Olydian VC-01 Voicecrafter: a vocal synth with 380 syllables
Olydian Musical Instruments has announced the VC-01 Voicecrafter, a six-voice vocal synth that sings 380 syllables and chains them in a built-in sequencer. Price and date still unknown.
Young brand Olydian Musical Instruments unveiled the VC-01 Voicecrafter in early October, a hardware synthesizer built entirely around the voice. The idea fits in one line: 380 syllables to pick, play from the keyboard and chain in a sequencer so the machine can speak or sing. On its official page, the maker calls it a vocal synthesizer born from “the unholy union between computers and the human voice”. This is an announcement: price and release date have not been set.
Who it is for
The VC-01 is not aimed at keyboard players looking for yet another analog poly. It targets three fairly specific profiles:
- Electronic, synthpop and game music producers who want robotic voices, synthetic choirs or spoken phrases without a microphone or a singer.
- Live performers who prefer a standalone box to a plugin: keyboard, sequencer and effects share one enclosure, with DIN and USB MIDI to sync it with the rest of the rig.
- Fans of retro speech synthesis, the talking chips of the 1980s, who would rather play it like an instrument than program it on a computer.
What it costs
Price not announced. Olydian says pre-orders will open next year and offers a waiting list on its website. No availability date is given. Without a price, the VC-01 cannot yet be placed in any bracket: that is the first thing to watch.
What is inside
Two engines for one voice
The VC-01 combines two sound engines, each with its own effects and envelopes:
- a formant synthesis engine. Formants are the frequency bands boosted by the mouth and throat: they are what makes an “a” sound different from an “o”. Recreating them with filters produces a fully synthetic voice;
- a consonant-vowel sampling engine, drawing on more than 20 sample banks for more realistic attacks (consonants are hard to get from pure synthesis).
Olydian has not yet explained how the two engines share the work on a single syllable. Polyphony is announced at six voices, meaning six notes at once: enough for sung chords (our article on polyphony and voice count explains what that number means in practice).
Announced specifications
| Item | As announced by Olydian |
|---|---|
| Engines | formant synthesis + consonant-vowel samples |
| Syllables | 380, selectable and sequenceable |
| Polyphony | 6 voices |
| Sample banks | more than 20 |
| Modulation | 2 LFOs, per-engine envelopes, pitch bend wheel, portamento |
| Effects | per engine, plus global vibrato, reverb and three delay types |
| Keyboard | three octaves, mechanical keys |
| Sequencer | thousands of steps, looping and overdub, savable presets |
| Connections | DIN MIDI and USB MIDI, in and out |
| Price / availability | not announced, pre-orders planned for next year |
Per-engine envelopes shape how each syllable starts and fades; if attack, decay, sustain and release are new to you, our guide to the ADSR envelope walks through them step by step.
What it competes with
The VC-01 has no direct hardware rival at announcement time. Neighbouring options take other routes:
- Vocoders, such as the one in the Korg microKORG: they give a robotic colour, but need a voice fed through a microphone. The VC-01 generates the voice itself.
- Singing and speech synthesis software, such as Yamaha’s Vocaloid or Plogue’s Chipspeech: far more complete for writing lyrics, but they live in the computer and are programmed more than played.
Olydian’s case is the standalone instrument, playable from the keys and sequenced without a computer screen. How far 380 syllables go against a true lyrics editor remains to be seen: for now, only the maker’s demo lets you judge.
Olydian’s presentation
Olydian introduces the instrument in its official video:
Source: Olydian Musical Instruments, VC-01 Voicecrafter page. Other new polyphonic instruments are collected in our Polyphonic section.
