Roland VT-4 Vocal Transformer , Black

The Roland VT-4 Vocal Transformer is totally awesome. It works great with batteries or with USB power. It works great without being connected to a music keyboard. Just connect a dynamic microphone and a pair of headphones to it and you are good to go. All the voice transformation options worked great.

The VT4 is definitely a great tool for any vocal performance, and does a great job with special effects as well. There were several features I didn't expect but are great to have.- Pitch correction includes minor chords, and it works well in coordination with the vocoding. Being able to set the strength of the pitch correction is definitely a plus, especially when you are playing with glides or other vocal techniques.- Vocoding works well on it's own, and through USB you can set your own carrier sound.- There's a noise canceling function for killing feedback loops- There are four variations for things like echo, vocoder, harmony and megaphone- You can run mono out with a dry version of the sound on the other stereo out- You can use this as an audio capture and playback over USB- Harmonizer uses pitch and formant, to give a different feel to your backing vocals.Overall it feels solid, sounds great and has a lot more depth than first glance. The smaller size and lack of a giant blinky green border make this feel more like a real vocal tool.The only thing I wish it had was another audio in for carrier sounds on the vocoder, or for mixing in a stereo mix for things like Karaoke. You CAN get that when using a computer, but I don't always want to use a computer.

You're going to need a pre-amp for a good signal if you are usingSM58 or Sennheiser E835's . Most doing this work would know this,but some are just starting out so.... Like me LOL !!!

I am a published author, and I decided to do my own audiobook version. I needed something to help me flip from one type of voice to another. I'm not as good as professional readers, so I need a bit of techno help. This does the job. I bought a mic that was probably too good for what I want because the Roland/mic combo was so good it picked up some elements of my voice I didn't know I had. So I have had this for a while now and I've had fun monkeying with the dials and knobs, searching for the character voices I need. So my review is limited to just audiobook recording because I am far behind the people who have posted other reviews. Perhaps someday I will plug this into my keyboard and see what it does. In the meantime, for anyone looking to do character work, this with a good mic will do the job. I love this.

I owned the Boss Voice Transformer in early 2000, I ended up losing over $10, 000 in Music Equipment in a storage facility over a $100 dollar bill, I lost my Roland VS 2000 mixer, Akai MP4000, etc. I'm on a rebound now I have a Tascam DP32 that I still haven't been able to record on, An Akai controller plus laptops, Apple.I missed my old lyrics style, using the Boss, Adobe Audition means well, but you have to wait until your vocals are recorded before you hear the effect, I didn't like my voice being so dry, I went back to processing, purchased the Roland Air and I loved my voice, the scatter is for a hype reggae type language or Lil Jon to DJ Red Alert or Shottaz. It's better than the Boss, I'm shopping for a drum machine now, like the Boss DR 202_ the storage lady and her black cat to my machine, by layer beats killed the fruity loop kids realness, or should I say, electronics lol

This product is not cheap (I bought it for $240 USD). It is not the most expensive vocal processing unit out there, but there are other more affordable options that you should consider (like the FLAMMA FV03). For the amount of money I paid for this unit I expected far more than it delivered.I fully admit that I was a fool and bought into the hype from sponsored YT vids and slick merchandising. I did my homework first, compared it to the Zoom V3 and the Helicon VE before deciding. I checked the specs and knew beforehand that it wouldn't be PnP with any Linux distro. But I thought it would be an outstanding standalone unit and, like anyone who deals in A/V (audio/video), with some cable routing I could get the output of the unit into my PC and things would be great. I was very wrong.First let me say that the review that says it works with Linux is FALSE. It 'can' work with an Arch distro, but forget anything debian/slackware/redhat. Yes, I have pipewire installed - NO, it still won't input a signal through USB and when attempting to do so freezes all audio over the entire system until I 'unhook' the pipewire connection. YES, this is highly annoying that Roland chose to not use a class compliant driver structure (like the vast overwhelming majority of consumer USB devices do) to allow basic functionality if you don't use the driver they supply on their website. Yes, this means that in the future 10 years from now this unit will become obsolete when Roland puts out a VT-5 or something or Windoz goes to version 13 or whatever and Roland decides they don't want to keep making drivers for it. Just because you don't use Linux doesn't mean this problem won't eventually catch up to you. No, I will probably not ever buy a Roland product again due to this foolish oversight.The sound from the headphone jack is AMAZING. Totally crisp and clean. Too bad the sound from the rear output cannot be described the same way. I had to put a ground loop isolator inline to cut the noise. Only afterward when confronted with the noise issue did I find a semi well hid article from several years ago that specifically states that the 1/4" outputs are TS only. In other words, unbalanced and prone to noise.Though the sound coming out, if properly dealt with, is crisp -> the options are severely underwhelming once you get your hands on the unit. The slides/dials are 'touchy'. The vocal effects snap in/out of octaves like a bouncing ball sometimes. One minute (and this is speaking mind you) I'm in a relatively 'constant voice' only for the pitch and octave to spike up/down for a sec and ruin the entire effect. After I tinkered with it for a couple days I found a YT vid where someone mentioned all the 'hidden features' that are in the back of the manual but that none of the sponsored vids revealed. Though the vid was very helpful one comment from that particular YT vid is something you should think and ponder HARD before you decide to make this purchase."This is very much a curated sound, you know, they kind of in their own minds came up with maybe 20 different sounds and they more or less want you to pick from them." In other words - this is not really a creative device so much as the vocal equivalent of paint-by-number. For over twice what you would pay for something that is far more honest (like the flamma).BOTTOM LINE: IF (seriously only IF) you are using this for performances or recording purposes -> meaning you are in a band or a singer or have a small recording studio, or you purpose is to use this through a mixer that then plugs into your DAW or even an ADC (improperly called a DAC by the clueless). THEN (seriously only THEN) I would say maybe go for it, but don't be surprised if you too experience remorse at the lack of utility.BUT - If, like me, you are planning on using this for streaming/podcasting/voice acting - and it's a hobby or part-time thing where there's little financial gain to 'make your money back' (thus recoup the expense). THEN - look elsewhere. I could have gotten something much more user-friendly for much less somewhere else.