Does anybody out there ever use the VO-6 synth? I find it way too cumbersome for making useful sounds, and I don’t have the patience to program speech with it. I rarely, if ever, hear people use it on tracks (as far as I can tell).
It seems such a waste to have a synth that nobody uses taking up system space. I personally would be happy to see Elektron replace that synth with something else in an OS update.
Anyone “love” the VO-6? Why? I wish I could find the joy in the darn thing.
When I had my Monomachine, I used it quite a bit. Usually not for complete sentences, just for small things like saying “acid” or something like that.
I think the trick is to not think them as vocals as such, just synthesized sounds that just happen to resemble vocals a bit, and can add a bit of extra humanity (well, robot-like humanity at least) to your tracks.
Here’s my example. The little vocal bits come from the MnM (well, the whole tune comes from an MnM actually).
the vo6 is not at all limited to actual speech synthesis as in making the MnM speak.
give it a shot as a ‘musical’ synth engine and see if this new perspective changes your mind about it.
possible examples for inspiration:
-try making a ‘choir’ in poly mode
-build some ghastly atmospheres with it alone by using much filtering
-emulate a didgeridoo
-…
I find that VO-6 is one of those things that I don’t use that often - but when I do, it yields unique results…it’s definitely worth having in the armoury & is yet another thing that marks the MnM out as instrument unlike any other.
I haven’t really spent anywhere near enough time with the VO-6 machine… a poly mode choir of some sort is definitely on my agenda though.
I think it was Nils who did a demo for the MnM when it was first launched pretty much that virtually sold me on the MnM from that alone…it was the otherwordly, creepy tone of the VO-6 that hooked me…
I’ve actually used a VO-6 sound as a key component in one of the tracks in my upcoming album… ( shameless plug… )
No experimenting = no joy.
As with everything in the Monomachine the dry un-effected machines when loaded sound pretty harsh, boring & uninspiring. But then you start using the filters wisely, add effects, LFO’s, copy/paste to another track, transpose, pan differently, do it once more, change the notes of the pasted track to create polyphony, add an efx track as neighbour & filter that fx track again, and or/add delays there & more LFO’s, etc
Could go on but the truth is the only limit is … the user.
Key factor is to reduce distortion parameter, instant harshness remover.
Do not expect miracles though, it offers what has been advertised, ‘man machine’ voices, not a human choir.
I rarely ever use the VO for actual speech…if ever. A few times I noodled around with it just to mess with people I was kickin it with and have it say something vulgar raw and nasty to get a laugh.
Really though, I sometimes have the VO loaded on 3-4 tracks because I get so many sounds I never heard before. I have been building a modular for awhile now and the MnM itself is the closest piece of gear I could find to getting modular sounds.
Try working away from using it for speech and maybe focus on textures and layers between and around other sounds you have going. If I had to get rid of all of my Elektrons and could only keep one it would be the MnM.
I’ve been wanting to explore the VO synth more, and have thought about creating some sort of project utilizing it, but it’s still on my “to do”-list. I’ve never really liked it, but I’m sure with a bit of love and fondling, it’ll sing!
Edit - fucked around a bit with it now, and hells yeah, this thing is cool! Will definitely play some more with it.
Well you’ve all inspired me to dig in and get to know the VO6. I’ve been messing around with it a lot more lately. I must admit that it is is pretty fun to use now that I understand it better.
Actually, I had really cool experiment going last night that I was going to record and post for ya’ll, (a crunchy robotic voice that I programmed to say “universe” being run through some delays). But unfortunately it was late, and I had been drinking, which lead me to making the fatal mistake of loading a new machine, accidentally, on the track where I had the VO6. You would think that by now I would know to copy a pattern before doing anything to it, but no.
I’ve found that P-Locking different notes and parameter setting for each trigger is absolutely the key to finding the “joy” I was looking for in this synth (much more so than with other synths).
Well, back to the lab. Hopefully I’ll have some cool progress to share with you guys later.
( shameless plug… ) 
