The Roland VariOS is a production environment with audio editing and sample playback, released 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 ...
in 2003. It is based on the technology from the VP-9000 VariPhrase processor, and features the ability to mount two expansion cards.
Overview
The Roland VariOS is a rack-mounted open-ended variable system module. It is possible to independently manipulate the pitch, time and formant of a sample, add effects and build complete audio-based arrangements—all in a real-time environment and without CPU drain. In addition, the VariOS can emulate analogue synthesisers such as the
Roland Jupiter 8
The Jupiter-8, or JP-8, is an eight-voice polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizer introduced by Roland Corporation in early 1981.
The Jupiter-8 was Roland's flagship synthesizer for the first half of the 1980s. Approximately 3300 units have ...
and
Roland TB-303
The Roland TB-303 Bass Line (also known as the 303) is a bass synthesizer released by Roland Corporation in 1981. Designed to simulate bass guitars, it was a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1984. However, cheap second-hand units were ...
.
The VariOS can operate as a stand-alone tool or alongside digital audio sequencers using
MIDI clock {{No footnotes, date=January 2020
MIDI beat clock, or simply MIDI clock, is a clock signal that is broadcast via MIDI to ensure that several MIDI-enabled devices such as a synthesizer or music sequencer stay in synchronization. Clock events are sen ...
and MTC sync. V-Producer arrangements can be saved as a Standard
MIDI
MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...
File, and processed audio files can be exported in
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced "wave") is an audio file format standard, developed by IBM and Microsoft, for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. It is the main format used on Microsoft Wind ...
or
AIFF
Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File ...
format for use in other editors and software.
Expansion cards
Two expansion cards were released for the VariOS. The VC-1 emulates a
Roland D-50
The Roland D-50 is a synthesizer produced by Roland and released in April 1987. Its features include subtractive synthesis, on-board effects, a joystick for data manipulation, and an analogue synthesis-styled layout design. The external Roland P ...
,
while the VC-2 can allow vocal processing with an external microphone, with effects such as a
vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
and choir. Roland has not announced plans to release any future expansion cards. Furthermore, it appears the VC-2 is now out of production, with various sources claiming that Roland made a set number of cards in an "estimation" of demand.
References
External links
* Official Site
VariOS(ROLAND)
VariOS
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