Monday 1 November 2010

Talk Robot To Me

I've said before a few times that I have a weakness for vocoders and effects like them, and I always have, I don't know why but something about that sound just makes everything AWESOME. (well, except speedbass maybe) and today, I'm going to dig through my collection to find my favourite examples of various vocal effects in use from the the early stuff to fairly recent tunes.

We've come a long way, baby


Up first is MSTRKRFT, who used it a whole bunch on their first album, The Looks. it was tough to decide on which track to pick, but I think I made the best choice in the end, it's just so infectiously smooth!



Teenage Bad Girl are another electro act who used vocoders alot on their album, there are many tracks I could've picked but many only feature vocals for s minute or two, or even unvocoded ones, I think I got the right balance with this one.



And yes, even more from Squarepusher! Even before D'demonstrator he dabbled in vocoding and this track is the perfect example of it, Jazzy riffs mixed with fast amen break-esque beats, I can't get enough of it.



Royksopp don't use it at all in their studio work but their live shows are a different thing entirely. This is taken from a concert they did in full kraftwerk gear, (ie: red shirts, black ties etc.) it's probably my favourite version of Remind Me out there taking the best remix and adding that extra live atmosphere to it.





What's a vocoder post without one of the grandmasters of electronic music, Giorgio Moroder? He probably used a Korg like that to record this number which is one of my guilty pleasures, stay tuned for the awesome breakdown around 3:20.



and of course, everyone's favourite that needs no introduction...



NOT auto-tuned, -Claude Van Foxbat

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Digital Love was done with talkbox, not vocoder.

Claude Van Foxbat said...

ah, my mistake, well it's a simillar sound so I just lumped it in, I don't really know what equipment was used for any of these (minus Remind Me, as seen in the picture). Still a great song though :)

Anonymous said...

Black Moth Super Rainbow would have been a wonderful addition to this post. Top notch regardless. Cheers!

Anonymous said...

yeah ilictronix still here!!

Anonymous said...

Do you know about Bruce Haack... you MUST check out the his vocoder album.

http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2010/09/bruce-haack-fadad-the-electric-voice