I demoed a VA-76 yesterday. I found it easy to to get around. I prefer its styles to the ones of the Yamahas. I had a lot of fun with the vocal phrases. They would sync with styles and could be modulated using the D-beam to make them sound more realistic.

I wonder to what extent the variphrase is really musically useful and to what extent it is more a novelty--at least in my hands. What have others found?

However useful Variphrase is, it is no substitute for vocal harmony. With vocal harmony and an SRX slot or two, this would be close to my ideal keyboard.