Apple Logic Pro /LogicExpress Discussion

Chaz,

As "unofficial" king of the vocoders..lol  I can make a few suggestions.

First you have to decide what you want to do "vocoder wise". Do you want it as a 
background effect for a few words, or as a lead vocal, or as a processor for drums or 
instruments.

Logic has a built in Vocoder. It's pretty good, but I hardly use it. I personally don't think 
the filers are "clear" enough for lead vocoder vocals. But, it's great if you want to feed it 
drums and effects. Also metioned in a reply, is Logic's Pitch/Vocal processor. That creates 
the "cher" effect with extreme/fast settings . It's different from a vocoder but gives cool 
results.

Back in the "old days" when I was doing my record. Planet Rock was being recorded in the 
same studio. They were the session before me. I hung out in the control room with Arthur 
Baker, etc..  They didn't have a vocoder. They used a digital delay line set for short delay  
[like 8 miliseconds] fed it the famous "Rock, Rock, Planet Rock vocal, and turned up the 
feedback. It gives an cool effect, but it's monotone and "tube" like sounding.

All vocoders have an individual "sound" to them, like different violins or guitars. Some are 
warm and blurry, some are crisp and hard. Some are beautiful as an effect and nothing 
else. 

I personally LOVE the Prosonic Orange Vocoder [ http://products.prosoniq.com/cgi-bin/
register?service=showdetail&refno=30]  BUT I don't think it's intel compatable. It's 
awsome at crisp clean lead and crystal clear vocoder vocals. It is AU and VST

Also Elios Sound [ http://www.eiosis.com/elsvocoder ] just came out with an "Old Skool" 
type of vocoder. Has all the fun stuff that an old hardware version has AND has pitch 
tracking, so you can add it to a vocal track and it will attempt to follow the pitch of the 
vocal automatically! Damn cool !  It's a pretty good vocoder, I have it in my 'collection". 
only draw back is it uses a dongle [don't get me started...].

Usually the more "filters" a vocoder had, the clearer it is.. but listen before you buy !

Vocoder tips:

Most people just plug it in and get poor results. In my 25 years of using them heavily, 
here's what I do.

First. I ALWAYS heavily compress the vocal entering the vocoder [software or hardware 
vocoder]. It evens out the peaks and helps clarity. Don't foprget this step, its a night and 
day difference.

I ususally use Sawtooh or Square waves with a bit of white noise added for sybilance [very 
important feature that people often ignore] People's brains need to hear those S's and T's 
to calculate what you're saying. Waveforms with high harmonic content give better results 
than a sine wave.. 

And here's the big one... You'll need learn to "Speak Vocoder-eese".  Hello becomes 
"Heloue" and computer becomes com-puh-tah. You'll need to exagerate your vocals, if 
you plan on using it as a lead.  There are are times you are tracking a vocal that's already 
recorded. Thats when I use the orange vocoder, it's clear and needs less attention, but 
vocals may get "blurry". If you can track specifically for the vocoder, you'll be light years 
ahead of the game. Try to have whomever is doing the vocal monitor the output and pla 
with vocal variations. Remember it's not importiant to "Sing" into a vocoder, its important 
to get those filters to open and close with your voice. Speaking rather than singing.

Simple things like grace notes or portomento or little flicks of that pitch/mod wheel can 
bring it to life. Play with release times on your synth sound too. I like tight short gates. 
Makes each individual word clear.  Reverbs can blur results, experiment.

Also play with pre eq of the vocal going in. Sometimes you'll need eq extremes to push 
that baby into a useful tool. Don't worry, you won't break it.. experinemt !

And lastly, if you are using it for a main vocal. Spend a day or so playing with it, and 
learning how to speak with it, before getting fustrated at quick/poor results.

One last thing...  Some of these vocoders easily work as an insert on your track. Others 
need to be added as a STEREO AUX send, with the vocal side chained and panned to the 
left [modulator input] and the external synth [carrier source] panned to the right to get 
midi to respond. Most have synths built in with midi capabilities. Don't forget to assign 
your midi input to get pitch movement. Someone could probably make a quick template as 
an example.

Hope all this helps !  

Any questions, just let me know...

-Man Parrish
http://www.ManParrish.com

P.S. Anyone going to the Winter Music Conference ?



--- In Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com, Chaz <chazperx@...> wrote:
>
> I am looking to purchase a Vocoder or voice fx plugin for Logic, and I was wondering if 
anyone would suggest a few that works well for them. I use MAC & PC, so please let me 
know the platform you are on.
>    
>   The types of effects I am trying to get are similar to the vocal effects you hear on 
Cher's song Do you Believe, and many of BT's songs.
>    
>   Thanks in advance for your assistance!
>    
>   Chaz
>    
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>