Can you remember the first time you heard a voice on a track which employed a sound that felt like it was a mixture of real vocals and a synthesiser? The chances are, you were listening to an instrument known as a vocoder, which combines synthesis and vocals to create that classic robot voice. This is the beginning of a production story that has influenced the style of many artists, both vintage and contemporary. It’s now something we can achive with modern software, taking the old concept into our 21st century productions…
Unbelievable as it might seem, the concept behind the vocoder was developed back in the 1930s. The technology was adopted as a method of broadcasting audio messages in a state of encryption, which was put to use during World War II. It didn’t take very long for musicians to realise the potential of vocoding technology. Apart from a number of novelty songs and tracks, such as the legendary Sparky’s Magic Piano, vocoders became synonymous with electronic music, through artists such as Kraftwerk and Wendy Carlos. Even jazz-funk pioneers got in on the vocoder action, as demonstrated by the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire and Herbie Hancock.