Vocoder Arturia

[Hayley Sweigard]

Ihave 6 or 7 software vocoders and many allow another instrument / wav / mp3 file as the carrier with my voice as the modulator. However only a few of them are half decent. I think the Vocoder is a very good vocoder, just missing the alternative source option for carrier. Has there been any update on this? Is there a way of requesting new features within Arturia?

I just finished writing the manual for it, and I have to say, it's quite something. Technically is what's you'd expect, but in addition to the usual talk-into-mic-while-playing chords thing, it includes a sample player with 12 slots for loading samples. You can trigger these instead of talking, which makes the vocoder more like a keyboard instrument. I've always liked vocoders, but going virtual takes it further.

The biggest problem for me is that if your DAW does allow instruments to accept audio inputs, the ONLY way to use it is with the sample player. Those DAWs include Studio One, FL Studio, Samplitude, and Acid Pro. There's probably a workaround where you can use it stand-alone and use things like virtual cables, but I haven't put the time into discovering it yet.

For live gigs I use DP and have no problem running vocal and guitar through it for live sound where I use Waves Tune Real-Time on my vocal channel and some of the guitar stuff on my guitar channel on live gigs. Perhaps what you're talking about is a bit different in that what I'm using on live inputs is not a virtual instrument?

Second, the Vocoder is a strange animal for a DAW because it's an instrument in the sense that it receives MIDI, but it's an effect in the sense that it processes audio. So, you have to use it with a DAW that can insert it like a virtual instrument, but feed it audio. Of course, it's a different story if you use it stand-alone. Then you just hook it up to your computer's audio input and MIDI input.

How on earth does this work? I can't find anywhere to set the audio input to the VI instance, and of course it can't be used as an insert effect, but it does show up as an available sidechain for my MIDI Carrier track.

I thought maybe I'd have to trash my original Audio Modulator track and re-do the vocal triggers from scratch, but after quite a bit of time with the tutorials and the user manual, can't find a way to feed audio to the VI!

Maybe it's incompatible with Digital Performer, as that DAW isn't listed as a supported DAW or an unsupported DAW in the user manual, and the Help Button does nothing inside the Voice Input section of the GUI.

Using the pre-recorded samples in the VI presets, I can already tell that this is the most intelligible vocoder on the market, so I'd like to replace my XILS 5000 renditions (Eiosis ELS Vocoder is better but is mothballed).

FYI I was able to get it to work in standalone mode outside DP, setting the mic input from my audio interface and switching from Sample Player to Voice Input in a VI preset, then using its MIDI keyboard while singing.

I have this sinking feeling that this VI isn't going to work inside Digital Performer. Maybe I'll have to export a mix-down of my other tracks and use this in Logic instead, then re-export and re-import the final vocoding.

Studio One is in the same situation. However, what I've found is that if you can sample the audio you want to vocode, you can insert Vocoder V like any instrument, and use its built-in sample play to play back the samples you recorded. Of course it's not the same thing as real-time operation, but it's an option.

The other possible workaround (I haven't tried it yet) is to run it stand-alone, and use a virtual cable program like the apps from AB-Audio. or possible an interface's loopback option, to route the stand-alone vocoder into the DAW.

Thanks, that's a good idea (both of them). And yes, DP doesn't support audio inputs to VI's. I'm surprised that Arturia didn't include it on unsupported DAW's, but I guess that's the default if it isn't on their list of included DAW's. Logic Pro is listed as supported, as is Cubase, which I own but never use. I sold StudioOne earlier this year, but as you mention it is unsupported anyway.

I'll see if I can "load" my original Modulator audio vocal track as a sample. I think some of the external rewiring options for standalone VI's have changed on macOS and/or in terms of DP compatibility recently, so that might be overly time-consuming at this point, but might be a better option when I get around to doing fresh vocoder tracks vs. re-vocoding older tracks while comparing results against older vocoder VI's/plug-ins and fine-tuning to get the best results.

I'm quite impressed by the live results in standalone desktop runs of Vocoder V. This very much reinforces my notion that this vocoder blows everything else out of the water. Thanks so much for your help, and also your interesting article on guitar vocoding!

