Take the concept of a vocoder, apply 16 bit digital technology and add midi and you have a great product. Add a pitch shifter, a 5 note programmable harmoniser, 8 internal vocal type waveforms and 64 programs and you have the unique new Korg Digital Voice Processor, the DVP-1.

We took this state of the art unit to the Art of Noises' Anne Dudley to ask for her views on this revolutionary Korg instrument.

"I like it very much. I've always been a great believer in the power of the human voice, it's your own built in synthesizer and it's one sound that you never tire of. This Korg Digital Voice Processor is impressive. I used the first Korg Vocoder a long time ago in the days when Herbie Hancock was using a lot of Vocoder sounds. They haven't really been that fashionable for 4 or 5 years now, mainly because no-one has developed the idea. No-one has taken it a stage further — until now. The new Korg explores other avenues such as adding the harmonizer. Anyone who hasn't got a harmonizer would be well advised to get one of these for that part of it alone. I've used it this week on a vibes type sound to get harmonies.

In terms of how good the instrument is purely from a vocalist view, I couldn't say because I look at vocal sounds from an instrumentalist's point of view. I sometimes look at words more for the sound of the word than for its meaning - you can repeat one word over and over but give it an interesting pitch or rhythm. I've done some soundtracks for adverts recently and the voice processor would have been useful then.

There's more to it than I've had time to discover yet but the design and layout is good. It turns keyboard players into vocalists and you don't have to be a good vocalist to produce some great new sounds."