Vocal Effects question (with examples)

[jasonresno]

How do artists such as hellogoodbye and http://myspace.com/rediscover get that effect over their singer? Plugins? If so could someone link me or help me figure out how to do it?

[Motleyguy]

That sounds like auto tune to me, applied in heavy amounts. It is a pro tools plug-in used to pitch correct bad singers.

[aworldofviolets]

A common version of auto tune is what's known as the vocoder, this effect is very very popular right now, almost every pop artist is using it along with nearly every scene/emo/alternative/whatever you want to call it band. A lot of keyboards have this effect now, it's usually a microphone that connects to a keyboard so you sing and play what you're singing at the same time to get the effect. I hope that made sense. go to guitar center or check musiciansfriend they should have some

however if i were you, i would avoid it all together, everytime i hear one i think "great, another band with a vocoder." It wasn't cool when cher and celine dion used it, it isn't cool now. but do what you want, its your music and your opinion

[Moseph]

A common version of auto tune is what's known as the vocoder

Actually, the two concepts are very different things, although in many cases extreme applications of Auto-tune may sound like vocoding.

Auto-tune is pitch quantization. What that means is that input signals are analyzed for pitch content, and if they fall within a certain range, they are pitch shifted to a pre-determined frequency. More realistic algorithms will generally have some form of timbre preservation by maintaining formant relationships.

Vocoding is a form modulation, where the amplitude/envelope information of one signal (the modulator) is superimposed onto the frequency information of another signal (the carrier).

In your example, the keyboard signal is typically the carrier and the voice is the modulator, which is why it sounds like the keyboard is singing.

Where the confusion sets in is typically that the carrier contains ALL the pitch information, so you wouldn't even need to sing the words, just speak them with the correct rhythm, and it would still sound like the keyboard is "singing." This is one relatively simple method to get a form of auto-tuning: as long as you can sequence the notes using the carrier in sync with the rhythm of the vocals, then it will create a timbrally unrealistic, but pitch-perfect performance.

[aworldofviolets]

my bad, thanks for the correction