additional FS3X footswitch expands controls for reverse playback, instant undo/redo and setting the tempo of the loop. If that’s not enough, the Jamman Stereo features an amazing auto-record mode, which is great for capturing the entire length of your loop without the need to step on a footswitch.
Best for: Players wanting the ability to store multiple loops and samples, added looping controls in a relatively small pedal format, independent stereo signals for complex routing.
Gator Multi-FX Bag 11€35£315.61
Recording high quality vocals can be a daunting process for a beginner, which is why we’ve decided to offer a guide to infusing your productions with the human voice. RA’s Jono Buchanan gives you the know how.
Those of us who get hooked on producing electronic music don’t tend to think about vocals first. The thrill of combining a great collection of drum samples in a loop, a bass part, maybe a lead line… these are usually the things that inspire us. Then, over time, our capacity to refine both the sound choices we make and how the musical structure of our tracks flows becomes more sophisticated. We’re great at picking up new techniques from the records we hear and, what with even the most basic DAWs offering native effects and sampling capabilities, the vocals we need can often be found on sample CDs. The time may come, however, when you suddenly find yourself humming a catchy hook over a new track. If the reason you haven’t yet taken the vocal recording plunge is because you aren’t quite sure how, this piece is dedicated to answering all the questions you ever wanted to ask about basic vocal recording.
Choosing a microphone Recording a vocal means borrowing or buying a microphone and, if you’re intending to do plenty of this kind of work, go for the latter, particularly as it’s possible to get hold of microphones capable of great results for a relatively small financial outlay. Microphones fall into two main categories: dynamic and condenser. There are several operational differences between the two which could easily eat up the entire word-count of this article so, briefly, the crucial point to consider is that condenser microphones tend to be a studio choice, whereas dynamic ones are favoured onstage. Condenser microphones require a power supply in order to work, which can either be provided by batteries or, more usefully, by phantom power, which is often indicated by a +48V button on a mic preamp or an audio interface. You might also consider the purchase of a pop shield, which is usually a circular guard which attaches to a microphone stand between the singer and the microphone and is designed to split up plosive “p” and “b” sounds which translate to unpleasant bass-y pops on your recordings. There is a huge range of microphones available in both categories but good places to start for those on a budget are, for dynamic microphones, the Shure SM5and Rode Mmodels and, for condenser microphones, the SE Electronics SE2000 and AKG’s Perception range. The other essential piece of gear you’ll need apart from your computer and host software is an audio interface, which will transfer your vocal recording to computer, via USB or firewire. Again, a huge range of models are available, with low-cost options from companies including M-Audio, Novation and Focusrite more than capable of doing a great job. Ideally, you’ll need to buy or borrow a microphone stand and get hold of a pair of nice-sounding, comfortable headphones too.
Recording Before you record, it’s a good idea to prepare your track for the addition of vocals. If your session has lots of plug-ins and effects running live, adding a real-time vocal is likely to tax your computer heavily and, as you want the session to run smoothly, minimize the risk of your computer’s CPU overloading by bouncing down a stereo backing track of your song. Then, open this file in a brand new session. You’ll be able to transfer the vocal performance back into your arrangement later, so don’t worry that you’ll be stuck with this mix.
XILS-lab XILS Vocoder 5000
This software emulation of the classic EMS 5000 Vocoder is one of the best-sounding vocoder plugins around.
It features a luxurious two-oscillator polysynth (based upon the classic EMS VCShardware synth), but you can also route in your own external carrier signal via the plug-in’s sidechain input if desired.
EMS 5000 Vocoder can be switched between 20-band and 22-band mode, plus its unique pin-based modulation matrix allows you to route and influence individual modulator and/or carrier bands for the ultimate in flexibility.
Sonic Charge Bitspeek
Based upon the ’80s Speak & Spell toys, this quirky plug-in uses linear prediction coding technology to analyse the pitch, timbral and level information of an incoming audio signal before ‘re-synthesizing’ these characteristics via its simple oscillator-noise-filter design.
Audio Ease Speakerphone 2
Speakerphone is “an impulse response-based speaker emulator” that allows you to virtually run signals through real-life devices such as retro amplifiers, mobile phones, speakers, transistor radios, turntables, headphones, TVs, or hundreds of other ‘sampled’ pieces of equipment.
Plogue Chipspeech
Tired of the traditional vocoder sound? This characterful speech synthesizer is designed to emulate several vintage ’80s voice chips.
Choose from seven different ‘characters’ (voice styles) including HAL 9000; after typing words into the front panel’s text box, MIDI notes tell the synth to sing each syllable in turn at the corresponding pitch, resulting in circuit-bent vocal-synth lines and robotic symphonies.
How to Get Your Vocal Effects Just Right
Effects are a great way to add personality to vocals, as well as highlight the singer’s strengths (and sometimes mask their weaknesses). But there is such a thing as overdoing it, and it happens a lot with novice mixing engineers and producers who get too excited about effects without really understanding how or when to use them. So, we’ve put together a guide on how to get your vocal effects just right — regardless of the style of music you’re making.
