Vocoder?

[Shokstar]

Dear developers,

Please develop for us a new Vocoder like Image Lines Vocodex.

The old BV512 has not so much possibilities like other Vocoders in the plugin world.

I think many Reason user's would be happy to have a new stylish great sounding Vocoder in their racks

Cheers Shokstar

[deepndark]

How does the Parsec vocoder sound, as I never tried it out during the TRIAL period?

[Loque]

I dont know this vocoder. Can you give an example of your requested features?

[Loque]

How does the Parsec vocoder sound, as I never tried it out during the TRIAL period?

Its ok, imo. But you lose an oscilator, so the sound becomes thin.

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

Parsec is, to me anyway, much much better sounding than the BV512. In fact, it is the only reason I bought Parsec and the only way I use Parsec. That being said, I bought VocalSynth from iZotope and won't look back, it is simply the best sounding vocoder (not to mention the other goodies it comes with) I have ever used (and I have used a majority of the "big" ones in the hardware realm).

[joeyluck]

I use a little bit of all my vocoder options:
BV512
Paresec
Predator
But my favorite is probably Bitspeek.

[EnochLight]

Dear developers,

Please develop for us a new Vocoder like Image Lines Vocodex.

The old BV512 has not so much possibilities like other Vocoders in the plugin world.

I think many Reason user's would be happy to have a new stylish great sounding Vocoder in their racks

Cheers Shokstar

I've been using Parsec as a vocoder since it was released. I much prefer it over the BV512, but it has a different sound altogether. I really like Vocodex's GUI/UX, though.

[Shokstar]

Something like Vocodex with the same amount of control. So we can have a lot of different sound shape variations in one device.

[Skullture]

How does the Parsec vocoder sound, as I never tried it out during the TRIAL period?

Its ok, imo. But you lose an oscilator, so the sound becomes thin.

You can always layer Parsec upon Parsec. But I Agree with you're saying here.

[Loque]

How does the Parsec vocoder sound, as I never tried it out during the TRIAL period?

Its ok, imo. But you lose an oscilator, so the sound becomes thin.

You can always layer Parsec upon Parsec. But I Agree with you're saying here.

Its not the layering, its the sound of the vocoded signal.

[SA Studio]

Dunno if this link from Facebook will work, but if it does...enjoy - thought youd all get a good kick

[JNeffLind]

I use a little bit of all my vocoder options:
BV512
Paresec
Predator
But my favorite is probably Bitspeek.

Hey Joey. I'm dubbing you the resident vocoder expert since there don't seem to be any other likely candidates. I'm curious if you know how to get what I think of as the "classic" vocoder sound (as heard in Daft Punk's stuff). I've messed around a ton with the BV512 trialing different patches and have also messed with Parsec. I haven't done much with Predator or Bitspeek, in fact didn't even know Predator could be used as a vocoder. Anyways, if you have any tips and tricks to share, I'm very curious what you've learned in the hours you've put in.

[joeyluck]

I use a little bit of all my vocoder options:
BV512
Paresec
Predator
But my favorite is probably Bitspeek.

Hey Joey. I'm dubbing you the resident vocoder expert since there don't seem to be any other likely candidates. I'm curious if you know how to get what I think of as the "classic" vocoder sound (as heard in Daft Punk's stuff). I've messed around a ton with the BV512 trialing different patches and have also messed with Parsec. I haven't done much with Predator or Bitspeek, in fact didn't even know Predator could be used as a vocoder. Anyways, if you have any tips and tricks to share, I'm very curious what you've learned in the hours you've put in.

I am the expert of nothing! Lol

Unfortunately I don't have any work online using Reason's vocoders (and nothing recent).
Here's some stuff that is 10 years old using a WarpFactory Vocoder. These both use trombones and trumpets as the source from a Yamaha DJX!
I found I liked the sound of those sounds over the usual sawtooth.





To get a Daft Punk sound, you may have more luck with a talk box (depending on what song you are basing). I have a Banshee that I use with my DX100.

