Figuring out the best vocal harmonizer pedal to add to your guitar effect pedal collection is tough. There are a ton of different pedals out that will all add a unique sound to your tone.
Vocalizers are fun effects to play around with and test out new sounds because they take your guitar and microphone outputs and blend them together. This makes a harmony that kind of follows the mood of the sound. It also adds a pretty interesting texture to your tone as well.
A couple things to look for in a vocalizer pedal is the number of harmonies and effects that it offers. Some pedals are simplistic and only offer a few different options while other have huge banks. Also, check out the modes to see which ones will work for you style of playing.
Let’s jump in and start reviewing the top vocal harmonizing effect pedals on the market today!
Click Below to Compare the Top Vocal Harmony Effects Pedals
Contents
- 1 Click Below to Compare the Top Vocal Harmony Effects Pedals
- 2 What We Recommend and Why
Here is a list of the best voice harmonizer pedals to add to your acoustic pedal board and bring your live performances to the next level.
- TC Helicon Play Acoustic Vocal Effects Processor
- Electro-Harmonix Voice Box Harmony Machine and Vocoder
- Boss VE-8 Acoustic Singer
- TC-Helicon Harmony Singer
- TC Helicon VoiceTone Harmony-G XT Vocal Effects Processor
- Boss VE-2 Vocal Harmonist Pedal
- Digitech Vocalist Live Harmony
TC Helicon Play Acoustic Vocal Effects Processor
Specs, features, and benefits
The Play Acoustic by TC Helicon is perfect for singer-songwriters, and pretty much everyone that gigs with an acoustic guitar and microphone. The pedal provides great sound both for your guitar and for your voice. The guitar section basically contains three popular pedals from TC Helicon, Flashback Delay, Corona Chorus, and Hall of Fame Reverb. It also contains a bunch of other features, like the BodyRez mode for example, which is a mode using EQ filters to improve your guitar sound going in the amp. You can find the tuner very easily too.
With the Vocal section, you can use these effects: harmonizer, reverb, delay, compression, EQ, delay, gating, etc.
The pedal is very intuitive and simple to use, you can find two footswitches – Up/Down for scrolling through the presets, and one footswitch for the Tuner, which also, can be used as a Tap Tempo. There is a big LCD display in the center of the pedal and around it, are the dedicated buttons for setting the effects for the Acoustic guitar and the Vocals.
The pedal can be connected with the VoiceSupport app via USB cable, for placing new presets and updates. On the back panel, you can find dedicated inputs/outputs for your guitar and microphone, aux in, headphones out, and an additional pedal input. It also contains integrated looper, which makes it even more desirable. The key of your vocal harmonies is driven by either your guitar or by the aux.
Pros and Highlights
- Easy to use – The Play Acoustic is intuitive as it can get, after messing around with it for an hour, you will be able to find all the features and use them to your liking.
- Versatile – This pedal offers a ton of features…
- Great Sound Quality – This unit works great both live and in the studio. You won’t be disappointed
Cons and Potential Flaws
- Poor hardware quality, stops working after a short period of usage, broken knobs – Many owners of this product reported having these issues after a short time of usage
Bottom line
The TC Helicon Play Acoustic sure has some interesting features; it’s compact and versatile. However, many players have reported issues with this pedal, after a short period of usage.
It takes some time to master it, but not too much. It’s pretty intuitive. Well, there are better options for sure, and you can continue reading about them. If you want to buy a Play Acoustic, we encourage you to try it first at your local guitar store.
Electro-Harmonix Voice Box Harmony Machine and Vocoder
Specs, features, and benefits
The Voice Box Harmony Machine by Electro-Harmonix is truly a great tool for your singing. It is simple to operate and provides just what you need as a singer – harmonies and vocoding.
The pedal has two footswitches – bypass mic and presets. On the top of the pedal, you can find the control knobs for tweaking: Blend, Dry and Harmony Reverb, Gender Bender, Voice Mix, and Mode.
You can basically choose from these modes: Low Harmony, High Harmony, Low+High, Multi Harmony 1, Multi Harmony 2, Multi Harmony 3, Octaves, Unison + Whistle, and Vocoder.
It also has a gain switch for the microphone on the pedal. The Voice Box is pretty simple to operate in comparison with the other harmonizer pedals. The unit follows the harmonies you are playing on your instrument and the notes that you are singing.
Pros and Highlights
- Gets the job done – The pedal has nine presets, which you can tweak with the knobs to your liking. You can do the whole Bohemian Rhapsody with just you singing!
- Sturdily built – This pedal is built to last for years of usage
- High quality – This pedal provides one of the best results in the world of vocal harmonizers.
Cons and Potential Flaws
- Lack of versatility – Well, you won’t get all the vocal effects in the world with this pedal. However, this unit stands for harmonizer and vocoder, and that is exactly what it provides, this is not an all-in-one signal processor.
