IMO If this product would encourage people to play, sing and have fun creating great music and harmonies then I'd love to see it in schools and colleges, after all kids start learning music in schools, so why not introduce them at an early stage to the different aspects of vocal harmonies?

I didn't say this was not for US........ just that schools and colleges need to concentrate on the 'real thing'

Just watched the online demos. Wow, I would absolutely LOVE to have one of these in my home studio!

It would be so cool to be able to lay down choir parts in some of my more ethereal New Age stuff. I've always wanted to write music for films, and having something like this as a composition tool would be incredible I think.

Carrie

Not originally, but spent most of my adult life there (suburban Philly - Media, Glen Mills, Downingtown) plus I went to graduate school at Univ. of PA (Moore School of EE). Aside from being way to proud of the boistrous nature of it's sports fans (snowballing Santa Claus at an Eagles game), it's a great area to live.

chas

This is pretty cool. I just watched the video. It took me a couple of minutes to find the original post by Squeak. Here is the link to the video again in case anyone else needs it. http://rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=771&ParentId=83

I wonder how this compares to the digitech vocalist or to software vocalist type programs?

Richard

I think everyone needs to listen to BOTH demos....... the first is utterly awe-inspiring, the second barely rates as listen-able (in places), and definitely ho-hum the rest.

As always, in the hands of a master, almost anything can sound good, but to be fair, in the hands of Roland's second demonstrator (presumably no slouch, at least in Roland's opinion), this product doesn't sound nearly as innovative.

Kind of reminds me how good SOME demonstrators can make ANY arranger sound, while others can make even the best sound terrible. As always, your mileage may vary......

Diki, I tend to judge the performance of an auto by how it handles on a curvy mountain road, not how it idles in the driveway. Don Lewis demonstrates the POTENTIAL of this keyboard so that at least I know what it is capable of. It seems as though as soon as someone shows any kind of enthusiasm for a piece of equipment, someone else immediately pops up to critisize it, usually without ever having played it or even seen it. It is truly annoying, feeling that you have to justify every purchase to the resident nay-sayer whose mission in life seems to be to dampen your enthusiasm and creat doubt about the wisdom of your latest purchasing decision. I'm not advocating that anyone else buy one. I don't even really give a s--- if anyone else thinks it's a wise purchase, after all, last time I checked, it was MY money that I was spending. Most members respond to another members new purchase with a "Congrats" or "have fun", etc. So I guess my question is, what's your point?

chas

I'm not sure if anyone caught it, but Don Lewis used a really cool feature on the VP-550 in this demo. At one point he pressed a "record" button, sang "swing low, ect", then had that audio phrase looped (live) into his performance. He stopped the live audio loop at one point--and then brought it back at the end of the performace.

It also appeared that he was using a sustain pedal to hold vocal passages as well. I'll be the one to say it cgiles "CONGRATS"! and BIG CONGRATS too. I hope you find great joy in this unit.

Squeak

Thanks, Squeak, and may I say, hearing a good demo and a bad demo on the same equipment says a lot more about the player than the equipment.

chas

Chas....... nowhere in my post will you find ANY criticism of your decision to purchase one of these keyboards, in fact the post wasn't even addressed to you , I've got no idea why you are so upset...... In your hands, it may very well equal, or exceed Don Lewis' sound. But........ in lesser hands (and my point was the Roland seemed to think the second guy talented enough to play it for all the buyers at NAMM) it may not perform as impressively.

All the gushing about Don Lewis' performance led me to believe that a little reality needed to be injected before anyone runs out and buys this without even trying it (and this forum is packed with players who have done EXACTLY that and regretted it later)..........

All I did was to point out the second demo of it, to make sure everyone gets an unbiased opinion. And you make out that it is a criticism of YOUR choice........ Anything but, Chas. You may indeed judge a car by how fast you can make it screech around a mountain road, but you also have to be aware that many drivers are not capable of driving that fast, and how it behaves on the freeway may be relevant..........