A Guide to FL Studio's Fruity Vocoder
The Fruity Vocoder is a popular effect used on vocals in many different types of music today. The Vocoder by itself will not do anything, because it processes two or more incoming signals to create the plug-in output. The two signals include the modulator (the sound used for vocoding), which is usually a human voice, and the carrier (the sound being vocoded), which is usually a synthesizer. The way it all works is that the Vocoder detects certain frequencies in the modulator and filters the carrier based on these detections. This causes the carrier to take on characteristics of the modulated sound. This is how we can get synths to have a voice in them or give our voices a synthy sound, however you see it.
The Formant slider will affect the pitch of the vocoder-modulator to vocoder-band relationship. Slide this up and down for a more feminine or masculine sound. Adjust these Min and Max knobs to set a frequency range for the output of the plug-in.
The Scale knob will determine where the frequency center point is, so sliding this left will give your output more low end, and sliding it right will give you more high end.
Invert will switch the modulator frequencies, so if you are getting a low-frequency response, a quick way to get a high response is to select Invert, and the frequency of the modulator will invert.
The Bandwidth knob will determine the number of frequencies that are allowed to output from the carrier sound and can be great for tweaking the output to get just the right sound.
The Envelope knobs are fade-in (Attack) and fade-out (Release) controls for the envelopes of the different frequencies to which the modulator responds. The Mix sliders allow you to change the amount of dry signal from the modulator and carrier that plays in the final output, and by clicking the L and R buttons, you can quickly swap the modulator and the carrier to get a completely different sound.
The Hold button will allow you to freeze the modulator signal while the carrier signal still holds. Automating this can create an awesome stopping effect with a vocal that holds the words, but the carrier that is creating the melody continues playing.
The Bands selection will determine the output quality of your overall sound, but a low Bands setting can give your modulator a gritter sound to it and is worth experimenting with.
The last set of options allow you to select between different filters, and selecting a larger number will produce a more rigid frequency response.