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The vocal effects of Daft Punk

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Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#12

Ah, the Sennheiser VSM201. Just a $30K vocoder. Seems like it was $25K when it released in 1977, but also didn't get to sell even 50 units, so quite rare. I guess you can get similar results with cheaper hardware, but if you have money and you have it around... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's Daft Punk, are we really surpised? :-P

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#13

Ah, the Sennheiser VSM201. Just a $30K vocoder. Seems like it was $25K when it released in 1977, but also didn't get to sell even 50 units, so quite rare. I guess you can get similar results with cheaper hardware, but if you have money and you have it around... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Never had the pleasure of a Sennheiser but when working in radio I got my hands on a lot of rack vocoders for doing branding, stings and idents. Funny how the number 9000 comes up a lot, like Roland VP9000 and Eventide H9000. 80 and 90s vintage ones like Korg VC-10 or Elektronik EM-26 had unique sounds, but tbh the modern digital recreations are amazing models. There's not a world of difference between vocoding, auto…

Did you listen to the example audio in the video? Soft synths and digital emulation can be absolutely amazing these days, but the VSM201 and Ultimate VoIS are in their own league. It’d be pretty easy to pick them out from a blind test with other vocoders.

Oh, it also might be of interest that the IVL algorithm isn’t FFT-based. I think their harmonizers sound better than the rest, so maybe FFT isn’t the best way to go.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#16

Ah, the Sennheiser VSM201. Just a $30K vocoder. Seems like it was $25K when it released in 1977, but also didn't get to sell even 50 units, so quite rare. I guess you can get similar results with cheaper hardware, but if you have money and you have it around... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The article says that Daft Punk rented it.

I was surprised about how much better the Sennheiser sounds compared to the others. From the audio comparison in the first YouTube video. I did expect minor variations in the harmonics but the differences are quite significant between the models.

The other vocoder that sound almost as good is quite new and it seems to still be a prototype with a "contact us" price.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#19
post #5

Ah, the Sennheiser VSM201. Just a $30K vocoder. Seems like it was $25K when it released in 1977, but also didn't get to sell even 50 units, so quite rare. I guess you can get similar results with cheaper hardware, but if you have money and you have it around... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I didn't know the device. Also I didn't know that Kai Krause who later got famous through his Kai's Power Tools was an electronic music expert who sort of did sales for Sennheiser in 1977, according to this page ( https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sennheiser_VSM_201 - only on the German WP, it seems). He also wrote the manual for it. His German WP page also claims that he sold a VSM 201 to Neil Young in 1982! https://de.…

Ha! Now that's unexpected!

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never had the pleasure of a Sennheiser but when working in radio I got my hands on a lot of rack vocoders for doing branding, stings and idents. Funny how the number 9000 comes up a lot, like Roland VP9000 and Eventide H9000. 80 and 90s vintage ones like Korg VC-10 or Elektronik EM-26 had unique sounds, but tbh the modern digital recreations are amazing models. There's not a world of difference between vocoding, auto…

Did you listen to the example audio in the video? Soft synths and digital emulation can be absolutely amazing these days, but the VSM201 and Ultimate VoIS are in their own league. It’d be pretty easy to pick them out from a blind test with other vocoders. Oh, it also might be of interest that the IVL algorithm isn’t FFT-based. I think their harmonizers sound better than the rest, so maybe FFT isn’t the best way to go…

I thought it was phase synchronous overlap add, but I just checked and now I'm not so sure.

Has anyone got more details?

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