Vocoders on bass...

[KarateKid25]

The guitarist at the end looked like he had vocoder envy

 

[bongomania]

When experimenting did you ever use a split channel in which you had a pitch-shifted bass guitar (up an octave) go into a vocoder while maintaining a clean signal in the other channel.
How do you think that would work?

Yeah, as has come up in every previous vocoder thread one solution is to use an octaver on either the voice or the instrument. Octaving the instrument would require a two-channel rig as you described in order to still be "playing bass"; while octaving the vocal channel down an octave requires that you use a pretty high-quality pitch-shifter, as cheaper ones won't have enough intelligibility to make the vocoder work well.

 

[Scionreality]

So, if I understand correctly, The further down into the bass range you can sing, and the louder you can do it, the better low end you can get out of the vocoder?

I might not be able to go down to that low B, but I should be able to manage a half way decent open A.

I've been toying with the vocoder idea a bit, I just haven't bothered doing any research yet. I figure I'd be blending in un-vocoded signal anyway, just for reinforcement.

I'll have to start that research now... I don't know jack about vocoders.

 

[bongomania]

So, if I understand correctly, The further down into the bass range you can sing, and the louder you can do it, the better low end you can get out of the vocoder?

Yes. I guess "louder" overall is not so important, as most vocoders have an input sensitivity control, but the cleaner and stronger the lower frequencies in your voice, e.g. by singing from the diaphragm, the better.

 

[PunkRocker33133]

What happens if you scream into a talkbox or vocoder? how would that sound?

 

[bongomania]

All it would do is raise the amplitude on the instrument channel, of whatever frequencies were present simultaneously in both the scream voice and the instrument channel. IOW it would sound like absolute crap unless you were playing a lead guitar solo.