The Voco-Loco is a preamp and effects loop pedal that will let instrumentalists and vocalists integrate guitar effects pedals into their signal path.

Radial Engineering Ltd worked with instrumentalist Vince Mai to highlight the pedal's effect chaining possibilities.

The Voco-Loco lets you add various effects such as delay, chorus, reverb or distortion, and is easily accessible by simply stepping on a simple footswitch. This brings a myriad of new sound palettes for vocalists, brass instrumentalists and harmonica players.

Vince Mai, an award winning instrumentalist, composer and producer, has integrated the Voco-Loco into his rig and shows just a few of the many effect combinations possible.

He was quoted saying: "I'm really gassed about the Voco-Loco because it is changing the way I approach electronics with my horn. As a horn player... the primary thing we work on is our personal sound..we are very attached to how we sound. If you use effects sometimes, what happens is your sound degrades if you go directly into the effects units. What the Voco-Loco does for me is allow for my true sound to be sent through the system, processed and mixed in the degree that I want it be."

Check out how Vince Mai put effects like the Cry Baby Wah to good use:

The pedal starts with a preamp section that delivers over 60dB of gain, more than enough to integrate any type of microphone. It also has a 48V phantom power generator for using condenser mics. The preamp section is designed to work well with virtually all vocal styles and mic'ed instruments.

Aside from improved compatibility, the pedal features Radial Engineering's Accustate level control, which automatically sets the gain and sensitivity via a dual wafer potentiometer for improved signal-to-noise. Basic two band shelving EQ is provided for accentuating the low and high frequencies.

What makes the pedal more useful than other preamps is its built-in effects loop section with standard 1/4" jacks optimized for guitar pedals. This will let you integrate various effect pedals to your sound, and gives you full-control over the signal level and mixing.

Radial equipped the pedal with independent send and receive level knobs, which you can tweak to optimize your signal path and reduce unwanted signal distortion. Further tone shaping is provided by a tone control on the return path, useful for taming bright pedals. A wet/dry blend control lets you mix as much of the effect as you want. The Voco-Loco's output is fully balanced and able to drive a typical mixing console input.

The pedal features two footswitches, the right hand footswitch engages the effects loops while the left-hand footswitch mutes the Voco-Loco output. You can assign the left-hand footswitch as the on-off switch for the loop, bypassing the wet/dry function. There is also a 180°polarity reverse switch that ensures phase correctness with the original signal when the wet/dry blend is in use.

Finally, all these features are secured inside a tough metal chassis that measures 5" x 7". The Voco-Loco pedal is now available and is currently retailing for $300. Visit Radial Engineering for more information.

Related Articles:
Different microphone types explained
Five New Radial Engineering Gear at NAMM 2014