Make room for your effects
Just like how Foals took advantage of minimal instrumentation to crank up the reverb on the vocals, it’s smart to give room in your mix for vocal effects.
If you have a very crowded song with abrasive guitar and drums, it might not be a good idea to put a ton of delay on your vocals. The echo trails will clash with the instrumentation, muddy your mix, and essentially mask what each instrument is doing.
For example, in Kanye West’s “Black Skinhead,” there’s a busy and alarming instrumental with pounding drums, buzzing 808s, and tons of screaming. His vocals aren’t dry, though; there’s a short delay (the keyword here: short). Since the delay doesn’t trail, it gives him the spooky echo effect without flooding the mix with unnecessary vocal effects.
Whenever you’re using vocal effects beyond your standard compression and EQ, make sure the mix has room for those effects ; otherwise, they’re going to cloud everything else going on.
Mix in mono
Many mixers swear by working in mono, and there’s a reason why: it allows you to hear everything in its most vulnerable form.
Oftentimes, switching from stereo to mono exposes flaws in your mix — and sometimes it makes things that were present in stereo suddenly vanish in mono. Even if you don’t want to do your entire mix in mono, you should absolutely test your mixes in mono, especially your vocals.
Work with
This happens to every artist — they try to emulate their favorite musicians, and end up either sounding like a photocopy or just flat-out bad. Another scenario may be that your favorite artist writes in a different genre than you do, yet you try to emulate their vocal production.
If you make EDM and happen to be a lifelong Jeff Buckley admirer, you probably shouldn’t treat your vocals like his. Buckley often left his voice largely untouched, subjecting every note to scrutiny, and he pulled it off. But vocals like that on an EDM track are going to sound out of place. EDM calls for harmonizers, pitch effects, and large amounts of delay, reverb, and chorus to peacefully coexist with the electronic soundscape.
There’s nothing wrong with challenging genre norms, but it’s a good idea to use vocal effects that best suit your voice and your style of music.
Give yourself time to experiment
Most artists know what they like — they have their go-to effects in their back pocket at all times. But no matter how well you can master an effects rack, always challenge yourself to branch out.
For example, if you always leave your vocals in the center of the mix, try putting them on the outside. Or throw a flanger or a phaser on your vocal. Even if you don’t end up leaving it on for the whole song, find a section to make it work.
Bon Iver is a great example of an artist who isn’t afraid to present his voice with numerous different identities. Whether it’s bare and lo-fi on his standout hit, or entrenched in a massive AutoTune harmonizer like on “Woods,” he takes advantage of new ways to complement his voice.
There’s no right or wrong effect to put on your voice, so don’t be afraid to experiment and get creative.
Audiobooks can be a great way of “reading” while doing other things. The only problem is that free audiobooks are rather hard to come by. This list of online resources should help.
Read More )… either way, you can use Audacity to bring a hellish quality to proceedings.
It’s remarkably simple, too. Start off with three identical tracks (duplicate the first by selecting and hitting Ctrl+D) then rename them if it helps. Next, adjust the gain on the second and third tracks, then change the pitch. Do this by selecting the track, opening Effects > Change Pitch and setting the pitch for track to -5, and the pitch for track to -25.
Follow this with a further effect, selecting track and opening Effects > Echo and changing the Delay time to 0.1, then hitting OK. You should then select track again and open Effects > Gverb, leave the settings as they are, and click OK.
With track then selected, open Effects > Bass Boost and set Frequency to 200 and Boost to 16, and click OK. Again, use the video to help.
Multi Effects Floor Units
TC-Helicon currently produces multi-effects floor units aimed at different kinds of players. They’re mainly for people who play an instrument and sing, but they also have dedicated vocal units across their different product lines.
Credit
These two products are dream for any guitarist behind a mic. Both models offer over 500 presets, live looping, and a wide array of effects for your guitar and voice. The pitch correction and harmony features give you complete control over your vocal performance, and the guitar effects section features some of the most popular sounds from the TC Electronic guitar effects line.
You can create up to harmony parts and use pitch correction that ranges from subtle to robotic. While other floor units let you program sounds for your guitar and voice, these units let you control specific parameters live, like delay and harmonies, rather than just scrolling through presets.
The two most feature-heavy products in TC-Helicon’s product line differ in a few important ways. The VoiceLive Extreme offers hours of looping time with a limit of minutes per track; the VoiceLive gives you 4minutes of looping time. If you’re the kind of player who likes to improvise loops live, then the VoiceLive is probably adequate.
For musicians who like to save loops for flawless performances, the VoiceLive Extreme is probably more up your alley. The VoiceLive Extreme also allows you to automate effects by syncing to a prerecorded track, so that you don’t have to worry about stomping on switches while performing. On top of this, the VoiceLive Extreme can record your performance to a USB key in 24-bit audio.
RoomSense is also an amazing feature that’s included in the VoiceLive units. The devices include small microphones built into the unit that listen to chords being played in the room. The unit takes the information it hears to give you more accurate harmonies. This lets you play songs with key changes and accidentals without having to switch to a different preset.
Honestly, most musicians probably won’t need the additional features of the VoiceLive Extreme. It seems specifically geared towards professional musicians playing along with prerecorded tracks.
