Lovely! (And I had english subs on - "Chariots of Fire" became "Chariot Safari" - that would be quite a thing!)

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Haha!

@ericbgordon1575

3 жыл бұрын

Ha, where are the lyrics of "Jerusalem" when you need them?

@RaymondCastile

3 жыл бұрын

La Fête Sauvage would be Chariot Safari IRL

@nickdryad

3 жыл бұрын

My favourite robot translation was ‘Otis shredding’ on a Produce Like A Pro review on Peter Gabriel.

@lundsweden

2 жыл бұрын

Surfin' U-oo.Kay-hey

Wow!! What a sound 🙌

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Enjoyed your demo of one a few years back. 🙂

@fjfrancois

3 жыл бұрын

Mr Claudio in the house.

@carlosserrano3985

3 жыл бұрын

I think Claudio have the Behringer clone in his studio and also a Roland VP-550 wich is wonderful too. My brother have the 550 and I'm thinking of having a conversation with him about that one, LOL!

@kerzwhile

3 жыл бұрын

Hey Claudio, You should do a VP550 appreciation vid 😉 or an overlooked gear series🤔

@carlosserrano3985

3 жыл бұрын

@@kerzwhile I think he made a video about the VP-550 already.

Love the composition at the end, like a lost ELO track.

@RegebroRepairs

3 жыл бұрын

Jeff Lynne reincarnated! Oh wait, no, he isn't even dead yet!

@thaJeztah

3 жыл бұрын

Yes! That was great!

@RayyMusik

3 жыл бұрын

I find it rather influenced by “Lucy in the Sky ....” (Beatles, Sgt. Pepper).

@toitoitoy

3 жыл бұрын

New Musik vibes or something produced by Tony Mansfield

@robgs

3 жыл бұрын

Thought the same - If 80's ELO and Mike Oldfield did a record.

I spat my tea out when you dropped the "keeping up with appearances" reference.

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Watch out, with spilt tea on you you'll look like Onslow.

@starfishphoenix7352

3 жыл бұрын

RICHARD! mind the cyclist!

@MeriaDuck

3 жыл бұрын

If I ever create one, I'll call it my "It's not bucket, it's bouquet"-list

What a true class act! (both Alex and the 330) 😋 I just adore the track at the end my friend!

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you my good man. 👊

@mileswb

Жыл бұрын

Indeed, that track at the end totally slaps

I love the human voice mode! It’s quite creepy and epic at the same time!

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Great description, yes. Haunting and beautiful.

@johnmeroney2007

3 жыл бұрын

Kraftwerk worthy.

The last 2 minutes were a 40-year journey back in time, straight to my childhood. Thank you very much.

That gloss lacquered wood back panel with the massive Roland logo is beyond epic. Just looks the dogs nuts.

This is beautiful. Thanks for making this. It sounds so warm and pleasant. Well done.

Great review as usual! I have had the pleasure of using one of these. I always felt like the string and human voice section of the vp-330 had an almost mellotron like sound despite being synthesized. Despite the limitations, the quality of sound from all 3 voice types are hypnotizing. It really transports you into a very specific universe.

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Yes! Very Mellotron like, but also distinctly different.

damn alex your level of talent is unmatched. able to write songs in any style while looking casual as if its no big deal

Those strings really give that Vangelis sound. They're so good!

Demo 3 was such a bop! Great stuff as always, Mr Ball.

After re-watching this I can say I love this beast even more!!! Just gorgeous so damn gorgeous. I still really appreciate your point about good gear still needing good ideas. Vangelis used it brilliantly because his projects were just awesome. Thanks again Alex :)

A brilliant overview with a fantastic finish with your demo track!

Your videos are always even MORE entertaining than what I think I’m gonna get here! Truly.

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Chris.

Really cool video man. Heaps of awesome ELO vibes on the demo track. Keep up the good work 👍👍

I Love this instrument! This is the best showcase of the VP-330 yet. Thank you, Alex. :)

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much!

Great video and lovely song - thanks Alex. Yes very ELO. Love the high bassline.

Always look forward to your videos

Loved every second of this! Great outro-song!

The VP-330 is like an ARP Solina String Ensemble and Vocoder in one. It was ahead of it's time as it could pull off the sound of a male and female voice without using any samples. I had a mk1 VP-330 for a short time. It belonged to Dave Morgan of ELO.

