I still love this little box, and if this particular application doesn’t turn you on, it still seems like there’s interesting potential for synths and the like.Īlso a big crowd-pleaser at NAMM is the Roland VP-770.
GearWire got an up-close demo of the cute little Voice Box from Electro-Harmonic we saw last month. Vocoders still make appearances in new product lines, making this arguably the most popular of the pre-synth vintage electronic instruments, beating out the Theremin.
Of course, there are many, many other software solutions to vocoding, all a bit different - and it’s well worth exploring some of your options. Using Sytrus as the synth carrier is fantastic, as that’s a really, really gorgeous synth (and one you Abletonites can use, too).įound via Mark’s Twitter account, because the ongoing popularity of this tutorial means people are still watching and asking questions, even though this has been up for some time. Musician and Webizen Mark Mosher is happy to get you up and running in this tutorial: FL Studio has a lovely vocoder integrated in the host. “A vocoder? Big news,” say the loyal fans of FL Studio (“fruity loops”) to these Ableton Live newcomers. The release of the new album isn’t due until April 2009, but I should get to hear it this week (via legal means, don’t worry). And it’s also comforting to know that playing with vocoders makes Depeche Mode get as goofy as the rest of us. Musical instruments may last that long, but electricity-powered inventions are often more short-lived. I’m about to hear the new album shortly (and hopefully get to talk to the band), but it seems Depeche Mode are enjoying vocoders in the year 2008 - not bad for 1939 technology. There are certain designs that make a lot of sense for biological reasons.) 2008: Depeche Mode in the Studio By the way, anyone who doesn’t like keyboards - musical or qwerty - as input devices ought to have a good, long look at the dangly things attached to your palms. (And some of the basic ideas need not be limited to vocoders, either. People who love playable effects of any time ought to gain plenty of inspiration from that video. Reighley, Editor, CMJ New Music Monthly (interviewing Wendy Carlos) That whole article is a must-read, whether you’re a fan of Kubrick, Carlos, vocoders, or (most likely) all three:
The results, while far from perfect (it was damn difficult to operate!), were still entertaining and instructive of the principles involved. These controlled the electronic generating components. For a Voder to “speak” a talented, diligently trained operator “performed” at a special console connected to the rack, using touch-sensitive keys and a foot-pedal. Inside the tall rack of sturdy electronic gear was a pitch controlled reedy oscillator, a white-noise source, and ten bandpass resonant filters. Homer Dudley also invented the VODER (Voice Operating DEmonstratoR), an electronic speaking instrument, which was unveiled (and demonstrated hourly) at the New York World’s Fair 1939-40. Wendy Carlos, whose use of the vocoder in Clockwork Orange may be as significant to the vocoder as Carlos’ “Switched on Bach” was to the Moog, explains how the Voder functioned: The original Voder was played more as an instrument. To me, this really demonstrates how much potential is left in the process. The device in the video is the 1939 “Voder” (Voice Operating Demonstrator). But I digress.) History and Vocoding without Autopilotįor a different take on the vocoder, let’s first take a trip back in time.
For one thing, if you know what you’re doing, you can patch your own. (Apologies to Robert – especially as that’s exactly the sort of thing I might say speaking to students, and I actually agree. I expect one of the first unofficial Live 8 tutorials may use this clip. And of course, the great moment has been Ableton releasing a Vocoder in its upcoming Live 8, not so much because of Live or that Vocoder, but because company co-founder Robert Henke was immortalized in a remix (video above) talking about how you wouldn’t need it. Software and hardware vocoders are appearing everywhere. Hosts are getting better at accomplishing the routings necessary to produce vocoding effects. (Hint: you don’t have to use your voice as a source.)
And, those lofty goals aside, it can still sound terrific when used creatively. It helped inspire the conceptual model for all digital communication. It was one of the first electronic instruments. Sure, the vocoder may now be something of an electronic music cliché now, but it got its beginnings as a mechanism of encoding speech. Doepfer Vocoder module, as photographed by our friend stretta (Matthew Davidson).