From gse@his.comWed Mar 19 10:11:46 1997 Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 00:28:34 -0500 (EST) From: Scott Evans To: electronica@noether.ex.ac.uk, analogue@hyperreal.com Subject: VF11 review Howdy all. I'm not on AH these days, so for all I know somebody's already reviewed this thing, but FWIW... I got my MAM VF11 vocoder yesterday. Here's a quick review. It's a one rack space, 11-band analog vocoder. Design is nice and clean; it's stylish silver with clearly labelled black rubber knobs. Front panel controls: - input level: analyze, synth (both with overload LEDs) - VCO frequency - output level: filter bank, analyze signal, synth signal, vocoded signal - filter levels: 11 knobs to adjust levels of each band - unvoiced level Rear panel connections (all 1/4" except mic in): - synth in - mic (xlr) in - analyze in (line) - unvoiced in - output Sound: This thing rocks. I'm *very* impressed with its flexiblity and sound. Speech is quite intelligible even with no fiddling, and drum loops and stuff sound great. The "unvoiced" circuit works pretty well; it injects white noise for plosives, which clarifies speech. There's also an LED that tells you when the unvoiced circuit is doing its thing. Also, having a level control for this section is a great idea. Looking at the block diagram, it appears to compress the "analyze" (mic) line, but not the synth line or the output, so it's a good idea to have a few compressors handy. The internal VCO is normalized to the "synth" input: it goes away when a cable is plugged in, which means I'll never use it since I wired it to a patchbay. I assume the unvoiced input is there so you can supply something other than white noise for plosives, which could be interesting. The "filter" mix allows you to run a signal into the "synth" input and through the filter bank (with whatever mix of bands you dial up) ... a pretty cool feature for some effects. The manual's in German, so there may be some other nifty hidden features that I'm not aware of. If anyone feels like translating 30 pages of vocoder manual, let me know. :) My one gripe: no power switch. If you're looking for a vocoder, I recommend the MAM ... I'm really digging it. I'm going to place some samples on Music Machines tonight; check 'em out and let me know what you think. -- scott evans beauty http://www.his.com/~gse/beauty From gse@his.comWed Mar 19 10:11:51 1997 Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 00:50:07 -0500 (EST) From: Scott Evans To: analogue%hyperreal.com.electronica@noether.ex.ac.uk Subject: VF11 pt 2 Oops, forgot to mention ... the current going price for the VF11 is, I believe, 769DM (currently around US$475). Also, MAM has a webpage now. Check out http://www.music-and-more.com. -- scott evans beauty http://www.his.com/~gse/beauty