View on Sweetwater
The new Harmony Singer is a solution for singers who want harmonies, but don’t necessarily want pitch correction. This unit gives you two harmony voices that are controlled by a guitar. In addition to this, there are reverb settings and the tone option for compression, de-essing, and gate control; so this is a slightly less expensive version of the Harmony-G XT.
It lacks the guitar effects of the Harmony-G XT and some of the controls, but provides a lot of the basics. As of writing this, the Harmony Singer has not been released, so you may have a hard time finding it right now. It is, however, scheduled for a January 201release.
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Anyone who has ever grabbed a microphone and belted out some Bruce or Waylon in a bar knows he could do better with subtle tweaks in technique, acoustics or blood alcohol content.
Mobile apps can help tremendously, with software that can train vocalists, provide backing vocals and instrumental tracks or record performances for others to hear.
In this realm, aspiring crooners who are armed with Apple devices will have an edge against their Android-toting counterparts (which is true with many music-related app categories).
When you first turn on your new machine, you’ll want to want to adjust your sound levels.The easiest way to do this is to play a more familiar song at a loud and clear enough volume level. Make sure all of the equalizer sliders of the mixer in the neutral position.This will be the starting point of a little trial and error to find the optimal sound quality for the venue. Slowly adjust the switches to locate the lows and highs until you feel you have achieved the best sound. Make sure to set the reverb (echo) switch to a happy medium to create that stage effect without sounding like you are singing into a bucket.
List of Highly Rated Karaoke Machines 1. Rockville Youtube Karaoke Machine/System Are you looking for a karaoke machine that suitable for a larger venue such as a house party or event? The Rockville karaoke system is an affordable option for those who are looking for such a device.
Everything you need to get up and running with your favorite songs is included with this karaoke machine package, as long as you have a network connection and or songs prerecorded.
It comes with a wireless microphone system, great sounding speakers, and a powerful enough amplifier to enjoy all your favorite songs loud and clear in a crowd setting or at home on your own.
It’s as easy as connecting your smart device like your phone or tablet to this almost professional karaoke machine via its built-in Bluetooth. No wires are required to connect your sound device.
Number of footswitches
This is one of the most important features to consider because it affects how you will use the looper and what you will be able to do with it. Loops are created and controlled with footswitches, so generally speaking the more footswitches a looper has, the more control you will have.
The Ditto is an example of a looper with only one footswitch. This means functions such as record, play, stop, overdub and erase are all controlled with one footswitch. For example to record, you tap the footswitch once. To stop playback, you double-tap. To erase the loop, you hold the footswitch down. There are only so many functions that can be fit into one footswitch. While the Ditto can still do a lot, many guitarists find the single footswitch a big limitation.
Jump up to a looper such as the RC-300 (in the image earlier) and the extra footswitches give you far more control and flexibility. The RC-300 has footswitches and an expression pedal. A looper with that many footswitches means you can achieve far more and experience less limitations.
Keep in mind that while this makes it sound like you want a pedal with lots of footswitches, you may find that the right pedal for you only uses one or two footswitches for the features you want. So keep reading to find out which features are important to you.
External footswitches
Some pedals do give you the option of connecting external footswitches which give you a lot more control. Keep this in mind when comparing different pedals because the ability to connect another footswitch for more control can make a big difference to how easy a looper pedal is to use.
Loop length
The length of the loop the pedal can store will determine what you can do with your looper. The longer the length, the more options you have available. For most situations, almost all loopers have a long enough record time to be useful. Even many loopers built into multi-effects pedals (discussed later) have decent loop times.
To give you an idea, if you wanted to record a slow 1bar blues shuffle, it might take you around 30 seconds to play the 1bars depending on the tempo. If you wanted to record two repeats of the shuffle in one loop, you would want a loop time of around 60 seconds.
Multi-effects loopers
My general recommendation is to buy a standalone looper unless you want to have one single pedal to control everything for you. If you like the idea of having a multi-effects pedal to control your entire tone, save presets and deal with complicated rig switching, then this would be an ideal scenario. Otherwise, consider a standalone looper.
How to save up to 86%? Here is little trick.
You must visit the page of sales. Here is the link. If you don’t care about which brand is better, then you can choose the vocal processor by the price and buy from the one who will offer the greatest discount.
Final Word
First of all thanks for reading my article to the end! I hope you find my reviews listed here useful and that it allows you to make a proper comparison of what is best to fit your needs and budget. Don’t be afraid to try more than one product if your first pick doesn’t do the trick.
Most important, have fun and choose your vocal processor wisely! Good luck!
So, TOP3 of vocal processor
- №1 — Boss VE-20 Vocal Processor Multi Effects Pedal -INCLUDES- Blucoil Power Supply Slim AC/DC Adapter 9V DC 670mA with US Plug AND 10’ XLR Microphone Cable
- №2 — OMNIHIL AC/DC Adapter/Adaptor for Roland VT-3 Voice Transformer Vocal Effects Processor Power Supply Charger Cord
- №3 — TC Helicon VoiceTone Harmony-G XT Vocal Effects Processor
Questions? Leave a comment below!
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