Bottom line
If you are just like me, and you want simple pedals that will get the job done, the Voice Box by Electro-Harmonix might work for you. If you are looking for something more fancier, that you can get lost with it, keep on reading.
The Voice Box is a simple-to-use pedal, it gets the job done, it’s pretty affordable and it has decent sound quality.
Boss VE-8 Acoustic Singer
Specs, features, and benefits
The Boss VE-8 Acoustic Singer is a great tool for the traveling busker, one-man show, singer-songwriter types of musicians. It has all you will need to make your voice and acoustic guitar sound amazing.
The pedal has three sections, on the left side is the guitar section, in the middle – the vocal, and on the right side is the looper, the control knobs for the output levels, the display and the presets bank. There are three footswitches on the bottom of the pedal. The Chorus and Harmony footswitches are multifunctional; they can activate the memory mode or engage the built-in tuner. The third footswitch (on the right side) is for the looper. The looper has eighty seconds of record time.
In the guitar section you can find four control knobs (and buttons below them): Acoustic Resonance (Shape), Reverb (type), Notch (Phase), and Chorus (Type).
The Vocal section is divided into two sections. On the top, you can find the control knobs with their buttons below: Enhance (Correct), and Reverb (Type).
On the bottom of the Vocal cluster is the Harmony section with the rotary “Type” knob for vocal harmonies and effects, with the Auto button below, and Level control knob (Key).
On the back panel, the pedal has multiple inputs and outputs for the guitar, the microphone, aux in, headphones out, footswitch input, and USB port. The unit can work on a power adapter or with six AA batteries.
Pros and Highlights
- Rock solid case – Boss is famous for making their pedals last for centuries
- Versatile – With the ton of features, the Boss VE-8 can serve well both in the studio and on stage. It’s a great tool for the one-man band type of musician
- User-friendly – Although it might look confusing, this unit is pretty easy to use
Cons and Potential Flaws
- The looper is not the greatest out there- The double-stomp for stopping the loop is not the greatest idea Boss has offered so far, and there is no undo.
Bottom line
The Boss VE-8 might be a great pedal for the acoustic guitar-and-vocals type of musician. Many of the users love it and say it has a great tone. Some of the players find it hard to deal with this unit, and we recommend carefully reading the manual for this cause. There are some cons. For example, the looper is not a top-notch one, the USB port does not separate the channels when imported in a DAW, there might be a hum with some of the effects.
We strongly recommend that you should try it before you buy it.
TC-Helicon Harmony Singer
Specs, features, and benefits
The TC-Helicon Harmony Singer is one of the most compact harmonizers on the market. It’s really small compared to other pedals with this effect, but in terms of quality is one of the best on the market.
On the pedal, there are three control knobs. The first one, on the left side of the pedal, lets you choose from the type of harmony you want to engage. The one in the middle is a Level control knob, and the one on the right side of the pedal is Reverb. Just below the Reverb control knob, you have the Tone button.
This pedal follows your guitar chords for channeling the harmonies.
On the left and right panels are the input and output for your guitar. And on the front panel, you can find your input/output for the microphone, power adapter input, on/off switch, and a USB port.
Pros and Highlights
- Compact – This is a really small pedal for a harmonizer; it fits perfectly in a pedalboard.
- Easy to operate – Unlike all the other pedals, this is a plug & play pedal, it takes seconds to master it!
- Nice sounding – Simple and small as it is, it might confuse you. However, this is a great sounding harmonizer.
Cons and Potential Flaws
- Cheap made – Some of the users have reported that the pedal stopped working after short time-period of usage.
Bottom line
The TC-Helicon Harmony Singer is one of the most easily operated harmonizer pedals. It’s small and compact. It’s pretty affordable in comparison with the other pedals in this list and sounds nice. Many users reported having issues with it after some time of using it, like noise or distortion coming out of the pedals, and some even reported that the pedal died.
However, the majority of the owners is completely satisfied and is strongly recommending this pedal.
TC Helicon VoiceTone Harmony-G XT Vocal Effects Processor
Specs, features, and benefits
As you already noticed from this list, TC-Helicon is the number one company in the harmonizer pedals race, and the VoiceTone Harmony-G XT pedal is truly one of the best in their wide pallet of vocal harmonizers. It may look confusing at first glance, but this pedal is fairly simple to use. It’s packed up with the most powerful processor up till now and has all the features you would want a harmonizer to have.
It has a set of harmonies you can choose from, reverb and delay effects, and you can store up to ten presets of your liking.
On the pedal, you can find these control knobs: Input, Guitar, FX, and Harmony.
There are also these buttons: Tone, Preset, Manual, Double, FX, Voice I, and Voice II.
The operating on this pedal is pretty easy and straightforward, TC-Helicon made sure to make this pedal as simple as it can possibly get.