But in Reason, I find I am very satisfied with the clarity and sound of using Bitspeek. Do you own it?
If I ever have a chance, I'll try to post something using Bitspeek.

[EnochLight]

I'm curious if you know how to get what I think of as the "classic" vocoder sound (as heard in Daft Punk's stuff). .

Ugh.. I'm sooo dating myself. When I think "classic" vocoder sound, I think Cylons (the 1970's version).

[Oenkenstein]

Ugh.. I'm sooo dating myself. When I think "classic" vocoder sound, I think Cylons (the 1970's version).

Cylon sound without vocoder:
DDL-1 as Insert FX on an vocal audio track. Delay time: 15 ms or higher, 1/16, Feedback around 113 or higher, Dry/Wet: 50 or higher. It's an old trick discovered by Bauman years and years ago.

[EnochLight]

Ugh.. I'm sooo dating myself. When I think "classic" vocoder sound, I think Cylons (the 1970's version).

Cylon sound without vocoder:
DDL-1 as Insert FX on an vocal audio track. Delay time: 15 ms or higher, 1/16, Feedback around 113 or higher, Dry/Wet: 50 or higher. It's an old trick discovered by Bauman years and years ago.

It's a cool trick, but hardly close to an original Cylon. too much of the original vocal sound comes through, and without a carrier you can't "tune" it.

[Lov2sing]

Did anyone try out the vocoder by Sugar Bytes?

[JNeffLind]

I am the expert of nothing! Lol

Unfortunately I don't have any work online using Reason's vocoders (and nothing recent).
Here's some stuff that is 10 years old using a WarpFactory Vocoder. These both use trombones and trumpets as the source from a Yamaha DJX!
I found I liked the sound of those sounds over the usual sawtooth.





To get a Daft Punk sound, you may have more luck with a talk box (depending on what song you are basing). I have a Banshee that I use with my DX100.

But in Reason, I find I am very satisfied with the clarity and sound of using Bitspeek. Do you own it?
If I ever have a chance, I'll try to post something using Bitspeek.

Those tracks tell me you are at least the one eyed man in the land of the blind.I'd actually heard pirates vs robots before, maybe in a different vocoder related thread. I do have Bitspeek but for some reason never really dug into it. Maybe I got it in a big sale and my attention was drawn away by other goodies. I'd love to hear what you've done with Bitspeek. Also does Bitspeek take midi input from the sequencer for pitching like BV512 does? Maybe I was put off by the "pitch" knob. Thanks for sharing those tracks and your input. By the way, is that the ghost of Freddie Mercury in Pirates vs. Robots. Great voice.

[K1TTENM1TTEN]

I use a little bit of all my vocoder options:
BV512
Paresec
Predator
But my favorite is probably Bitspeek.

Hey Joey. I'm dubbing you the resident vocoder expert since there don't seem to be any other likely candidates. I'm curious if you know how to get what I think of as the "classic" vocoder sound (as heard in Daft Punk's stuff).

Though I am not Joey, and I am no "expert," I would say I do know a few things around this subject. Daft Punk is actually a bit tricky because even though most people think DP uses a vocoder, most of the time they are actually using a Rocktron talk box and Roland's VP-9000 rack. There are few things that can emulate the cleanliness and "sound" that Daft Punk has (it has been said that they spent over a week working on the vocal track for Game of Love), and truly it is part of what makes them so famous.

