AW: Re: Vocoders.....Judgement Day

[Haible Juergen]

	>I think the MAM/Next/F.A.T. vocoder sounds just as good as the
Roland did, if
	>not better.  I have a Roland SE70 these days, and it sounds
amazingly good for
	>a digital vocoder - nice other effects, too!  If I didn't have the
SE70, and
	>was going to spend three or four hundred dollars on a vocoder, I'd
probably
	>forgo the MAM's slightly better vocoding quality and still opt for
the SE70,
	>just because it does so much other good stuff, like cool ring mod
with MIDI
	>control over carrier frequency, excellent Leslie simulation, etc.

If you don't have one (or many) multi FX boxes already, you're probably
right.
But don't forget the user interface. A good user interface turns a box with
an abundance of theoretical possibilities into a tool that you will actually
use
when you need it.

	>Has anybody peeked inside one of those MAM units?  

Sure (;->).

	>I wonder what they're using for bandpass filters and for VCA's. 

I don't want to give away circuit details (because I did not learn
them by reverse engineering in that particular case ... ). Let's
put it this way, the quality of VCAs and opamps in the VF11 is
comparable to the ones from Oberheim's OB-Xa and OB-8,
and many similar synth and FX devices.

	> I can't imagine they are using NE570's as
	>in the PAIA unit, because it sounds ten times better.  

Using the NE570 was a brilliant choice for the PAIA vocoder. 
One of the most clever choices in terms of economic circuit design
I've seen in a musical instrument.
This solution has it's limits, however, most notably the 1st order
only filter after the ENV follower, and no asymmetrical (attack/release)
time constants.
The VF11 has a full fledged "discrete" (opamp) envelope follower circuit
that is optimized for vocoder applications.

IMO, there are only two reasonable choices for Vocoders today, that's the
MAM (and its repackages) and the Paia. Very different price regions,
and you get the max out of what you paid for in either case.

	JH.