Acoustica
Cherry Audio

Vocoder Track

  Download a PDF copy of this user guide
Registration Mixcraft Main Window Reference Loading and Saving Projects Mixcraft Audio Signal Flow MIDI Basics Mixing Down to Audio and Video Files Rendering Videos Burning Audio CDs Markers Using Virtual Instruments Plug-In Manager Rewire Separate Music Into Stems Using Natively Supported Hardware Controllers Using Generic MIDI Controllers and Control Surfaces The Mixcraft 10 Controller Script API Musical Typing Keyboard (MTK) Preferences Main Window Menus Hotkeys Cursors Troubleshooting Glossary Appendix 1: Using Melodyne for Basic Vocal Tuning Appendix 2: Backing up Mixcraft Projects and Data Appendix 3: Nifty Uses for Output Bus Tracks Appendix 4: Transmitting MIDI Clock/Sync to External Devices Appendix 5: Freesound.org Creative Commons License Terms Appendix 6: Natively Supported Hardware Controllers Appendix 7: Copyrights and Trademarks

VOCODER TRACK

Mixcraft 10 includes an awesome vintage-style vocoder. For full information on how it works and what its controls do, please jump to the Acoustica Vocoder section. We’ll go over just enough vocoder operation to get you up and running with Vocoder Tracks. Basically speaking, a vocoder imparts the character of one sound onto another. The base sound is known as the “carrier,” and the sound altering the character of the base sound is known as the “modulator.” In the case of the classic “talking robot” effect vocoders are known for, a full, brassy, constant sawtooth wave synthesizer sound is the carrier, and a spoken voice talking into a mic is the modulator. A synth sawtooth wave or full string sound is an ideal carrier wave, because it’s constant, and contains a wide frequency spectrum.

We’ll get into more detail in the Acoustica Vocoder section, but for now, the important part to understand is that the carrier and modulator signals must be properly routed to the vocoder for it to work correctly. You could manually set up the same configuration, but Mixcraft’s Vocoder Track makes this really easy by setting up everything in one step.

The following four things occur when a Vocoder Track is created:

• A Submix Track containing an audio track (Vocoder Modulator) and an Instrument Track (Vocoder Carrier) is created.

• Software Monitoring is enabled for the audio track - this lets you use a microphone or other input source for real-time modulation.

• The Mixcraft instrument preset Vocoder Saw is opened in the instrument channel, and the Acoustica Vocoder is inserted into the first effects slot.

• The Vocoder Modulator audio track is routed to the Acoustica Vocoder sidechain input. This is the important secret sauce because the microphone audio (aka, the modulator) needs to control the vocoder.

With everything above set up, vocoding is as easy as plugging a microphone in, making sure its audio input is routed to the Vocoder Modulator audio track, selecting the Vocoder Carrier instrument track, and holding down notes on a keyboard controller.