Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM

I know it's probably too late in the design of the MOTM Vocoder to influence
it, but here's some thoughts I had of features I've wished for in a vocoder
for a long time. I'm not aware of these being implemented in available
vocoders.

Complete patch-ability: Not just because I'm a modular freak who likes
jacks. I've always wanted to experiment with things OTHER than just
reproducing a 'robot voice.' What if you could patch the bands so that they
are in reverse? Or some other pattern? You could map distinct
characteristics of the "analysis" instrument/voice onto portions of the
spectrum other than the frequencies that it happens to fall at.

A friend and I, back in the 70's, had an idea for a Residents-like band (way
before we'd ever heard of them) called "The Rigelian War Monks" where we
would be disguised and sing into mis-wired vocoders. That way we could sound
like we were singing in some weird alien language, but we could actually
memorize & sing in English, so the songs would be repeatable. What would it
really sound like? Who knows? I've never been able to experiment with it.

Ratio Controls: The patch-ability would allow for this, but... again, why
does the Synthesis portion have to track the Analysis portion on a 1:1
ratio? What could you do if you could exaggerate the level differences
between bands?

What if you could patch one or more Lag modules in? Could you make a Cylon
have a drunken slur? Get morphing effects?

What if a bank of EG's could add to the VCA levels, triggered by an EF at
the analysis section?

Carlos's modular vocoder may have been primitive, made of a lot of expensive
modules and only 10 bands, but think of it this way---those modules could
still be used for other things. That's a big plus.

With patch points, one could conceivably convert the CV bands from the
Analysis section into MIDI signals that could be recorded into a MIDI
sequencer.

The bottom line is, a lot of circuitry goes into a vocoder, and a lot of its
sections (as well as the entire device) are useful for things other than
just the wrote reproduction of a voice. Sure would be cool to have access to
those possibilities.