"Vocoding For Dummies"

[TheStorm]

Can someone pleeeeez point me at:

1. A freeware vocoder that even *I* can understand

- or -

2. Instructions for a non-engineer that even *I* can understand for ANY vocoder - the CM semi-freebie one is fine.

Notice how I didn't say I wanted to sound like Cher's "Believe." Actually, I don't want to sound like that, I want to sound sorta Neil Young "Trans"-ish.

I have tried just about everything but nothing's working for me, or I'm just too daft to figure it out. I've made some pretty wacky sounds, but nothing in the keys where I need 'em. Any ideas?

[beej]

Do you know what a vocoder does / how it works etc? If not, then start from there, and you'll have more of an understanding of what you are doing and what will or won't work too well.

If you know the fundamentals but are having difficulty getting something you like, then that's a different tutorial.

So which is it? And what tools do you have?

[> DiGiT <]

imagine a sound with a relatively full spectrum of frequencies, such as a thick pad or white noise even. this we will call the 'carrier'

now imagine a voice or other sound that has a subset or close to a subset of the frequencies present in the carrier. this we will call the 'modualtor'

now, take the carrier and vocode it with the modulator. this process is something like a roll of dough (carrier) and a cookie cutter (modulator). once you cut out your cookie, its shaped like the cutter but made out of the dough.

get it?

a vocoder basically measures (the modulator) many small sections of frequencies over time which together make up a full spectrum (from bass to highs), to create an 'envelope' for each band. this envelope is then imposed upon the carrier, leaving a modulator shaped result, but made from the carrier.

hope you can understand this explanation.

[Dazza66]

Once you've gotten the theory sorted out from the previous posts, and you're ready to put it all into practice, the MiniVoctopus is a great little freeware vocoder. Its especially good as it actually says on the GUI how to set it up in your host in order to get it to work:

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1631.html

Hope that helps

[TheStorm]

Thank you for your replies. Here's what I'm trying to do; maybe you can tell me if I'm going about it the right way:

I've got a vox track that parts are, um...sorta robot-ish, but not too much. I recorded the vox, then recorded my guitar to play the exact notes I'm singing. I assume I'm using the vox as the "carrier" and the guitar as the "modulator," right? Although, of course, in my frustration I turned it around, too, just in case I was confusing the terms.

Or is what I'm looking for really NOT a vocoder but in fact a robot-voice FILTER that i can use as send? (See why I'm scratching my head?)

[> DiGiT <]

i think what you want is more of a 'talk box' the kind roger troutman or peter frampton used whereby a tube is actually stuck in your mouth that delivers the sound of the guitar and you 'speak guitar' into a mic.

[> DiGiT <]

but in any case, the guitar would be the carrier and your voice would be the modulator. in the vocode example that is.

[beej]

Yep - with the guitar as the carrier, the voice modulator is imposed onto the guitar part, so you end up with the guitar part audio, but "singing" the notes from the voice track.

[Music Engineer]

vocoding is basically superimposing the frequency-envelope of one signal (the modulator) on a second signal (the carrier). when vocals are involved, they mostly serve as the modulator - as we want the formants of the voice to be superimposed on our carrier. the carrier should be some broadband-signal. the technical implementation can be done in different ways: the classic approach uses two filterbanks with matching frequencies, it can be also done via FFT (NI Vokator follows that approach) and on my website you can find the LPC-Vocoder freebie which uses an adaptive filtering algorithm.

[Manc Chris]

...

[> DiGiT <]

talkbox FAQ

[Music Engineer]

talkbox FAQ

a talkbox also applies vocal formants onto a carrier signal (which is mostly a guitar in this case), but as opposed to the vocoder it doesn't use any electrical circuits or dsp-algorithms - instead it achieves this effect completely acoustically by directing the carrier-signal into the mouth and recording the mouth's output with a mic.

[BASSDRIVE]

Is there any "TalkBox" software emulators, preferebly in VST format? Like the one Zapp & Roger used and now the NB Riderz use.

[Music Engineer]

Is there any "TalkBox" software emulators, preferebly in VST format? Like the one Zapp & Roger used and now the NB Riderz use.

mmhh...as already stated - a vocoder is in fact an electrical or dsp-realization of the same concept which the talkbox realizes acoustically.

[> DiGiT <]

yeah is there an echo in here?