The Roland VP-330 is a
paraphonic ten band
and
string machine
A string synthesizer or string machine is a specialized synthesizer designed specifically to make sounds similar to that of a string orchestra.
Dedicated string synthesizers occupied a specific musical instrument niche between electronic organs ...
manufactured by
Roland Corporation
is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment, and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on 18 April 1972. In 2005, its headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It has fact ...
from 1979 to 1980.
While there are several string machines and vocoders, a single device combining the two is rare, despite the advantage of paraphonic vocoding, and the VP-330's synthetic choir sounds are unique. Despite the VP-330's electronic string and choir sounds being less realistic than those of the tape-based
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...
, touring musicians used it as a lighter and more robust alternative.
The Roland SVC-350 is a similar
vocoder in rack-mount form designed to accept external inputs.
Architecture
In addition to vocoding and generating string sounds, the VP-330 can also play four different choir sounds, each of which uses four bandpass filters, shared from the same pool of seven total.
Like Roland's other string machines of the era, such as the
RS-202, it features a
BBD BBD may stand for:
Music
*Bell Biv DeVoe or BBD, a music group
** ''BBD'' (album), an album by Bell Biv DeVoe
**" B.B.D. (I Thought It Was Me)?", a song by Bell Biv Devoe from ''Poison''
*** B.B.D. (The Poison Tour)
*Be-Bop Deluxe, a rock band
*Big ...
-based ensemble effect that thickens the strings, and optionally the choirs and vocoder.
Notable users
*
10cc
10cc are an English rock band formed in Stockport in 1972. The group initially consisted of four musicians – Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme – who had written and recorded together since 1968. The group featured t ...
*
Laurie Anderson (on
O Superman)
*
BT
*
Michael Boddicker (on
Michael Jackson's
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing))
*
A Certain Ratio
A Certain Ratio (abbreviated as ACR) are an English post-punk band formed in 1977 in Flixton, Greater Manchester by Peter Terrell (guitar, electronics) and Simon Topping (vocals, trumpet), with additional members Jez Kerr (bass, vocals), Martin ...
*
Vince Clarke
*
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...
*
John Foxx
*
Yvan Guilini
*
Greg Hawkes (of
The Cars)
*
Tony Mansfield
Tony Mansfield (born 19 January 1955) is an English songwriter, musician and record producer.
Early work
Mansfield was born in Wimbledon, London, and became best known as the main songwriter/producer for New Musik, a synthpop band that perfo ...
*
Mike Oldfield
*
Queen
*
Isao Tomita
*
Underworld
*
Vangelis (including on the
Chariots of Fire and
Blade Runner soundtracks)
*
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Legacy
In 2016, Roland made a digital recreation of the VP-330, named the VP-03, as part of their Boutique range. In 2019,
Behringer released their own VP-330 clone, the VC340.
References
{{Roland
Musical instruments invented in the 1970s
VP-330
Analog synthesizers
Polyphonic synthesizers