MASTER

CLASS

Vocoders
Learn to get the most from this powerful effect

BY FRANCIS PRÈVE
O riginally developed for telecommunications and military applications in
the 1930s, the vocoder—a portmanteau of voice encoder—as a musical tool
has become indelibly associated with artists such as Daft Punk, Kraftwerk,
and the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), thanks to its ability to merge the
characteristics of the human voice with the playability of a synthesizer.

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 Wendy Carlos recorded the first mainstream cal) stimulates the envelope followers, which raise er includes all of them, and some versions feature
performance of a vocoder for her soundtrack to and lower the volume of their associated frequen- additional options, but these are the most com-
Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, using a cy band; attack and release parameters are provid- mon tools you’ll find on most modern examples.
10-band version she developed with Bob Moog in ed for fine-tuning their response times. Thus, the Number of bands. This determines the total
1970. From there, it was quickly established as a characteristics of the human voice control the be- number of filter bands that are applied to the car-
featured component for countless pop, funk, and havior of the filters that are processing that synth. rier signal. A lower number (in the 4 to 6 range)
dance hits—and is often confused with an effect delivers a vintage sound, while anything higher
known as the talk box, which is an entirely differ- CARRIERS AND MODULATORS than 16 bands offers more detail, often at the ex-
ent method for embossing the characteristics of Like the important aspects of FM synthesis and ring pense of CPU utilization. As a rule of thumb, you
the human voice onto a musical performance. modulation, knowing how the carrier and modula- can think of this number as the vocoder’s overall
Over the past 45 years, there have been many tor relate to vocoding is the crucial first step in un- resolution.
successful vocoders—both hardware and soft- derstanding how the processing works. The carrier Frequency range. For software vocoders that
ware. The earliest hardware units from Bode, is the signal that is processed by the vocoder. It is support these parameters, you can set an upper
Roland, Moog and Korg found their way into top usually a synth, but other common options include and lower frequency for the vocoder bands, which
artists’ studios. Nowadays, software versions are distorted guitar and orchestral timbres, because the will be divided across the number of bands avail-
baked into leading DAWs from Ableton, Apple, carrier requires a broad frequency spectrum in or- able. Generally, these parameters are handy for
and Propellerhead, to name a few. der for the vocoder to work its magic. tuning the filter bands to accommodate the higher
Although vocoders are typically used for creat- When using a synthesizer as the carrier, the or lower vocal ranges of female and male vocalists,
ing “robot vocals,” they are capable of generating sound should have plenty of high end so the vocod- respectively. You can also use these to precisely
a wide variety of effects. But to get the most from er’s filter array can be heard. Traditionally, an unfil- adjust the detail of the vocoding effect when using
this unique processor, it is essential to understand tered sawtooth or noise waveform serves best for the other instruments as modulators.
how a vocoder works. basis of that sound. Square waves will also work, but Envelope. These parameters are most often
their hollow timbre sometimes reduces the intelligi- attack and release (or attack and decay). As with
LET’S TALK BASICS bility of the effect. Modern wavetable synths, with other envelope-following processes, such as com-
If you’ve ever seen the display of a graphic EQ re- their rich and complex character will also work. The pression and auto-wah, the envelope settings deter-
spond to incoming audio, you will have witnessed bottom line is that the carrier’s sound should contain mine how quickly the effect responds to dynamic
an essential concept behind the vocoding effect. a full spectrum of frequencies, with a lot of mid and changes in volume. For vocals, these are generally
A vocoder consists of several filter bands, tuned high content, and no additional filtering. set to fairly quick response times, but longer times
across the audio spectrum, that respond to a set of The modulator is the signal that activates the are great for more impressionistic results.
envelope followers corresponding to their specific vocoder’s envelope followers, each of which con- Unvoiced. While a vocoder’s filters can cover
frequency ranges. Vintage hardware, such as the trols a single filter band. In the case of the human a broad spectrum of sound, especially when using
Roland SVC-350, offered 8 to 12 analog filter bands voice, every vowel’s formant characteristics cor- a high number of bands, intelligibility can suffer
and provided enough intelligibility to be the lyrical respond with one or more of the filter bands that when plosives (the letters t, d, b, and such) and
focus of pop tracks like ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky.” In soft- process the carrier signal. Thus, when you speak sibilants (s, z, x) are inaccurately processed by the
ware, the number of filter bands is far greater, with into a connected microphone, these envelopes filter bank. In this case, an additional highpass fil-
Logic’s EVOC 20 offering up to 20 bands, Ableton de- open and close different filters, shaping the tone ter will help improve intelligibility for these un-
livering 40 bands, and Reason’s BV512 including an of the carrier’s signal. voiced elements.
FFT-like, 512-band setting (see Figure 1). Confusingly, this feature goes by many differ-
In a classic configuration, the vocoder’s fil- ADDITIONAL CONTROL ent names. In Reason’s Vocoder, it is called “HF
ters are applied to a bright synth patch (such as A number of other parameters let you finesse the Emph” (for high-frequency emphasis). In Ableton
strings), while the incoming signal (usually a vo- character of the vocoder’s sound. Not every vocod- Live, it’s simply “Unvoiced.” In Logic’s EVOC 20,
the label is “U/V Detection.” But in all three cases,
it is essentially the same feature: a highpass filter
that blends in a small amount of treble content
from the modulator input to emphasize the conso-
nants. Some vocoders include an additional sensi-
tivity parameter to further adjust this process.
Formant Shift. Users of plug-ins such as Auto-
Tune and Melodyne probably know that formant-
shifting a vocal results in either chipmunk (up-
ward) or Darth Vader (downward) effects. In the
case of vocoders, the results are very similar. Here,
the technique is applied to the vocoder filter bands
directly, shifting their ranges up or down across
the frequency spectrum. It’s worth mentioning
here that Reason’s Vocoder refers to this param-
eter as shift.
Fig. 1. Apple Logic’s EVOC 20 is a 20-band vocoder with an integrated synth and
bandwidth-adjustment features that were a decade ahead of its time. Bandwidth. Called “Formant Stretch” on the

