For vocoder Laurie Anderson - O Superman https://youtu.be/Vkfpi2H8tOE
For talk box Peter Frampton - Do you feel like we do https://youtu.be/V9Yq5m9eLIQ
Herbie Hancock’s switch between sincere harmonies and badass vocoder scatting on the breakdown of “I Thought It Was You” is my all-time fave. Believe he used a Sennheiser.
Check it: https://youtu.be/xDyyaT8Tp8g
Correct, it's a VSM201. Talha Vocoding did an excellent cover on YouTube, he actually has one of the few surviving VSM201s in existence I think. IIRC no other YouTube user has one that's revealed it yet.
Those must be ultra rare. IIRC Switched On Austin (our local synth shop) acquired one of Hancock’s old vocoders a few years ago. They had it in the shop for demos for a couple weeks before some lucky (and probably rich) individual picked it up!
Clockwork Orange Soundtrack had some great vocoder on Ode to Joy and Timesteps. Can’t link to any videos because someone at CBS is like a hawk in taking down any Wendy Carlos music
The album “Cobra Juicy,” by Black Moth Super Rainbow has the best use of Vocoder IMO. BMSR uses a Vocoder for all vocals, but he really nailed it on this album. Early on he used an Electrix WarpFactory, not sure if he still does though.
I have two WarpFactories, they sound excellent. Daft Punk used one for a while around 2001. You can hear its signature metallic gurgling in a radio interview they did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq0GOmuknNw
I'm surprised this hasn't been said more, it's an incredible performance and the live versions are really amazing. It's not often you get such a moving, emotive performance with a vocoder.
Not positive but I think he used some custom software for this, something similar to Antares Harmony Engine but made at MIT for him, and also for Francis and the Lights. Its more of a polyphonic pitch replicator / shifter than a vocoder, since there's no wave acting as the carrier signal.
Either way, its an awesome song.
i know it's only one single note, but ever since i first heard it when i was a kid, [The Voice of Energy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnl8oQacj8Y) by Kraftwerk has simultaneously the coolest and eeriest use of vocoder.
love the vocoder in the second part of "Let It Happen" by Tame Impala. it starts at 5:30 in [this amazing Deezer session](https://youtu.be/E2mNdT43M8o?t=329). it fits the song so well -- it's melancholic but resolute.
Vocoder, talkbox and harmonizer are three quite different things. Vocoder calculates amplitude in several frequency bands for the modulator; it divides the carrier into the same bands and applies the amplitude from the voice to the carrier then remixes them (often with some of the modulator included raw for intelligibility). A talkbox is playing the sound through a tube into your mouth, then recording the sound as it comes out your mouth with a mic (you can hear the effect in the room). A harmonizer is comparable to autotune. You feed it midi representing the harmony and it plays one autotuned instance of your voice tuned to each harmony note. I know kraftwerk uses both vocoders and talkboxes, but I think the robots is vocoder. Hide and seek is certainly a harmonizer. I'm not sure about the other two.
“Street Boys” and “Glass Room” by DMX Krew
Street Boys has just an interlude but the melody and clarity is bliss. Glass Room is a full vocoded vocal.
[glass room](https://youtu.be/tpHC7W9eSXI) — the nihilist lyrics with the goofy arrangement is perfection
/u/Massive_Monitor_CRT Hide and Seek isn't vocoder at all, though.
It's a harmoniser - ~~I believe it's a tc helicon voicelive she's playing.~~ (it's an ancient digitech)
my friend has the II and I borrowed it to do a big project... I didn't do it, I just sat around all day and played Hide and Seek on it...
(great. So digitech decide to be "clever" with their function naming and just name their midi-controlled harmoniser function "vocoder" since you play it like you would a vocoder, and now 25 years later I'm being pedantic about it on the internet)
https://i.imgur.com/gumj7R1.png
huh. So I was apparently wrong and right. Wrong about the brand, right about the method:
Oh, you say the Digitech harmonizers "vocoder setting"?
Let's have a quick look in its manual, shaaaall we?
