I would love to know what specific way or what particular vocoder Daft Punk used in Harder, faster stronger? It seems that the vocoded effect is played a lot different than say "bizzare love triangle" Any ideas on what they used? I know I know this is an older cd but I have just discovered it thanks for your help...

Lance "flax"

this is the standard vocoder technique... the voice is the modulator and a synth is the carrier. That is all. The rhythmic stuff later in the song is accomplished by sequencing the synth part as very staccato.

Its piss easy to do. If you dont have the hardware, just use Orange Vocoder and Autotune or the equvilents.

CM did an article on this a while back, check it out. (i think you can prob get to it on the site, not sure)

...although I like Orange Vocoder very much, I find that I get more "Harder Faster Stronger"-like results from using AKAI's DC Vocoder. I think it's down to the amount of bands the vocoder has. The DC Vocoder has a pretty generous 50, making the vocoded vox very intelligible.


AK toppa

I've always been quite disappointed with software vocoders, although I had a chance to hear the new Reaktor 4 vocoder that comes with the native library, and it was, to my ears, the best of the bunch.

Rozzer

it was made with autotune.

best

cad

it was made using the vocoder from a ms2000 and a speak and spell as the source with a lil autotune here and there.

Great answers!!!

Thanks,

Lance


p.s. I have the reaktor vocoder. I have not been able to get that pure robot "battle star gallactica" sound though from any vocoder softsynth

i'm not quite sure mr. bangalter does not tweak (sometime) a little ( just a little certainly ) to obtain his sounds ...
( when looking olympic iceskatters always seems to me so piss easy as well... )

as I recall (from a magazine article) they used auto tune on the voice and played it with midi, rather than using the given vocal performance. could've been a speak'n'spell as far as that goes. Then used a vocoder with some lead synth as the carrier. As to full on robot voices, a trick I love is using a good pad playing chords (5 voices or so at minimum) as the carrier. then whispering into the mic for the modulator. using "articulated noise/static" as your modulator gives some awesome sounds. Think the "Mad world" cover from the donnie darko soundtrack.

Dunno about the Vocoder he used, but from what I can hear on the track he just recorded a loop with words, and copied it several times, got a nice vocoder and he basically sequenced a lot of stuff, just like a keyboard player, and later you could hear a guitar using lots or arpeggios.

No big deal, but sounds great, I love that album entirely.

BTW: For those hunting for a vocoder that sounds intelligible, you could try Vokko

http://www.kvr-vst.com/~klanglabs/products/vokko/vocex1.mp3

http://www.kvr-vst.com/~klanglabs/products/vokko/vokkodemo.exe

Kriminal wrote:

Its piss easy to do.

Alright. So maybe you could explain it in a way I understand it? Example: "first open Orange Vocoder choose this make that...."

Please, I really don´t get it that way like Daft Punk.

HELP!

Thanx!
e.

I've never heard the song, but my guess is that it is just his natural singing voice after a pack of Marlboros and a couple shots of Tequila

e-modic wrote:

Alright. So maybe you could explain it in a way I understand it? Example: "first open Orange Vocoder choose this make that...."

sorry, that was a bit vague. I'll see if i can dig out the offending article and go thru it with ya.

e-modic wrote:

Kriminal wrote: Its piss easy to do. Alright. So maybe you could explain it in a way I understand it? Example: "first open Orange Vocoder choose this make that...." Please, I really don´t get it that way like Daft Punk. HELP! Thanx! e.

-Open O-Vocoder on a FX insert.

-Depending on your O-Vocoder version, you can use either the internal synth or an external VSTi (Carrier) Old o-vocoder versions doesn't support MIDI keyboard control.

-Now you need to feed both Modulator (voice) and synth (carrier), just send their signals to o-vocoder hard pan the modulator to the left and hard pan the synth to the right, o-vocoder will mix (vocode) both signals.

-Just play with the keyboard while singing to the mic, voila.


If you just want to use external sources you can try "MDA Talkbox" which IS a GREAT vocoder, one of the best (if not the best)

My apologies, the article in question, was refering to the track 'One More Time'.

It claims the vocals were put thru: Autotune (obviously), subtle vocoding but mainly heavy phasing.

