Alex Ball’s VP-550 Rave Resurrection: Still a Sonic Street Weapon?

Alex Ball wastes no time reminding us that 2006 is now officially vintage, and the Roland VP-550 is the synth equivalent of a midlife crisis in a shiny silver box. Forget the 70s and 80s – this beast dropped when MySpace was still a thing, and yet it’s got more personality than half the plug-ins on your laptop. The VP-550 isn’t just a nostalgia trip; it’s a hybrid of retro vocal processing and modern digital trickery, straddling the line between classic vocoder and choir-in-a-box.

What makes it stand out, even two decades on, is how it blends that old-school Roland DNA with a fresh approach to vocal synthesis. Alex puts it in context, tracing the VP lineage from the legendary VP-330 through to the VP-9000, before landing on this model’s unique mix of keyboard-controlled pitch and mic-driven carrier signals. It’s not just a rehash – it’s a weird, wonderful evolution that still feels relevant for anyone after something a bit leftfield.

Back in 2006, the VP-550 made perfect sense for live performers: small, light, and able to conjure choirs and strings on the fly. Alex points out how you could flip between ensemble sounds and harmony vocals in real time, making it a killer tool for gigging musicians. It’s the kind of hands-on flexibility you just don’t get from a laptop and mouse.

Of course, in 2024, you can do all this and more with a modern workstation – so is the VP-550 just a glorified doorstop? Not quite. While the ensemble sounds might not win any awards today, the vocal designer still punches above its weight. Blend it subtly behind a real vocal, and it’s convincing; crank it up to 100% wet, and you’re deep in uncanny valley territory. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and it still does things modern gear can’t quite replicate.

Alex doesn’t just stick to the manual – he pushes the VP-550 into experimental territory, running all sorts of signals through its vocal designer and external carrier modes. The results? Sometimes brilliant, sometimes bizarre, always inspiring. This is where the VP-550’s character really shines: it’s dead easy to use, but it rewards anyone willing to get a bit weird with their routing.

Whether you’re mangling vocals, feeding in synths, or just seeing what happens when you press all the buttons at once, the VP-550 keeps delivering surprises. Alex’s experiments are a reminder that some gear just begs to be abused, and the only way to really understand its magic is to hear it in action – which, frankly, you need to do by watching the video. Words don’t do justice to the chaos you can unleash.