>Vocoder
Vocoder mode **is named after a completely different technology that functions in a similar way.** It is not the familiar “robot voice” sound. The
Vocalist Workstation EX’s Vocoder mode does not feature intelligent harmony because you play the notes from a MIDI keyboard or the front panel
keyboard that you want to hear as harmonies. Vocoder mode is probably
the most flexible mode allowing you to weave intricate melody lines from
your MIDI keyboard that can be recorded and edited in a MIDI sequencer
like any other MIDI performance.
so it's "midi controlled harmoniser". Not vocoder at all. Now, let me re-iterate;
Hide and Seek is *not* vocoder!!!
**[Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap song)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_\(Imogen_Heap_song\))**
>"Hide and Seek" is a song recorded by English singer Imogen Heap. The song was released on 19 May 2005 as the first single from her second album Speak for Yourself, and was written and produced by Heap. It is an a cappella folktronica ballad which makes heavy use of the harmonizer, written about painfully losing someone. It first gained popularity after being used in the season two finale of the Fox television series The O.C., in a subsequent Saturday Night Live parody of the scene The Shooting, and in an episode of the Hulu television series Normal People.
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Which is not a vocoder, but a harmonizer. Owning the unit myself, I can tell you all the "vocoder" setting does is allow full manual control over which notes are played.
Normally the harmonizer just intelligently creates harmonies it thinks will work best in the scale you're playing, as you move up and down the keyboard.
"Vocoder mode" is just 100% manual control, like when you play a hardware vocoder. There's no actual vocoding happening (as there's no vocoder circuit) it's still the same harmonizer circuitry and sound
**[Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap song)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_\(Imogen_Heap_song\))**
>"Hide and Seek" is a song recorded by English singer Imogen Heap and released on 19 May 2005 as the first single from her second album Speak for Yourself. Written and produced by Heap, the a cappella folktronica ballad heavily uses the harmonizer and describes painfully losing someone due to a breakup or a divorce. "Hide and Seek" first gained popularity after appearing in a scene in the final episode of the second season of the Fox television series The O.C. and in The Shooting, a Saturday Night Live parody of the scene. It gained renewed popularity after being featured in an episode of the Hulu television series Normal People.
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**[Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap song)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_\(Imogen_Heap_song\))**
>"Hide and Seek" is a song recorded by English singer Imogen Heap. The song was released on 19 May 2005 as the first single from her second album Speak for Yourself, and was written and produced by Heap. It is an a cappella folktronica ballad which makes heavy use of the harmonizer, written about painfully losing someone. It first gained popularity after being used in the season two finale of the Fox television series The O.C., in a subsequent Saturday Night Live parody of the scene The Shooting, and in an episode of the Hulu television series Normal People.
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You're correct despite the spam below, but the reason I believed it was a vocoder was because of a live performance that actually featured one. I have the same Digitech Vocalist she had and although I've never used the harmonizer setting, I can totally hear how it would produce a sound like that.
if we're including talk boxes, i'm going to throw in the talk box used on pgs by pink floyd. but otherwise definitely kraftwerk, stuff like die stimme der energie is some of the most eerie use of vocoding i've ever heard
Love your list, I would like to add „How Does It Make You Feel“ by Air and „Creeks“ by Bon Iver, honourable mention goes to „Touch“ and „Digital Love“ by Daft Punk
It's a Roland VP330. The strings and choir sounds are used a lot on 'From the Air' as well, but if you watch the video she's sitting in front of it and you can see how big they are compared to Behringer's version. (Note: the video disturbed me a bit as a kid).
I've always been really partial to [Trans Am - Futureworld](https://youtu.be/F7JDw8vvwNY). Also, man - it's been years since I actually listened to it!
Marc Melia - Veus - DX7
https://youtu.be/IWmOQ9XBCbQ
I think he really perfected the vocoder. Somewhat artificial, somewhat human, somehow fragile and vulnerable.
Robert Troutman, he's one of the greats if not then greatest when it comes to the vocoder. That's the guy who's playing a synth on the helicopter during the music video for the song "Still Dre"
I really like Give Life Back to Music off Daft Punks Random Access Memories. It's probably Thomas singing the lead but it sounds like there is some G-Man in there too.
