Technology for Enhancing Your Solo Performance
Vocal Processors
1877-I Wish I Could Sound Better
"Many effects are designed to radically alter the natural timber of the human voice, but, really, the mere act of recording the sound waves that emanate from a person's mouth changes the original signal. In 1877, when Thomas Edison created the first re-playable recording, he also invented vocal effects processing. His crudely captured recital of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was, undoubtedly, a noisy and tinny reproduction of Edison's actual voice. No matter the quality of the gear, all microphones, cables, and recording devices leave their unique signatures on a singer's utterances. Add to that list commonly implemented units such as compressors, limiters, and equalizers, and the degrees of separation from voice to tape (or to hard drive) add up quickly." (Michael Keefe article, Is It Live or Is It FX?: A Brief History of Vocal Processing). Read More
1930s-1970s: Vococoder
"Originally designed in the 1930s as a military tool for encoding speech, the vocoder would later become far better known as a vocal effect. In 1970, pioneering synth designer Robert Moog and A Clockwork Orange soundtrack keyboardist Wendy Carlos developed the vocoder for musical use. It became popular during the ensuing decade – a time in which our fascination with outer space and computers were at a high. The vocoder, which is essentially a voice synthesizer, turned human singers into something more otherworldly and synthetic. This detached sound fit in perfectly with the emerging aesthetic of Kraftwerk, Germany's seminal electronic art-pop band. They first employed the vocoder on their 1974 album Autobahn, which became an unlikely hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The effect has since been used by acts as diverse as E.L.O., Laurie Anderson, New Order, Beastie Boys, and Daft Punk." (Michael Keefe article, Is It Live or Is It FX?: A Brief History of Vocal Processing).
Next Level Performance
Imagine yourself playing an acoustic gig at your local coffee shop. Everyone is enjoying their cup of coffee and suddenly, you start to play. With a tap of a button, it now sounds like there's three of you singing a 3-part harmony. With another tap, the music continues but you start to shred some lead. Now your song has transformed from a basic strum/sing along into a dynamic performance.
That's what the latest technology allows musicians to do. Below are quotes from great articles covering the history of the evolution of vocal processing and digital looping devices. Click the links to learn more and read the full articles.
Loopers
A Brief History of Loopers
"In the sixties, we had Copycat (pictured left) tape delays with short delay times, but nonetheless very nice to play with. Very few people, one of them Terry Riley, experimented with 2-machine tape delays. The seventies brought analog delays, but they still did not have a long enough echo time to replace Eno's tape delays. Until the eighties, Fripp's 2-Revox-machine-Frippertronics system was state of the art of looping, and other musicians started experimenting with similar setups. Then, digital machines became available which could do delays of several seconds, even minutes, making musical structures possible that had never been heard before.
Digital loop machines quickly replaced the old technologies and became quite powerful, sophisticated, and affordable. Looping music suddenly turned into something many people could do. A rapidly growing number of musicians experiment with this technique, and loops turn up on many different recordings. Will looping remain a rare phenomenon, or will it be an integral part of the music of tomorrow?" (The Birth of Loop written by Michael Peters). Read More
Digital Recording/Looping
Digital Harmonizors
Software Support