Synth Site |  Yamaha |  VP-1

The VP1 was the polyphonic partner to the VL1, which went on sale in 1994. The VP featured string pads, brass, metallic, kotos, marimbas and 'screaming lead' sounds. I believe only two were ever sold - one to a collector in Germany, who possibly loaned his VP1 to the Musik Store in Koeln so they could produce the only VP1 sample disc in existence (it's still available, in Akai format).

The VP had a 76 note keyboard and looked exactly like what it was - a scaled-up version of the VL1. The string pad sound was sampled by Yamaha themselves for the Motif, and you can here it as the 'VP Strings' patch. It's a nice, warm string sound, but not remotely realistic. Quite similar to the string pads in the Korg Z1, which is probably the closest thing to the VP1 and ultimately more flexible. A much more realistic string sound is included on Technics' WSA keyboard.

The VP1 remains a fascinating synth, because it came so close to release. Yamaha seem to have turned their back on polyphonic virtual acoustics these days, as the public didn't seem as taken with this new approach to synthesis as the manufacturers hoped.