Step are as follows;

1. Insert Autotune on the vocal track ans set it to very fast to get that synthy bending effect. Bounce to disk.
2. Import audio ans split into section so that you can overlap the begining and end of each line.
3. Inset Compressor and EQ. Dont be shy, try some quite heavy compression
4. EQ the vox to bring out the upper mid presence. Try boosting between 4kHz and 7kHz. Cut the low freqs from 450Hz downwards.
5.Set up an aux send to a Phaser and Delay in series. Set Pjaser to modulate quite slowley (around 0.18Hz) and set quite a sharp sweep. If you can, set the sweep freq quite high (2kHz plus)
6. Finally, set a Delay to give you 3/8ths with a small feedback, so you get one audible repeat. Then balance thr effects quite low in the mix.


(From CM mag)

If i find a better one for orange vocoder, i'll post it up.

hope thats of some help

Matias wrote:

e-modic wrote: Kriminal wrote: Its piss easy to do. Alright. So maybe you could explain it in a way I understand it? Example: "first open Orange Vocoder choose this make that...." Please, I really don´t get it that way like Daft Punk. HELP! Thanx! e. -Open O-Vocoder on a FX insert. -Depending on your O-Vocoder version, you can use either the internal synth or an external VSTi (Carrier) Old o-vocoder versions doesn't support MIDI keyboard control. -Now you need to feed both Modulator (voice) and synth (carrier), just send their signals to o-vocoder hard pan the modulator to the left and hard pan the synth to the right, o-vocoder will mix (vocode) both signals. -Just play with the keyboard while singing to the mic, voila. If you just want to use external sources you can try "MDA Talkbox" which IS a GREAT vocoder, one of the best (if not the best)

Argh you explained a normal Vocoder use , well thanx but that was not exactly what I ment.

I mean the Daft Punk songline, listen to it and you know what we mean.

Anyway, thanx for help.

e.

Hi guys, first post - been lurking for years..

I've seen the methods used in this particular track
discussed before, and to be frank I don't think you have gotten an informed perspective yet .

It's definately a vocoder and perhaps autotune on the vocal either before or after it hits the vocoder as the modulator signal.

But key here is the carrier signal used..

Listen closely - I am quite certain it's a distorted electric guitar. Late in the track its quite apparent, that some pretty skilled and quite crazed out guitar player is in fact driving the tones of the vocal.

The fact the their Discovery album has a lot of other heavily processed guitar tracks in it, is only additional circumstancial evidence pointing in this direction.

I was very fascinated in this album, when it first came out.

TheSilentCrooner wrote:

Listen closely - I am quite certain it's a distorted electric guitar. Late in the track its quite apparent...

You are right, I listened again: there is a guitar...well that is maybe why it was so hard to rebuild this style.

Thanx man, good idea!

that song "one more time" is one piece of crap ...i realy liked the album homework. i don't think the vocoding on "one more time" is cool either - i find it very dull - that whole song is dull ! homework can be called a crossover between kraftwork and 70`s funk and the vocoding on it was more crispy
imo they absolutely sold out with there later stuff ...well atleast what i heard because i haven`t heard the whole album if that whole album that features "one more time" is in that style i could as well check out hundreds of other eurohousepoppy 12 inches but i don`t like it so i will not

anyway .. checking out the song originally mentioned tonight. for me vokko does a top job ....
check out the vocoding on "journey to the secret life of plants" from stevie wonder on race babbling ... that`s some top vocoding stuff !

you could do that with a M2 from the "Natural" series
race babblin was done with the sennheiser vsm-201 vocoder. if i remember it well ...i believe on "homework" daft punk used some hardware vocoders to ... have to do a search on the ones used

"How did they?"...get anyone to buy their songs???

On "Harder Faster," it sounds to me that the carrier tones were played on a keyboard - there is some keyboard-type-sounding vibrato in some passages. maybe it was guitar samples played on a keyboard.

in any case, i really love that tune - it doesn't have a lot to it, but damn it's fun and catchy.

in fact, i really dig Daft Punk. And as for "One More Time" - CM says it's a "love-it-or-hate-it" song, and I love it. I think they quite intentionally wrote a song that people would consider a "guilty pleasure." But that vocal and booming kick drum and heavy compression are infectious - yeah, it's simple minded...but...come on...you can't resist it...you love it!....celebraay-shunnn...to-night-ahh!!...you know you're gonna do it-ah-right-ahhh...tonight-ahh!!!

come on, you love it. admit it!!!

I've also gotten a similar effect by running a Nord Modular lead sound through a Dan Electro talk box.

