Vocoders

[stevebirss]

What is everyone's favorite vocoder? Is it one attached to a synth, like a microkorg/R3? Or a standalone, like a Warp Factory or an SVC-350? Just curious... Also, does anyone have any experience with the Korg DVP-1? VSE doesn't have any soundclips, and there is nothing on You Tube.
Well, let me know your fav's.
I've only tried a few, and no high end stuff yet, but so far mine is the Electrix Warp Factory.
Versatile, smooth, clear, and wonderful.

[killedaway]

i've used about a dozen, and still own four, but my favorite is the WarpFactory. i'll never sell it. simple, intelligible, built like a tank, and reliable. never had a problem with mine, and doubt i ever will. my second fave -- and i'm always saying this -- is the dirty little vocoder tucked away in the Behringer Virtualizer Pro. excellent, fuzzy and thick vocoding in there; not as intelligible as some others, but still very useful and unbelievably inexpensive. for 100 bucks brand new, it stamps a mudhole thru the 'coders built into the Virus or ion/micron synths, and i'd say it's on par with that of the MS2000/mK.

that said, i'd love to trip across an old vintage unit someday for pennies, but it's as unnecessary as it is unlikely. the WarpFactory covers all the bases for me handily.

[chamomileshark]

hey, neat timing.

I picked up a Warp Factory and the DVP-1 a few week's back. It's a funny thing, digital with midi offering harmonizer, pitch shift, vocoder and "internal waves"

The internal waves are sort of ensemble sounds, I would say they are fairly close to the VP330 ensemble choir, I've just replaced some VP330 choir samples within a track with DVP-1s internal waves going through a Boss CE-300 Super Chorus. As to the vocoder, I tried it a bit, but before reading the manual. What has confused me a bit is that it says it does not use the internal waves for vocoding (and you cannot feed it a carrier in the same way as the Warp Factory).

The Warp Factory is good, I've used it in a track already. One thing that has suprised me is that it doesn't seem to take midi pitch data to control the robot pitch? The manual is ok but I would like to understand a bit more how it works, "Order" "Q" and so on.

I got these two at an auction, there was a SVC-350 for the same price as both combined or a bit more. It would have been nice to get one, but I think the two I got cover more ground. A final question, the SVC-350 is often touted as being a keyboardless VP330 but looking at the brochure it does not have the choir and string sounds, right?

[aeon]

A final question, the SVC-350 is often touted as being a keyboardless VP330 but looking at the brochure it does not have the choir and string sounds, right?

Correct - it might be better to say that the VP-330 has a SVC-350 built into it.


cheers,
Ian

[aeon]

My three fave vocoders (not that I have used many):

• Roland SVC-350
• Clavia Nord Mod G1 (classic sound)
• Korg OASYS PCI (Dan Philips O-Code)

cheers,
Ian

[chamomileshark]

Thanks Ian, I definately made the right choice, I would have missed out on the choir sounds.

I did find a demo on the EMS vocoders somewhere.

Steve if you want to hear the DVP-1 I should be able to do a simple demo, did you want a demo of the whole thing or just the vocoder section?

[Z]

My fav is the SVC-350. I've had mine for about 18 years and will neve part with it. However, I just picked up another which I have for sale along with a DVP-1.

I had a VP-330 in the mid 90's and was not able to get a decent vocoder sound out of it, but I never tried using an external carrier (can't remember if it accepts an external carrier or not). The chior and strings are very nice. The SVC is great having the ability to adjust the levels of all 11 bands and to mix the signal between "dry" & "vocoded". The SVC is just a vocoder, no strings or choir.

I had a DVP-1 breifly in the mid 90's. The vocoder is pretty good, but not as meaty as the SVC. The pitch shifter is cool. A nice feature to have back then when correcting the pitch of sampled loops. Computers are much better at that these days, but would still be a nice effect to have in a live situation. I plan to make a demo of it before it sells.

[stevebirss]

Thanks chamomileshark. I would love to hear a demo of the DVP-1. I really want to hear the vocoder as well as the harmonizer. If there are any other tricks it can do, put that on there as well if you have time. It would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again!!

[philbar]

i've got one, but hardly use a warp factory.

anyone want it. £80 its yours ( plus shipping).

[chamomileshark]

And here it is...

http://share.ovi.com/channel/ChamomileShark.public

Play-DVP-1 is an MP3 that plays on the site, Download DVP-1 is a higher quality .wav file, but about 40Mb

[OriginalJambo]

The vocoder found on the V-Synth Vocal Designer card.

[clusterchord]

A final question, the SVC-350 is often touted as being a keyboardless VP330 but looking at the brochure it does not have the choir and string sounds, right?

Correct - it might be better to say that the VP-330 has a SVC-350 built into it.

id have to disagree here. u can hear theyre both rolands, maybe similar at times, but overal character i found different. VP330 rips in the mids. dirty. had it on loan few yrs bk. ime SVC350, besides bein more flexible, is more liquid than that, and has wider bandwith.

used the Korg Vocoder too. didnt like it that much. id like to pickup the MAM unit. its actually pretty decent analog vocoder for the fast/hard/metallic robot style vocoding, oposite of rolands being warm, slow n musical (hate the word gooey.. but okay if i must ).

so overall, my fav analog vocoders are SVC350, synton 221 and well..moog/bode is just phenomenal (i know it only from 70s records... but its unobtanium). fav digital ones: virus, nord modular g1

[crystalmsc]

The vocoder found on the V-Synth Vocal Designer card.

has anybody comparing it with the one in the JP-8080? Which I like for some digital and robotic vocoded sound.

[stevebirss]

Thank you so much chamomileshark. The demo was very helpful. I'm actually surprised at the vocoder sounds. They are better than I expected. The harmonizer isn't realistic at all, but that's what I expected. Is the vocoder versatile at all, or is it just a few presets and that's it? Are the presets able to be manipulated and changed at all?
Thanks again!

[chamomileshark]

hi, I am not sure how many presets because I've yet even to find the listing of presets, and goes like 11 vocoder, 12 vocoder, 13 harmonizer, 14 pitch and so on..

As to how much it can be varied, the manual gives..

formant shift
keyboard tracking
window length (which effects the vowel clarity)
level threshold (seems to be what it picks out within the input, things like making "h" clearer)
Pitch threshold (simiar, but picks out s)

There also appear to be a number of standard synth elements, pitch eg, portmento, vibrato, tremalo which may work on the vocoder, the manual isn't really clear.