vocorder software

nickn · 07-21-2009, 12:04 AM

i do alot of home recording but i really cant sing. i have been thinking about buying a vocoder but i dont have the money to do so. most of the vst stuff that i have found are just used as effects.
i was kind of looking for something that i could put a recording of a monotone vocal part in and then put it to midi notes to change the pitch. dose anything like that exist or are there any better ways to go about this?

Freebase Dali · 07-21-2009, 02:27 PM

Yea they have stuff like that.
Cher and T-Pain have popularized the effect, albeit an extreme abuse of what's known as an auto-tune program.

The most well known program for manipulating your sung notes is Antares Auto-Tune.
Basically what happens is you record your vocals and load the audio into the program (which can work as a plug-in in your host music program) and gently nudge your notes into the correct intonation via pitch envelopes that you can draw freely and with note-lines as guides.

You wouldn't want to sing monotone and then alter the pitch into note changes unless you were going for a very unnatural sound. The better way would be to get as close as possible, and use the auto-tune program to make minor adjustments. Doing it that way lets you retain as much of the original timbre as possible because you're not making wide changes. The result is a more natural and believable vocal.

A lot of recording studios use those types of programs to dial in the perfect pitches when the vocalist simply can't.
The biggest downfall to this is you end up with "too-perfect" vocals and it takes away from the realism of vocal musicianship. I can listen to songs on the radio and spot the use of those programs easily. Most of the time it's a distraction because the result is obvious.

07-21-2009, 12:04 AM	#1 (permalink)
nickn Groupie Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 23	vocorder software i do alot of home recording but i really cant sing. i have been thinking about buying a vocoder but i dont have the money to do so. most of the vst stuff that i have found are just used as effects. i was kind of looking for something that i could put a recording of a monotone vocal part in and then put it to midi notes to change the pitch. dose anything like that exist or are there any better ways to go about this?

07-21-2009, 02:27 PM	#2 (permalink)
Freebase Dali Partying on the inside Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5,584	Yea they have stuff like that. Cher and T-Pain have popularized the effect, albeit an extreme abuse of what's known as an auto-tune program. The most well known program for manipulating your sung notes is Antares Auto-Tune. Basically what happens is you record your vocals and load the audio into the program (which can work as a plug-in in your host music program) and gently nudge your notes into the correct intonation via pitch envelopes that you can draw freely and with note-lines as guides. You wouldn't want to sing monotone and then alter the pitch into note changes unless you were going for a very unnatural sound. The better way would be to get as close as possible, and use the auto-tune program to make minor adjustments. Doing it that way lets you retain as much of the original timbre as possible because you're not making wide changes. The result is a more natural and believable vocal. A lot of recording studios use those types of programs to dial in the perfect pitches when the vocalist simply can't. The biggest downfall to this is you end up with "too-perfect" vocals and it takes away from the realism of vocal musicianship. I can listen to songs on the radio and spot the use of those programs easily. Most of the time it's a distraction because the result is obvious. __________________