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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Oarih (talk | contribs) at 16:59, 30 November 2005 (→‎Example List). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

I suggest there be more examples of vocoding listed in this article. The examples should be more recent. Cher, Daft Punk, and Air have all used vocoders in the past 10 years. Air uses them every chance they get. Maybe add a small section with a list? MichaelD 23:22, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I removed this, as I already covered formants as frequency peaks and dips from resonance:

Of course, the actual qualities of speech cannot be reproduced this easily. In addition to a single fundamental frequency, the vocal system adds in a number of resonant frequencies that add character and quality to the voice, known as the formant. Without capturing these additional qualities, the vocoder will never sound "real".

- Omegatron 17:46, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)

Ok, I'm confused. The description in the article is confusing, and now that I've thought about it more, my knowledge of various vocoder types has several different variations. I was taught that this is how a channel vocoder works:

Channel vocoder

One type of early vocoder design is the channel vocoder. There are two major sections. The first section simply detects the fundamental frequency of the waveform over time. This value is recorded (or transmitted). The other section breaks the frequency content of the original signal into a series of frequency bands (using band-pass filters). Instead of storing the entire waveform from each of these bands, only the magnitudes of each band are recorded. To reproduce the signal, an oscillator with heavy harmonic content (a square wave or triangle wave, for instance) is run at the recorded fundamental frequencies, and this raw signal is passed through a filterbank. The filters' magnitudes are controlled by the values measured at the original filterbank. The resulting signal has a fundamental frequency close to the original signal, with a similar filtered spectrum.

This would probably use equally spaced bands.

And my knowledge of a phase vocoder is related to the STFT version, where you are measuring all the frequency bins and keeping the complex data (magnitude and phase) and using an inverse STFT to reproduce. Then for data compression, you can throw away all the values with lower than a certain threshold magnitude if you want. However, these two don't work the same way. Phase vocoder is supposed to be "one step above" the channel vocoder. But a channel vocoder using the STFT would throw away the phase data, with no frequency detection as I already described. On the other hand, a phase vocoder "enhancement" of my described channel vocoder would be.... weird. Comments? - Omegatron 18:09, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)


Example List

I added important vocoder artists Zapp/Roger Troutman, Herbie Hancock. These two artists have made really extensive and dedicated use of vocoder (most notably on albums "Feets don't Fail me Now" and "Zapp"). I wonder why they were not included before. What about Isao Tomita's arrangement of "Colliwog's Cakewalk"? Is that vocoder? If it is, then it must be mentioned.

the following entries were removed in order to make list cleaner. (I assume they were not very important entries. If I was wrong, then you can return some of them)

-J.S, 8.4.2005.

This is an article about vocoders, not a list of songs which have vocoders. A list of a few very popular songs could be useful so people can think "oh that's what they sound like", but otherwise start List of songs which use vocoders (and might as well pre-emptively list it on vfd as well).  :-) - Omegatron 13:57, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)

I agree it shouldn't be a poorly-choosen ad hoc list of some songs which use vocoders! Better to list certain key artists / tracks which were particular innovative/notable (many of which are already in there) Putting in the fact that the Legendary Pink Dots (?!) one used a vocoder in a single verse of a single live version of a single song is ridiculous.--feline1 14:35, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think the lenght of the list is OK now. There are perhaps a couple of not-so-important-at-all titles and something important may be missing. So those who have relevant knowledge, may keep on fine tuning the list. -J.S. Apr10,2005


I was the original person to start making a list of bands and songs which were good examples of the vocoder in use. The reason I put this up in the first place was definitely thinking anyone who was wondering what a vocoder is would like to find examples of it in use, as many simply do not understand how it could possibly sound. I will respectfully state that I think it is incorrect to consider some of my options as being "poorly-chosen" or "rediculous". I listed what I would consider to be truly awesome examples of what a vocoder can do.

The Industrial music genre is notable for it's vocoder work, whihc is apparent in almost any major band within it, in some song or another. Many of Front 242 drums are created with vocoders, for example. While I can understand the opinion on LPD, the use in that song is an excellent example of the power of the vocoder. I will leave it off as it is obscure and it is live.

However, I strongly disagree with "Worlock" by Skinny Puppy being left off this list. "Worlock" features a vocoder prominently throughout the chorus with a rather stunning impact which has lead it to become one of the band's most well known and beloved songs. They are also pioneers of Industrial, so I am going to return this to the list. It's just too prime an example of brilliant use, by a forerunner of the genre in one of their best songs. I removed the listing of their song "Goneja" in favor of this.

In addition, Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" is another necessary item to keep on the page. This is a very old, very popular example of a "talking guitar" and was my introduction to the instrument. This band is popular enough to merit them staying on said list.

- matt, april 11, 2005

Seriously, the list is ridiculously over sized. I sympathize with the person who previously vandalized the page to point that out. I've tried to keep it manageable on several occasions, but it just grows and grows as everyone apparently feels compelled to add their favourite band (/their friend's band) to the list. Can't we keep it to something like 5 good (not necessarily best, but fairly representative) songs per decade and, if necessary, make the List of songs which use vocoders as Omegatron previous suggested? Better yet, why doesn't someone make an audio demo of a vocoder in action so we can reduce the list of songs even further? -- Oarih 16:59, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Talking Guitar?

I think some more research should be done re "Talking Guitar" or "Talk Box" of Johnny Guitar Watson & Peter Frampton. I used to own an electric guitar accessory which comprised a miniature amplifier and speaker combo, with a plastic tube which physically relayed the guitar sound from the mini-speaker into the guitarist's mouth. This was not a vocoder.

design 15/09/05

Yes, I agree with you. The old talk-box (I'm personally thinking of Joe Walsh) was NOT a vocoder, because it doesn't process your voice electronically. Instead it works mechanically, as the motion of your mouth changes the sound coming out of a speaker. See Talk box.

However, it IS possible to ELECTRONICALLY modulate a guitar carrier wave with a voice. I just don't know anyone who's done it in music.

24.213.90.666 29/09/05

Vocoders in Television

Two notable examples of vocoders used in television series are the Cylon voices in Battlestar_Galactica_(1978) and V_(TV_series).

There's an unsupported freeware 18 channel software vocoder for Windows, called CYLONIX http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~clark/cyclonix.html

2000s: Kraftwerk?

I'm sorry, but for "Tour De France Soundtracks", I can't see why it should be given as an example use of a vocoder by Kraftwerk. "Vitamin" has a little bit of something backing Florian's voice that might be a vocoderish backing effect, but I was under the assumption that the majority of vocals on the rest of this CD come from computer voice simulators, and not vocoders.

There's tons more stuff that you could put in the 2000s list, instead of Kraftwerk.

Phase vocoder

The phase vocoder is not at all adequately dealt with here. It would be nice if somebody could add a section (or an entirely separate entry) on the phase vocoder algorithm.

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