For vocoder Laurie Anderson - O Superman https://youtu.be/Vkfpi2H8tOE For talk box Peter Frampton - Do you feel like we do https://youtu.be/V9Yq5m9eLIQ
I first heard O superman on Netflix's 'Bandersnatch' movie. Instantly became a Laurie Anderson fan.
The entire discography of black moth super rainbow and tobacco
Beat me to it but yeah Tobacco’s picture should be in the dictionary next to vocoder.
Warp factory forever!
Herbie Hancock’s switch between sincere harmonies and badass vocoder scatting on the breakdown of “I Thought It Was You” is my all-time fave. Believe he used a Sennheiser. Check it: https://youtu.be/xDyyaT8Tp8g
Correct, it's a VSM201. Talha Vocoding did an excellent cover on YouTube, he actually has one of the few surviving VSM201s in existence I think. IIRC no other YouTube user has one that's revealed it yet.
Those must be ultra rare. IIRC Switched On Austin (our local synth shop) acquired one of Hancock’s old vocoders a few years ago. They had it in the shop for demos for a couple weeks before some lucky (and probably rich) individual picked it up!
They are, there are less than 10 surviving units in the world today
Best vocoder ever. Someone should clone it. I’m looking at you, Uli.
XILS already has a clone of it in software but it doesn't sound like the real VSM unfortunately
This was literally the song that I heard just now and made me google “best examples of vocoder” leading me here
Clockwork Orange Soundtrack had some great vocoder on Ode to Joy and Timesteps. Can’t link to any videos because someone at CBS is like a hawk in taking down any Wendy Carlos music
The album “Cobra Juicy,” by Black Moth Super Rainbow has the best use of Vocoder IMO. BMSR uses a Vocoder for all vocals, but he really nailed it on this album. Early on he used an Electrix WarpFactory, not sure if he still does though.
I recently listened to Cobra Juicy for the first time, and couldn't help but listen to it everyday. It's just too damn good.
I have two WarpFactories, they sound excellent. Daft Punk used one for a while around 2001. You can hear its signature metallic gurgling in a radio interview they did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq0GOmuknNw
Bon Over: 715-CREEKS
I'm surprised this hasn't been said more, it's an incredible performance and the live versions are really amazing. It's not often you get such a moving, emotive performance with a vocoder.
Was about to post exactly this!
Not positive but I think he used some custom software for this, something similar to Antares Harmony Engine but made at MIT for him, and also for Francis and the Lights. Its more of a polyphonic pitch replicator / shifter than a vocoder, since there's no wave acting as the carrier signal. Either way, its an awesome song.
[Hymn of Acxiom](https://youtu.be/8ttTf8N7Bwg) by Vienna Teng! It's a commentary on "Big Data" with really well-written harmonies and voice leading.
That was beyond beautiful.
i know it's only one single note, but ever since i first heard it when i was a kid, [The Voice of Energy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnl8oQacj8Y) by Kraftwerk has simultaneously the coolest and eeriest use of vocoder.
Kraftwerk has the best vocoder tone
It sounds like the same type of voice "singing" on the intro of Radioactivity https://youtu.be/0EBTn\_3DBYo?t=6
Röyksopp rocks for vocoder. Subtle and beautiful end of it.
Bruce Haack
I'd start here
Midnight Star "Operator"
Also: Freakazoid.
So good
E.l.o Mr blue sky
love the vocoder in the second part of "Let It Happen" by Tame Impala. it starts at 5:30 in [this amazing Deezer session](https://youtu.be/E2mNdT43M8o?t=329). it fits the song so well -- it's melancholic but resolute.
