Description: Highly collectable vocoder with analog strings and choirs.
Production period: 1979 -1980
Keys: 49
Weight:?
Numbers made:?
Used by: Pulp (live), Prodigy. Kraftwerk
” The Roland Vocoder Plus is a totally new concept in polyphonic keyboards, which employs Vocoder circuitry to achieve a new degree of keyboard instrument versatility ”

Description: This is probably one of the synths that have grown on me the most. When I borough it the first time from Anders Wilhelm it was mostly for it's vocoder part I found it interesting. I think vocoders are for electronic music what Geddy Lee's voice for progsters. You need some time to get used to it but when you do accept the sound you stop noticing it anymore.

I have never been a big fan of vocoders. I always found them to be a bit of a gimmick and not too exciting. Other people seem to love them. I know that Anders (being a big Kraftwerk fan) just loves them.

The vocoder is a classic effect. Fusing vocals with a synthesised tone so that you get that ghost in the machine kind of thing happening. But Anders showed me how to pull a drum machine through it and I was pretty much hooked. Having harmonic rhythmic figures playing chords is a real useful and interesting thing. So what I did was that I set it up to the left of me in the studio as I was using it a fair bit. And if there is one thing that I have learned is that if it's difficult to take a piece of equipment out and plugging it in you probably won't be using it all that much. And having it so close and plugged in all the time has meant that I use it…A lot.

And obviously not just the Vocoder part. The strings and choir emulations are really good and interesting and have a kind of a cold war-ish atmosphere to them. I have used them a fair bit on a lot of different stuff. The choirs have been used on the Celestine album. Most noticeably the end chords of Between (going through the funk a duck filter). The strings have been used on Montages recordings and on Helena Karlssons song. They aren't as strong in character as the Solina strings but that just make them easier to blend in. One favourite nowadays (Late 2004) is to pull the strings through the Sonic Alienator and using the volume knob to decide how radio-ish and broken up it should sound. I used that trick on the Gmeyner song I worked on, Tomorrow.

Blanc