Setting my consolidated and zeroed audio vocal Modulator track as a trigger sample works as you suggested, as it is in sync with the MIDI Carrier track and thus the "right" part of the original audio track gets filtered through the VI at the right time, but it does switch between the sample banks 1 & 2 for some reason, and I think overall this is not going to be a time-saving or practical approach, and that it"s best to abandon Digital Performer for this vocoder.

Yep, the results are fantastic, and I think even more articulate and warm than Fabrice Gabriel's abandoned Eiosis ELS Vocoder (which might still work on Windows but never made it to 64 bits on macOS and the 32 Lives wrapper got broken by Apple in either Mojave or Catalina).

For legacy re-tracking, it will be a bit tricky to fine-tune for my own custom settings vs. stock presets (which I rarely use), but I only have a few tracks that need to be handled that way vs. fresh starts, and the presets are actually quite good and don't get tripped up the way most vocoder presets do.

My modulator tracks are quite articulate (I was quite careful!), but that's still not good enough for most vocoders. This new one from Arturia is a winner all-around. And it's got that Moog mojo going on too, of course!

Now that I've reviewed the three takes that I did with different presets, I'm a bit surprised to find that my spoken words (in this case I was solely using the MIDI Carrier for pitch) got changed, probably due to not being intelligible enough for the triggers in the Deep Blue Sea preset.

Word up for everyone to keep this in mind when using this vocoder! I don't think I've ever had this happen before, but it's kind of neat in a way, if it "improves" the intelligibility of the original modulator!

I'm not done producing my track now, and it's well past 2am so I'm stopping for the night, but I'm already noticing that there might be some benefit to layering more than one rendering from different settings and combining with or without panning, or in some cases doing a trade-off so that it sounds like there's more than one "actor" in the "story".

Believe it or not, I had tried this approach on more than one occasion with other vocoders (or combinations of vocoders) in the past, to ill effect. Either there was bad frequency stacking, or muddiness and lack of intelligibility. But when doing this with various takes from Arturia's Vocoder V, there is no frequency stacking or other weird bumps, and intelligibility improves (if that's what one wants); even if stacking with XILS 5000.

In spite of some limitations in workflow for those of us using Digital Performer, this new addition to Arturia V Collection 8 was well worth the $149 upgrade price (for those of us who already had OB-xa).

Before I leave this roundup of a review, I also need to talk about the new V3 update to MicroFreak. Because this synth is digital with an analog filter, that means Arturia can keep updating the digital side. The free V3 update not only adds the vocoder, but also three new oscillators they worked on in partnership with Los Angeles-based modular synth wizards Noise Engineering. SawX takes the sawtooth waveform then adds chorus and phase modulation to the mix. Harm combines additive synthesis with wave folding, and Bass is based on a non-linear waveshaping algorithm. In my initial review of MicroFreak [Tape Op #134], I compared it to the Buchla Music Easel [#141], and with the new options in the V3 update, this synth becomes an even more versatile and fun to play instrument/sonic processor. Plus, at under $300, I think this is one of the best synthesizer values on the market.

Hi everyone, having a frustrating issue with the routing for the EVOC20 Vocoder.

I've followed all the tutorials and instructions online:

- Routed an audio track with a recorded vocal into EVOC20 via "Side Chain"

It however, DOES work when I route my microphone input into the vocoder, I just can't get it to work with audio from existing tracks. I've tried routing other tracks with audio in them and they don't work either.

I initially tried the Arturia Vocoder using the same routing principle and could not get it to work, switched to the EVOC20 as I suspected it might be a DAW/Arturia compatibility issue, but now I see it's a bigger, mysterious issue with the routing in Logic (version 10.7.5).

I don't know what I'm doing wrong and there does not seem to be anything online I can find to fix it, hoping someone here can help me solve this.

(In my screenshot I'm using a BIP of the audio so it's in stereo but the original mono signal does not work either)

Thanks for your help guys. For some reason, I reopened the session and it all works fine now. I removed all instances of the vocoders and undid the BIPs, reverting to a "clean" session state, tried again and it worked.

It works now even when both vocal track and vocoder are solo-ed together (with vocal track set to no output), and with just the vocoder in solo too. Not really sure what happened there. "Turning it off and on again" seemed to be the solution. The Arturia vocoder works as well.

I tried recreating the conditions in which it "failed" but could not get the same failure result ?

Can't explain it but at least it works now! Thanks again for your speedy replies, much appreciated.

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