I don't have the background experience to be able to do a comparative and well-informed review. Neither did I own any previous vocoder. The only similar tool I used was Plogue Alter/Ego which is a software tool that uses text-to-speech as the formant input. It's free and worth looking into.apauw wrote:Do you mind sharing your thoughts and impressions on the VP-03?
- Looks like the vocoder is quite clear (i.e. not mumbling).
- Strings and human voice sound nice.
If you have a Waldorf Streichfett, if so how do the strings compare?
6-note polyphony, how is the note-stealing, is it obvious or is it enough for normal usage?
Any other thought you want to share on this?
Thanks,
Albert
Here are my observations on my VP-03:
- Strings synth lovely
- Human Voice synth lovely too
- Really warm-sounding, and sound great when mixed together
- Just enough controls - what's needed for the purpose is there and I'm not feeling overwhelmed
- Thoughtful configuration options eg use of C2 for formant tweaking is useful for Vocoder, whilst use of C2 for modulation is useful for Strings/Human Voice synths
- Chord memory is a great addition, especially (I'd presume) enabling folks to use this device fairly easily and effectively in a live environment
- I'm finding myself leaving it permanently docked in the K-25m, where I didn't do this with my JP/JU/JX units; not sure what this means (possibly I'm doing this to make it easy to use the Vocoder aspect), but I do know the VP-03 is becoming a go-to device which I envisage using on most of my work
- I tend to control the Strings/Human Voice synths with my Casio CZ-5000 keyboard
- I've only experimented briefly with external carriers; I find the onboard carrier totally fine and the Vocoder works very well and, in answer to your question, very clear; personally I find it best when set at the default 8ve
- I think the best bit about it is that it does exactly what I want it to do...nothing more and nothing less...and feels like a very self-contained unit when paired with the K-25m.
- Most of all, I like the warm and very very useful sounds; I've listened with a critical ear to a lot of TV background music in the last few days and have been surprised at how many times I've thought "I could do all of that with a VP-03. Wonder are they using a VP-03 or VP-330?"
Hope this helps. Anything else, please let me know. I will also endeavour to re-record my song "Waiting For The Asteroid" (where I used an OP-1) swapping out all of the synth and Plogue parts for VP-03.
CB