[sdiy] Evolution of the vocoder?

[Tom Wiltshire]

Hi All,

I've just been watching the demo videos of the Roland VP550:

http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx? 
ObjectId=771&ParentId=83

Quite an impressive instrument. It's obviously related to the  
standard vocoder, but they've managed to go beyond the usual vocoder  
sound.

What really bugs me about the new stuff that gets released is that I  
don't get to find out how it works until 20 years have gone by. I'd  
love to know the details of the algorithms they're using to create  
these sounds, but I don't suppose for a moment that they want to tell  
me. How's anyone supposed to keep up with the state of the art if  
they keep it all under their hat? Anyone care to speculate on what  
they've done?

Regards,
Tom