Vocoding like in this song (How?) (Page 1) - Other Hardware - Forums

1 May 6, 2013 4:58 pm

Offline

Murcia, Spain

Hellop!

I'm making a song, and I wanted to add a slightly vocoded voice on the verses. I'd like it to be in the style of "Something about us" (Daft Punk). I've tried to mix square, sawtooth and sine waves separately from the WAV channel with my recorded voice in Audacity (vocoding effect), but the result is awful.
Can someone give me guidance on how to do this? I've been reading through Internet and everyone says something different about vocoding. I've also checked the "Iron Lung" pedal, but it's a bit expensive.

Also, a very stupid question: Should I not sing in tune in order to make the vocoding sound ok? When I did it with Audacity I noticed it sounded like "too tuned"... doesn't make sense, but I think you know what I mean.

2 May 6, 2013 5:04 pm

thebitman

Offline

I have found in work with vocoders that you should try to sing as close to on-pitch as possible or one consistent tone, and enunciation is a big factor in the outcome. However, the way you have your EQ for the voice and carrier set up will affect the sound and how it sounds once your vocal inflections act as a formant. I'm no pro with vocoding (yet), so all I can advise you do is play with EQing, working on getting a super clean vocal recording, and not giving up. Sometimes it takes toodling with the smallest details will make all the difference. Good luck.

3 May 6, 2013 5:24 pm

DogTag

Offline

Murcia, Spain

thebitman wrote:

I have found in work with vocoders that you should try to sing as close to on-pitch as possible or one consistent tone, and enunciation is a big factor in the outcome. However, the way you have your EQ for the voice and carrier set up will affect the sound and how it sounds once your vocal inflections act as a formant. I'm no pro with vocoding (yet), so all I can advise you do is play with EQing, working on getting a super clean vocal recording, and not giving up. Sometimes it takes toodling with the smallest details will make all the difference. Good luck.

Thank you bitman! I had not thought about EQing!

What about software?

4 May 6, 2013 5:51 pm

chunter

Offline

Brunswick, GA USA

I thought daft punk used a talk box, which is when you stick a hose with the sound in your mouth and record it from a mic? The sound is different from vocoder and quite distinct.

To my ears, the vocal in Something About Us is pitch corrected (auto tuned at 100%) and then put through a bandpass filter for "telephone noise," but I could be wrong, there are a few ways to get that tone.

Last edited by chunter (May 6, 2013 6:02 pm)

5 May 6, 2013 10:11 pm

Monotron

Offline

Douglas, Wyoming

chunter wrote:

I thought daft punk used a talk box, which is when you stick a hose with the sound in your mouth and record it from a mic? The sound is different from vocoder and quite distinct.
To my ears, the vocal in Something About Us is pitch corrected (auto tuned at 100%) and then put through a bandpass filter for "telephone noise," but I could be wrong, there are a few ways to get that tone.

For a talk box you can hook up a plunger lit to a speaker, with a tube coming out the back then use that for the effect in front of a mic

6 May 6, 2013 10:53 pm

Victory Road

Offline

Gosford, Australia

sing the part, autotune the fuck out of it and then use a nice thin pulsey synth with quite a lot of whitenoise as the carrier. the more bands on the vocoder the better, fancier plugins use FFT or something wacky like that. also EQ!