The Eiffel 65 Vocal Effect

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Hey guys, thanks for checking out my post. Anyways, I'm sure many of you are well-aware of Eiffel 65's catchy earworm, "Blue" or "Blue (Da-Ba-Dee)".
If you're a producer/engineer/musician with a good ear, you'll notice the vocal sounds harsh, metallic, and very distorted.

I've spent two years trying to figure out the effect, and previously, common ideas stated that Eiffel 65 had simply used a vocoder or heavy Auto-Tuning to do this vocal effect (not only in Blue, but many of their other songs as well).

The effect in question is just pitch correction, but this form of pitch correction was done using a harmonizer instead of an actual pitch corrector. Eiffel 65's effect was done with hardware, specifically, the Digitech MIDI vocalist 5.

As this particular unit is rare, and you may not have the money, there are some pretty good VST harmonizers out there that are perfectly capable of doing the effect. FL Studio's native pitch-correction software, Pitcher, can do this.

Just enable the "Formant" setting, set it to MIDI, and create a MIDI track to go along with the notes you want the vocals to sing. As Pitcher can be a bit jumpy, it is recommended that you automate the "Speed" setting.

Other great softwares are AKAI's DecaBuddy (my personal favourite for this effect) and Steinberg's VoiceMachine. Just record your vocals cleanly like you would a regular vocal take. This is where the effect comes in. The lower the notes you make in the MIDI performance, and the lower the harmonizer transposes the original performance, the more robotic it will sound.

If you want, transpose your song 2 or even 3 keys above what it was first set with, then record your vocals to it. Transpose your song back down, and make a MIDI track for your harmonizer. Make sure the VST is picking up your MIDI data and create the performance.

Here is a video tutorial for anybody who wants a visual representation.

www[dot]youtube[dot]com/watch?v=pztnkKMgJwY

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Here is a video tutorial for anybody who wants a visual representation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pztnkKMgJwY
Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

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I used to hate myself for actually quite liking that song (in a weird kinda way).
http://sendy.bandcamp.com/releases < My new album at Bandcamp! Now pay what you like!

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Sendy wrote:I used to hate myself for actually quite liking that song (in a weird kinda way).
Don't be afraid, you're not alone... :help:

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Nice video, might try experimenting with that. The DecaBuddy plugin was definitely sounding the best out of the three you showed.

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Where does one find the DeccaBuddy? It seems discontinued.

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bjporter wrote:Where does one find the DeccaBuddy? It seems discontinued.
This is the link for the DecaBuddy webstie. http://www.akaipro.com/deccabuddy

If that link does not work, you may need to do file share.
I still have the AKAI pro package that includes DecaBuddy, DCVocoder, Pitch-Right (a pitch correcter), and QuadComp (a multiband compressor) along with all the registered files.

If you wish, you can PM me here, and I can upload them and link you.
Last edited by Onyx Black on Fri Apr 26, 2013 9:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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@Onyx Black,

you should edit your post as soon as possible.

the ban hammer on kvr is rather loose if you "promote" anything illegal,hope the mod gives you a chance since you did something helpful here.


cheers,

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t3toooo wrote:@Onyx Black,

you should edit your post as soon as possible.

the ban hammer on kvr is rather loose if you "promote" anything illegal,hope the mod gives you a chance since you did something helpful here.


cheers,
Thanks for the heads up t3toooo!!!! I now know how this works. So any discontinued product by a company I assume is not automically freeware now.

:tu:

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I believe Kontakt can do this as well if you load your recorded vocals, set the mode to "tone machine" and play with the Formant setting.

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subsynq wrote:I believe Kontakt can do this as well if you load your recorded vocals, set the mode to "tone machine" and play with the Formant setting.
Very likely it can. You can also do it note by note with basic pitch correction. The setting needs to be monophonic. This will give the effect.

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If I recall, they used the Orange Vocoder plugin (I think that was it's name). It was used a lot on that album.

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h2ogun99 wrote:If I recall, they used the Orange Vocoder plugin (I think that was it's name). It was used a lot on that album.
This is actually what a lot of people thought. It said on Wikipedia a long time ago that they used a vocoder for Blue and a lot of their other stuff, so I tried to get the same sound. Listen to my video, and you will find that they did NOT use a vocoder. The ONLY song on Europop that Eiffel 65 actually use a vocoder for, is "Your Clown". The effect is in fact, a harmonier, not a vocoder. I've been working on it for two years trying to do it with a vocoder, and althouh I created some cool effects, the effect they used is NOT done with a vocoder. Watch my entire video, and you'll see. Plus, it doesn't even sound like a vocoder.

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