Vocoder

Vocalize Your Vision

Developed by Bell Labs and used by the military to obscure voiced messages during World War II, the vocoder has had a clandestine foothold in music culture since the 1970s. With subtlety, or not, the vocoder appears on a parade of favorites from Electric Light Orchestra, Imogen Heap, Daft Punk, Herbie Hancock, Kraftwerk, Beastie Boys, Laurie Anderson, Kanye West, Mogwai, and more. Softube Vocoder delivers the sensations of vintage machines with Softube sound quality and workflow. A built-in six-voice carrier synth with MIDI capability and an easy-to-use Attack Hold Decay Envelope, plus a visionary Freeze section, mean that you’re in for an array of sonic spectacle and revelry. Which is to say, you’re gonna have a real good time.

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The Art of Rock & Roll Science

When it comes to creating equipment that improves workflow and offers the highest quality sound, our reputation is rock solid—and long. Our partnerships with premium brands like Marshall, Buchla, Doepfer, Mutronics, and OTO go back nearly twenty years. Softube Vocoder is built on this legacy of creativity, passion, and attention to detail. Because to create tools that innovate, you have to have heart, soul, and Rock & Roll Science. Robot Rock Softube Vocoder hooks the imagination with the look and feel of vintage vocoders.

MIDI capability enables you to record and reproduce the notes that the stellar carrier synth will perform. Softube Vocoder is not an effect that mimics vocoding sounds. Softube Vocoder is true vocoding. Masterful on a multitude of sources—including drums—Vocoder’s vintage tone and ease of use make Vocoder suited to electronic and pop music production. Play outside of the box in the box—or live—with a futuristic instrument that has become a retro classic.

Computer Love

A pivotal element of Softube Vocoder is the excellent six-voice polyphonic carrier synth. Move between four distinct waveforms—Saw, Square, Noise, and Pulse—with the ability to select octave adjustments, pitch modulation, and Pulse Wave Modulation. The Attack Hold Decay Envelope is simple-to-use and replaces traditional ADSR for in-themoment performance. While the Unvoiced section provides control of plosive and high-frequency consonant sounds, bringing realism back to drum transients or vocal syllables that might be hard to comprehend. With a sonic swirl of classic vocoding and Softube innovation, Vocoder lets you articulate your dream sounds in full color. Jam the Box Create everything from full-spectrum synth sounds to android exclamations with variable band selection of four, eight, twelve, sixteen, and twenty.

Build stereo width by assigning bands left to right based on odd-even numbering. Three knobs make it simple to adjust the sound of the resynthesis section. Control resonance, tilt to favor higher or lower bands, and adjust the speed versus slop of all the bands at once. And with the fantastical Freeze section, you can free your creative flow. Use the Freeze section to manually make a rhythmic hold of specific formants or employ a DAW sync to set subdivisions of a beat. With unique features and an intuitive workflow, Vocoder inspires artistry of a higher 
plane.

Features

• The look and feel of vintage vocoding with Softube innovations
• High-quality Softube sound, excellent shaping tools, and an inspiring workflow
• A superb six-voice polyphonic carrier synth with four selectable waveforms and MIDI capability
• An easy-to-use Attack Hold Decay Envelope
• Transpose Chord Mode lets you create a chord with the on-screen keyboard and then transpose it via MIDI Notes
• Control of plosive and high-frequency consonant sound reproduction via the Unvoiced section
• Stereo widening that adjusts the amount of spread between even and odd bands
• Spectral Tilt to swiftly set the spectral weight of the vocoder output
• Variable band selection between 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 bands
• Unique Freeze section that allows rhythmic hold of certain formants manually and via MIDI Notes or a DAW Sync
• Shape section that controls slop of resynthesis and Emphasis section to manage the response of each band
• Add subtle vibrato to dramatic wobble effects with the Pitch Modulation section

System Requirements

• macOS Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13
• Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows 11
• Softube account
• iLok account
• Computer with AU, VST, VST3, and/or AAX-compatible DAW host software
• Internet access (for downloading installers and managing licenses)

Supported CPU Families 

• Apple macOS computers with Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or Apple silicon (M1 or newer) CPU. Apple silicon is supported natively. 
• Windows computers with quad-core Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or AMD quad-core processors with SSE 4.2 support.
• Other Intel processors (Celeron, Pentium, and Xeon) are compatible if they support SSE 4.2 instructions. 

Supported Host Software (DAW)  

Any 64-bit VST, VST3, AU, or AAX (Pro Tools 11.0.2 or higher) compatible host application should work. However, due to plug-in host differences between DAWs—and our rigorous standards—Softube only officially test their plug-ins and instruments in the most recent versions of Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton Live, Studio One, and Reaper. Softube plug-ins are not tested regularly in non-listed systems. They will likely work if the system requirements are met. However, the manufacturer cannot guarantee a solution for issues in unsupported systems. 
  
Softube strongly recommend using VST3, as some of their plug-ins have features that are not present in the older VST format. Supported sample rates: 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz, in both mono and stereo. The most recent maintenance release of your DAW application is recommended. AAX DSP is not currently in active development. TDM/VENUE/RTAS are no longer supported. See Legacy Installers.

Important Note: Make sure that you always use the latest iLok License Manager. It is not included in the Softube installer but can be downloaded from www.ilok.com​