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

You had ELOs VP-330? Wow!

Funny, full of passion and knowledge and with a very special vibe. You deserve way more subscribers. I really appreciate your videos.🤜🏼🤛🏻 Thanks!

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

According to some sources, this vocoder is used in Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” (one of my favorite recent songs). Fascinating!

Love this thing. Awesome demo and full tune bonus at the end, waiting for the next album. One bit of trivia is that musicians have sometimes sought to hide their voices behind it. Air is one example, who appeared never sure whether to sing or not. You can then dare to mix in your actual voice to taste. One cool sound is an eery pad made up of mixing the strings, choir and vocoder about equally with the strings filter all the way dark.

Sounds amazing! Ooozes with so much class and nostalgia.

Totaly magical this VP-330 ! And you too !!! Thank you for brightening up my sad evening ! : )

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Ah thanks. Glad to hear.

Magnificent song at the end, I really liked that one, you're a talented fellow.

loved that little solo at the end there :D Another great track and another great vid :)

I love your song at the end, mate - really impressed!

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Cheers!

Yet another amazing video! Your, sir, ROCK!!! 🤘🏻😎🍺

Love each and every one of your vids, Alex!

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Wilson.

@wilsonjaksetic6009

3 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic every new video you make, I learn something new and have a solid laugh. I guess the real Control Voltage were the friends we made along the way! (Ps: you should totally do another collaborative video with Bad Gear)

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

@@wilsonjaksetic6009 Cheers. If I ever find any more terrible bits of gear I'll give Florian a call.

Wonderful overview! I just noticed a Vocoder on the song "Duchess" by Genesis the other day. This channel has me paying more attention to synths in recordings now, which is a good thing.

@ericbgordon1575

3 жыл бұрын

I've got to pay attention to that the next time I give that track a listen.

@Aquatarkus96

3 жыл бұрын

Duke features appearances by a whole orchestra of synthesizers :) lovely album!

@budgetguitaristcom

3 жыл бұрын

@@Aquatarkus96 Yeah, I absolutely love it.

What a lovely demonstration of this iconic keyboard. Thank you so much for it. Your song in the end was stunning. Great work. I also have the VP-330 for years and love the silky tone. The behringer clone is very close. I compared them both side by side also on KZread

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you Rudiger. Yes, a very special instrument. I'll have to check out your comparison.

just wanted to say, thank you for your videos alex.

another quality informative video from the very talented Mr Alex Ball. .

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Cheers Steve!

El mejor sonido de cuerdas y voces de la historia. Gracias Vangelis por usarlo tantas y tantas veces.

My brother! The ending track was excellent and the video's are extremely informative. I've been learning the last year and have an absolute addiction spending hours everyday making complicated noise. Ha. take care. Also your vids drive me mad with jealousy of all the cool gear you have

Great episode Alex. Thank you.

I always refer to this instrument as the Blue Sky synth when people ask about it. I know it is limited in it's capabilities, but what it does it does extremely well and always puts a smile on my face.

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Nice description of its sound. I'd love to know what they actually used as the song was recorded before the VP was released.

I appreciate the string instruments in the background. Really adds to the video.

Tony Banks from Genesis used it as a replacement for the Mellotron. The choirs and strings substituted these sounds from the mellotron on classic Genesis tracks from the 70ies like Afterglow and Watcher of the Skies. But they ran anything through the vocoder section. Voices, other synths, drums. In the Air Tonight is another example of that vocoder sound.

It has the magic and dark energy living inside that VP-330. It lives, breathe’s and scares souls, that’s why it still attracts. Also great compositions bro. 🎹👌🏼👉🏼🎤

3:43 is some dope sh:t my friend

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Part of a project in the works. I've been surreptitiously slipping bits of it into videos to see if anyone mentions it. 😉

Another great video Alex, you're knocking them out the park and it's great to see. Hopefully after lockdown ends and we're all getting back to normal our paths will cross one day, possibly at our mutual friends' place ;-)

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Ah yes, I know who you mean. 😉

these analog choir preset is mindblowing :o !!! Thank you so much for sharing, I love your video :D

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, probably the best thing about it!

Yayy it’s nick! Demo #3 🔝!!

