Roland VT-4 Vocal Transformer, Black

So easy to use

The VT4 is definitely a great tool for any vocal performance, and does a great job with special effects as well. There were several features I didn’t expect but are great to have.

– Pitch correction includes minor chords, and it works well in coordination with the vocoding. Being able to set the strength of the pitch correction is definitely a plus, especially when you are playing with glides or other vocal techniques.
– Vocoding works well on it’s own, and through USB you can set your own carrier sound.
– There’s a noise canceling function for killing feedback loops
– There are four variations for things like echo, vocoder, harmony and megaphone
– You can run mono out with a dry version of the sound on the other stereo out
– You can use this as an audio capture and playback over USB
– Harmonizer uses pitch and formant, to give a different feel to your backing vocals.

Overall it feels solid, sounds great and has a lot more depth than first glance. The smaller size and lack of a giant blinky green border make this feel more like a real vocal tool.

The only thing I wish it had was another audio in for carrier sounds on the vocoder, or for mixing in a stereo mix for things like Karaoke. You CAN get that when using a computer, but I don’t always want to use a computer.

Il prodotto e validissimo, ma penso che per avere lo stesso risultato dei video che si trovano in giro, bisogna avere attrezzature supeprofessionali, io l ho restituito

Great for making thin voices like mine sound full and interesting

I wanted the auto tune effect for my rap vocals. It doesn’t come with a power supply which is crazy considering the price point it’s at. It also doesn’t give studio quality sound no good for recording. And I brought it primarily for recording. So it’s no good for that . It’s very simple to use yes . This is a poorly engineered product . Roland for decades has made quality audio equipment don’t know what happened here . I returned it and brought a tc helicon voice live touch unit 2 instead. Brought it used it’s not manufactured anymore but sounds awesome gives you nice auto tune effects .

El producto llegó bien todo en orden pero:
Trabaja con pilas AA
Los efectos son muy comunes y en algunos casos sin sentido como el de robot.
No tiene salida XLR solamente a plug ya sabemos que no saldrás con la mayor calidad
Lo compré por el pitch corrector para sonar con voz de reggaetón pero se nota muy poco el efecto en vivo.
Por eso la verdad me hubiera ido por cualquier modulador de efectos para la voz que son más sencillos y prácticos de usar.

EDIT:: yes, turns out you *can* use it as an interface, I just derped out on that one.

Not bad, but not great. (although it could have been.)

Thing is, all the features Roland advertises are true, and that’s why I *want* to rate this thing at a five.
But that said, for all it does offer, (and make no mistake, this little guy is PACKED with features) I’ll only list the negatives for this one, for the buyer’s sake:

1) What they don’t tell you is that it’s as total PIA to set up as a standalone interface. (This is not it’s primary purpose, which is fine, but if the USB on the back is any indication, there’s no reason this shouldn’t have been easy to set up.) Personally, I’ve currently wired it up to the FX send/return on my mixer, but for all other things, software / driver dependence just makes me cringe. Which is….disappointing. I’d imagine this’d be a negative for most folks looking at this thing.

2) Secondly, and more importantly, the VT-3 *mixes wet and dry signals.* No matter how it’s configured, your standard, untouched voice gets mixed in with the vocoded, pitch-shifted, radio’d voice in the end result. As I’ve mentioned, I have it configured in an analogue format as an FX module, (there’s no reason it shouldn’t work as expected in this config) so I have yet to determine if it can output ONLY the wet signal if configured properly as an interface or auxillary device, etc, but I figured I’d bring it up anyway.
I don’t particularly mind this, but then again, I have a very unusual and VERY specific use-case, so you the viewer have to decide for yourself whether or not you want your original voice mixed in with the FX. No matter how high the FX slider is on the VT-3, the original vocals are always there.

3) Lastly, this thing just murders sound quality. Again, it’s possible that this is fixed in interface mode, but in general, the dry signal from my mixer is clean AF without the VT-3 involved, but as soon as it gets processed through the VT-3, or *even passed through with the “bypass” enabled,* everything just sounds muddy and dirty. This is, again, with a completely analogue setup, without the USB involved, mind you. I don’t even have that good an ear, and it sounds bad.
Headphones in the mixer with the VT-3 hooked up to the aux / FX return, muddy. Hooked up to the final input destination, still muddy. VT-3 tested “standalone” with headphones coming directly out the front…..very muddy, still.
Again, this is possibly due to the design, since this thing is marketed as a “vocoder,” and the vocoded signal won’t require a very high fidelity signal, which is totally fine, but I feel like this thing could have REALLY stood out for more than just live musicians (recording artists, streamers, youtubers, etc) if it weren’t for this one drawback.
Just for the record: If you’re intending to use it like I am, integrating it with your mixer, you can fix this problem just by turning down the FX or Aux knob when this thing isn’t in use.

This IS a good piece of hardware, and my experience with Roland has usually been stellar, so it’s really disappointing for me to see gear like this with ridiculous potential just fall flat in so many critical areas.
I *will* recommend it, but only if you completely understand what you’re buying into.