Roland VT-4 Voice Transformer 2018

Roland VT-4 Overview

The Roland AIRA VT-4 Voice Transformer is a real-time vocal processor designed to craft and shape your own custom vocal sounds, from subtle augmentation to radical transformation. Smoothly alter the pitch and formant of a voice or add heavily processed vocal effects to your studio work, stage performances, podcasts, web streaming, and more. All controls are conveniently located from the front panel allowing you to make quick adjustments without menu diving or programming. Create remarkable effects such as harmonizing, vocoding, pitch shifting, hard tuning, and more. Dramatically change your entire persona from male to female, big to small, or good to evil.

For controls, the unit features dedicated pitch, formant, balance, and reverb sliders. A center wheel provides auto-pitch features, while the dedicated robot, megaphone, vocoder, and harmony buttons allow you to mix and match effects. Each effect has a selection of one-touch variations, so you can get different vocoder characteristics, various lo-fi effects, multi-part harmonies, and distinct kinds of reverb and delay. Chain your effects, set the controls just how you like them, and then simply hold down a preset button to save that scene for later. Up to eight scenes can be saved for instant recall. Changing presets and tweaking controls is smooth and immediate, with no jarring artifacts, glitches, or dropouts.

For I/O, a rear panel features a combo XLR-1/4" connector with switchable +48V phantom power for use with your favorite condenser microphone. Outputs are provided by a pair of 1/4" TRS connectors which can be configured as either mono/stereo or separate wet/dry channels. A built-in USB audio interface with adjustable volume level provides loopback recording to overdub vocals on existing tracks. Power is provided by either the computer's USB bus or via the four included AA batteries.

Effect Descriptions

• Robot: Produces an expressionless voice with a fixed pitch, evocative of a robot
• Megaphone: Produces a distorted voice, as though you were using a megaphone
• Vocoder: Produces a vocoder voice
• Harmony: Lets you add harmony to the sound
• Auto Pitch: Pitch-corrects your voice
• Key: Specifies the key that is used when applying an effect with the Robot button or the Auto Pitch knob
• Pitch: Adjusts the pitch of the voice
• Formant: Adjusts the formants of the sound
• Balance: Adjusts the balance between the normal voice  and the effect-processed voice
• Reverb: Adjusts the amount of reverb

Effect Types

• Robot
  • Normal
  • Octave-1
  • Octave+1
  • Feedback
• Megaphone
  • Megaphone
  • Radio
  • BBD Chorus
  • Strobo
• Vocoder
  • Advanced
  • VP
  • Talk Box
  • Spell Toy
• Harmony
  • +5
  • +3
  • +3, -4
  • +3, +5
• Reverb
  • Reverb
  • Echo
  • Tempo Delay
  • Dub Echo

Roland VT-4 Specs

ConnectorsMic In (Rear): 1 x combo XLR-1/4" / 6.3 mm
Mic In (Front): 1 x 1/8" / 3.5 mm TRS (plug-in power)
Phones: 1 x 1/8" / 3.5 mm TRS
Line Out: 2 x 1/4" / 6.3 mm
USB Port: 1 x USB Type B
MIDI In: 1 x 5-pin DINPhantom Power+48 V, 10 mA maxUSBAudioNominal Input LevelMic In: -40 to -12 dBu (variable)Input ImpedanceMIC IN (Rear): 4.4 kOhms
MIC IN (Front): 2.2 kOhmsNominal Output Level-10 dBuOutput ImpedanceOut: 1 kOhm
Phones: 24 OhmsMemoryScene Memory: 8ControlsFaders
Pitch
Formant
Balance
Reverb

Knobs
Volume
Mic Sens
Auto Pitch
Key

Buttons
Robot
Megaphone
Vocoder
Harmony
Manual
Bypass
Memory / Effect Variation x 4Effect TypeRobot
Normal
Octave-1
Octave+1
Feedback

Megaphone
Megaphone
Radio
BBD Chorus
Strobo

Vocoder
Advanced
VP
Talk Box
Spell Toy

Harmony
+5
+3
+3, -4
+3, +5

Reverb
Reverb
Echo
Tempo Delay
Dub EchoIndicator LightsPeakSignal ProcessingPC Interface: 24-bits
AD/DA Conversion: 24-bitsSampling FrequencyAD/DA Conversion: 44.1, 48, 96, 192 kHzPowerPower Supply:
4 x Rechargeable Ni-MH battery (AA, HR6)
4 x Alkaline battery (AA, LR6)
USB Bus Power: Obtained via USB port
Current Draw: 500 mABattery Life (approx.)Alkaline Battery (phantom power: Off): Approx. 6 hours
Alkaline Battery (phantom power: On): Approx. 4 hours
Rechargeable Ni-MH Battery (phantom power: Off): Approx. 7 hours
Rechargeable Ni-MH Battery (phantom power: On): Approx. 5.5 hoursDimensions (W x D x H)6.9 x 5.2 x 2.3" / 174 x 133 x 58 mmWeight19.5 oz / 554.0 g