VP-9000 Anyone??

I've been roaming these wonderful forums for a while now in silence. Its great to know there is a community forumed around the MPC series.

To the Tutor and the Mods: I give all of yall hella props for keeping this thing goin, true soilders!

So my first question to the community:

Is anyone else a user of the Roland VP-9000 Variphrase? Especially w/ the MPC series.. I currently have one runnin w/ my 2000xl. There are some amazing combos that the 2 can produce. I'm not gonna waste everyones webspace though if no one knows where I'm comin from with the VP-9000. Seems as if there are not a lot of people who use the machine, dispite its capabilities..

The issue is price. When it first came out it was way too expensive for most cats. Now youcan find them for around $800 but the damage is already done.

also, only 6 voices polyphony? I'd heard that it also adds a lot of aliasing and what not, but I am not sure about that as I haven't messed with it.

I've heard some good things about its timestretch function.Can you get one sound across the keyboard in different tune but in the same length,really? PS Dj Shadow once said he use it mostly for resampling sounds from its mpc3000 (x2).

Dan the Automator was the first person I ever heard about that had one, I seen him with it in remix mag and I don't remember what he said about it.

Toecutter wrote:Dan the Automator was the first person I ever heard about that had one, I seen him with it in remix mag and I don't remember what he said about it.

first ppl i seen with it was jazzy jeff and jimmy jam/TL
in a roland promo mag

and they gave it nothing but praise...............but i guess thaz what they were suppose to do!

yea, dj shadow, people under the stairs, and a few others fux wit it. but its pretty pricey, rare, and probably not as good as a computer, it does use COSM effects I believe... zip compatible as well. dope machine...

the varaphrase may not be the best machine or anywhere near perfect. Pieces like that come in mighty handy now and again however and give you a certain sound right when you need it. More samplers the better!!

Yeah the price was so rediculous when it came out, like $3400. That was way out of most peoples price ranges. I lucked out, I think, cuz i payed $400 out the door @ Guitar Center here in Detroit. Mind you it had no manual, box, discs, etc. Just the unit and a power plug. Got him to throw in some cables as a bonus for the scratches on the top of the unit.

It is only 6 voice polyphony, but that is easily worked around with a little creative bouncing around, like sampling it to the MPC, computer, tape or somethin. It also has some unique ways to trigger the sounds across the keys. You can take say a 1 or 2 measure drum break, mark the events when u encode it (it has to analyze the wave and encode, its non destructive), then set the keys to trigger the events in sequence so every key is a trigger for a 16th note in the measure, this then enables you to trigger them from the pads on the mpc just like you normally would if you chopped it zone style. You can then time stretch all the indivual chops at once so your not locked into a specific tempo. You can alter the pitch too without effecting the timing, apply fx, reverb, or chorus.

You can take a singal sample and play it across the keyboard. You got roughly an octave in each direction with convincing results. But if you go to the extremes you have some pretty awesome effects if you adjust enough parameters.

Peace thanks for all the replies.

that's pretty cool. The new roland samplers are cool, the sp 303/505. the 606 is gabbage.

Aaahh come on Prah, a roland promo mag don't count, the cats in there didn't pay for it...

Toecutter wrote:Aaahh come on Prah, a roland promo mag don't count, the cats in there didn't pay for it...

i know that