As a songwriter/producer making my own music in my own studio, this piece of equipment is a solid addition - adding wonderful harmonies with exceptional ease. Definitely made for use with midi and solo applications. DigiTech's other choices include a non-midi vocalist for live performances, but for the songwriter/recordist, this is THE buy of the year!

I use this all the time on live gigs. I have it hooked to the midi out of my Roland GR 30 Guitar Synth. It reads the chords and does program changes. But if you play jazz, you should set it up NOT to read the bass note, or else a C9 will just give you a C7. Without the bass note it reads E min7 flat 5, which gives just the right harmonies. For a thirteen chord, be careful. It reads it as the major seven of the 7 which means the third is raised to a fourth. It does work, but just barely. I use a Crown headset mic with expansion/gating and compression so I have no problem with bleeding of other instruments. But I've also used it without processing with a regular mic and it works fine. I've used this with my trumpet and trombone player and it really sounds nice most of the time, especially with the 'bone. For vocals make sure the lead isn't too soft compared with the harmonies. When they are too loud, they sound a bit like Micky Mouse. I find it works better with male voices than females. My one complaint...I wish it were half rack instead of full.

I play acoustic guitar and wanted a unit to go in my rack. I don't use midi....big mistake,I bought the wrong one. The VR has menus that you scroll through on the front panel an small LCD. A hassle to control manually.

If you don't use midi...go for the performer. The unit sounds great and does all the tricks. Just pick the right one.

A little more explanation could be provided in the Instructions Manual regarding SETUP (hookup) with Mixers. Explanation on how to set Presets is not very clear to amateur musicians.

I had one of these. When I tried using it in a live situation on my vocal mic, it made lots of "harmony" noise because it was harmonizing the entire band. Anything that the vocal mic was picking up, this thing was adding harmony and harmonics to it. Did you ever hear a bass line harmonized?... not a pleasant sound. At this 'not so economic' price, this unit should include an internal gate, to prevent everything else from being harmonized. So, if you buy one of these, get ready to buy a gate (or gate/compressor combo), because you will need it!! Then you'd better set the gate high enough and be sure that no other sounds but your vocals are entering into the mic. This product is NOT useful in live situations!!!