Softsynth Vocoder a la new Cynic?

[JeffTD]

I've got a few parts in a bunch of my songs that I'd like to have clean-ish vocals, but don't want anything typical at all. The vocoder sound on the new Cynic record is absolutely perfect for what I hear in my head. I searched the forum/web, but all I can find is the hardware gear they used on Focus, which isn't as good IMO (Vocoder sound wise).

Anyone know of a solid VSTi or plugin that can do this?

 

[wyllie]

yeah i'd like to know also , i think it'd sound pretty neat on my clean vox.

 

[Executioner213]

I wonder if it's even hardware at all. It sounds mighty impressive on the album, but thier live stuff from recent (the fest footage from last year), the vocoding doesn't sound very good.

 

[R-Stuur]

I think they have some sort of mic with built in vocoder for the live shows judging on this video I have

 

[devouredremains]

I've heard great things about the TAL Vocoder but haven't had a chance to try it myself.

http://kunz.corrupt.ch/?Products:VST_TAL-Vocoder

 

[if6was9]

Brett might know a little about this- isn't he their friend and live engineer?
Saw 'em live a few months ago and thought the vocoder effect was awesome live, Sounds so much better live and on their new album than Focus's one did, I'd love to know how they are doing it

 

[J.DavisNJ]

I'm interested how Paul engages it live. I'm guessing a pedal of some sort?

-Joe

 

[Tym_ex]

It's a TC Helicon VoiceLive. http://www.tc-helicon.com/VoiceLive.asp It's not a vocoder. Paul uses pitch correction and doubles the vocal with a pitched version an octave up and an octave down. Live he's using exactly the same setup as he did on the album but sometimes it can be hard to control it in a live environment with drums and everything leaking into the vocal mic, messing up the pitch correction.

You can get similar results by using Waves Tune or whatever tuning software to get the pitch correction, then use a good quality pitch shifter and double the vocal with a pitched version an octave up and down.

 

[gumplunger]

The vocals would probably sound tighter live if they had a MIDI signal controlling the pitch (which I assume is possible as there's a MIDI in on that unit), synced up to a click. I'm guessing they didn't want to have to play to a click and/or Paul wanted to have enough control over the vocals to do some improvisation.

When they were touring for Focus, I'm pretty sure the guy doing the screaming vocals controlled the pitch of the robovocals by keyboard, but again, I guess Paul wanted to control the unit only with his voice.

 

[Tym_ex]

I don't think you can control that unit like that, because it's not a vocoder, not sure though. And yes, we don't like playing with a click.

 

[gumplunger]

Oh hey, its Tymon! I didn't recognize the name at first. I'm loving the new record man, hoping to catch you guys on the Meshuggah tour.

I looked through the manual for the VoiceLive a little bit and you can definitely control which scale is active and volume and stuff with a MIDI keyboard, but I didn't see anything about controlling pitch directly with the keyboard. I just assumed it was possible since you can do it with Auto-Tune and Waves Tune.