The difference is hard to tell. I own a V256 since a couple of days now, and it’s a vocoder and harmonizer as well. The V256 has MIDI in, which the voicebox has not. The midi in allows you to play the internal synth of the V256. This internal synth cannot be isolated (so in fact, you don’t hear the synth), but it is internally used to modulate on the voice (vocoding) or for note-tracking and harmonizing.

The voicebox / V256 overlap in functionality as far as I can tell. There is a thin line between vocoding and harmonizing. Maybe the V256 is more focussed on vocoding.

I used an external synth (novation A-station) as input (carrier) for the vocoder, and then you have the ultimate control over the sound of the vocoder: The external synth AND the knobs on the V256 can be used to create the most extreme effects.

It’s a pitty that the V256 has only a mono output, so when used to harmonize, all the voices are mono. Obviously, an external chorus/reverb can be used to finish the sound. (the voicebox had a built in reverb).

Matt Berry? …… the actor?

Nah, I think you’d find there are cool and not cool people here, the same as anywhere in the world….. and although small (compaired to the USA) it’s quite different from county to county, London isn’t really representative of most of the UK.

ask Fender&ehx;what he thinks, he’s been over for a week.

Hey all, I owned the voice box for a while now and recently got the v256. I use them both in a live setting.

Voice box – love the vocoder on here. I find the other features pretty useless. The harmonizer functions are cool in theory but tend to hesitate on locking in your harmonic structure (which can sound pretty bad to the perfectionist). Its impressive technology, but not impressive enough for a live performance. The Vocoder however is great. It’s easy to use and if you have even just a decent sounding patch running inst thru, it sounds great. Personally I kind of like that robotic characteristic. It feels and sounds powerful.

v256 – Not as familiar but 1st impressions: Has everyone forgotten the reflex tune function? Maybe I’m being over-dramatic but the autotune is fantastic, crisp, and has a lot of cool parameters you can set. Most importantly, how quickly it snaps (and the gender-bender can really give some canvases to play on). I could go on about the autotune since thats the main reason I bought it, but I know this forum is more concerned with the vocoder functionality. — The vocoder on here is a lot more complex but follows the same basic principals (user wise). I don’t quite understand 8 bands vs. 256 bands but in the one show I used it, the v256 vocoder was overpowering and kind of muddy. I think I need to spend more time with it to set it up correctly so don’t take this as a gospel by any means. Excellent feature of it is that you can store 3 vocoder presets which leads me to believe that you really have more control over this vocoder than I have yet to understand. I only used the midi functionality briefly but didn’t really understand it (anyone have a quick user guide for midi?). I plan on using it in conjunction with an axiom 25 and mainstage 2.

Biggest beef – v256 has no reverb and that sucks. I would love to switch away from the voice box altogether as I am trying to keep my equipment minimal, but I absolutely need reverb and lots of it, so I will keep both in my arsenal for now.