Your composition at the end, is as sweet as! 😎

Beautiful machine & beautiful tune, as always ;)

Videos like this are what got me into to making electronic music

amazing, very noticable on ymo tracks, great stuff

I absolutely love your videos!

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Lou!

Quite enlightening thank you & lovely tune...

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Cheers Michael!

Wonderful device! I consider myself lucky to own one. Great video!

Your screen at 1:38 in the background is a very classic old Windows look. I used to work on Windows starting in the late '90s when that color was the main look. Kind of nostalgic for me to see that. :)

Those strings are so amazing and lush!

I'm just here for the Keeping Up Appearances joke

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

I'll get Sheridan on the phone.

@mastercylinder1939

3 жыл бұрын

I’m going to have to watch it again, I missed it, doh! Probably busy typing a forgettable response!

@mastercylinder1939

3 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic Lol. Maybe start another channel, The Keep up appearances appreciation channel. Rose in her basque comes to mind!

@yuufeternal5837

3 жыл бұрын

What is keeping up with appearances?

@mastercylinder1939

3 жыл бұрын

@@yuufeternal5837 it’s a comedy show in England about a woman who is always trying to be upperclass.

Gorgeous sounds, great demo!

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Cheers

Informative, entertaining, and a Jeff Lynnesque track at the end ftw.

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

That was what I was going for- thank you!

Those sounds are reminiscent of some of Steve Hackett's early classics. Really interesting channel - keep it up!

Cool stuff Alex, loved the end song... "Oh Superman" sneaked in at the end too lol.. ah...ah...ah..ah... :-D

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

😉

I didn't realize that Alex was The Beatles.

Your song at the end was fantastic. I'd listen to that record.

Just got the behringer vc340 and absolutely love it. Super affordable and sounds near exactly the same

Gotta love a vocoder, from the Bode, and Moog, through this Roland and to modern software.

Demo is fire!! got the vibe down perfect.

Loved this so much I tracked one down and acquired it 😂 thanks so much! **EDIT** Just found out the unit I bought was this EXACT unit from the video!!! Crazy!

Great video and in relation to the human voice synthesizer, Tony Banks used this as his Mellotron replacement sound on the Three Sides lives tour(1981) and it sounded pretty good on Afterglow and the In the Cage Medley.

This was recently used in Dua Lipa's Levitating, during the intro! It used the creepy choir with the auto bend function, and it sounds super wicked.

Listening to you demoing yon beasty it reminded me of the music of Blake's 7. Anyroad, another grand video Alex, cheers......DA.

Keeping Up Appearances reference FTW; ) Didn't know that's the vocoder used on O Superman, very cool. Glorious instrument and well shown as always.

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks. Yes, I love her use of it along with the tape loop. Super cool.

love your songs dude

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Lovely vocoder. Informative and interesting vid 👍 God bless.

Great synthemesizer review and what sounds like a potential album track 😉

Awesome vid! Congrats on purchase! 🤖🎹

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

It was borrowed. 🙂

Using an external synth as the carrier sounded much better. Straight off the VP-330 it had some weird jittery thing making it cut in and out a little. Unless that was a clipping issue or youtube’s lovely compression. Very cool effect when you used drums. Ieeh! That string synth sound is so harsh and brittle. I’m guessing it probably sounds better in person but yikes. I didn’t expect that. Had me diving for my volume. The voice synth part is really cool in a great vintage way. I’d take just that as a synth. Didn’t hurt that you played some really great melodies heh. Thanks for another great video. Really cool to get to see a lot of these synths in depth. I’ve seen many in my days but it was usually client’s at the studio with no time for me to pay it any attention for myself. That's such a cute little tune you did at the end. : )

Bwoahh.. that sounds amazing!

Also used by Mike Oldfield. Lots of strings can be heard on the albums "Crises" and "Discovery". On "Amarok" he uses the vocoder. Great demo as usual Alex, really enjoying your channel.

Loved the track at the end!

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Delicious ! All those 9 chords. #scritti4life . This video was definitely fun to watch and to hear :-) . Thumbs up from me.

I can’t believe this is a synthesizer I’ve never seen before I thought I knew every single one of them apparently not great video 👊👊💥

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Had you not heard of it? It was released as part of a trio of instruments and I might be borrowing one of the sister units soon for a related video.

Love the tune. Just remember the importance of keeping up appearances when doing things on your bucket list...