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 Fig. 2. With up to
EVOC 20 and “BW” on Live, the bandwidth pa- 40 adjustable bands
rameter controls the total width of each frequency and a wide variety of
band. Leaving this parameter at 100% is the default carrier options, Able-
ton’s Vocoder device
value, with 200% creating overlap between the is among the more
ranges and extremely low values imparting a shim- flexible options on
mery, crystalline texture to the vocoder output. the market.

APPLICATIONS
Now that you have a grasp of the fundamental
properties and controls on a standard vocoder,
here are a few tips for making the most of its fea-
tures—both for vocals and special effects.
Articulation. Newcomers to vocoding often
sing or speak naturally into a vocoder, but are then
disappointed when the results are mushy or un-
clear. Here are two tricks for getting a robot voice
to sound right when working with a vocoder.
Over-articulate your words. Since the original
voice won’t be heard in the mixed vocoder output,
don’t be shy about this. It’s okay to sound ridicu-
lous, as long as the vocoding effect sounds good. If Fig. 3. Although it doesn’t offer the sophisticated bandwidth tools of other vocoders, Rea-
son’s BV512 does include a 512-band option providing extremely detailed resolution.
you’re going for a hybrid sung vocal with vocoder,
dedicate a separate track with exaggerated pro- voice clear and consistent. The amount of com- generally twelve or less. If you’re going for that
nunciation to drive the modulator input. pression will vary depending on your goal, but if timbre, you should use a similar number. Some vo-
Add compression to the modulator signal. Nat- you find a well-articulated vocal isn’t driving the coders—such as Ableton’s—allow you to select as
ural phrasing often de-emphasizes some syllables, vocoder properly, try adding a compressor to it. few as four bands, which is cool for subtle process-
which can make it harder for a given filter band to Vintage Robots. The classic sounds that we ing of chords and leads (see Figure 2).
respond appropriately. Compressing the vocal be- know from Kraftwerk and ELO were derived in For Daft Punk vocoder and talk box effects, in-
fore it hits the modulator input will help keep the the ’70s when the number of vocoder bands was crease the number of bands to maximum as this

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 a sample with plenty of mids and highs, you can
The Roland Boutique VP-03 vocoder is a note- simulate a singing chorus by using it as the carrier.
perfect re-creation of the company’s VP330, Ethereal Voices. DJ Sasha and his team of
which was used on ’80s hits by The Cars and
Laurie Anderson. producers have used haunting vocoder tones on
remixes like “Talk Amongst Yourselves (Sasha In-
volver Remix)” by Grand National. This unusual
effect is created by using very narrow filter band-
widths, in the 20% to 70% range.
Drums. Substituting full drum kit or percus-
sion loops is a fantastic way to emboss natural
rhythmic elements onto chords and pads. The
more complex and bright the performance is, the
more intense the effect will be. Try using drum
loops with lots of hi-hats and cymbals or mixed
percussion loops that include shakers, tambou-
will dramatically increase intelligibility for a more ship between voice and pitch for different speak- rines and congas.
modern sound (see Figure 3). ing styles and emotions, experiment with pitch Whooshes. Using an envelope- or LFO-modu-
Carrier Options. While sawtooth-based carri- LFOs. While these are great for adding vibrato, try lated filter on white noise as your modulator is a
ers will deliver the most familiar results, here are using different waveforms, rates and depths for a great way to create unusual sweeps in conjunction
a few areas for experimentation. Just remember creative range that goes from a questioning voice with chords or leads. For more nuanced control,
that if a wide frequency range isn’t present in the to laughter effects. do those sweeps with your mouth, by whooshing
carrier, the vocoder filters won’t have enough au- 3. The quickest way to create whispers and and swishing ridiculously. The precision you can
dio information to process. crowds is to use slightly filtered noise as your car- achieve with this approach is striking.
1. Add a touch of glide to a monophonic saw- rier. The results are often creepy. Transporter. If you use swept white noise as
tooth carrier, which will make the vocoder effect 4. Old-school hip-hop vocoder effects often in- your modulator, a thick sawtooth pad as your car-
“sing” more gracefully. A good reference for this volve a single bass sawtooth as their carrier. Try rier, and extremely narrow filter bands on the vo-
is Daft Punk’s “Around the World” (which sounds using two sawtooth oscillators an octave apart as coder—followed by a reverb and delay—you’ll have
more like a talk box than a vocoder). your source for added depth and character. a great starting point for re-creating the transport-
2. If you want to learn a lot about the relation- 5. If you have a sufficiently rich choir patch or er effect in Star Trek: The Next Generation. n

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