I'm not even touching the keyboard so
let's change the pitch changing the
pitch of the synthesizer box yes that's a lot of fun.
hello and welcome back your g-man here
coming to you from my studio / lab
for an exciting new product review today
I'm giving a user review of the new
bérenger VC 340 vocoder the VC 340 is
billed as a complete reproduction of the
roland vp 330 vocoder analog circuitry
the divide down voice architecture
vocoder strings filter human voice
bandpass format filters and not
forgetting that lovely quad BBD ensemble
circuit. The whole enchilada.
the original vp 330 is a somewhat rare
and lofty priced vintage synthesizer
from the 70's and supposedly now
available for around 20% of the cost of
the original?!  I used to own the original
VP 330 mk1 so how does the VC 340
compare let's see. Right out of the box
let's look at the construction the case
is made out of steel with real wood end
caps
therefore it's got some heft to it it's
about the same size of an MS 20 and
weighs about the same as that too. I find
the keyboard is acceptable they wiggle
and they twist a bit but they get the
job done
I wasn't expecting metal shaft pots and
switches but that's what we have the
sliders and buttons are what you would
expect as on many other synths.  Around the
back there's the USB and MIDI in out
thru. it's possible to change the
transmit and receive channels using a
boot up sequence. so if the three octave
keyboard is too limiting you can connect
your larger master keyboard just know
you won't gain any extra notes outside
of the possible range due to the limits
of the divide down voice architecture.
We have quarter inch stereo outputs low
medium and high output switch,
foot switch jacks for pitch shift off and on
switch
and vocoder on and off switch.
unfortunately there's no sustain hold
jack for the keyboard in general.
external synth input for the vocoder
headphones Jack, mic input in both XLR
and quarter-inch and an EIC connector
for power cord - take note the recommended
voltage is 100 to 240 volts
say what?!  that means you can plug any AC
voltage from around the world and the
internal switch mode power supply will
sort out the rest for you and no wall
warts! pretty cool let's plug in and drill
down into some sounds for the
uninitiated it only does three sounds
but it is among the very best of those
three sounds.
synth choir, synth strings and oh yeah
vocoder robot sounds. this is the sound.
the VC 340 is fully paraphonic meaning
there's no limit to how many notes you
can play at the same time just know
these notes all obey a single attack
release control VCA. in other words all
the notes will have the same dynamics.
new notes will start at the same
amplitude as those already playing full
paraphony is due to the divide down
voice architecture similar to vintage
organs. you hit the power switch and it
takes about seven seconds to power up.
while it is all analog sound circuitry
the MIDI functions are under digital
control. this may be the only one to
offer a quad BBD ensemble chorus that
means there are four modulated analog
delay lines most other popular string
synthesizers from the 70s only use three
delay lines so in stereo the VP 330
ensemble and now the vc 340 provide a
lively and swirly sonic panorama
second-to-none. just look at the two
channel oscilloscope display it's all
over the place!
let's check out the vocoder I'll be
using an audio technica Pro 8 HD with
XLR jack of course the first thing I
must try is the cylon voice from the
original Battlestar Galactica this is
the sound of a normal cylon, this is the sound of a higher-ranking cylon,
This is the sound of a commander cyclon
Now with the ensemble turned off
Let's play some chords
Let's play some chords
It's really cool.
Ensemble turned on now.
It sounds really good.  Sometimes you get some feedback.
turn it down a bit
yes, like that, there you go.
But we don't have to use the keyboard to control the
vocoder we can use external synth input
to control vocoder pitch. okay I am using
my Pittsburgh Synthesizer box in eurorack
to control the pitch by the vocoder I'm not even touching the keyboard
so let's change the pitch changing the
pitch of the synthesizer box yes that's
that's a square wave
I can add a sawtooth wave and I can add
the sub oscillator, so that sounds pretty
interesting to me
yes that's a lot of fun and don't forget
to make sure you don't get any feedback
from your studio monitors, haha, that's a
lot of fun! furthermore we don't have to use a
microphone in the vocoder. here I'm
plugging in the drumbrute impact output
into the quarter-inch mic input.
let's check out the choirs and strings. if we remember my VP-03 review the
oscillators of the VP-03 were not
phase-locked in a divide down
architecture this resulted in aliasing
artifacts buzzing in the ensemble
circuit when you play notes in octaves
the voices aren't they're not that phase
locked, the result of this is that when you
play octaves you start to get this weird
buzzing sound
and it just doesn't sound good yeah you
can change the way that you play to work
around that the VC 340 is a divide down
structure let's see how that sounds
Oh
so smooth no buzzing artifacts there and
I can play as many notes as I want.
the more notes you play the better it sounds
I know some musicians out there would
have liked it to be a four octave
keyboard but I seem to be getting along
just fine on three octaves here
listen to those envelopes that delicious log
taper that sounds very natural just like
on the original
to me it sounds just like the synth I used to have. I couldn't be more pleased as a big
fan of string synthesizers
and there you have it the VP-330, oops! -
Freudian slip - the VC 340 vocoder by
Behringer. Some final thoughts: at 20% of
the cost of the original
Behringer have done it again the VC 340
is a fantastic reincarnation of that
classic string vocoder, a smaller
footprint to fit better in the studio
amazing sound I am really searching for
something to criticise here but in
reality it's all my vocoder string synth
dreams come true. if you're into these
kinds of vintage robotic swirly synth
string sounds you'll be very
hard-pressed to overlook the VC 340 at
this price point and there you have it
and if you don't mind I'd like to get on
with it some more so thank you for
watching be sure to LIKE comment and
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