If it's the effect I think you're talking about, it's a vocoder. There's tons around - analog and plugins.

vocoder?

I am trying to get the same effect. I've tried the vocoder, but cant get the effect. If it is the vocoder, what would you use as the carrier signal? Anybody following me?

Yeah, I was looking for a program that would transform my voice into voices like the Protoss Zealots from Star Craft and Soundwave from The Transformers.

Does anyone know how they made their voices? Hardware or software??:?:

Re: vocoder?

mendozanator wrote: I am trying to get the same effect. I've tried the vocoder, but cant get the effect. If it is the vocoder, what would you use as the carrier signal? Anybody following me?

At some point in the California Love video, you see Roger Troutman playing the vocoder. What that type is is a keyboard that is strapped over the shoulder (played vertically like a guitar), with a thin plastic tube that goes between the instrument and its player's mouth. Sometimes you don't see the keyboard in the video, but he's still got the tube in his mouth. The modulator signal is what he's speaking/singing through the tube, the carrier is what's playing on the synth.

Different vocoders have different sounds, based on how they're implemented, but that "tube" version (as in, a long plastic hose, not like a 12AX7) gives the more hollow sound in California Love, et al. Most modern vocoders use microphones, which would produce a somewhat different sound than speaking literally into the vocoder. Kinda like micing a cabinet vs going DI, I guess, but I'm not much of a recording guy. That's also why some of the words sung through it sound like he's got his nose pinched shut - it's essentially singing with your mouth closed.

Unless you can find one of those specific styles of vocoders on ebay or at a pawn shop / swap meet / etc, you might just have to use whatcha got and play with different synthesized sounds for the carrier signal (usually very full or bright sounds), and maybe try some careful EQ boosts somewhere along the voice's midrange to give it a more hollow sound.

Good luck!
HB