Ableton Forum

Hey!

Can anyone share any tips on how to convert an acapella (either short, or better yet - full length song) into robotic vocals?

Note: after decades of playing electronic music, I've *still* never been able to make a vocoder sound good / clear. Yes, I've followed all the tutorials etc., tried countless times, and while I'm a bit dim, I'm not that dim. It's just something that's eluded me.

So if you're going to say "use a vocoder" please explain "for dummies" like me.

thanks!

It would help to know what's wrong with your results. Post it up on soundcloud? You will get much more focused advice.

re:dream wrote:It would help to know what's wrong with your results. Post it up on soundcloud? You will get much more focused advice.

Hmm... don't really use soundcloud. Here's the general technique:

I'll use a saw and maybe mix in a little noise as the carrier, a sample or my voice as the modulator. I may compress both before and after the vocoder to tighten it up. I may use 20+ bands (I'll start low and go as high as possible). The end result is still always the same - lack of clarity. It sounds muddy unto itself, can't really tell the words apart too well, and it also sounds muddy in the mix.

I did see perhaps the best explanation on how vocoders work here:

http://youtu.be/gru_8U0yltI

I do understand that the carrier and modulator should have similar ranges, that a richer carrier will work best. Wouldn't a saw or hypersaw do that, especially if you mix in noise?

Have you tried different octaves? Also perhaps fiddling with bandwidth and choosing the ideal highest and lowest frequencies for your given material.

Compression can help, as long as your material also retains some strong dynamic material. No major peaks, but syllables and spacing.

Instead of following tutorials that tell you over and over how to get a certain sound, try experimenting with breaking the rules. After enough damage, going against the grain with the application of your ideas, you'll know how to come back into the safety zone.

also play with ring modulators. maybe try putting an LFO square wave modulating volume or some other parameters. octaves are great to get an unnatural sound.

redux, vocoder or even the mouth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzyr66QhrOw

thought of another one- if you use simpler or sampler, you can put a slow envelope on the sample start time

Have you tried the Glitch plugin http://illformed.org/plugins/

This is pretty cool for twisting accapelas...