How to Make Your Sound Sing with Vocoders

"The vocoder has been a novelty staple (if that isn't an oxymoron) of pop music for more than 30 years. Even if you've never heard the word vocoder, you've heard the smoothly sexy yet oddly alien sounds that emanate from this device. In the '70s and '80s, vocoder was used on songs by Kraftwerk, Stevie Wonder, Bon Jovi, Donna Summer, Phil Collins, Laurie Anderson, Pink Floyd, Styx, and many other artists. (See the "Famous Vocoder Songs" sidebar.) In more recent years, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Beck, Britney Spears, Madonna, Marilyn Manson, and other pop icons have dialed up the sound of the vocoder."

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