You are absolutely correct!
I received a BOSS VO-1. What a great pedal!
Without microphone (the additional gear that I meant) it works kind-of like a guitar synth and produces choir-like waveforms in the Choir mode. This can sound heavenly if you only blend a bit of it to your guitar signal. All the other modes need a microphone or they won't work. The VO-1 does the talkbox like Peter Frampton/Jeff Beck in a very realistic manner (I owned the Rocktron Banshee Talkbox years ago, so I know how a talkbox should sound like). The two vocoder modes are great for modern sounds (Daft Punk, "Around The World", etc.) and '70s robotic sounding stuff (Kraftwerk, "Autobahn", "Trans Europa Express", "Robots", "Spacelab"). I also like the way a vocoder can be used like in "Big Girls Walk Away" by Steve Winwood. All these modes can sound funky as hell ("Funkytown" by Lipps Inc. can be mimicked easily), but also very annoying if you overdo it (or don't use it in the proper way). My kids wanted to try it out before I had the chance to speak into my microphone.
Thanks so much for the pedal, Admin! I'm going to keep it. And I will use it at the next open jam session.
Admin received a rehoused and modified Johnson EAD-2 Echo Analog Delay from Pepe
received: 24th December, guessed by: chromandre
chromandre received an Arion SFC-1 Fat Chorus from Joske Turbo
received: 20th December, guessed by: Pepe
Dirk received a Guyatone MOm5 Micro Octaver from fuzzbuzzfuzz
received: 28th December, guessed by: Pepe
fuzzbuzzfuzz received an Ibanez SF10 Swell Flanger from Dirk
received: 25th December, guessed by: Pepe
Joske Turbo received a Behringer UV-300 Ultra Vibrato from chromandre
received: 26th December, guessed by: fuzzbuzzfuzz
Pepe received a BOSS VO-1 Vocoder from Admin
received:5th March, guessed by: chromandre