Let's talk vocoder plugins

[worldfever]

What vocoder plugins do you guys like? For both classic vocoding and potential misuse as sound design effect.
I've so far tried Melda MVocoder which I like, izotope vocalsynth which has been hit and miss, waves morphoder and ableton vocoder, which is suprisingly solid. But none of these are really particularily amazing.

[cryophonik]

It’s been a while since I’ve used a vocoder, but when I was still on Windows, Vocodex was pretty impressive. I’ve been meaning to pick up Orange Vocoder AU if it ever goes on sale.

[FapFilter]

yup, Vocodex has been my favorite too.
though i never really was that heavy into vocoders

[masterhiggins]

Razor is still amazingly good-sounding. Xils has the 5000 synth that’s on sale now that sounds pretty damn good. I used to use Waldorf lector extensively but it’s buggy on Mac. What’s been really nice to use lately is the cherry audio rackmode vocoder. Gorgeous-sounding.

[Halonmusic]

Vocodex, FBVC, TAL Vocoder

[martinjuenke]

Softube

[dubguy99]

Shame they discontinued Vocodex. It did some fairly unique things, iirc.

Softube and Arturia Vocoders sound great but for reasons that are beyond me, they won't let you use your own carrier signal, which makes them useless for sound design.

Ableton Vocoder and Xils-201 for me.

[kidslow]

But none of these are really particularily amazing.

You're making the word amazing do a lot of work there. Define it, otherwise this is just another list of vocoders. What makes an amazing vocoder to you? Of the ones that you've looked at, what made them fall short of amazing? Features? Sound? Workflow? I ask because I've just recently gone back and started trying to do a more comprehensive assessment of the vocoders I have and have lusted after, prompted by the deep discount sale on XILS 201 and XILS 5000. We really benefit at the moment from very affordable options. I have a low-end vocoder pedal (Ehx Iron Lung) that costs more than most of the available software options combined (on sale).

There are a lot of different ways to assess a vocoder, like any plugin, and what amazes you might not amaze the next guy. For example, TAL Vocoder-2 and Full Bucket FBVC are amazing because they are free little labors of love and well maintained. What is not to be amazed by that? seriously. They're based on lower-end hardware from the late 1970s and never going to be the best of the best with regard to features or possibility though. They are solid options, but limited.

I would say Melda is undeniably more full of more possibility, once you get past the Melda-isms. Some never do. Waves oVox is worthy of discussion because it has a slew of usefully named presets and a UI that makes it easy to dial in something fast. It amazed me at how easy it was to get up and running. Is workflow and ease of use something that amazes you? If so, take a look at it. At some point in the next few months you'll be able to get it for $25 +/- with maybe a free plugin thrown in. Some can't get past WUP. Hard to blame them.

By comparison XILS 5000 and 201 are almost inscrutable on first look. They are amazing in a different manner. I can't dive into either of them without reading the manual. They are overwhelming in a way that oVox and VocalSynth are not. What goes through my mind is, "Do I really want to invest all the effort to learn these effects," because that's what it's going to take to put them to their fullest potential. Not sure that I do. At $33ish each right now, in the bundle, price is a very minor consideration. It's more about how much time I have in my life and do I want to invest it here? They sure seem to be full of more possibility than the rest, but will I even benefit from it?

Then it gets down to what are your show-stoppers? Non-Resizable UI a non-starter, then there go TAL, VocalSynth, Razor out with the bathwater ... regardless of anything else. Razor has a lot to speak for it, but still needs Rosetta, so there are two strikes. Izotope has made it clear that customers and legacy gear are not their priority, so hard to throw in with them. Imho VocalSynth does some things well, but as a vocoder is just meh. I wouldn't recommend to get it for that.

There is a vast matrix of plusses and minuses in many of them. My best vocoder may not be yours, for reasons inherent to us. I'm interested in a conversation about what criteria others use to evaluate a vocoder. It becomes an exercise in splitting hairs when really it should be more about love at first sight and a tool that inspires you to dig deep into your creative forces. I'm going to take a few months while those XILS are on sale to see if they amaze me in that way.

[kritikon]

MVocoder for me. I would have bought Vocodex but it's no longer available outside of FL. Both of those 2 have the most bands and can therefore do the clearest vocoding by quite a long way. Most of the others only have up to 20 bands, usually less, some only 6. Depends what you want in a vocoder. Less bands can still give great character if that's what you want, but for me I want to be able to do both, but you can't do pristine clear with less bands.

I thought Rocoder was quite good, but too cluttered GUI for me, and did a load of stuff extra that I just didn't want. Probably 2nd for me.

Quite a few of the others were just poor value when you compare against the likes of Vocodex and MVocoder, for less quality, though some of them do far more other vocal mangling (if that's what you want).

Orange I thought was poor, TAL vocoder was awful - great for free but the worst quality vocoding of all of them. Ableton one - never used. Izotope - as above, not sure I'd want to invest money in any of their plugins. Xils - meh, OK but nothing special IMO. Softube do one too - again, very Meh and then you have to use iLok just to get an at best average vocoder (very muffled quality with piss poor sibilants).

TBH it also depends on how you use a vocoder. I watched the Melda vids - very enlightening, they make some superb vids for some of their plugins. E.g. did you know you can use a vocoder to make a kind of reverb? No, neither did I, but it's a really creative use of vocoders. And when a good vocoder like Melda gives extensive modulation options (some of the others do also) it can give really unexpected results outside of simple ethereal voices or robots.

Personally, I think you can pay way over the odds for sw vocoders, and some of the most expensive aren't the best.

[vurt]

"let's talk vocoders"

i was expecting this thread to be links to sound files of spoken word, through vocoder! you lot have let me down

[aMUSEd]

The Arturia one is awesome

My all-time favourite was NI Vokator but defunct and was more into it for the special fx than vocoding per se

[vurt]

ok, don't really use them in my tunes, but have had lots of fun with the korg ms2000 as well as the one in samplitude.

[kraster]

I still use morphoder by waves just because of the simplicity and the ability to use your own carrier signal.

Ovox is great but almost has too much going on.

Arturia's vocoder is great for vintage tones.

Vocalsynth is also really capable but again a sea of options.

[arkmabat]

FL Studio has one built-in. Not bad and you can use it to export the audio for free.

[SHall1000]

Rob Papen’s Rocoder looks very powerful with some unusual options (I think, not that familiar with vocoders). Anyone tried it?