Vocoders

I am a big fan of the use of vocoders in music.

However, I have never used a decent one and I would like to ask a few questions about proper vocoders:

-Is there a such thing as a stereo vocoder? every one that I have used requires mono source files.

-When looking at buying a vocoder am I better off going with a hardware or software vocoder? I'm just not sure on the hardware-software comparison with vocoders.

-Can vocoders be used to just straighten out your voice if you can't sing? ...If so, please fill me in.

Thanks to everyone for reading :smiling:

Hardware vocoders are generally easier to use, but software ones can be just as good sound wise (and probably just as easy to use once you get used to it).

I primarily use Reason to compose, and they have a pretty kick ass vocoder on there, although I rarely use it cuz i forget or something...

Depending on the dry/wet ratio, it can be used to "straighten out" your voice, but it will not sound like your voice anymore...

As for the stereo thing...i'm not sure. All i have seen personally require mono source files but I'm not hip to everything out there so there might be.

i think if you just want to correct your voice, something like antares autotune (or the hardware equivalent) would be better than a vocoder!

  modey said:

i think if you just want to correct your voice, something like antares autotune (or the hardware equivalent) would be better than a vocoder!

yeah, dat's what i was going to say but anymore, i hate advocating the use of that monsterous plug-in...

how does autotune work, how do you work it?

i don't have it but it seems what the pop producer's use. do you draw with the pitch or something like that? explain please

basically what you do is pick a key and it'll adjust your voice so that the notes you sing fall into the notes of the scale, or you can create your own scale. it's not really used for straight pitch-shifting, just correcting what you're actually singing, rounding each note to the next nearest one in the scale.

so for decent pitch-shifting and also autotune, i'd recommend you check out melodyne rather than the antares plugin. it's pretty powerful! it splits a vocal line into notes and allows you to drag them to any note you like. it is a standalone program though so you'll have to export to wav and then put it back into whatever song you're using.

  modey said:

basically what you do is pick a key and it'll adjust your voice so that the notes you sing fall into the notes of the scale, or you can create your own scale. it's not really used for straight pitch-shifting, just correcting what you're actually singing, rounding each note to the next nearest one in the scale.

 

so for decent pitch-shifting and also autotune, i'd recommend you check out melodyne rather than the antares plugin. it's pretty powerful! it splits a vocal line into notes and allows you to drag them to any note you like. it is a standalone program though so you'll have to export to wav and then put it back into whatever song you're using.

yeah it looks cool but on the BBC melodyne video on youtube they say its not gonna save someone who cant sing. And I cant find one video where they show you that the pitch can be straightened out (if you go off key half way through one word you cant fix it).