The inputs and outputs for your guitar and microphone, as well as the power input and USB-port, are on the back panel of the pedal.
Pros and Highlights
- Straight-forward – This unit is pretty intuitive and straight-forward, meaning you will just have to mess around it for a while to know how to operate it
- Presets – You can change the preset you are using on the fly. Sometimes we musicians like to do this in the middle of the song, and this pedal can offer you to do so.
- Great sound quality
Cons and Potential Flaws
- Not very durable – Just like all the other TC Helicon products in this list, many players reported having a dead pedal after short time-period of usage. TC-Helicon, please read this!!!
Bottom line
TC-Helicon tried to get to the core of the harmonizers and put together the most important ones in a pedal. While some users are completely satisfied and are highly recommending this pedal, others are disappointed with the quality of it. We suggest that you should try it before you buy it. Some users reported that this pedal is working wonders for their singing!
Boss VE-2 Vocal Harmonist Pedal
Specs, features, and benefits
The build quality of this pedal is the standard Boss products – rock solid! This time, they tried to put together a harmonizer pedal with just the core effects.
On the pedal, there are three control knobs for tweaking your harmony: Balance, Type of Harmony, and Key. Right next to the key is a button that says “Auto Harmonist”, which will basically follow your guitar for finding the key and harmonize. On the left side of the pedal, you can find a control knob that lets you add Reverb or Delay, or both effects at the same time. Right next to it, there is an “Enhance” button, which is basically an EQ, that will make your vocals more crispy-like sounding, or with pressing two times on it, it will activate auto-tune.
Next to “Enhance”, is the “Variation” button, which adds a kind of wider sound to your vocal. And finally, there is the “Memory” button on the right side, with which you can store your presets. On the back panel are the inputs and outputs, as well as the input level control knob. You can connect this piece via the USB port on the back too!
Pros and Highlights
- Compact
- High quality – Boss is famous for its durable and decent quality products
- Gets the job done – This pedal will get the job done. It’s not so versatile as other harmonizer pedals on this list but will work as described.
Cons and Potential Flaws
- Limited control – The Boss VE-2 has the essentials for a harmonizer pedal and you can tweak your sound as much as you would on some other units on this list
Bottom line
The Boss VE-2 pedal is a harmonizer that doesn’t have all the fancy features like some other harmonizers, but it still has the essentials. And that’s good in a way; you won’t get distracted or lost with a ton of features. It is durable, like all the products from Boss are.
This pedal is also pretty affordable in comparison with others. Won’t break the bank.
Still, we recommend that you should try it before you buy it. Many owners love it, while others think it’s lacking a lot.
Digitech Vocalist Live Harmony
Specs, features, and benefits
The Digitech VLHM Processor is truly one of the most versatile – rich with features Vocal effects processor. You can set your song list right in this unit!
It is packed up with these effects: reverb, delay, pitch filter, distortion, modulation, and of course – harmony. You can add two additional vocals in your performance.
The pedal is intuitive as it can get! This is due to the dbx Automatic Feedback Suppression, the Lexicon Reverb, dbx compression, etc. The Vocalist uses great new technology to ensure your performance flow without any flaw. The Live Adapt Effects Control will suppress any unwanted bleeding, and will never ruin your performance (like some harmonizers can) with messing up the sound you set.
In the Center of the pedal lays the LCD display, and there are control knobs and buttons for every feature on the pedal, making it very easy to operate. The pedal also contains a looper with seventy seconds of recording time.
On the back panel you can find the inputs and outputs, USB port, aux in, headphones out, the Input gain control knob, and the footswitch input.
Pros and Highlights
- Intuitive – This pedal is intuitive and simple to use as it can get, you can plug & play right away. If you want to dig a bit deeper, there is eighty pages manual, describing every feature on the pedal!
- High-Quality Sound – The Digitech Vocalist is one of the best sounding (probably THE best) vocal effects processors on the market!
- Amazing performance – The Live Adapt feature in the pedal provides flawless performance in any surrounding, dealing with all the crazy stuff that happens on stage.
Cons and Potential Flaws
- Cutting off – Some players reported the unit cut off during the performance.
This might not be a common thing, but we still advise that you should try the pedal before buying it.
Bottom line
The Digitech Vocalist Live Harmony is a great harmonizer pedal. It thrives on stage!
Sounds professional, it’s fairly simple to operate and has a ton of features.
The Live Adapt feature is one of the greatest things ever; it won’t disappoint you on stage. Some players reported the pedal having cut-offs during a performance, but hey, there is always a chance to get a dud in the pedal world. This is not so common, but we encourage you to try it before you buy it. All in all, a great unit!
What We Recommend and Why
We strongly recommend trying before buying. However, the TC Helicon Play Acoustic deserves the highest possible spot in this list, and we recommend it. It contains the best technology that will make your performance flawless, and it’s very intuitive and easy to operate. Good luck!
