A classic vocoder setup, with the vocal audio track (red) acting as the modulator and Vocoder’s internal synth providing the carrier. In the small inset image (highlighted in the blue box) you can see in the MIDI track’s Inspector panel that the MIDI out from this track has to be routed to the specific instance of Vocoder that’s inserted on the audio track.
Cubase 13 brought with it the welcome return of Steinberg’s Vocoder plug‑in...
For users of Cubase Pro and Artist, version 13 brought with it the return of an old favourite: Steinberg’s Vocoder plug‑in has finally made it into the 64‑bit world and, while the basic concept remains the same, it has also undergone a smart visual makeover. Vocoders are perhaps most popular in electronic music styles, in which the classic ‘robot voice’ is often heard, but if you’re prepared to experiment a little you’ll also find that the revamped Vocoder can conjure up a much wider range of effects. In this month’s column, I’ll run through how you might go about this, and you’ll also find some audio examples on the SOS website (https://sosm.ag/cubase-0324) to accompany each of the main stages I describe.
Vocoder 101
Put simply, a vocoder allows you to take some of the sonic characteristics from one sound (called the ‘modulator’) and apply them to another sound (known as the ‘carrier’) — by far the most common example is when a vocal modulator is applied to a synth‑sound carrier. The pitch of the resulting sound is always determined by the MIDI note(s) used to trigger the synth, but the sound of the voice modulates the synth sound, so its character changes: the effect is like making the synth ‘talk’. Depending on the MIDI note data received by the synth, you can get the classic monotonic robot voice effect or something with more melodic and/or harmonic content.
You can use sound sources other than a voice as your modulator input to Vocoder, though, and while, just like most vocoder plug‑ins, Vocoder includes a synth engine to serve as the carrier, with a little side‑chain tomfoolery its magic can also be applied to an another synth, such as Retrologue or Padshop.
Insert This Way Up
Vocoder an audio effect plug‑in, so the most obvious options is to place it in an Insert slot on an audio track, and I’ll focus on that route here. But note that you could use it as a send effect inserted on an FX track. A scenario where that might be useful is where you know that you’ll want to blend an unprocessed (or differently processed) version of the modulator sound with the ‘vocoded’ version.
The opening screenshot (above) summarises the basic configuration for the Insert effect route. An instance of Vocoder has been inserted in the top‑most audio track (coloured red). This contains a sung vocal melody that will act as our modulator. Vocoder’s UI is shown in the middle of the screen: the Carrier section provides the controls for the internal synth engine, while the Modulator section controls how the incoming audio signal is used to modulate the carrier sound. The specific settings I’ve used here are based on the Smooth 16 preset but with a few of my own tweaks, and are easy to recreate. Note that MIDI is set to External (allowing you to control the pitch from a recorded MIDI track or external keyboard), the Bands parameter is set to 16, and both the Talk Thru and Gap Thru settings are at zero percent (I’ll come back to these last two options).
The bottom‑most MIDI track (in green) provides the MIDI input to Vocoder to control the pitch of the carrier (synth) sound. As shown in the small inset image from the MIDI track’s Inspector panel, the MIDI out from this track has to be routed to the specific instance of the Vocoder plug‑in. If you’re playing MIDI note data in ‘live’ during playback rather than using pre‑recorded MIDI data, you’ll need to select the MIDI track and record enable it (or engage the monitor button) for the note data to be forwarded to the Vocoder.
Do Adjust What’s Set
Page 158 of the PDF Plugin Reference Manual takes you through all of Vocoder’s controls in detail, but a few are worth highlighting here. For example, in the Carrier section you can use the Noise Mix (and Noise Mod) and/or Bright controls to blend in a bit of an ‘edge’ to the processed sound if you need it to cut through a mix a little more. In the central panel, adjusting the number of frequency bands in the processing will influence the audio quality of the result, with more bands tending to allow the nature of the modulator signal to come through more clearly in the final output.
In the Modulator section, the Min Freq and Max Freq act almost as high‑ and low‑pass filters, while the Bandwidth knob, which sets the frequency bandwidth used by each band, can dramatically change the tonality of the eventual sound (higher values produce a fuller sound).
The function of the Talk Thru and Gap Thru controls are worth noting. Both controls let you blend in the unprocessed modulator sound into the final output. Talk Thru sets the level of this unprocessed sound while Vocoder is receiving notes, and Gap Thru sets it when no MIDI notes are being received. You can, of course, set a balance of the two controls that allows the unprocessed modulator source to be heard at all times, but they give you more flexibility over when, and how much, the unprocessed modulator sound source is heard than a simple wet/dry control might.
Let’s imagine that you want to hear the unprocessed vocal most of the time, but trigger the Vocoder as a spot effect so that the processed sound totally replaces the unprocessed one only on a few words/phrases. In this case, you’d set the Talk Thru control to zero and the Gap Thru control to a suitable non‑zero value. On playback, in the absence of any MIDI note input, you’d hear just the unprocessed modulator signal (a vocal in this example). Then, as soon as the Vocoder received a MIDI note (or notes), the unprocessed sound would be replaced by the vocoded sound. Different combinations of these controls allow you to achieve different outcomes to suit your needs.
Take Note
While the sonic character is controlled by the nature if the carrier and modulator, the MIDI notes play a significant role in the musical usefulness of Vocoder’s output. Single note lines let your synth ‘sing’ the phrase in a melodic fashion. If you use MIDI notes whose length spans several syllables or words of the original sung phrase, then you can easily achieve the classic (clichéd?) robot voice effect. But if you match the timing of your MIDI note onsets to those of the sung phrase, you can create all sorts of alternative melodic variations not present in the original.
You can use MIDI chords as your note input too, and in this case Vocoder will generate vocoded harmonies based on those chords. This can generate some quirky backing vocals if you just follow your project’s chord progression and, depending on how you play the chords (simple block chords or with more variety by adding inversions or extensions), you can create either a static robotic style or something more akin to a real backing vocal group, though of course with a more synthetic quality to the actual sound.
Incidentally, you can feed a live audio source into your Vocoder track and play in live MIDI note data at the same time, so that whatever you sing will be ‘vocoded’ on the fly. Because you’re performing both the modulator input and MIDI note input at the same time, it’s very easy to get them in sync; simple melody or chords, there’s a lot of fun to be had here.
Don’t Do Normal
The examples described above use a combination of a voice‑based modulator and Vocoder’s synth engine as the carrier. That will let you create the classic vocoder effects, but if your creative streak runs deeper there are two further options to explore. First, you can experiment with different input sounds as your modulator. For example, vocalised vowels (rather than sung words) can be interesting, especially if you change the tonality of the sound as you sing — in effect, you’re using your vocal sound as a type of sweepable band filter — and many solo instruments, notably guitars, can be used in a similar fashion. Or, if you want things to get really weird, try something rhythmic like drum or percussion loops, as I’ve done for some of the audio examples.
By using Vocoder’s side‑chain capability, you can use an external synth (in this case Retrologue) to supply the carrier sound.
Second, you can experiment with using different synths (or other sources) as your carrier sound simply by routing them to Vocoder’s side‑chain input — the internal synth engine will be bypassed and the side‑chain source used as the carrier. Given the basic nature of Vocoder’s synth engine, you might imagine that using a more sophisticated synth such as Retrologue or Padshop would instantly create a more interesting result. It might, or it might not: picking the modulator and carrier that might play nicely together can be something of an unpredictable process that requires experimentation and a little patience — but it can be rewarding too, and well worth the time investment!
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