Ableton Live 8 vocoder demo
Video shared by Torley
Geth Legion robot voice from Mass Effect in Ableton Live 8 vocoder
iVoxel has been released – the singing vocoder
VirSyn announced today that iVoxel 1.3 is available now. iVoxel is not only an amazingly sounding vocoder for iPhone/iPod and iPad – the unique concept of iVoxel turns this vocoder into a singing machine going far beyond the capabilities of traditional and software vocoders on any platform.
iVoxel lets you: Speak or sing into your head set mic transforming your voice in a wide variety of ways. Record words, syllables or other sounds into the voxel dictionary for later reuse. Play different voxels live on the keyboard with ingenious pitch bending. Arrange and play melodies with the built in sequencer and add the lyrics from a user expandable dictionary of voxels.
iVoxel is a combination of a voice optimized synthesizer and a vocoder with an unprecedented intelligibility. The vocoder part is based on the Matrix vocoder from VirSyn used by many famous artists – one of them the well known german group Kraftwerk. The channel filters used by iVoxel are based on the Sennheiser Vocoder VSM201 resulting in a rich and fat analogue sound characteristic.
Akai SynthStation25 compatible:
Compatible with Akai SynthStation25
Improved GUI workflow
Uses Modwheel to modulate Gender/Vibrato
Modulate Gender/Vibrato with finger movement up/down
Hold parameter – holds Voxel at defined moment
Edit voxel – hear the sound while editing the hold position
Volume increased for about 12dB
Many bugs fixed.
The product is available in the App store.
The sounds of Kraftwerk on your iPhone/iPad
iVoxel (App Store link) is a vocoder for iPhone/iPod and iPad, designed to be a “singing machine going far beyond the capabilities of traditional and software vocoders on any platform.”
iVoxel lets you:
- Speak or sing into your head set mic transforming your voice in a wide variety of ways.
- Record words, syllables or other sounds into the voxel dictionary for later reuse.
- Play different voxels live on the keyboard with ingenious pitch bending.
- Arrange and play melodies with the built in sequencer and add the lyrics from a user expandable dictionary of voxels.
iVoxel is a combination of a voice optimized synthesizer and a vocoder with an unprecedented intelligibility. The vocoder part is based on the Matrix vocoder from VirSyn used by Kraftwerk.
iVoxel is $11.99 in the app store.
Note: Preview video is not for the latest update of iVoxel. Version 1.3 details below.
New version 1.3 available !
- Compatible with Akai SynthStation25
- Improved GUI workflow
- Uses Modwheel to modulate Gender/Vibrato
- Modulate Gender/Vibrato with finger movement up/down
- Hold parameter – holds Voxel at defined moment
- Edit voxel – hear the sound while editing the hold position
- Volume increased for about 12dB
- Many bugs fixed
Via our friends at Synthopia
The 50 best vocoder songs ever
“The vocoder was invented to improve telecommunications in the 1930s and re-purposed by the military to mask speech among officials during World War II. By the 1980s, artists like Afrika Bambaataa and Zapp began using it as a musical instrument. The sound caught on and has remained one of the most influential movements in music to this day, although Auto-Tune (not included on the list), has mostly replaced it. Writer Dave Tompkins is somewhat of a vocoder historian; the legendary music journalist wrote a book this year, How To Wreck A Nice Beach, chronicling the machine’s history. (The book includes a chapter on Talkbox, vocoder’s funkier twin sister, which explains its inclusion on parts of the list.) Musicians have been trying to sound like robots for years, and this Tompkins-curated list of The 50 Greatest Vocoder Songs is the ultimate guide to the machine’s best moments.”
Amazingly sounding vocoder for iPhone/iPod and iPad
Virsyn have announced iVoxel, the singing vocoder. Here’s what they have to say about it…
iVoxel is not only an amazingly sounding vocoder for iPhone/iPod and iPad – the unique concept of iVoxel turns this vocoder into a singing machine. iVoxel is a combination of a voice optimized synthesizer and a vocoder. The vocoder part is based on the Matrix vocoder from VirSyn used by many famous artists – one of them the well known german group Kraftwerk. The channel filters used by iVoxel are based on the Sennheiser Vocoder VSM201 resulting in a rich and fat analogue sound characteristic.
You can use iVoxel in two different ways:
As a realtime vocoder talking into the microphone while playing tunes on the keyboard. The sound character of your voice can be changed in many different aspects like pitch, gender or breath noise.
