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Vocoders on bass...

#3
I'm at work and can't watch the vid, but I can assure you I'll have some commentary later this evening, as I've used vocoder on bass many times and found it very difficult/complicated to get good results. It'll be interesting to see what they are doing to make it work.
 
#13
OK, check it: For a vocoder to work properly, the formant-sensing channel (vocal input) needs to have resonant peaks within the frequency range of the instrument channel. Otherwise you get silence. What this guy did was only play notes within his vocal range, which was mostly (though not entirely) on the treble end of the neck, on the high strings. Also his EQ had a very prominent high-frequency emphasis, to bring out both a "super Jazz bass" tone, as well as providing the maximum high-freq content for the vocoder to process (within his vocal range). And note that even with all of that, it sounded like crap, completely without low end or guts or any other tonal quality associated with bass. So I'm saying vocoder does not work with bass, unless you play only the "guitar notes", and only vocalize in the range you play, and don't mind it sounding gutless, high, and nasal.

The rest of his performance sounded fantastic though, he's an excellent player with groove and taste.
 
#14
I loved the vocoded(?) bit really. Of course it's not typical bass tone by any means, and any attempt to hold to the lows with a vocoder would obviously fail.

The use of the vocoder with the bass allowed him to phrase his lines simply more "vocally" which despite his tone IMO allowed him to solo more naturally.
 
#15
bongomania said:
OK, check it: For a vocoder to work properly, the formant-sensing channel (vocal input) needs to have resonant peaks within the frequency range of the instrument channel. Otherwise you get silence. What this guy did was only play notes within his vocal range, which was mostly (though not entirely) on the treble end of the neck, on the high strings. Also his EQ had a very prominent high-frequency emphasis, to bring out both a "super Jazz bass" tone, as well as providing the maximum high-freq content for the vocoder to process (within his vocal range). And note that even with all of that, it sounded like crap, completely without low end or guts or any other tonal quality associated with bass.
Click to expand...

Yeah it did sound like crap. I don't know if you've heard Graham Central Station's "Now Do U Wanta Dance", but I'm sure you can imagine with Larry Graham's voice - which is pretty well-matched to the bass guitar - it sounds quite badass. :)
 
#16
Hahahaha! In my freshman year at college when I was living in the dorms my neighbors stayed up late playing counterstrike or whatever with their loud subwoofers pumping out gunshots into the wee hours of the morning. I took my revenge on them when I had to get up early in the morning for class by blasting "Now Do U Wanta Dance" really loud through my sound system, with the sweet Larry Graham vocoder action! I can only imagine how they felt being woken up by that! Needless to say, I wasn't bothered by gunshots for the rest of the semester.
 
#19
A vocoder is an effect processor, they can be found in rack units and pedals. It has two inputs- one for the mic, and one for the instrument. It reads the resonant frequencies of the vocalizing, and applies those frequencies as amplitude on several bands, like a graphic EQ, to the instrument signal. The stronger the resonance, the higher the amplitude of the band at that frequency. Since the resonance of the vocal chamber changes constantly, the "graphic EQ" changes constantly as well, in a manner that closely follows the vocalizing.

So the output of the effect is the instrument signal after it's been re-shaped by the vocal signal.

That's a simplified description, perhaps not exactly accurate in every way, but enough to get the idea across. Also there are a number of finer points such as the number of bands, sibilance controls, analog/digital, etc.
 

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