User's Manual

426 Live Audio Effect Reference
Vocoders work by running both the carrier and modulator signals through banks of bandpass
filters. The output level of each of the modulator’s filters is then analyzed and used to control the
volume of the corresponding filter for the carrier signal.
Live’s Vocoder should be inserted on the track that contains the audio material you plan to use as
your modulator. The Carrier chooser then provides a variety of options for the carrier signal:
•Noise uses Vocoder’s internal noise generator as the carrier source. With this selected, an
X-Y display is shown which allows you to adjust the character of the noise. The horizontal
axis adjusts downsampling. Click and drag to the left to decrease the sample rate of the
carrier’s output. The vertical axis adjusts the density of the noise. Click and drag downward
to decrease the density.
•External allows you to select any available internal routing points from the choosers below.
This is the option you’ll want for classic ”robot voice” applications.
•Modulator uses the modulator itself as the carrier. This essentially outputs a resynthesized
version of the modulator signal, but allows you to use Vocoder’s sound-shaping controls to
adjust the sound.
•Pitch Tracking enables a monophonic oscillator, which tunes itself to the pitch of the modu-
lator. The High and Low sliders allow you to limit the frequency range that the oscillator will
attempt to track. Choose from sawtooth or one of three pulse waveforms and adjust the
coarse tuning of the oscillator via the Pitch slider. Pitch tracking is particularly effective with
monophonic modulator sources such as melodic instruments or voices. Note that the oscil-
lator only updates its frequency when it detects a clear pitch. It then maintains this pitch
until it detects a new one. This means that changing the oscillator’s parameters or causing it
to reset (when grouping (page 236) Vocoder’s track, for example) can cause unexpect-
ed changes in the sound. With polyphonic material or drums, pitch tracking is generally
unpredictable (but can be very interesting.)
Particularly when using external carrier sources, a vocoder’s output can sometimes lose a lot of
high end. Enabling the Enhance button results in a brighter sound by normalizing the spectrum
and dynamics of the carrier.
The Unvoiced knob adjusts the volume of an additional noise generator, which is used to resyn-
thesize portions of the modulator signal that are pitchless, such as ”f” and ”s” sounds.