How does vocoding work???

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FZfile

FZfile

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Hi,

Could any of you fine and knowledgeable people explain to me how a VOCODER works.

I basically know what they can sound like.....kind of like Cher's voice on Believe (although I believe that someone said that is actually done with some Autotune manipulation)
.....but I dont know how they actually work.

What is the premise and how can I make the most out of the ones on my newly expanded 880 (one is a 19 band vocoder???).

Thanks in advance for any info.

-mike
 
Yes, great question.

Somebody please crack out some info on correct usage! Anyone use software vocoders?
 
It's quite difficult... You have 2 inputs, one is the vocal and another is (mostly) a synth.

What happens is, the vocal input gets divided in different frequency bands, from these bands, the amplitude is taken.

The synth signal is also divided in the same number of bands, and each band of this synth signal is passed thru with the amplitude of the corresponding band of the vocal signal...
This means that you will hear the synth but with an approximation of your voices spectrum.

That's how I think it works. Been a while since I read about it... Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
You on the money with that assesment Roel!
 
MISTERQCUE said:
You on the money with that assesment Roel!
Click to expand...

Money? Cool! How much do I get?
Enough for those ECM8000? Maybe a compressor?

:D
 
Cher's effect in Believe

This is from Mark Taylor, who's one of the producer.

He says he started with a Korg VC10, which is an analog vocoder. But it has a limited built-in synth, so he ended up using the Digitech Talker.

He used a patch from a Clavia Nord Rack as carrier. The trick is that he sequenced the notes on the Clavia on Cubase, and then he shifted them a little back to get that bending effect.

You can read the full article here

You have also the Power Vocoding article by Paul White. The explanation on how it works is the same as Roel's.

Cheers, Andrés
 
"See? I told ya. I AM smart."

We'll you did know what a vocoder was but let's not push it ;)
 
other vocoders

the Electrix Vocoder is pretty cool; sounds good and i think they're blowing them out pretty cheap (or they were anyway) -- also, you can get GREAT sounds putting a guitar through it.
 
FZfile said:
I basically know what they can sound like.....kind of like Cher's voice on Believe (although I believe that someone said that is actually done with some Autotune manipulation)
.....but I dont know how they actually work.
Click to expand...

I have not played with vocoders yet, but I have used autotune programs and I have experienced that type of effect when you are really ouside of the key you are correcting.
 
TexRoadkill said:
"See? I told ya. I AM smart."

We'll you did know what a vocoder was but let's not push it ;)
Click to expand...
Hey! I know lotsof other things too!!! Can't think of any right now, but I really really do! Really!!!
 
So if you are using something like an SE-50, what is the setup needed to do vocoding?

Mixer to (analog) SE-50 to (MIDI) keyboard?
 
No!!!!! No!!!!

I'm guessing the SE50 is some kinda effectsprocessor that can do vocoding... So you'd take one input from your mic (or micpre) and the other input from your synth. The output is the vocoder output.

It cannot be midi... Maybe do some reading on midi? It's not that hard to understand, and it will get you alot further on different topics...
 
Thanks. That makes sense with the documentation from Paul White.
 
you have the CARRIER and the MODULATOR. Both are signals that goes into the VOCODER. Sometimes the VOCODER itself has it's own CARRIER (like the Korg VC10).

Think of the CARRIER as the main sound (Nord synth), and the MODULATOR as the added personality of the sound (Cher's voice).
Or in the old "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New order: the CARRIER is a string patch and the MODULATOR are the guys singing "every time I see you falling..."

In "Believe" the producer used MIDI to record the notes he played with the synth, so he could then move them back.
But besides the way the CARRIER signal is played, everything else happens in the non-midi domain.
 
ok ok... I see what you're getting at. You can be smart too, kay?
 
I used to be smart and a good learner. But the other day I realized that the last thing I learned to do efficiently was to hold vinyl records without scratching them, and that was a long time ago. I guess it's the result of those years watching T.V.
You're smarter!
 
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