Outside of Reason the only VST option to get you "that sound" instantly is iZotope's VocalSynth, which features a "talk box emulator" and is the closest thing I have ever heard to coming close to instant "Daft Punk" vocals. Inside of Reason there is not much to get you there, but here are some suggestions to try. Inside of Neptune there is actually a fairly decent vocal synth feature, and utilizing that will give you more of a Imogen Heap sound, but is useful to mix in for the clarity of the synthesized vocals. You can pretty much throw the stock BV512 Vocoder Reason has straight in the garbage, as it is truly dated, limited, and the filters are just too harsh to give you anything smooth and silky like what Daft Punk uses. The stock Vocoder in Reason is, however, useful if you want vocals like Battlestar Galactica's Cylon vocals, but if you are not really going for a sfx route the BV512 is a bust. Parsec features arguably one of the best vocoders in Reason, and when combined with Neptune's vocal synth you can get some very pleasing results (the trick to getting Parsec's vocoder to sound smooth is to reset the device and only use one side of Parsec & to keep the filters as simple as possible). Predator's vocoder is more for the aforementioned BG Cylon sound and certainly nothing to really write home about (it reminds me of the Korg MS2000B's vocoder, whispy and airy with not enough sine waveform to make it smooth and shine). Nothing really sounds much like the old Roland vocoders in Reason if you're wanting the late 80's / early 90's epic rap instrumentals, and that is part of the reason why I think if a developer were to work on this it would be a huge hit in our community. And again, much of what we normally attribute as a "vocoder" sound is not actually a vocoder but is actually a talk box being expertly performed by bands like Daft Punk, Chromeo, etc.

If you need exact parameters for the above mentioned settings just let me know and I can help you the best I can! That being said, it was for this very topic of finding a good sounding vocoder that I decided to venture out to Ableton-land and grab VocalSynth as my companion in this journey, and I have not regretted it a single second.

[JNeffLind]

I use a little bit of all my vocoder options:
BV512
Paresec
Predator
But my favorite is probably Bitspeek.

Hey Joey. I'm dubbing you the resident vocoder expert since there don't seem to be any other likely candidates. I'm curious if you know how to get what I think of as the "classic" vocoder sound (as heard in Daft Punk's stuff).

Though I am not Joey, and I am no "expert," I would say I do know a few things around this subject. Daft Punk is actually a bit tricky because even though most people think DP uses a vocoder, most of the time they are actually using a Rocktron talk box and Roland's VP-9000 rack. There are few things that can emulate the cleanliness and "sound" that Daft Punk has (it has been said that they spent over a week working on the vocal track for Game of Love), and truly it is part of what makes them so famous.

Outside of Reason the only VST option to get you "that sound" instantly is iZotope's VocalSynth, which features a "talk box emulator" and is the closest thing I have ever heard to coming close to instant "Daft Punk" vocals. Inside of Reason there is not much to get you there, but here are some suggestions to try. Inside of Neptune there is actually a fairly decent vocal synth feature, and utilizing that will give you more of a Imogen Heap sound, but is useful to mix in for the clarity of the synthesized vocals. You can pretty much throw the stock BV512 Vocoder Reason has straight in the garbage, as it is truly dated, limited, and the filters are just too harsh to give you anything smooth and silky like what Daft Punk uses. The stock Vocoder in Reason is, however, useful if you want vocals like Battlestar Galactica's Cylon vocals, but if you are not really going for a sfx route the BV512 is a bust. Parsec features arguably one of the best vocoders in Reason, and when combined with Neptune's vocal synth you can get some very pleasing results (the trick to getting Parsec's vocoder to sound smooth is to reset the device and only use one side of Parsec & to keep the filters as simple as possible). Predator's vocoder is more for the aforementioned BG Cylon sound and certainly nothing to really write home about (it reminds me of the Korg MS2000B's vocoder, whispy and airy with not enough sine waveform to make it smooth and shine). Nothing really sounds much like the old Roland vocoders in Reason if you're wanting the late 80's / early 90's epic rap instrumentals, and that is part of the reason why I think if a developer were to work on this it would be a huge hit in our community. And again, much of what we normally attribute as a "vocoder" sound is not actually a vocoder but is actually a talk box being expertly performed by bands like Daft Punk, Chromeo, etc.

If you need exact parameters for the above mentioned settings just let me know and I can help you the best I can! That being said, it was for this very topic of finding a good sounding vocoder that I decided to venture out to Ableton-land and grab VocalSynth as my companion in this journey, and I have not regretted it a single second.

