microKORG vocoder advice

OriginalJambo · Post by **OriginalJambo** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 12:47 am

So I recently bought a mint microKORG for £100 (bargain!) and ended up selling it to a friend who wants to get into synths. I recommended the microKORG and he loved it so much when he tried it I was handed cash for him to take it.

Whilst I feel I did pass up a great deal, I think he deserves it more than I do right now.

Anyway, I was considering maybe getting another in the future for vocoder duties. I only got to program one patch and it sounded quite decent, but are there any great tricks to getting some really intelligible results on the little beast? Does using a better mic help a lot?

Just general opinions on the microKORG's vocoder would be great. I know it's a capable synth already.

Post by **nathanscribe** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:03 am

I hated the mic it came with: too in-the-way, crappy bendy rubbish that was a pain to use without it popping and overloading... so now I run an SM57 with a popshield through a compressor and then into the mK. The results are just fine, and much more intelligible than before.

You can also run other synths through instead of using the mK's own sound, so you could vocode one of your vintages... though I have not had much luck with my brief attempts to do this with a Juno. Worth another go, I think.

Can't comment on programming vocoder patches, as I don't really get on with the mK's interface and I'm too lazy to read the manual. Serves me right, really.

Post by **tallowwaters** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:36 am

here is how i do it -

nice breathy condensor mic -> preamp -> compressor ->microkorg -> compressor -> eq -> DAW

otherwise, the mK turns into sheer sonic mush in the mix. the eq is the trick really, finding that sweet spot always does.

to increase intelligibility, i usually just do a vocal/spoken track in the mix, and place it kind of low, raising it to accentuate certain mushy words.

now, our own mad scientist, cruel hoax, the master of all bad a*s, went through the trouble to share this way to increase sibilance in a vocoder track with me ->

damn jambo, you should have put this in sound production...

premieklovn · Post by **premieklovn** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 6:05 am

Tallow: Thanks for the hilarious wallpaper!

agreed on getting a nice condenser mic.

OriginalJambo · Post by **OriginalJambo** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 12:37 am

Thanks for the help guys but I've discovered I can get good results using my mixing desk to pan the mic and synth hard either way and then sending the stereo mix into FL Studio's own vocoder. Saves me having to invest in a mK and means I can use any synth as a carrier that I own with relative ease.

There's also Orange vocoder that I have a demo of that sounds pretty good too.

Tallow's right though - should have put this in Sound Production come to think of it. My bad.

Post by **tallowwaters** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 1:12 am

nah, i wasnt trying to have a go at you, i was just saying this is a cool discussion that might get more hits in the sound production...

somebody that isnt busy making quesadillas should copy and paste into a thread over there.