[sdiy] Evolution of the vocoder?

[Ken Elhardt]

Somebody on the Northern Sounds forum (Old Bob) did a good emulation
of Roland's technique by taking sampled male and female "AH" choir
sounds and running then through a high band count vocoder (he didn't
specify what vocoder he used).  I was told by a VP-550 owner that's
pretty much what Roland is doing.  I was skeptical at first but then
later thought, yes, they'd kind of have to do it that way so that
people with really odd or awful voices would still come out sounding
relatively decent. He pulled down his demo, but I uploaded it because
it sounds pretty damn good.  It's here:

http://home.att.net/~elhardt2/Sampled_Choir_Thru_Vocoder.mp3

I have a TC Electronics unit which is actually a pitch shifter under
midi control, so I can use it like a vocoder in that I can play midi
notes on a keyboard to specify pitches and it will pitch shift my
voice to match those notes, along with the ability to change gender
and add different types of vibrato and randomness.  But since it's
pitch shifting my voice, the sounds on it's output are going to sound
like me (or female versions of me).  I did a recent multi-track
recording of me doing playing a polyphonic piece with it here:

http://home.att.net/~elhardt4/TCHelicon_OComeAllYeFaithful.mp3

So that's how the latest technologies work.

-Elhardt