Not exactly. The VL card adds over 300 new voices that are physically modelled as opposed to sampled. The one disadvantage of this is that it is so computation-heavy that at present the Yamaha VL units, including the VL card, are limited to producing one note at a time. But what a note! This is intended for either a solo/melody line or an extra-powerful and expressive bass line, with the regular wave-sampled sounds from the host device (and/or perhaps another PLG card, say, a PF or XG or AN or DX) providing the backup sounds. You can switch which instrument is being used, as I did with the above song (when I modified it from the original found on the NTonyX website), but you can only use one at any one time and it can only play one note at any one time.

Also, most of the voices don’t sound all that great when you just press keys on the keyboard. The power of VL is in the expressiveness, and to get that you need to have additional input above and beyond what can be done with keyboards alone (even with aftertouch). A foot pedal (not the switch type, but the kind that is similar to an organ’s expression pedal) can help here, but for best results you need to obtain either a Breath Controller or a Wind Controller. A Breath Controller fits in your mouth and plugs into a special jack on the back of the host unit, while a Wind Controller looks like a small clarinet or some such and has its own MIDI Out jack that can plug into a MIDI In jack. If you play solo, you would use a Breath Controller. If you have someone who knows how to play, say, a clarinet or a soprano sax, you can have them use a Wind Controller (the keying patterns are the same). Both detect breath pressure, and some even detect lip-shape (embouchure), tonguing, biting, and other things wind players do to alter the tonality of their sounds. My sample song above used special PC software to simulate Breath Controller input to the VL, but that’s not an option with an arranger keyboard — you need live Breath Controller input. As one review stated, VL sounds only come alive when you breathe life into them yourself.

The VL preset sounds include far more than just winds, brasses, solo bowed and plucked strings, etc. You also get combination sounds that don’t exist in reality, such as what a clarinet might sound like if it had a flute mouthpiece! You also get out-of-this-world synth and sound effects sounds like Space Horse (move the Mod Wheel up and it “whinnies”!), Waterphone (I can not describe this one! You just have to hear it!), and Jurassic (simulates various dinosaur roars), all with powerful real-time expressiveness that no wavetable sample could possibly achieve! Some months ago I posted a list of the default VL voices with brief notes on what they do and what expressive effects they have.