BTW, I thought Homework was a really weak album. The two hit songs were the only ones I could even remotely tolerate. I mean, a whole "song" which is mostly just a kick drum for several minutes? What the !@!@#% is that?

At least the second album has actual songs on it...

grease wrote:

that vocal and booming kick drum and heavy compression are infectious ....

So's Bubonic Plague!

Don't love that

When I first listened "Discovery" I though it was a piece of crap, too retro. But after more listens I figured this album was REALLY well done, the sounds and the mix was so good so this is one of my top fav albums.

What I really really hate about "One more time" was the video, ugly colors and images, badly animated, the worst part of Japanese style animation was on that crap. Yes the theme is cmmercial and catchy etc... but the mix is outstanding.

About the vocoding used there, mhhh yes it has more than just a vocoder, sounds like the phaser+delay idea is really close to it.(mostly the phaser)

I don't think he used autotune to create that, instead I think he used autotune in graph mode and shifted his voice to create formant changes then vocoded it.

Of course I'm not sure, but that vocoded voice sounds terrific.

I was referring to "Harder Better Faster Stronger" - and I am still pretty sure there is a guitar involved.

"One more time" is a pretty standard "Run-off-the-mill" dancetrack, with only basic uninteresting vocoding used as far as I remember.

I doubt there is a guitar on "Harder Better Faster Stronger" phaser and distortion maybe, it's the sequence what makes it sound like that IMO

Emerald Tablet wrote:

that song "one more time" is one piece of crap ...i realy liked the album homework. i don't think the vocoding on "one more time" is cool either - i find it very dull - that whole song is dull ! homework can be called a crossover between kraftwork and 70`s funk and the vocoding on it was more crispy imo they absolutely sold out with there later stuff ...well atleast what i heard because i haven`t heard the whole album if that whole album that features "one more time" is in that style i could as well check out hundreds of other eurohousepoppy 12 inches but i don`t like it so i will not

"one more time" is the only song on that album that sounds like that, thank god. i hate it too but the rest of the album is pretty cool. "harder faster" has a neat vocoder, i'm not sure how they did it, but guitar sounds like a good answer.

personally i use either the default cubase vocoder or the nord modular, but these days it's more and more just the cubase one since it's right there and it sounds great.

-jsd-

I don´t want to nerve you guys, but now that we have so many ideas and tricks, could maybe someone right down a "how to guide" (1. open VCD 2. tune guitar...)?



Matias quote: "I don't think he used autotune to create that, instead I think he used autotune in graph mode and shifted his voice to create formant changes then vocoded it."

Way?

May I ask what's the Autotune you're still talking about?

basskitten wrote:

Emerald Tablet wrote: that song "one more time" is one piece of crap ...i realy liked the album homework. i don't think the vocoding on "one more time" is cool either - i find it very dull - that whole song is dull ! homework can be called a crossover between kraftwork and 70`s funk and the vocoding on it was more crispy imo they absolutely sold out with there later stuff ...well atleast what i heard because i haven`t heard the whole album if that whole album that features "one more time" is in that style i could as well check out hundreds of other eurohousepoppy 12 inches but i don`t like it so i will not "one more time" is the only song on that album that sounds like that, thank god. i hate it too but the rest of the album is pretty cool. "harder faster" has a neat vocoder, i'm not sure how they did it, but guitar sounds like a good answer. personally i use either the default cubase vocoder or the nord modular, but these days it's more and more just the cubase one since it's right there and it sounds great. -jsd-

i just listened
its a nifty tune
but it sounds like the vocoded parts are cutup
and i don`t like that

i think they build it with a talkbox
it has that tuby sound ... like troutman

remco

BTW, did u know it was possible to get the "Harder Better Faster Stronger" a capella on their site (www.daftclub.com) before it closed.
i've got it here, i can upload it on a ftp somewhere (but once ) if someone wants to get a closer ear at it.

there is a vocoder with various carrier signals depending on the moment (autotune is one the one more time song, maybe there is some here too) and a heavy reverb.

cheers

cad

ctrl+alt+del wrote:

BTW, did u know it was possible to get the "Harder Better Faster Stronger" a capella

HeHe, yeah, i used that on a remix of one of Donks tunes last year

I dont think it was a vocoder or autotune!

Sounds like digivoice or something with a similar name. Think Cher or Madge used one.

Maybe?

Fake

http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8993&highlight=cher

This effect is easily done now in Native Instruments Vokator