Can we discuss Image-Line Vocodex as it on sale for $49 for a while!

[sly fly]

kept crashing in Sonar and Reaper when trying to send midi notes to it.

Is that a known fault?

It is now

But was it unique to me?

I will try and demo it again soon but would be interested to know if anyone else has had this issue.

I tried the demo today .I had a problem once or twice in reaper.... reaper shut down when I was clicking somwhere on the vocodex gui.

[geroyannis]

I tried it in Cubase 4 WinXP32 and it was extremely unstable. It crashed the host many times while doing different things.

I was thinking of getting it but not in it's current state. The old IL Vocoder is still fine for me and it's not like I use a vocoder every day. Hell, even Cubase's vocoder is pretty good for me.

[chaibuka]

I tried the vocodex demo today in Ableton live 8 and crashed withen a few minutes so I'm going to pass on this one.

[jensa]

Been running the Vocodex demo in Reaper a few times without any problems... and will buy it right now I think. To save the weekend or something.

[kbaccki]

I tried the vocodex demo today in Ableton live 8 and crashed withen a few minutes so I'm going to pass on this one.

The plug supports multi-threaded operation as an optimization on multi core machines. You could try disabling the "Threaded" option on the VCX GUI, see if that stabilizes things.

[dburns]

No problems so far in Live 8.1.4. I bought it, and have found it very easy to use (easier, for me, than Live's). Lots of neat tweakable parameters.

I haven't tried it in Sonar yet. I'll let you know how it goes.

One thing I really like is that you can tweak it to get very clear vocoded words/lyrics. You can go from muddy to airy with just the "Soundgoodizing" slider.

[kbaccki]

One thing I really like is that you can tweak it to get very clear vocoded words/lyrics. You can go from muddy to airy with just the "Soundgoodizing" slider.

You should check out the unison knob too... increases CPU, but lots of fun to play around with... you're right about the tweaking, and the carrier signal side of it is totally open ended, so lots of opportunity for creative vocodery.

[chaibuka]

I tried it again and hasn't crashed-the crash yesterday could have been result quickly messing with around with routing or something. I'll make sure to check it good next week. Sounded nice though and price is hard to beat.

[grymmjack]

No problems so far in Live 8.1.4. I bought it, and have found it very easy to use (easier, for me, than Live's). Lots of neat tweakable parameters.

I haven't tried it in Sonar yet. I'll let you know how it goes.

One thing I really like is that you can tweak it to get very clear vocoded words/lyrics. You can go from muddy to airy with just the "Soundgoodizing" slider.

were you able to send midi notes to it?

[dburns]

No problems so far in Live 8.1.4. ...
I haven't tried it in Sonar yet. I'll let you know how it goes.

were you able to send midi notes to it?

No problem sending MIDI notes to it in Live. Use a MIDI keyboard to play the internal synth, or a synth that has Vocodex dropped into its FX slot. It will control the carrier part of Vocodex,

You can play (as carrier) the internal synth, or use Vocodex as an audio FX on a synth audio track. Just load the synth (Zebra2, say) and drop Vocodex in as an audio FX. Then create an audio track for your mic, point its output to the Zebra2 track, and you have it.

Setting the carrier/modulator numbers in Vocodex can be confusing, but (from memory) "0" means the Vocodex track (modulator and/or carrier), "1" means an outside track/carrier; ie. a modulator on a different track from Vocodex, or a carrier other than it's built-in synth (a version of Sytrus).

It's simpler than my clumsy explanation.

I set up a synth track with Vocodex on it. Then a vocal track routed to Send A. Send A is routed to the synth/Vocodex track's sidechain (you'll see it). Then I could send my vocal to a clean Send B and mix it with Send A.

Then, I set up another audio track for EWI (or guitar, whatever), and routed it the same way. You can have many audio modulators going to one Vocodex that way. It's fun because I can sing one mix into Vocodex, then play another one.

Or, record a loop on your Vocodex track (using the synth you inserted) and you have a drone, so both hands are free for your instrument.

I even used AAS Ultra Analog with an arp patch. I latched it (so FEW synths let you do that!), and let the arp run, controlling the carrier. Play a chord, let UA run, play a new chord...main thing is it runs without me having to keep my hands on a keyboard. I can hit a chord/interval, then play an instrument with it. I'm in ambient heaven.