Record the analyzed spectrum of phrases and words from your own voice. Then use these voxels to play with your own voice on the keyboard or with the build in sequencer. Over 200 hundred prerecorded voxels are already included.
The output of your creations can be recorded to an audio file which you can use with other Apps and programs for further processing.
Features:
- Realtime analysis/resynthesis of your voice
- 20 Channel vocoder
- Voice spectrum recorder (voxels)
- Over 200 prerecorded voxels included
- Play your vocoded voice live on keyboard. Drag for slides and vibrato.
- Sequencer for notes & lyrics
- Voice optimized monophonic synthesizer
- Time warping of voxels
- Gender changer
- Breath noise
- 12dB Lowpass filter
- Pitch vibrato with delay
- Chorus/Delay effects
- Export/Import of projects and voxels
- Export of audio recordings
Teaser for the new Hollow Sun VP330 vocoder
This is a sneak preview/teaser for the new Hollow Sun VP330+ sample library – an emulation of the classic Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus.
According to Hollow Sun, this should “give an idea of how close this is to having the real thing in front of you with the interactive panel. Long multi-samples, captured in stereo, authentically re-create this classic vintage keyboard.”
Release date and pricing are to be announced.
Got apetite for some more vocoder demos?
Continuing on the vocoder theme hare a nice demo of the Roland SVC-350 together with a Roland Juno 60 and Roland TR-808.
History of the vocoder
If you’ve listened to pop music in the past 40 years, you’ve probably heard more than a few songs with a robotic sound. That’s thanks to the vocoder, a device invented by Bell Labs, the research division of AT&T. Though the vocoder has found its way into music, the machine was never intended for that function. Rather, it was developed to decrease the cost of long-distance calls and has taken on numerous other uses since.
Music journalist Dave Tompkins has written a book about the vocoder and its unlikely history. It’s called How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder From World War II to Hip-Hop.
Tompkins says the machine played a significant role in World War II. After the U.S. government discovered that Winston Churchill’s conversations with Franklin D. Roosevelt were being intercepted and deciphered by the Germans, it decided to invest in speech-encoding technology. So the National Defense Research Committee commissioned Bell Labs in 1942 to develop a machine — and Bell Labs delivered.
The vocoder wasn’t without its flaws. Intelligibility of speech sometimes proved a problem, but Tompkins says pitch control was a bigger concern.
“They didn’t mind world leaders sounding like robots, just as long as they didn’t sound like chipmunks,” he says. “Eisenhower did not want to sound like a chipmunk.”
From Military Base To Music Studio
The vocoder experienced a major transition from military device to musical effect when Wendy Carlos used it on the soundtrack for 1971’s A Clockwork Orange. Carlos did a vocoder interpretation of the fourth movement of Beethoven‘s Ninth Symphony, which Tompkins says exposed the vocoder in unprecedented ways.
“Essentially, that introduced the vocoder to its first major audience,” he says. “A lot people had no idea what it was. As the vocoder evolved, they knew the voice but had no idea where it came from.”
After A Clockwork Orange, though it was still an expensive technology, the vocoder saw wider use in music studios. The German band Kraftwerk was one of the first musicians to employ it in its work. It fit perfectly, Tompkins says, because the band’s work was primarily electronic.
Later, in the 1980s, the vocoder became the voice of electro-funk hip-hop. Michael Jonzun recorded what is believed to be the first hip-hop vocoder album, Lost in Space, in 1983. The futuristic sounds complemented the synthesizer, which became widely heard in music from that decade.
The vocoder is less prevalent in today’s popular music, but its legacy lives on. Its successor is Auto-Tune, the pitch-correcting software prominent in popular music today.
To read excerpt from the book and order go here >>
New free equalizer from Terry West
Terry West has released Twelve, a free graphic equalizer effect plug-in for Windows.
Modeled after some famous hardware units.
Note this is a beta version, expect some bugs (or hopefully not). Todo: Auto-bypass per band, Autogain, Automation.
Twelve features
- Bypass.
- Output gain.
- 12 graphic bands.
- 3 Q settings.
- Limiter.
- Exciter.
- 14 presets.
Twelve is available as a freeware VST effect plug-in for Windows PC.
Download it here + 3 other nice plug-ins from Terry West >>
Kraftwerk's Sennheiser Vocoder in action
Since people have understood that I am keen on vocoders I got an e-mail the other day with a link to a video clip with the original Sennheiser VSM 201 from Kraftwerk in action
Owned today by DJDonotask
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjn8PU5s4uQ&feature=player_profilepage]
Cheers Ola
DATAMASKIN
