oldschooldaw.com

Hardware => Synthesizers + Romplers => synths - 1990s => Topic started by: chrisNova777 on September 04, 2017, 04:38:11 AM

Title: Yamaha VL1 & VL1M (1993?)
Post by: chrisNova777 on September 04, 2017, 04:38:11 AM
http://www.matrixsynth.com/2006/12/yamaha-vl1-m.html
http://www.kbspace.com/vl1m/patches/
http://www.kbspace.com/vl1m/thoughts/index.html
http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/1994_articles/jul94/yamahavl1.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20150608005838/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/jul94/yamahavl1.html



 

Quote
CONCLUSION

What can I say? I can't afford one; I haven't got the time to learn how to play it properly; and yet this is one of the most desirable instruments I have ever heard. I can see some session players earning lots of money from the VL1 -- and that is probably where it sits in the market: for serious professionals only. The rest of us can sit and bite our fingernails hoping that a more affordable version does not appear to tempt us (but it probably will, eventually)!

Curiously, exactly the same strengths that make Emu's new Morpheus synthesizer a powerful and expressive tool also apply to the VL1, despite the synthesis methods being so different. Both products require careful and detailed use of MIDI Controllers, and lose much of their appeal if played only from the keyboard using just velocity control. They each offer synthesis systems of sufficient complexity to stretch the programming capability of their owners, and neither depends on raw samples for how they sound -- the VL1 even more so than the Morpheus. More importantly, the comprehensive and responsive expression facilities offered by the VL1 mean that this is another instrument that you won't be able to sample easily without losing everything about it that makes it sound so special. The future does not lie with larger ROM samples and ever more cliched sample sets, or even SCSI-connected CD-ROMs of prepackaged sounds; it lies with synthesis, and I put the Yamaha VL1 in pole position.