He People!

I will try once again to explain Variphrase.
Like old keyboards: first you start sampling some words, or a sentence or whatever you like. Lets say the word: "WATER" .
On old keyboards then you could press the C for example and hear: WATER. But if you press the lowest C you would hear: WWWWWWAAAAAAATTTTTTTEEEEEERRRRRRRR (very low sounding of the thing you sampled). If you press the highest C you hear: wtr (really high and fast pronounciation of the sampled word water). But the worst thing was if you play a chord: so the C and the D and the E you hear 3 different waters and all end sooner or later. SO it is a big chaos.
Now with variphrase, Roland managed to sample the word WATER in on tone. No matter how high or low you sing or how much you change the tone during the tape of the sample, you still hear one tone. In this way they could keep the pitch the same which means that wherever you press the keyboard, high C or low C, you will still hear the same speed, but the voice changes from high to low, just like a real singer. Further this means you can press a chord and then you hear an orchestra singing WATER, where all the samples start and end at the same moment, which means you can use these sample during playing and play a complete orchestra without having any chaos. It makes songs so much more beautiful. Imagine a REGGAE style and you play Could You be Loved with you're right hand!! You just NEED to hear this folks!

Hope I was a little bit understandable.

Ilija Petkovski

Hi Ilija,

I think we all now understand what you are saying:

Effectively, the VA-7 allows you to playback a sample at various pitches WITHOUT changing the underlying SPEED of the sample.

This is NOT new technology. It has been around for a few years. In fact, those keyboards which have vocal harmonisers are using this very technique. i.e. A sample (your voice) being pitch changed (in real time) without a corresponding speed difference.

What IS new however, is its application to voices and styles on the keyboard.


Andy.

[This message has been edited by AndyG (edited 06-13-2000).]

hi
it is new !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
vocal harmonisers is not doing the same !!!

just try the vp-9000 or the great VA-7

just read this..... http://www.rolandus.com/../USERS/RUG/Winter_00/UT-variphrase.html

eyal
http://www.homestead.com/va7_roland/

Hi Eyal,

Here is a quote from the link in your message:

QUOTE
"Solo - This encoding is designed for monophonic sources such as a singer or wind instrument. This algorithm extracts a single cycle of the sound and can stretch or shrink the waveform to control the formant, enabling you to literally re-phrase, re-pitch, and re-articulate the sound in real time using a keyboard or MIDI controller."
UNQUOTE

This is exactly what the vocal harmoniser DSPs do in the X1, PSR9000 and KN6000.

I am not criticising the VA-7 - I want one!
All I am saying is that we must not get caught up in marketing speak. The technology is not new - i.e. it is not an invention just a novel and new application for an existing idea - made possible by increased processing speeds.

Best Regards,

Andy.

Andy and Eyal are each part correct, as I see it. Harmonizers separate the formants so that vocal pitch can be shifted while preserving the character of the sound. In addition, many harmonizers allow some formant processing so that, for example, a male voice can be made to sound like a female voice, and vice versa.

Many samplers and sample playback modules, e.g., those from Emu, allow rhythmic loops to be expanded or condensed in time while preserving the formants.

On the other hand, I do not think that vocal harmonizers can control time (since they operate with a real-time input). Most samplers with "beat munging" do not allow much control over the formants in real time.

So, Variphrase technology seems new in that formant, time, and pitch can all be controlled in real time. As a result, you can take any two vocal phrases in different keys and tempos, change the melodies so that they are harmonized, change gender, and sync the phrases all using real-time controls. So I think it is fair to say that Variphrase technology goes beyond what else is available.

Above, I am considering Variphrase as implemented in the VP-9000 (of which I have seen a video demo). I am not sure which of these capabilities have been retained or omitted in the VA-7.

Clif