[sdiy] Speaking of the Elektor Vocoder (and the Korg Vocoder)

[Richard Wentk]

On 20 Feb 2008, at 16:45, David Moylan wrote:

> What's a phase vocoder?  Isn't a normal vocoder a sort of limited  
> resolution FFT, or at least FT in that it translates time domain  
> information into frequency domain information in the form of  
> voltage levels per frequency band?
>
> Dave
>
> anthony wrote:
>> I haven't built a hardware vocoder yet, but I will make a  
>> comparison when I do. I don't think anyone has ever done a  
>> hardware implemented "phase vocoder" which is a different beast.  
>> But a lot of the principles are the same. I've always wondered if  
>> it was possible to make a hardware fast fourier transform  
>> analyzer. But I digress...

It's called a laptop. Max/MSP and Csound can do real-time phase- 
vocoding and resynthesis. Some softsynths - e.g. Camelon 5000 - do  
real-time FFT synthesis.

>> I think hardware vocoders may have the benefit of being standalone  
>> "hands-on" units
>> When I compare the two, I'll let you all know.

FFT vocoding sounds very clean - perfect legibility on voice with a  
good carrier.

You can't compare 32 bands or less with 1024 and more for legibility.

Musically though, analog (or analog-like DSP) vocoders have more  
character and are often nicer to listen to. (Even if you can barely  
understand the words.)

Richard