DigiTech Vocalist LIVE 5 Vocal Harmony and Effects Processor  

The only reason I didn't give this a 10, it would be great if you could use a keyboard in addition to a guitar. Having said that, there is nothing negative that I can think of concerning this product. Mine was purchased when they first came out, and I had to wait 6 months to receive it. Once received, I didn't mind the backorder in the least bit since I was so blown away by what it could do. Several months went by before I discovered certain solo presets, one allowing me to sing as low as any bass singer you can think of. The presets are so great, that I have done very little tweaking on my own. User friendly is not good enough to describe the use of this effects processor. In fact, I left it in the box for 2 weeks before I opened it due to the fear of not knowing how to use it. All you have to do is hook it up, then scroll through the presets to find a sound your looking for. Even though the processor doesn't use their name on the preset. It doesn't take a great deal to know that it is the tight harmony of the Eagles. There are so many things you can do with this processor, I don't have the time nor memory to think of all of the features. If you are a solo singer who plays  and sings without backup vocals, YOU NEED THIS. If your a band that has no harmony singers for the person up front. Not only will it improve your vocals, it will improve your band. However, don't make the mistake and use more than one person singing through this processor. Keep in mind, the vocals you hear are all yours stacked up and down. If the lead vocal goes off pitch, all of the other vocal parts go off also. There is a pitch correction, but sometimes we go off so badly that nothing can help. If your wanting to make those your playing in front of think the whole band is singing when they can't. You would be better to have all the mics off but the lead singer, and have the other band members lip sink. The only people who would know that the harmony wasn't coming from the whole group, and a processor was being used. Would be someone like me who has played music for more than 45 years, and has a recording studio. Please listen when I tell you this, because it really sounds bad when several people are singing through this effects pedal. The solo pedal also has many things you can do to improve your vocals, or make them sound like a robot or some other creature. At the same time, it can make a metal singer have more scream in their vocals, more blues in a blues singer, and the list goes on. If something happened to my processor today, I would purchase another one within a couple of days. Out of all of the high dollar equipment I have (guitars, amps, recorders, keyboards, drums, etc), this one makes more of a difference than all of the others. For example; A song may call for a Gibson LP over my Marshall JVM410H half stack. Even so, I could get my PRS McCarty with some pedals and use my Fender Twin Reverb if I had to. Yes, I would loose some punch or other type of sound, but I could make it work. However, there is no way I can come up with 4 backup vocals at 2am on Monday night. As my title stated, this product is a must for any individual needing harmony with their singing

I have mine for a few years and have not had the first problem out of it.

It may seem high in price, but when you consider that a high quality guitar or amp will cost over 2 or 3 thousands dollars each. This is a small price to pay for the amount of music it will bring into your life.

I've already expressed more than most will care to read on how well I like this product.

The jury is still out until I learn how to use this thing.

I've been using a VL 2 pedal for about three years and have been very happy with the performance in live gigs. The harmonies are great and its easy to set up and use thanks to the clear buttons and large pedal switches. After reading the features and specs on the VL 3 and 5 models I had to have one. In particular, I was looking for more voices, the humanizing effect and being able to add female voices to the mix.

I bought the 5 for myself last week and am absolutely lost! I read the manual cover to cover but am still in the dark as to how to hook up an external volume or expression pedal.

The selection of voice combinations is amazing but you must preset everything, ie. you cannot simply push buttons to set them up as you could on the VL2. Some of the presets are nice but most are not labeled as to which voices are included, (Example: 2 above / 1 below, etc.) so you have to memorize the names of multiple settings.

I rehearsed this weekend with my group and kept hitting the wrong button thanks to the tiny silver switches that replaced the large black plastic ones.

I've got a Vocal 300 pedal and think I will try to use it to control reverb, compression and volume and use the VL5 strictly for harmonies just to keep things straight when I'm performing.

I'm going to look for some help on operating this thing on the internet. Like the GNX4 unit, you really need to take a class to be able to use it.

If its like the VL2, it should be fine.