Gorgeous sound

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, nice isn't it!

Nice song at the end!

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Many thanks!

VP330 was also used by ABBA in Super Trouper, Under Attack, the day before you came (Drums) and Lay all your love on me (Chorus).

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Seems like this sadly just confirms my hypothesis, that the lovely soft string sounds (a la Mike Oldfield) are Mk1 territory. Loving that Macca/Britpop style song with the complete juxtaposition of adding the VP330, though I would have thought that 70s Geert van Schlaenger would have a big catalog of music done with the VP330.

@parasiteunit

3 жыл бұрын

There's a software company called loomer... They do a synth, called (groundbreakingly) string... Which has a very similar tone to the early synth string instruments... Whilst it isn't going to be an exact copy... Tonaly, there's definitely a retro character to it. Especially as the synth allows you to use the phaser and chorus mod effects on an external signal. Worth looking at as an option for that area of sound

*_Beautiful_* extro tune, man! With just a hint of Beatles, but not overdoing it. *Love* it!

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you. The old descending bass line trick from back in the day. 🙂

Some nice ELO vibes there, Alex

This is a pretty gnarly video, now I have an urge to add a vocoder to my synth arsenal ! !😂 Keep up the awesome work dude!!!

@fantasyproduct1042

3 жыл бұрын

Me to 😁

@johnvcougar

3 жыл бұрын

Bocoder VC-340 does the trick for me!

@andybabb2410

3 жыл бұрын

Sweet, thanks@@johnvcougar 🤘😃

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Everyone needs a vocoder (and a 303).

@fantasyproduct1042

3 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic I have the avalon bassline for 303 service 😁

I think sister Violet had one of those. You remember Violet. She's the one with the Mercedes, swimming pool, and room for a pony.

Finally! A light-weight, low-maintenance replacement for those dreadful Mellotrons! Greetings Alex :) Instant Late-70's! Congratulations. You got you a very pretty specimen. Thanks for another lovely demo, and another lovely, fun track.

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks again for tuning in!

this is the very definition of the word "sparkle"

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Yes!

Beautiful - so glad to see the VP-330 Keeping Up Appearances after all these years! 🤣

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

🤣

Nice one. This is dead interesting. I picked up a VC340 lately after originally thinking: "why the hell would I need that?!" and it is amazing.

@lundsweden

Жыл бұрын

Hi, how close is the VC340?

@StephenMcLeod

Жыл бұрын

@@lundsweden I've never used a VP330 so I can't comment!

HI ALEX. - GREAT VIDEO - LOVE YOUR PLAYOUT TRACK ! BEST REGARDS . . . EDDIE. UK MUSICIAN.

i feel like ive heard this thing a ton in old 80s/90s japanese movies

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Quite possibly!

@kama-kiri6496

3 жыл бұрын

A lot of 80s anime had this sound for sure.

@xmlthegreat

3 жыл бұрын

Yep this sound is basically baked into 80s and 90s anime.

Not enough people on the internets talking about Meat Beat Manifesto these days. Love their 90s work!

@Kung_Fu_Jesus

3 жыл бұрын

He was a massive influence for me, so much modular in his stuff and really amazing production: Streets ahead of the game back then, awesome live too.

@voice_from_pizza

3 жыл бұрын

@@Kung_Fu_Jesus I say “they” when I probably/mostly mean Jack Dangers but the first 4 albums especially Satyricon occupy a special place in (my) musical history. Satyricon to me is the most successful pop-rave crossover record... the song Circles is timeless. And I never even heard it until the year 2001, it hadn’t aged a day. The modular on Subliminal Sandwich is soooooo good too. Would love to be a fly on the wall in his studio back then.

@Kung_Fu_Jesus

3 жыл бұрын

@@voice_from_pizza all I can say is that the MBM remix of Orbital’s Remind is possibly the greatest moment in techno I have ever experienced.

Just dreamy. Really lovely instrument. The sounds just have such a romantic quality. I really love that human voice setting. Especially how Laurie Anderson used it on Let X = X. Also, great point you make about the musical tool only being as good as the peep using it :)

@AlexBallMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, it's so rose tinted and hazy. Like a happy dream.

This video totally convinced me of buying it! I know someone who has one for sale and.... i guess I'll just take it!

Nice augmented melody in that Human Voice Demo.