It's late, hope I got this all down correctly, but I'm having a lot of fun with Vocodex and Live.

I haven't got it working in Sonar yet. No crashes, just haven't got things set up right yet.

[afreshcupofjoe]

I spent a whole day doing a big shootout with a bunch of vocoders including vocodex. It was definitely one of the better ones, but overall I actually preferred the old free GUI-less mda vocoder over most of the commercial ones. I was really shocked by that outcome, but it just plain sounded better on most material.

My other favorite was the Akai DC Vocoder. I never hear it mentioned anywhere, but it seriously rocks! I have no idea how this one got so overlooked.

Overall, I was really unimpressed by how most commercial vocoders held up to free stuff like mda and TAL. There were some surprising stinkers.

[geroyannis]

[...] but overall I actually preferred the old free GUI-less mda vocoder over most of the commercial ones.

Yeah, actually I think the mda talkbox is even better.

[grymmjack]

No problems so far in Live 8.1.4. ...
I haven't tried it in Sonar yet. I'll let you know how it goes.

were you able to send midi notes to it?

No problem sending MIDI notes to it in Live. Use a MIDI keyboard to play the internal synth, or a synth that has Vocodex dropped into its FX slot. It will control the carrier part of Vocodex,

You can play (as carrier) the internal synth, or use Vocodex as an audio FX on a synth audio track. Just load the synth (Zebra2, say) and drop Vocodex in as an audio FX. Then create an audio track for your mic, point its output to the Zebra2 track, and you have it.

Setting the carrier/modulator numbers in Vocodex can be confusing, but (from memory) "0" means the Vocodex track (modulator and/or carrier), "1" means an outside track/carrier; ie. a modulator on a different track from Vocodex, or a carrier other than it's built-in synth (a version of Sytrus).

It's simpler than my clumsy explanation.

I set up a synth track with Vocodex on it. Then a vocal track routed to Send A. Send A is routed to the synth/Vocodex track's sidechain (you'll see it). Then I could send my vocal to a clean Send B and mix it with Send A.

Then, I set up another audio track for EWI (or guitar, whatever), and routed it the same way. You can have many audio modulators going to one Vocodex that way. It's fun because I can sing one mix into Vocodex, then play another one.

Or, record a loop on your Vocodex track (using the synth you inserted) and you have a drone, so both hands are free for your instrument.

I even used AAS Ultra Analog with an arp patch. I latched it (so FEW synths let you do that!), and let the arp run, controlling the carrier. Play a chord, let UA run, play a new chord...main thing is it runs without me having to keep my hands on a keyboard. I can hit a chord/interval, then play an instrument with it. I'm in ambient heaven.


It's late, hope I got this all down correctly, but I'm having a lot of fun with Vocodex and Live.

I haven't got it working in Sonar yet. No crashes, just haven't got things set up right yet.

awesome helpful reply. thanks dburns. this is the third advice i got about vocodex from kvr and it's encouraging me to give the demo another go. i was swooned in the beginning when gol youtubed it in beta, and wooed when it became a flstudio mainstay, but now i'm enamored by the idea of plugin goodness of vocodex in live.

thanks for your help bro.

[reflex]

For anyone who experiences any crashes with the plugin, please try to reproduce it and let me know how. Then I can try to make sure it doesn't happen again.

[TiUser]

Well try the demo. It is IMHO one of the best software vocoders available (if not the best one)..

I knew about the IL $49 special sale but didn't take much notice. Then I stumbled across Vocodex just this instant - thanks to KVR sidebar advertising.

I am looking for vocoders from time to time but with low priority. I wasn't really thrilled by anything right now or found it inconvenient and unpleasing to operate. Yet I made the fault downloading this demo...

It sounds not only well, it gives also a large variety of sounds from subtle filter bank effects to brute synthetic vocoding. It can sidechain your own carrier or modulator - just tried this - great!

$49... that's just about 40€... I am really tempted.

Guess I have to dive into the manual but it is a great thing and a great offer.

Only hesitation - it seems to be a bit processing power hungry - but well then, it works realtime...


Just I ask myself if there is something better from Camel Audio - I think they have something doing similar things - anyone knows?...
[Edit] It's Alchemy what I remembered but that's no vocoder but a "grain based additive synth", maybe even more, but something different