Trance Tutorials – Channel Surfer Vocoder Trick

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Hammarica.com starts with a new series today revolving around personal production techniques from your favorite DJs. We are proud to have Channel Surfer to kick off with a special on his vocoding technique!

Vocoding isn’t just for vocals!! This is a classic Channel Surfer trick for texturing everything from percussion stabs to vocals. Sometimes you have an interesting percussive part or vocal edit but it just feels dry on it’s own. Instead of hitting it with something static like Chorus, Flange, or Delay we’re going to get some extra bite and more importantly harmonics from the line by routing it to a vocoder plug in!!

In this example we’ll be looking at the vocal edit line used in the forthcoming Channel Surfer single “Panty Dropper”.

1)  This sexed up Electro tune has the words “Take Off Clothes” in it. I’ve sampled the “A” from “take”, the “AH” from “Off” and the “O” from “Clothes”. So the line sounds – A – AH – O….

Here is what the midi data looks like:

Channelsurfer Dance Music Production Tutorial Hammarica PR

Dance Music Production Tutorial2)  The processing on the channel is:

EQ – to clean up rumble and bring up highs for clarity

PSP Vintage Warmer – for it’s compression and warming

Tremelo – I like to misuse the plug to get some “auto panning” for percussive lines

Compression – Just to cap off the dynamics of the line

 

Dance Music Production Tutorial3)  Here’s the magic.

We are then going to bus this dry signal out to a bus where I’ve set up this chain:

EQ – Again, for low end clean up and to brighten highs

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Morphoder – where I’ve chosen the “Organic” preset

Morphoder

Compressor – To finalize the dynamics

Gain – To bring up the overall level without having to use the channel fader. This probably should have gone first by the way – but sloppiness counts!!

EDM Production Tutorial4)  Lastly the dry signal is also being bussed to a Ring Modulator to add some grit, dirt, and character but our emphasis here is the vocoder.

5) Voila!! We now have a glimmering, pad-like vocoding triggering along with the percussive vocal stabs, This creates a harmonic to the line that makes it more interesting and intense!!

Check  out the result below!

Unprocessed Audio File

Processed Audio File

Connect:
Chris Herrera FB: http://www.facebook.com/Channelsmurf
Channel Surfer: http://www.facebook.com/ChannelSurferMusic
Channel Surfer/Chris Herrera Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/channel-surfer
Channel Surfer Beatport: http://www.beatport.com/artist/channel-surfer/30118
Chris Herrera Beatport: http://www.beatport.com/artist/chris-herrera/177631
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalInnovators206

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