A telephone effect can be achieved with a simple EQ: use a bandpass that passes from 400 Hz. to 1600 Hz. As for the robot effect, a vocoder will probably give you what you want. I have used Prosoniq's 'Orange Vocoder' before with good results. If you really want some outlandish processing, you could try 'Vokator' from Native Instruments. What I use presently when I need a robot voice (which isn't often) is waves 'Morphoder' from the Waves Transform Bundle. Look into that one too.

hmmm... a couple of questions...

why just direct-x? What host are you using?

For things like telephone or am radio, eq will usually do the trick...

For things like robot voices and other vox wackiness you might dig a vocoder.

sometimes tools we already have on hand can do amazing things with a little creativity (sometimes out of neccessity). Pitch shifting, adding octaves (in whatever combination... add an octave below, then another below that...), adding different sound sources together.

Sound design is cool, baby...

anyone here know of a good vocoder plug?

great minds!

Heya David!

:c:

Brock, that is hilarious!

Good to meet you! :)

If I recall my telecomm lectures correctly, I think the exact bandpass for PSTN networks is something like 300-3400Hz, sharp rolloff both ways. This is preceeded by compression and topped off with reduction to 8-bit. Gotta dig out my lecture notes to confirm, though.

Thanks falkon2. Please do get back to us with the exact figures. :cool:

Dog,

> vocal effects - such as 'robot' <

You already got great answers, so I'll add just this: The kind of "robot" I usually hear in old movies is created with a shortish delay and a lot of regeneration. So try different delays less than 100 milliseconds, and set the delay's feedback fairly high. You can tune the pitch of the voice by changing the delay time.

--Ethan

Ethan, that's a great idea that I totally forgot about! Just tried it out and 10-20 msec works nicely. Thanks for that one!

Other posters have covered the "telephone" topic perfectly.

But for "robotizing", might I humbly recommend the VST robotizer

It is, unfortunately, freeware, and therefore likely to be unattractive to the original poster.

If he is absolutely determined to spend large amounts of money, then I recommend the Waves packages, that are very second rate and cost large amounts of money.

I find it highly amusing that the cutting edge of plugin development is taking place in the freeware/shareware market.

Interesting Captain. Thanks for tipping me (and the rest of the forum) off to the very cool Smartelectronix site. I hadn't heard of that one yet. I tried your suggested robotizer plugin and made an mp3 comparing first Waves Morphoder, then Robotizer, then Ethan's suggestion (tell me if this is what you meant, Ethan). The example file is available [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.bsu.edu/…"]here[/]="http://www.bsu.edu/…"]here[/] .

Mark,

> It is, unfortunately, freeware ... If he is absolutely determined to spend large amounts of money, then I recommend the Waves packages, that are very second rate and cost large amounts of money. <

ROF,L. I very much agree with that. :tu:

My favoriteplug-insare the Sonitus UltraFunk, since bought out by Cakewalk. All of theplug-insare excellent and the cost was reasonable. But too many people confuse cost with quality, which is one reason Sonitus failed as a company.

--Ethan

David,

> made an mp3 <

Excellent, fabulous. Thanks for doing that work!

> tell me if this is what you meant, Ethan <

Yes, almost. I think the effect would be better with a longer delay tme. As it is in your example the tone seems maybe an octave too high. So the fullness range of the voice pokes through too much, and the regeneration/feedback creates a pitch a little bit too high for the male voice. But what you did certainly is the basic idea I was suggesting.

--Ethan

>Excellent, fabulous.<

No problem, Ethan. I'm here to serve. Thanks for the praise.

Ethan, you think the Waves plugins are very second rate too? I love them personally, and i've never even heard anyone knock them before now.

Hmm, I just noticed that the original poster hasn't posted back yet. I sure hope he's reading all this nice info!

I like the Waves plugs.

I just won't deal with the copy protection or the price.

I have to say that the stock plugs in Samplitude are pretty darned close, and better in some respects. They have all been phase linear for a long time.

The only Waves plugs I really pine for are in the restoration bundle...

David,

> you think the Waves plugins are very second rate too? <

I'm with Brock about the price, and I refuse on principle to buy anything that's copy protected. I have no doubt the Wave stuff sounds good. But when I saw it at a friend's - version 3 something I think, this was a while ago - there was so much file bloat and CPU overhead compared to the UltraFunkplug-insI use, I was surprised and pretty turned off.

--Ethan

CPU usage has been noticeably reduced in version 4. What do you mean by "file bloat"?

I used to think that the Waves sound good. But the plugin world has moved on in the meantime.

I suggest visits to:-
http://www.voxengo.com - excellent mastering plugs & very cheap;
http://www.knufinke.de/sir/index_en.html - excellent convolution reverb, freeware!
http://www.wavearts.com/TrackPlug.html - bread&butter eq & compressor - cheap;
http://nusofting.liqihsynth.com/Morphing.htm - the ultimate delay? very cheap;
http://hem.bredband.net/tbtaudio/ - compressors with character, freeware!

"Sound Quality" is of course a very subjective affair. However, given the quality of the above plugs (and many many others), I can see no reason to install the Waves package, even if it were free.

David,

> CPU usage has been noticeably reduced in version 4. <

Okay.

> What do you mean by "file bloat"? <

Just that seemingly dozens of different versions of similarplug-insare installed, with small differences between them. That's why I like the UltraFunk stuff. You get one great EQ that does everything, one great compressor that does everything, and so forth.

--Ethan

I'd like to add in http://www.izotope.com to that list up there. Top-notch multipurpose plugins for almost rock-bottom prices.

Definitely a big bang for the buck.

And why not check out http://www.digitalfishphones.com/

for the freedom 55 group...... ;)

Dominion = BEST

Whowouldathunk you'd get an envelope/transient designer for free?

Originally posted by Ethan Winer:
Mark,

> It is, unfortunately, freeware ... If he is absolutely determined to spend large amounts of money, then I recommend the Waves packages, that are very second rate and cost large amounts of money. <

ROF,L. I very much agree with that. :tu:

I very much like the rennaisance compressor and eq. However, the 'creative' effects - such as the pitch shift and delays are pure crap.