Recording Workshop: Mitreißende Vocoder-Harmonien à la Leony
Whether synthetic choirs la Kraftwerk and Air, futuristic robot voices la Daft Punk or futuristic vocal harmonies as in Imogen Heap‘s „Hide And Seak“ are required: The vocoder is the tool of choice for making synth sounds speak. Below, you‘ll learn how to use the freeware plug-in TAL-Vocoder 2 to create striking vocal harmonies like in Leony‘s hit „Faded Love“ .
Published 8:00 am on Wednesday 19th January 2022 by Beat Magazine
1 Robot harmonies
Vocoder vocals can also be heard in some of the current hits, such as „Todo De Ti“ by Rauw Alejandro and the catchy „Faded Love“ by Leony, which quotes the 2002 O-Zone hit „Dragosteo Din Tei“. In „Faded Love,“ the lead vocals in the break before the final chorus are supported by distinctive vocoder background vocals.
2 Vocoder feed
Would you like to use this effect in your productions as well? Nothing could be easier! Melodic vocals offer themselves as a sonic basis, for instance, in the chorus of your song. Load a vocoder plug-in such as the freely available TAL Vocoder 2 as an insert effect. Poly Mode should be activated here. Then create a MIDI track in your DAW.
3 Tonal playing
With this, select TAL-Vocoder 2 as the MIDI output. Now you can play the sound generation tonally. In „Faded Love”, the vocoder plays the chords E, B, F# & G#m. We move the plug-in‘s Sub control down and reduce the SAW level for a clearer sound. Increase the Harmonic value for a more overtone-rich sound.
4 Sonic fine-tuning
If your vocals sound too muffled, you can remedy this with the Ess control. In the vocoder section, by the way, you can adjust the level of the 11 frequency bands individually. Shift the upper bands up a bit for more treble shine. Some vocoders also include a formant shift function to further distort the timbre.
5 Formant shift
TAL-Vocoder does not have such a function, but the MeldaProduction MAutoPitch plug-in does. Simply load this into the signal path before the vocoder and experiment with the Formant-Shift parameter. With particularly dynamic vocal recordings, it is possible that individual syllables are drowned out and, therefore, not properly captured by the vocoder.
6 More effects
To give the vocals a more even level before processing with the vocoder, compression can be helpful. Alternatively, you can even out the level of individual syllables directly on the audio track. For a more lively sound, TAL-Vocoder comes with a good-sounding Chorus effect. Delay and reverb have also proved useful for refining the sound.
Subscribe to the digital edition of BEAT Magazine via Plugins-Samples.com and get more gear, in-depth workshops, reviews and 11 GB exclusive plugins and new sounds with every monthly issue!