Roland

B
ack in 2014 I
reviewed the VT-3,
which had some
cool vocal tricks up
its sleeve – sadly its
poor autopitch
tracking and lack of
a proper MIDI input let it down.
Fast-forward fi ve years and Roland
have launched its successor, the
VT-4. Contained within a similar-
sized but classier-looking box (and
with USB or battery power), the VT-4
retains the same four front-panel
sliders: Pitch, Formant, Balance (dry/
wet vocoder mix) and Effect mix.
However, the central mode dial has
made way for an Autopitch dial
which provides soft or hard
quantisation of your vocals,
according to a user-specifi ed key (set
by the front panel key dial). This new
Autopitch mode tracks much more
reliably than the VT-3, so we’re off to
a very promising start!
The VT-4’s modes include Robot,
which is a monotone robotic tone
(with four variations), Megaphone,
which gives a megaphone-like
quality to your voice (with four
variations) and the main Vocoder
mode which can operate as a
monophonic vocoder, triggered either
by your voice only (Autopitch) or via
polyphonic MIDI input from your
DAW or a keyboard. Note: you can
also use an external sound source as
a carrier signal instead of the
internal synth.
MIDI adventures
This new direct MIDI input is a big
deal and makes the VT-4 way more
versatile than the VT-3. You can now
use any external MIDI DIN or USB
MIDI source to control the pitch of
the Vocoder mode or the Robot mode
(Robot is automatically selected
when connecting a DIN MIDI signal)
and the results/tracking are
excellent. Particularly when using a
humble SM57 and a MIDI keyboard
to control the Robot mode, I
obtained some nicely natural
monophonic vocoded sounds
(sounding much like my natural
voice, yet pulled into pitch smoothly)
but with no obvious artefacts or
gating noises (beating its closest
competitor, the Electro Harmonix
V256, in this respect). Diction and
detail is also super clear and
intelligibility is excellent too, plus
the enhancer feature allows for even
clearer tones if required.
into any style; you can also save your
favourite effect/vocoder settings to
the onboard scene memories for
instant recall.
This is a much-improved product
in price, user-friendliness, sounds
– oh, and it’s portable too!
The Harmony mode allows up to
4-note chords to be triggered from
your MIDI keyboard or DAW, adding
natural-sounding harmonies as you
sing in real time. Alternatively, when
no MIDI-input source is applied
(when using Vocoder/Robot mode),
Autopitch is automatically engaged
and pressing the harmony button
smoothly applies either two or four
notes of harmony to your voice,
according to the user-chosen key/
variation. 4-note polyphony can be
limiting at times (especially for
people like me who like to play
thicker chord voicings when
vocoding) but for most instances it
works great.
Finally, like the VT-3, the VT-4
also operates as a 2-in/2-out USB
audio/MIDI interface and once again,
the onboard delay and reverb effects
sound very musical and slot nicely
THE PROS & CONS
+
Sounds way better
than the VT-3, with
much improved
Auto-Pitch tracking
and very clear and
responsive vocoding
Very easy to use,
with plenty of useful,
musical-sounding
modes and solid
functionality
C ompact, well-built
(but lightweight) and
can be battery
powered too
-
N o standard power
input; so USB or
battery only (though
you could use a USB
power adaptor)
Max polyphony is
limited to four notes
when using the
internal synth/
vocoder (when
harmony mode has
been engaged)
No class-compliant
USB driver
FM VERDICT
8.9
One of m y new favourite
compact vocoder boxes.
Good price, sounds great
and has a USB/Audio MIDI
interface too
poor autopitch
tracking and lack of
a proper MIDI input let it down.
Fast-forward fi ve years and Roland
have launched its successor, the
VT-4. Contained within a similar-
sized but classier-looking box (and
with USB or battery power), the VT-4
retains the same four front-panel
sliders: Pitch, Formant, Balance (dry/
wet vocoder mix) and Effect mix.
However, the central mode dial has
made way for an Autopitch dial
made way for an Autopitch dial
which provides soft or hard
quantisation of your vocals,
according to a user-specifi ed key (set
by the front panel key dial). This new
Autopitch mode tracks much more
reliably than the VT-3, so we’re off to
a very promising start!
The VT-4’s modes include Robot,
which is a monotone robotic tone
(with four variations), Megaphone,
which gives a megaphone-like
quality to your voice (with four
Sounds way better
than the VT-3, with
much improved
Auto-Pitch tracking
and very clear and
responsive vocoding
Very easy to use,
with plenty of useful,
musical-sounding
modes and solid
functionality
C ompact, well-built
(but lightweight) and
can be battery
powered too
-
N o standard power
ack in 2014 I
reviewed the VT-3,
which had some
cool vocal tricks up
its sleeve – sadly its
poor autopitch
tracking and lack of
a proper MIDI input let it down.
Fast-forward fi ve years and Roland
have launched its successor, the
VT-4. Contained within a similar-
sized but classier-looking box (and
with USB or battery power), the VT-4
retains the same four front-panel
sliders: Pitch, Formant, Balance (dry/
The new direct MIDI input
makes the VT-4 way more
versatile than the VT-3
Roland VT-4 Voice Transformer | Reviews
95
FMU348.rev_roland.indd 95 06/08/2019 14:49