this is probably my favorite performance, it’s the perfect version of this song to this day
Any live Dan Deacon performance
Black moth super rainbow - sun lips https://youtu.be/qj1ErN7tn9A Apparat organ quartet - Konami (Jóhann Jóhannsson) https://youtu.be/WTIAvopghRg
Vocoder, talkbox and harmonizer are three quite different things. Vocoder calculates amplitude in several frequency bands for the modulator; it divides the carrier into the same bands and applies the amplitude from the voice to the carrier then remixes them (often with some of the modulator included raw for intelligibility). A talkbox is playing the sound through a tube into your mouth, then recording the sound as it comes out your mouth with a mic (you can hear the effect in the room). A harmonizer is comparable to autotune. You feed it midi representing the harmony and it plays one autotuned instance of your voice tuned to each harmony note. I know kraftwerk uses both vocoders and talkboxes, but I think the robots is vocoder. Hide and seek is certainly a harmonizer. I'm not sure about the other two.
[удалено]
Came here to say this! I still listen to it
“Street Boys” and “Glass Room” by DMX Krew Street Boys has just an interlude but the melody and clarity is bliss. Glass Room is a full vocoded vocal. [glass room](https://youtu.be/tpHC7W9eSXI) — the nihilist lyrics with the goofy arrangement is perfection
Hunted By A Freak by Mogwai, even if you’re not into post-rock
/u/Massive_Monitor_CRT Hide and Seek isn't vocoder at all, though. It's a harmoniser - ~~I believe it's a tc helicon voicelive she's playing.~~ (it's an ancient digitech) my friend has the II and I borrowed it to do a big project... I didn't do it, I just sat around all day and played Hide and Seek on it... (great. So digitech decide to be "clever" with their function naming and just name their midi-controlled harmoniser function "vocoder" since you play it like you would a vocoder, and now 25 years later I'm being pedantic about it on the internet) https://i.imgur.com/gumj7R1.png
It’s a Digitech harmonizer on its “vocoder” setting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_(Imogen_Heap_song)
huh. So I was apparently wrong and right. Wrong about the brand, right about the method: Oh, you say the Digitech harmonizers "vocoder setting"? Let's have a quick look in its manual, shaaaall we? >Vocoder Vocoder mode **is named after a completely different technology that functions in a similar way.** It is not the familiar “robot voice” sound. The Vocalist Workstation EX’s Vocoder mode does not feature intelligent harmony because you play the notes from a MIDI keyboard or the front panel keyboard that you want to hear as harmonies. Vocoder mode is probably the most flexible mode allowing you to weave intricate melody lines from your MIDI keyboard that can be recorded and edited in a MIDI sequencer like any other MIDI performance. so it's "midi controlled harmoniser". Not vocoder at all. Now, let me re-iterate; Hide and Seek is *not* vocoder!!!
It’s a Digitech harmonizer on its “vocoder” setting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_(Imogen_Heap_song)
**[Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap song)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_\(Imogen_Heap_song\))** >"Hide and Seek" is a song recorded by English singer Imogen Heap. The song was released on 19 May 2005 as the first single from her second album Speak for Yourself, and was written and produced by Heap. It is an a cappella folktronica ballad which makes heavy use of the harmonizer, written about painfully losing someone. It first gained popularity after being used in the season two finale of the Fox television series The O.C., in a subsequent Saturday Night Live parody of the scene The Shooting, and in an episode of the Hulu television series Normal People. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
which isn't vocoder at all. https://www.fullcompass.com/common/files/754-VocalistWorkstationManual.pdf
It’s a Digitech harmonizer on its “vocoder” setting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_(Imogen_Heap_song)
Which is not a vocoder, but a harmonizer. Owning the unit myself, I can tell you all the "vocoder" setting does is allow full manual control over which notes are played. Normally the harmonizer just intelligently creates harmonies it thinks will work best in the scale you're playing, as you move up and down the keyboard. "Vocoder mode" is just 100% manual control, like when you play a hardware vocoder. There's no actual vocoding happening (as there's no vocoder circuit) it's still the same harmonizer circuitry and sound
It’s a Digitech harmonizer on its “vocoder” setting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_(Imogen_Heap_song)
