BOSS VE Series Vocal Effects

BOSS Effects for Singers: A Short History of BOSS Vocal Effects

The BOSS brand may mean different things to different people, but one thing is certain — all guitarists associate BOSS with brightly coloured stompboxes and quality multi-effects.

In 2001 BOSS forged a new reputation when the first Loop Station, RC-20, was released and have since become the global standard in live looping devices for performing musicians everywhere. More recently, with range of WAZA amps and KATANA amps, BOSS is now known for quality guitar amplifiers. Some players also know BOSS for professional tools such as the advanced ES effects switching systems.

So, what about vocalists? This article provides a concise history of BOSS vocal products — when they were released, what the intention was, and how they were used.

BACKGROUND

In 1985, 9 years after launching the first BOSS pedal, CE-1 Chorus, BOSS entered the pro-audio market by releasing a series of half-size rack units that are now known as the Micro Rack Series. The range consisted of 14 different units (including the power supply) and now, more than 30 years later, there is still significant interest in these units on second-hand marketplace sites. The Micro Rack Series was popular amongst guitarists of the time, however, three of them also found their way into the hands of vocalists; the RCL-10 Compressor, the RRV-10 Digital Reverb & the RDD-10 Digital Delay, and this didn’t go unnoticed by BOSS.

A few years later, in 1988, BOSS had a massive win when released the now legendary ME-5 Guitar Multiple Effects. As with the earlier Micro Rack Series effects, some artists used the ME-5 solely as a vocal effects processor — and BOSS received more than a few requests to make a dedicated vocal version!

The first response came two years later when in 1990, BOSS ‘PRO’ released the SE-50 Stereo Effects Processor (again, in a half-rack format), and it was a big hit. In the 90’s, multi-track recording had found its way into many home studios and the SE-50 was often a staple piece of gear, as it was not only loved by guitarists — but also valued by singers and producers alike. Aside from all the usual effects for guitar, the SE-50 had a number of additional effects that were specifically designed for vocals, like the ‘Vocal Multi’, a stereo series of effects made up by a limiter, enhancer, noise suppressor, delay, chorus and reverb.

The next product for vocalists came just one year later and was an unexpected one, aimed squarely at DJ’s, synth lovers and/or creative musicians who wanted something different and unusual. The BOSS VT-1 Voice Transformer was a unique device designed for altering and effecting the human voice. Now a cult classic, it had a vocoder, harmonizer and reverb, with 4 preset memory locations. It provided everything from voice “thickening” to a full ±1 octave pitch shift, but the most interesting feature, and the one that got the most attention, were the separate controls for both pitch and formant, so the user’s voice can be altered without the “chipmunk” effect — and could even be used to change a vocal gender.

Following on from the success of the VT-1, BOSS decided to concentrate on making effects specifically designed for vocalists, all engineered from the ground up.

This series of products was to be called Vocal Effects, simplified to ‘VE’. Once BOSS had decided on this direction, there were still a number of factors the engineers need to consider; in addition to designing all the effect algorithms, BOSS needed to decide on the format of the first VE product — How big did it need to be? How many buttons and knobs should there be? At what point are there too many?

Interestingly, the first BOSS Vocal Effects drawing had many knobs & switches for many sorts of instant functionality. On the other hand, research had shown that a lot of pure vocalists are not familiar with deep technical knowledge of effects and the intent had been for something simple to use that didn’t require deep “menu-diving”. Ironically, although having a lot of knobs and dials actually achieved this intent, it made the product look complicated, and BOSS were concerned by its intimidating layout. So, BOSS renewed the focus to achieve the right balance between simplicity, functionality and looks. BOSS ended up with the concept of a ‘Sound’ knob in the centre of the product which quickly and easily selects the pre-set sound. From an engineer’s perspective, it was a brave decision as this simplistic approach had never been tried before, however, history now tells BOSS it was a very good decision indeed.

All of this development work eventually manifested as the VE-20 Vocal Performer twin pedal, released in 2009. It was the birth of an entirely new Vocal Effects ‘VE’ series of products from BOSS that perfectly combined functionality with simplicity.