Roland introduces VP-770 vocal/ensemble keyboard [NAMM09]

Synthesised vocals (realistic ones, at least) can be pretty dire, but Roland reckons it has come up with something convincing in its latest vocal and ensemble keyboard, the VP-770.

Rather than focusing on the likes of built instrument samples, it takes the incredibly versatile human voice as its base. No mean feat, that.

The 49-key keyboard with both velocity and channel aftertouch allows for a lot of control over the variety of vocal tones, which include classic, male & female, gospel, pop, background, and vocoder.

It comes with a high-quality headset microphone which can be used to generate the vocals, from the performer’s own voice, in real time.

As if that wasn’t enough, Roland has taken on another difficult set of instruments — brass. The SuperNATURAL brass engine enables authentic performance with full control over ensemble part levels, panning, EQ settings and performance nuance such as growl, noise and stability.

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Oh, it handles strings, too.

The VP-770 has a maximum polyphony of 128 voices, six types of auto-harmony, a sound loop function, three-band equaliser, compressor, noise suppressor, and a wide variety of inputs and outputs.

The VP-770 is available now with a RRP of $2,499. It can be bought from zZounds.

Roland