Going to buy it if and only if...

Hi Parsifal,

I am new to this forum and I own the VP-770. So here are the answers some of your questions:
-yes the VP can create auto-harmony lines based on the chords that you play on the keyboard. However, the detection has a little latency so the harmony can be slow responding for quick chord changes.
-Yes you can split the keyboard the way you described.
-I haven't tried connecting it to an external keyboard (and probably not planning to do so in the near future), so it's beyond me.

Hope that helps.

By the way, is it just me or is VP-770 rather unpopular comparing to other gears? VP-770 is 2nd to last in terms of message count here at the forums, beating only the AX-synth (which is a cool instrument).

-The VP-770 is not available (Aug 2009) on most dealers to try out. (nobody wants to buy it without playing it first)
-The VP-770 is overpriced.
-The VP-770 is NOT your primary keyboard(very small range of keys)
-The VP-770 is designed mainly for vocal performances.
Therefore it is never going to be popular like other Roland keyboards.

Dear Cheungaryk

welcome to becoming a VP-770 owner.

It is such a wonderful instument. The 49 note keyboard makes sure that instruments are played in the respective "correct" position {especially the solo instruments}, including for the full vocal range of the "normal" human voices {although one can "transpose" up or down the whole instrument an octave at a time}.

On the 19th July 2009 in one of the Sunday Papers from Sydney (Australia) was a photo of James Morrison playing a VP-770 at The Basement. [He is a top jazz player - not normally a vocalist, but then this keyboard gives the best of both worlds.]

I have personally used it as the "only" instrument using the ensemble and then adding the "choir" singing. As well as changing the ensemble instruments "live".

Those people that I have shown mine to, agree that it is real "value for money", fo teh sound and for what one has under the hood.

I do not feel that a lot of musicians really understand what the VP-770 can do, in that it is more than a "glorified vocoder" with "real" choir samples {from the small "male and female"; "pop"; "backing"; "Gospel"; to the large "classic" choirs PLUS modern and vintage vocoder sounds} and then there are the Ensemble samples and the D Beam etc. With the ability to "change" the registrations/banks for easy selecting during performance. Suitable for any musical style [probably only limited by the player].

regards
Paul Weathersten
"Down Under"

Dear Motumbok,

You have a point there, and thanks for still sticking around to the VP-770 forum, despite your criticisms.

-The VP-770 is not available (Aug 2009) on most dealers to try out. (nobody wants to buy it without playing it first)
I haven't seen the VP-770 around in the local music stores around me, either. Personally, I think the idea of putting it in the stores is a little scary, since this board is just TOO fun to play with, unlike other vocoders. I got bored playing with a Microkorg xl in less than 10 minutes, but I can play on my VP-770 all day long. I am serious. Actually, I didn't try it before I make the purchase either, I bought it from Nova Musik at a special price, and I am happy with my purchase.

-The VP-770 is overpriced.
I do not know whether the VP-770 is overpriced or not judging from its unique features, but $2000 USD sure is a lot of money. To be honest, I might not have gotten this keyboard (might have gone for the Juno Stage instead) if not for the special deal that I had.

-The VP-770 is NOT your primary keyboard(very small range of keys)
I don't see why the VP-770 can't be a primary keyboard or the ONLY keyboard, in certain genres. Yes it only has 49 keys, but I think it's good enough for what it does, plus it's more portable that way so it's easier to carry around.

-The VP-770 is designed mainly for vocal performances.
Yes I agree, and that's exactly the point of this keyboard!

Sometimes I would like to think that I am one of the few people in this world who owns a VP-770 and it makes me feel...special.


Paul,

I agree that it's more than a "glorified vocoder". I compared the VP-770 to the previous model VP-550, and immediately I see a lot of added features: Better sound engine, more patches, USB host, auto harmony...and many more. So if anybody thinks that it's merely a better-sounding VP-550, he/she is completely wrong.

I've done a lot of internet research before and found very little on the VP-770. Not a lot of videos or audio samples, either, and even most of the ones that are up do not thoroughly represent what the VP-770 can do. There's a demonstration video by Adrian Scott and Satoru Hoshino that is pretty informative, actually, so I highly recommend you guys watch this: part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEE9EmzZQcE.
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvKFuZvjG34
part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2rlxruKriE

Dear Cheungaryk,

Firstly, thank you very much for posting the Video Demonstrations / Video Manual {it makes a great improvement on the first footage released back in January 2009} and this makes it so much "easier" to explain to those, on this forum, who are asking questions concerning the VP-770.

