'Cloudy' vocoder?

[Danno]

I'm trying to get that ethereal/cloudy vocoder sound along the lines of that Bryan Adams/Chicane song, 'Don't Give Up'. Among others I guess.
Vocal starts at about 30sec:


I remember years ago that Orange Vocoder had a preset that kind of did something similar.. I have the Arturia vocoder and while its cool, it's more along the line of 'Intergalactic Planetary', if you know what I mean. Or maybe it's not the vocoder but the post processing? Any tips?

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OK.. after typing all this, I'm realizing I can send a glassy pad into the carrier input and probably get real close. I'll leave the here just in case there's a conversation worth having.

[CinningBao]

Yeah, that vocoder does sound 'hollow' so I'd probably start with square waves, with an octave up in a traditional vocoder. Sounds like sustained notes which are interacting with the Bryan's vocal; when he sings one of the notes you're holding down it's accented a little more.

I swear there's some flanging going on somewhere as well, maybe on the lead? Sounds like the breathes are going through quite loud so maybe heavy compression on the vocoder modulator.

And reverbs and delays

But you might have figured a lot of that out already!

[ChamomileShark]

I don't think it's a vocoder at all? Sounds more like filtering / phasing?

[briefcasemanx]

It sounds like a bad freeware vocoder from the 2000s mixed with the actual vocal. I'm certain you could get something similar but better with Arturia vocoder or most modern. Just use a setting that isn't as "robot voice"-like (on Arturia adjust the bands) and mix in the vocal track without the vocoder on it.

[Aloysius]

To achieve the effect he sought, Nick turned to Steinberg's then‑recently released Orange Vocoder plug‑in for Cubase VST. Sadly, thinking about the processing proved to be the easiest part of it. "It's bloody temperamental, that plug‑in. It sent my whole computer mental! Mind you, they're pretty demanding on DSP, vocoders: I am only using Cubase, after all, and it's host‑based, unlike Pro Tools which has its own processing. I decided ages ago that when you're using computers, the best approach is to be aware of what they're not very good at, and avoid it if you can. So I never ran the Orange Vocoder in real time, because it kept playing up. I ended up having to vocode the vocal off‑line until I got it right. You get a little graphical keyboard on the plug‑in to generate notes to use as Carrier signals, but it was still very unpredictable to use. I would get something nice, try it again and it would come out utterly different. In the end I just buggered about until I had an effect I liked."

Also adding to the processed sound of the vocals was the reversed reverb, which opens the completed single. "I did that manually. I reversed the processed vocals, on my sampler, reverbed them, put them onto DAT, resampled them and re‑reversed them. You get by far the best effect that way. When Bryan came round to listen to it, I warned him that it was pretty extreme — but he was really excited by what I had done."

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/nic ... -dont-give

[Danno]

Thanks for finding that. And sure enough, it was Orange Vocoder. That was a cool preset.

So I just realized the the Arturia Vocoder doesn't allow for an external carrier.. only uses the internal synth.
I do have Reason though, so I'll experiment with that vocoder in ReasonRack.