Favorite machine #7: Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus (1979). It's a string ensemble synthesizer. It's a vocoder, which can make your voice sound almost robotic. Actually, it's both of these. The effect you're thinking of, that Kanye West and T-Pain use, is called auto-tune, which digitally corrects the pitch of the human voice. Vocoders, on the other hand, shape loudness and timbre around the signals of any audio device that's plugged into it, whether it's a microphone, an electric guitar, or even a LinnDrum. Among other songs, the Roland VP-330 can be heard in "Technopolis" and "Absolute Ego Dance" by Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), and "Mr. Roboto" by Styx.
Picture Added August 31, 2011, 09:07:38 PM (-07:00)
Added by Seiji J. Konokama