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Table Of Contents
Chapter 13 Vocoder—Basics 173
Note: A nice example is the rolled R of We are the Robots, by Kraftwerk, a classic
vocoder track. This pronunciation was specifically made to cater to the demands of the
vocoder.
Feel free to do what you like when setting the Formant parameters. The intelligibility of
speech is surprisingly little affected by shifting, stretching or compressing the formants.
Even the number of frequency bands used has a minimal impact on the quality of
intelligibility. The reason for this is our ability to intuitively differentiate the voices of
children, women, and men, whose skulls and throats vary vastly by nature. Such
physical differences cause variations in the formants which make up their voices. Our
perception (recognition) of speech is based on an analysis of the relationships between
these formants. In Logic’s Vocoder plug-ins, these stay intact, even when extreme
formant settings are used.