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The vocal effects of Daft Punk

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Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#81

Post by marcedwards »

debrisapron wrote: post #74

I was a bit surprised by this article as it actually contradicts the account I always heard, which was their main vocal effect was a Roland VP-9000. If you listen to e.g. Harder Faster the effect is somewhere in between a vocoder & autotune, so I assumed that was the VP-9000. That said, this guy has clearly done his homework (pun intended) so I'm inclined to accept his version of events.

Yep, I’ve read that as well. The workflow and sound of the VP-9000 make me think it’s not what they used. It’s just so cumbersome to use, and it sounds pretty bad, and to my ears doesn’t match the results. The covers using DigiTech Vocalist EX models match so, so closely to the original songs.

It’s hard to know without an official word from our favourite robots, but I think you’d struggle to get the sound of any Daft Punk song out of a VP-9000. I’m really not sure where that rumour started.

I almost bought a VP-9000 to test, but sonically it’s so far off, I didn’t bother.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#82

Post by marcedwards »

xavriley wrote: post #70

I went down a similar rabbit hole at the start of my PhD and I wish I’d written more of it up. One of my theories is that they combined effects quite often. For example, “harder better faster stronger” seems more likely to be a talk box recorded for a single note, then looped, then run through an AutoTune rack unit with MIDI inputs to repitch it. I mention this a little bit in a talk I have at ADC 2022 https://youtu.…

Thanks for the talk link! I’m going to try writing some harmonizer code next, so your video is right up my alley. I believe IVL’s algorithm also isn’t FFT-based. That makes sense, given the CPU power around on consumer tech at the time.

As for Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: It’s difficult to know for sure without comments from Daft Punk themselves, but the DigiTech Talker has such a unique, throaty sound, and it’s all over the Human After All album. My confidence varies with my guesses, but Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger is one of the more confident ones, given how distinctive the Talker is. They also used so much DigiTech gear, especially on that album.

Hopefully they’ll see the article and let me know which bits are wrong.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#84

Post by marcedwards »

an_aparallel wrote: post #73
nprateem wrote: post #46

Any good software vocoders out there?

Fl studios "vocodex" is likely the most advanced vocoder there is. 128 bands, band redistribution, ability to further route using patcher, just look at its manual to see :) Though its shrouded by the standard "FL is for rap dumb dumb" stigma. Marketing is one hell of a drug.

Thanks! I’ll give it a listen. Number of bands doesn’t necessarily dictate the quality of results — the Electro-Harmonix V256 has 256 bands, and it’s not even in the top 5 out of the vocoders I tested, imo.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#85

Post by sneak »

coldtea wrote: post #76
swivelmaster wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason that I dislike Human After All is that, quite simply, it's not fun. It's dour. It's depressing. And it's repetitive in a way that feels tiresome; You can't dance to most of it or even really tap your foot to it. What happened was that Daft Punk challenged themselves to make an album in six weeks and ended up with a showcase for a few neat guitar pedals and two fun songs (Robot Rock and Technologic), one of…

> And it's repetitive in a way that feels tiresome; You can't dance to most of it or even really tap your foot to it. Being robotic and repeatitive never stopped people dancing like crazy to techno all night. In fact, that's its very allure.

Not to be that guy, but techno is only repetitive if you are a) listening to boring/uninspired techno (the same kind of complaint being leveled here against HAA), or b) not paying attention.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#86

Post by marcedwards »

nprateem wrote: post #46

Any good software vocoders out there?

Yeah, there’s a few, and I probably should have included more plugins. I don’t mind the built in Ableton vocoder. The built in Logic Pro one is a bit average. I like the XILS 201 plugin, but it’s not as nice as many of the hardware vocoders I tested. I guess it depends what you‘re after and how much vocoder you need.

(Note that the XILS 201 plugin requires iLok. I think iLok sucks.)

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#87

Post by sneak »

DHPersonal wrote: post #62
_DeadFred_ wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tron:Legacy still lives in my head. I'm still chasing the music I imagined after seeing the movie/hearing the soundtrack. Also half of Daft Punk Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo's work in Kavinsky’s 'Nightcall'.

The composer who assisted them also worked with M83 for the Oblivion soundtrack, which I think is also pretty spectacular.

His name is Joseph Trapanese and I always wondered who worked with them on the album (for basically no credit) because, while I adore Daft Punk, very few pure dance music producers have the traditional-music/composer chops to pull off a film score.

I didn’t know until you pointed it out that he worked on Kosinski’s other film too. There are definitely some huge similarities, especially with the end title tracks.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#88

Post by marcedwards »

rickdeckard wrote: post #36
jedimastert wrote: post #17

It is unreal to me the amount of impact Daft Punk had with only four studio albums.

(They also did the Soundtrack for Tron:Legacy, basically their fifth studio album) Anyway, I keep remembering how panned 'Human After All' was, and how bad the reviews were because the album was too "mechanical" and was "missing the warmth of House", while this is EXACTLY how the genre evolved in the years to come and none of those music experts saw this. Many journalists did a retrospective of it a few years later a…

I really, really like Human After All. It’s probably their second most cohesive album, given how much they used the DigiTech Talker and DigiTech Synth Wah all over it. (Second to Random Access Memories in terms of being cohesive.)

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#89

Post by marcedwards »

trollied wrote: post #25
jedimastert wrote: post #17

It is unreal to me the amount of impact Daft Punk had with only four studio albums.

Was lucky enough to see them live at a small venue in Manchester in the 90s when I was at University. Epic times.

Awesome! That would have been so good. I saw them just once — the Alive 2007 tour. Was a great day.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#90

Post by an_aparallel »

marcedwards wrote: post #84
an_aparallel wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fl studios "vocodex" is likely the most advanced vocoder there is. 128 bands, band redistribution, ability to further route using patcher, just look at its manual to see :) Though its shrouded by the standard "FL is for rap dumb dumb" stigma. Marketing is one hell of a drug.

Thanks! I’ll give it a listen. Number of bands doesn’t necessarily dictate the quality of results — the Electro-Harmonix V256 has 256 bands, and it’s not even in the top 5 out of the vocoders I tested, imo.

Definately, Vocodex is probably one of the few vocoders you can turn to if you want something specifically uncharacteristic of a classic vocoder sound.
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