Roland VP-9000 Variphrase SAMPLE-BASED PROCESSOR

Roland VP-9000 Variphrase
SAMPLE-BASED PROCESSOR

by Robert Hanson

So is it a sampler or your favorite loop-based application in a box? People seem a little bit confused about who and what the Roland VP-9000 Variphrase Processor is for, though everyone seems pretty convinced that it’s the next big thing. (It recently scored an EM Editors’ Choice Award for Most Innovative Product.) The VP-9000, intended for professional producers, engineers and especially remixers, delivers the features and creative flexibility that we’ve all wished for from our samplers and DAWs.

Roland VP-9000 Variphrase Processor
(click for larger view)

Though the VP-9000’s pitch, time and formant control features are available as separate pieces of software for a fraction of the cost, the Roland unit packs all these features in one box, conveniently behind a few knobs and allows you to audition them in real time (which no software can presently do). The interface gives users a quick and creative way of tweaking and remixing elements of audio that would normally bog down computers and throw a wrench in the creative process.

Roland’s advertising pitch of “Elastic Audio” isn’t too far off: The VP-9000 allows you to match the tempo of different samples and add swing to stiff rhythms, and the unit also provides real-time, independent pitch, time and formant control. The VP-9000 is not, however, an all-purpose sampler; the six-voice polyphony, the loading time and the output architecture do not compare with the features of the E-mu and Akai units. But the powerful, sample-based processor will allow you to create fresh sound designs that you can send right to multitrack.

Main Features
The in/out architecture clearly speaks to both the professional and semi-pro recording set. The I/Os include a pair of 1/4-inch balanced inputs (with selectable -20, -10 and +4dBm gain settings); optical and coaxial digital I/Os; three pairs of 1/4-inch outputs; MIDI in/ out/thru; a single front panel, 1/4-inch, balanced input; SCSI A and B; and a headphone jack.

The front panel is divided into three regions. On the left side are all the controls for loading and recording samples, including control knobs for output volume and recording level. In the center is a larger, amber-colored LCD with a series of function and scroll keys. On the far right are the time, pitch and formant/groove control knobs, the real meat and potatoes of the unit, plus a generous complement of onboard effects. The effects are based on the same algorithms found throughout the Roland/Boss family of products: chorus, reverb, numerous multi-effects and standard LFO for each sample, and they can be automated. There is also a great resampling function, which allows you to print effects to an existing sample and create a new file out of it.

The unit ships with eight MB of installed memory, allowing for a maximum sample length of 25 seconds in stereo (50 seconds mono). The onboard memory can be expanded to a respectable 136 MB (though no single sample can be larger than eight MB, even with the upgrade). The memory up-grade is accomplished by simply removing the top panel of the unit (four screws) and dropping in up to four 32MB SIMMs; in fact, any combination of eight, 16 and 32MB SIMMs will work. For storage, the VP-9000 includes a 250MB Zip drive; the good people at Roland swear that the infamous and unexplainable “Zip-disk click of death” is a thing of the past, and I didn’t experience any problems with it. The VP-9000 will also back up to an external hard drive and is capable of burning its own CD-Rs via SCSI.

Reprinted with permission from

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