Vocoder Help

[JGriffin]

You need to play the melody on a keyboard, and vocalize along with it, or once it's pre-recorded. There are 2 inputs to any vocoder: the vocal and the instrument that's taking its envelope from the vocal, which produces the "vocode" effect. If the instrument is playing a drone, the words will come out drone-y. If the instrument plays a melody, the words will come out as the melody.

[MD]

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/bhilkert/cartel.mp3

Ah, the cher thing

Sounds like you could get this with an obsessive compulsive pitch correction plug-in. (That's what everyone thought was used for the cher song, but apparently it was a more elaborate set up including a vocoder or something)

-MD

[apropos of nothing]

So how would i set that up with Nuendo. let's say I already have some vox recorded. If i go back and record the midi melody that I want, it'll take the prerecorded vox track and apply those words to the midi melody?

Bingo.

Orange works a little strangely IIRC. As I remember it (its been a bit), you have to put Orange on a group channel. Route your sung or spoken lyric to the left side of the group channel, and then route your synth melody that you want sung to the right side of it. There is a control in there to flip which channel does which.

Vocoding does take a little patience, messing around (and eventually), skill. You may find that a "spoken" lyric part will give you more of the result that you're looking for than a properly sung version. But certainly mess around with it.

You will probably also want to mix some of the original vocal track back in there or double the vocoded part with another sung part, for intelligibility.

Hope this helps ya. Have fun!

[apropos of nothing]

I can't really listen as I'm at work and no computer speakers and the home doesn't have teh interwebs.

In terms of what kind of sounds to use, the fuller-frequency, the better. Vocoder is filter (which is to say, subtractive eq), so you'll want to give it as many frequencies from which to subtract as possible.

Thats one reason that synths are ideal for vocoding -- you can make sustained tones with no envelope and many partials present. You might also try string tones, cello or distorted guitar.