Vocoders:EHX Voice Box or V256

A friend of mine who is an EH dealer had the Voice Box and sold it but it was pretty cool. It was used for various cover songs. He mostly used the Vocoder section. I think he was gonna get a V256 but just hasnt placed the order yet.

Thats as much "first hand" second hand info I have for ya.

 

I went with the V256 because I wanted the autotune feature and it seemed to be the choice for that. It has a lot of possabilities but I have not had a chance to really experiment with it as most of my gear stays at our rehearsal space and I only get to use it when we're live or don't have a lot of time.

If you want to sound like a robot, it will do it in spades! My next mission is to dial it in for "two turntables and a microphone" robot voice in Beck's Where It's At. The quick time I spent with it under instrument control was strange in that I expected the effect to come through the PA but it came through my amp. Maybe that is just how it works or maybe I didn't set it up correctly but it won't work well for me in that capacity. I'm not overly impressed with the documentation but it's probably better to experiment and figure it out as you go.

The one other thing I can add is that the preamp on the 256 is HOT even at the low setting. If you get it, set the gain on your mixer accordingly before you turn it on. Robotic tinged feedback is potentially very painful.

 

I quite like the look of the voicebox myself (thatJackConte demo is sooooo cool) but the new Iron Lung looks cool:

http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/eh/nano/ironlung

 

If you just want vocoder and some autotune function get the V256. If you want a simple vocoder and a bunch of harmony functions, get the Voice Box.

 

The harmonies on the voicebox barely work. Definitely get the v256.

 

boss ve-20? have you seen this vocal processor yet?