It's a Phrase Playback device, not to be confused with a 'sampler', though it does use sampled objects as it's sound base. What you put in, you get back out, adding the ability to time stretch, pitch shift and add many, many fx to the signal path. It cuts throught the mix nicely, the fidelety seems high enough to use in a semi-pro environment.

I got mine second hand from a college student who had no idea what this thing was good for. Got it on a trade for an older Roland synth. Well worth it. I had no manual, no demo disk, nothing. But in about an hour, was pumping top quality house loops through my speakers. Love the LARGE LCD, multi output options, SCSI, etc...FX Fx FX!!!

Once you wrap your brain around 'encoding' on this thing, it's a peice of cake!

Knobs seem cheap, more like Boss products there. Everything else is typical Roland quality. LCD is great...OS needs to be updated to 1.12..easy to do..otherwise things can be a bit finicky...

Like I said, got it on trade, maxxed out memory. Wouldn't buy it for more than $300-$400 bucks though. If you use a software sequencer like cubase\cakewalk\acid etc. you might not think you need this thing. Basically it takes the time stretch\pitch features from those programs and puts it in a box and adds extensive effects. I love\hate computers and am glad I don't have to rely on mine anymore for grooving with my drumloops and all those sample loop cd's I have. Also, good for re-mixing..

I've never had a problem with Roland support. I called them this morning to order a new Factory Demo disk for this thing, and they advised I'll receive it within the next few weeks, free of charge!

I think it's a very desireable peice of equipment for contemporary producers and songwriters. Technically it's unique, and it wont be a while until another device like this comes around. Maybe AKAI could venture in this direction and blow this thing away?!

Musician, songwriter, engineer by profession..

Hard Rock\Punk, Acoustic Hip Hop, Jazz\Funk

Anyone with anything negative to say about this unit, DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE IT!!! HELLO!!! IT AIN'T NO SAMPLER!!! Duh!!? It is far more flexible than any sampler out there, and I've used them all! From the old Ensoniq Mirage(remember that one?) to the MPC and XV units. The things you can do with vocals, and just lining up rhythm, and various phrases is completely AWSOME! I personally think Roland SUCK in the customer service department, and they don't have any smart people in their company AT ALL when it comes down to marketing their products, but the VP-9000 in my opinion was the best thing they could have ever done!

This machine is a steal under $1K, and I always love to use it when it's time to do vocal work. I mainly use it for vocal processing, and with the V-Producer software, it's a snap, especially when I need some good vocal harmonies, and don't want to wear out my voice singing all those different parts. I hate to hear all the negatives that people say about the VP-9000, so if people hate it that much, you can just give it to me, I have need for about 2 more units.

In about 5-10 years, you will wish you had this unit, and won't be able to find one! So stop trippin, and arm yourself with one.

Peace!

Hip-Hop/Urban Gospel

It's weird. This sampler isn't realistic. It doesn't sound at all as the things you have sampled. However that doesn't mean it is bad, on the contrary. It adds some kind of grainy texture to the sound that makes it "digitally warm". It's very expresive once you've taken the time to program it. A disadvantage is that it doesn't have filters. Well, it has, but it is just one of the 40 FX, so you have to choose between having a multi fx or the filter. It has independent chorus and reverb, tho. Oh, and it fits in the mix. I have some beautiful synths but sometimes it is impossible to give them some use. The VP-9000 won't let you down, you'll find several uses for it quickly. Advice: don't try to encode all of your samples in SOLO mode, sometimes BACKING sounds way better.

8 Mb from the factory is too little and RAM is scarce if you try to find it. Buy the VPs that had their memory increased.

Good quality, but i'd advice you to keep it in a rack.

When it came out, it was US$ 3000 worth. That was around Y2K. Now i bought it for 1/10th of the original price... (used). I think that new should be just a little higher.

I haven't contacted support. There's little support online, but you'll find at least the OS updates.

It's not pretty, but it has some cool features. Large LCD screen, you can visualize waveforms there and do a lot of editing s if you were working in a PC. It also has its own zip drive. I haven't even used 1 zip disk yet.

Semi-pro

Dance