Vocoders - ImageLine Vocodex worth getting?

[kritikon]

Wot the title sez.

I've been hankering after the Behringer vocoder (wanted a real vocoder forever), but TBH for the price I think I'd rather get the Korg Opsix and then get a decent plugin vocoder. I had a look around and to my ears Vocodex looks like the best all-rounder at a decent price.

I might d/l the free TAL one, but everything I've seen of it - it sounds quite rough around the edges. Even the TAL website demo didn't make it sound too good. Good for free I guess, but I really do want a smooth sound.

Izotope Vocalsynth2 hit the list but - double the price and TBH I'm not sure I want all the other vocal gubbins in it - I don't sing as such, I purely want the odd vocal via vocoder as FX rather than singing a song classically. And I have to say Izotope don't do a good sales job - went to their site and none of their demos did any vocoding at all, but it seems like it can do proper vocoding - doesn't seem to be aimed at that though if Izotope themselves just demo effecting some cheesey rock and rap vocals.

Everything I've seen on the net for Vocodex - it sounded very smooth. It does everything I want like midi control and most importantly I can feed in external synths rather than just the internal one. I have a very strong urge to vocode stuff with my Wavestate rather than classic saw/pwm waves etc. Looks like it has the most bands too - 100 bands, which I guess is why it can sound so clear. Watched quite a few vids of other vocoders and the limited bands (often 10-16 only) really limited the quality IMO.

Any users of Vocodex? Or any other options I may have missed? (No not getting the Waves one - no iLok for me not negotiable). Not getting UAD just for their apparently very good vocoder either. Really I just want a good clear. smooth vocoder, I don't need doublers and harmonisers and robot mickeymouserizers.

[vurt]

rob papens new rocoder might be worth a look?

[kritikon]

I didn't even come across that in my search - I'll go and have a look, ta.

[UltimateOutsider]

(No not getting the Waves one - no iLok for me not negotiable).

But Waves doesn't use iLok? You can store your licenses on a generic USB key if you don't want to store them on your PC, but it's not an iLok. Anyway...

I own and have used these vododer plugins: Waldorf Lector, XILS V+, TAL-Vocoder (free), Image-Line Vocodex, NI Razor, mda Vocoder/Steinberg Vocoder (free), Waves Morphoder.

I like the sound of both Lector and Vocodex the best out of all the plugins I've used. Both of them have a pretty clean, modern sound that also seems- kind of hard to put into words- wider? More lush? than the others. When I bought Lector, I think Steinberg eLicenser was the only way to authorize it, but I believe Waldorf have changed to a non-dongle licensing scheme. Anyway, I think both of those plugins sound great.

[surreal]

I thought Imageline discontinued selling vst plugins?

[OzoneJunkie]

^^ Right. You can buy it if you own FL Studio and only want the FL native version. But it's too late to buy the VST versions.

[LeVzi]

Lector is my vocoder of choice now that Vocodex is no longer suppported.

[Ah_Dziz]

NI razor sounds pretty damn good. Melda has a perfectly nice vocoder that can be picked up for pretty cheap in their many sales. Morphoder from Waves is just dandy (they don't do iLok for quite some time). All the hosts I have came with a vocoder included and they all do quite well.

Honestly I don't think that there is too much to recommend a particular vocoder over another. I have used nice old analogue vocoders and all that really differentiated them from each other or even from very simple plugins is how many bands they have and then how flexible the feature set is (remapping input frequencies to different output Frequencies, how flexible the envelopes are etc). In software there are alternate implementations for vocoding, FFT, phase vocoder, giant banks of all types of more esoteric filters, and these will give you noticeably different sounds, but it's generally pretty straightforward. The carrier and modulator have a larger effect than anything else on the sound than anything else.

[Ah_Dziz]

I'm bummed to hear that IL doesn't do plugins anymore.

[vurt]

I didn't even come across that in my search - I'll go and have a look, ta.

personally haven't tried it, so don't know if it will fit your needs.
but i saw it released recently, and he does make quality stuff.

[vurt]

I'm bummed to hear that IL doesn't do plugins anymore.

im sure i saw in another thread, it's available on plugin boutique? or one of those types of thing?

[Jkist]

Vocodex is still being sold on Plugin Boutique yes. I've had my eye on it for awhile.

[vurt]

thanks
thought id seen it mentioned.

[Halonmusic]

I'm bummed to hear that IL doesn't do plugins anymore.

im sure i saw in another thread, it's available on plugin boutique? or one of those types of thing?

yes indeed

https://www.pluginboutique.com/manufact ... Image-Line

[kritikon]

Thanks, I'll head over to plug in boutique and have a look...the Imageline site didn't make it clear it was for FL only. Thanks.

I checked out the Waldorf one but it looked cluttered and overly complicated. Don't think I'd get on with that GUI. Didn't know Waves weren't iLok any more...TBH with their history I just blotted them out of my horizon. Just one of those companies that after so many trials and tribulations...dunno if I want any bar of them really. If there are choices, Waves are always going to be near bottom of my list.