The "Play Like Your Singing" [part One] showing some of the "preset sounds" combinations {in the "sound review": Classic Vocal Designer with Harp; The Gospel Vocal Designer with Ac.Piano; Background Vocal Designer with Bell Pad; Vocoder Vocal Deigner with Nylon Guitar;} Part Two -- looking at advanced features like Roland's SuperNatural Technology with Strings and Brass; the bass and percussion from the keys on the bottom end of the keyboard; the Sound Looper; the Audio Key. Part Three summarising the "full power" as Adrian says of the VP-770. So "let's play like your singing".

Even check out some of the peformances on the VP-770 that the Roland Channel features on YouTube for inspiration.

I feel that these videos are very helpful. It doesn't matter how many time some one reads the written manual, once you "see" what others can do it will inspire.

For myself, I also own the VP-330 {from late 1970's} and so a mamoth "improvement".

regards
Paul Weathersten
"Down Under"

Thanks a lot for everybody's info... Although I've been on the brink on getting a VP, now I have the chance of getting a second-hand fantom G for only 1000 euros... and I think I'll be better served by a G plus ARX-03 than buying a VP-770 istead... After hearing all those demos I concluded that - although the VP is the best sounding backing vocal tool on the market at the moment - it is still not realistical enough to deserve almost 1000 euros for this feature alone. The most attractive (price/performance) feature of the VP-770 is the included ARX-03 which it happens to be available on the G itself. I know you cannot find such thing each day but given the circumstances it's hard to beat the price (a G for a grand). So far i haven't met the seller so I cannot tell about any yet unknown unpleasant surprises (if this second hand G has any disfunctionalities I will certainly NOT buy it). It kinda bugs me to have 2 overly similar workstations (I already have an X8) but on the plus side I hope I won't start learning a new OS from scratch... see you on the G forums!

The realism factor was definately not there for me either from the demos I heard.

Good choice!

The most attractive feature of the VP-770 to me is not the ARX-03 but the vocal designer itself. I used to own a VP-770 (sold it to get a V-synth GT instead), and the vocal designer is actually pretty realistic and very much usable in any genres. The reason why I got the GT instead was because that I do a lot of texture work in my band, and strings isn't very satisfying for my needs. I also don't play brass much so I didn't need the ARX-03. The GT happens to have a lot of realtime performance controls, as well as a vocal designer that, in my opinion, is as good as VP-770's, and you can choose the carrier for the vocoder. So while VP-770 is much easier to use and slightly cheaper, GT offers so much more so I got that instead.

And congratulations on your wonderful buy! I am sure that you will enjoy your G.

I have the V-Synth GT also and am very happy with the Vocal Designer on it.
Choirs sound great...better than the demos I heard of the VP-770 for some reason.

As far as vocal harmonizing goes I get great results from the Digitech vocalist live 4.
Much more realistic sounding than the VP-770.
I love Roland and don't want to hurt their sales, but to make a $2000.00 board specializing in Vocals, it should be at least as good as the Digitech for harmonzing IMHO. The Vocalist Live 4 also has good guitar effects to use with the Vocals at the same time.

I got mine on sale for less than $400.00...I see some on ebay for $369.00 right now.
And to be fair, it really is one of the most realistic out there at this time for 4 part harmonies.
(You can plug a keyboard into it instead of guitar, even though not in the specs) or get the Digitach Live Pro for a little more cash)

And to add even further fairness, the new $800.00 TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Vocal Floor Processor does not have good sounding Choirs IMHO and I was not impressed by the demos of it either.

So Roland has great Choirs and Digitech good Harmonies for my purposes.

the VP-770 doesn't generate natural harmony, it generates either choir or vocoder backup vocals. 2 of the vocoders sound pretty natural, actually, one sounds like a male voice and the other sounds like female, so you can use those as backups. I think to pit the VP-770 against either Digitech or TC Helicon in the "natural harmonizing" area would be a little unfair, since Roland never intended it to be used that way, but rather it is supposed to provide large scale backup vocals, used in church settings and many other applications. Plus, without using the "auto harmony" function, you can generate more than 4 part harmony, in any kinds of chords, even random clusters, without restrictions.

I don't think that the vocal designer would be worse than the one in the GT, it comes out 2 years after the GT did so that technology should be either the same or better. I wouldn't know the difference yet until next week when I do get my GT, but GT's should be more versatile either way.

I have been looking at TC Helicon's harmonyM pedal and I think it's pretty good. I just looked up the digitech vocalist at your recommendation and it sounds great! I will definitely keep it in mind...thanks for the suggestion.