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Synth Workshop

Alesis Micron

December, 2005

Vocoder effects (Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Let’s Groove,” the introduction to Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade, or “Mr. Roboto” by Styx) are a lot of fun, but once you’ve got a vocoder, how do you get that stuff out of it? Here’s how:

1. Scroll through the presets until you find a sound with lots of harmonics, like sawtooth OSCs with the filter
mostly open.

2. Press and hold the Programs button and press the key labeled “output.”

3. Scroll to the selection “FX Mix” and set it to 100% wet.

4. Scroll to the selection “FX Balance” and set it to “FX1:100%.”

5. Scroll to the selection “FX1 Type” and set it to “Vocoder 40-Band.”

6. Set “AnlGain” at –50 to avoid a nasty feedback burst. (Later, you can turn it up if you need to.) Try starting
with the following settings: sibilance at 26%, decay at 20% and bandshift at –25%.

7. Set “SynthIn” to “FX Send,” then set “AnlysIn” to the input with the connected mic.

8. Hold down a note or chord and speak into the microphone. Your words will be more intelligible if you speak
into the microphone rather than sing. Also, the mic’s proximity effect can make your vocoded voice into a
muddy mess if you “eat” the mic; back off from it a little to further enhance the clarity of the effect.