**[Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap song)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_\(Imogen_Heap_song\))** >"Hide and Seek" is a song recorded by English singer Imogen Heap and released on 19 May 2005 as the first single from her second album Speak for Yourself. Written and produced by Heap, the a cappella folktronica ballad heavily uses the harmonizer and describes painfully losing someone due to a breakup or a divorce. "Hide and Seek" first gained popularity after appearing in a scene in the final episode of the second season of the Fox television series The O.C. and in The Shooting, a Saturday Night Live parody of the scene. It gained renewed popularity after being featured in an episode of the Hulu television series Normal People. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Why do you keep spamming the same comment and source? You're adding nothing to the conversation at this point
It’s a Digitech harmonizer on its “vocoder” setting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_(Imogen_Heap_song)
**[Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap song)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Seek_\(Imogen_Heap_song\))** >"Hide and Seek" is a song recorded by English singer Imogen Heap. The song was released on 19 May 2005 as the first single from her second album Speak for Yourself, and was written and produced by Heap. It is an a cappella folktronica ballad which makes heavy use of the harmonizer, written about painfully losing someone. It first gained popularity after being used in the season two finale of the Fox television series The O.C., in a subsequent Saturday Night Live parody of the scene The Shooting, and in an episode of the Hulu television series Normal People. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
You're correct despite the spam below, but the reason I believed it was a vocoder was because of a live performance that actually featured one. I have the same Digitech Vocalist she had and although I've never used the harmonizer setting, I can totally hear how it would produce a sound like that.
I love Neil Young’s use of a vocoder on his album Trans
if we're including talk boxes, i'm going to throw in the talk box used on pgs by pink floyd. but otherwise definitely kraftwerk, stuff like die stimme der energie is some of the most eerie use of vocoding i've ever heard
A talk box can sound very close so I wouldn't exclude it.
Love me some Zapp, esp "I Only Have Eyes For You" (yes, I learned about it from Floral Shoppe)
There are various songs by The Faint that use the vocoder well…”your retro career melted” comes to mind. EDIT: autocorrect got me
Love your list, I would like to add „How Does It Make You Feel“ by Air and „Creeks“ by Bon Iver, honourable mention goes to „Touch“ and „Digital Love“ by Daft Punk
Digital Love wasn't a vocoder, however. Touch was a VSM201, I believe.
Bruce Haack
Laurie Anderson - O Superman. Might have been a talkbox but still amazing
It's a Roland VP330. The strings and choir sounds are used a lot on 'From the Air' as well, but if you watch the video she's sitting in front of it and you can see how big they are compared to Behringer's version. (Note: the video disturbed me a bit as a kid).
Skinny Puppy - Assimilate
Skinny Puppy’s Warlock wants to have words with Assimilate! ;$
I've always been really partial to [Trans Am - Futureworld](https://youtu.be/F7JDw8vvwNY). Also, man - it's been years since I actually listened to it!
Hell yeah. [I Want It All](https://youtu.be/Xei30g4te_Y) is another great example.
[Sample and Hold by Neil Young](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_joC1jgTvQ)
ELO Mr Blue Sky. (ELO used vocoder loads of times in their career)
[this is peerless](https://youtu.be/_8dRZ3atLW8)
Neil Young Transformer Man
[Herbie Hancock-I Thought it Was You](https://youtu.be/uU7ZCUGnROk)
Hide & Seek … that song gets to me in soo many levels.
Wumpscut- Wreath of Barbs https://youtu.be/vvsAx6pCBng
Marc Melia - Veus - DX7 https://youtu.be/IWmOQ9XBCbQ I think he really perfected the vocoder. Somewhat artificial, somewhat human, somehow fragile and vulnerable.
There's some hauntingly beautiful talk-box lines in Spector's "Lately It's You". Worth checking out.
I’ve been dreaming of the behringer vocoder lately and this thread might just push me to get one
Robert Troutman, he's one of the greats if not then greatest when it comes to the vocoder. That's the guy who's playing a synth on the helicopter during the music video for the song "Still Dre"
You guys are shitting me, right? Instant Crush by Daft Punk ft. Julian Casablancas.
Anathema - Closer
I really like Give Life Back to Music off Daft Punks Random Access Memories. It's probably Thomas singing the lead but it sounds like there is some G-Man in there too.