This is great info. I'd love to have some specifics if you can provide them. I'm not a sound designer at all and I hardly even know what you mean by filters, etc. I just scroll through ten thousand presets and spend money on refills.

I now recommend Joey and Kitten fight to the death for J's title of vocoder supremacy. GO!

[joeyluck]

Ugh.. I'm sooo dating myself. When I think "classic" vocoder sound, I think Cylons (the 1970's version).

Cylon sound without vocoder:
DDL-1 as Insert FX on an vocal audio track. Delay time: 15 ms or higher, 1/16, Feedback around 113 or higher, Dry/Wet: 50 or higher. It's an old trick discovered by Bauman years and years ago.

It's a cool trick, but hardly close to an original Cylon. too much of the original vocal sound comes through, and without a carrier you can't "tune" it.

kHs Resonator by kiloHearts works great for a similar type of effect. And it's got some fun tricks up it's sleeve And combined with other effects like their Frequency Shifter you can get some great sounds

[joeyluck]

I do have Bitspeek but for some reason never really dug into it. Maybe I got it in a big sale and my attention was drawn away by other goodies. I'd love to hear what you've done with Bitspeek. Also does Bitspeek take midi input from the sequencer for pitching like BV512 does? Maybe I was put off by the "pitch" knob. Thanks for sharing those tracks and your input. By the way, is that the ghost of Freddie Mercury in Pirates vs. Robots. Great voice.

Haha that's my singing voice and it's not great. That's why I usually stick to vocoder! Lol

To use Bitspeek as a vocoder, create a track for it. Turn KBD Mode on and turn the Tracking to 0% (or to taste; I keep it at 0%). I typically turn the noise to -100% and bring it in a little bit where needed. I usually keep the sample rate at 44 kHz or at 8 kHz, but the other rates are great to and offer some variety.

Bitspeek's internal synth is monophonic, but here is a simple polyphonic patch I made use Distributor:
https://reasontalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=278842

That's just using Bitspeek on it's own. You can also use the external input (which when connected, disables the internal synth). This can of course be whatever polyphony of the source.

From manual:
EXT IN
Use "external input" to apply the frequency spectrum of the incoming audio onto other signals, e.g. to make any synthesizer in Reason speak. When you connect EXT IN, the internal synthesizer in Bitspeek will be disabled and the external signal will be processed by the formant filter instead. There is a built-in pre-emphasis stage that boosts higher frequencies to prevent the result from becoming too "muddy".

It's really versatile.

[JNeffLind]

Haha that's my singing voice and it's not great. That's why I usually stick to vocoder! Lol

To use Bitspeek as a vocoder, create a track for it. Turn KBD Mode on and turn the Tracking to 0% (or to taste; I keep it at 0%). I typically turn the noise to -100% and bring it in a little bit where needed. I usually keep the sample rate at 44 kHz or at 8 kHz, but the other rates are great to and offer some variety.

Bitspeek's internal synth is monophonic, but here is a simple polyphonic patch I made use Distributor:
https://reasontalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=278842

That's just using Bitspeek on it's own. You can also use the external input (which when connected, disables the internal synth). This can of course be whatever polyphony of the source.

From manual:
EXT IN
Use "external input" to apply the frequency spectrum of the incoming audio onto other signals, e.g. to make any synthesizer in Reason speak. When you connect EXT IN, the internal synthesizer in Bitspeek will be disabled and the external signal will be processed by the formant filter instead. There is a built-in pre-emphasis stage that boosts higher frequencies to prevent the result from becoming too "muddy".

It's really versatile.

That's awesome man. Thanks for the mini tutorial I'm sure I'll be referencing this the next time I have any vocals to record. And you do have a strong singing voice. I've learned that at least with myself, while I don't much like my voice I have to accept that other people do and be willing to sing. It's a weird hang up to be told you sing well and disagree but I think it's because we just have an idea in our heads about how we wish we sounded. Unfortunately we don't get to choose our timbre/tone/range/whatever. I'm sure there are a ton of people that would kill for your voice.