If you've listened to pop music in the past 40 years, you've probably heard more than a few songs with a robotic sound. That's thanks to the vocoder, a device invented by Bell Labs, the research ...

Next up in our guide to making music with the internet's most capable freeware, we decode the mysteries of the vocoder When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Vocoder 5000 is the best-sounding software vocoder around, but it's a real CPU guzzler and takes a while to learn. Not for the faint-hearted! Flexible filter bank routing. The best software vocoder we ...

On Version History: how to play your voice like an instrument, with a little help from Chromeo. If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. is ...

On his 1982 album Trans, Young used the vocoder to empathize with his son's struggles with communication, a result of his cerebral palsy. Neil Young was then sued by Geffen for not sounding like Neil ...

Arturia has given the "spontaneous algorithmic synthesizer" MiniFreak another firmware update. The main new feature in version 4.0.0 is that the synthesizer becomes a vocoder. To install the update, ...

A talkbox modifies the output of an electronic instrument using input from the musician's mouth. Artists like Peter Frampton and Daft Punk have popularized this effect, which is similar to that of a ...

Among the group’s top five vocoder tracks are a Belgian disco stomp from the 70s, Anderson’s O Superman, Kraftwerk’s Robots, and a slice of fine Italodisco This Belgian disco number is a fine example ...

A scientific tool for those lacking a voice, a means of encrypting voices during World War II, and a way to drop the funk, the vocoder has had many exhale its praises, from General Dwight D.

The vocoder—part military technology, part musical instrument—has had quite a history. In our new Object of Interest video, we explore the vocoder in settings ranging from the Second World War to ...