If you've listened to pop music in the past 40 years, you've probably heard more than a few songs with a robotic sound. That's thanks to the vocoder, a device invented by Bell Labs, the research ...

The vocoder—the musical instrument that gave Kraftwerk its robotic sound—began as an early telecommunications device and a top-secret military encoding machine. sort of alienated from your body. It ...

Flexible filter bank routing. The best software vocoder we've heard! Loads of useful, creative parameters. Handy built-in synth. MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers ...

Would anyone have predicted that a vocal effect best known for its use in a Cher song would dominate hip-hop one day? Doubtful. But a decade after the robotic twinges of Cher’s husky vocals in ...

From Cher to Kanye, this ‘magic box’ is now the gadget of choice for artists who want to smack their pitch up What is it? Now-omnipotent pitch-correcting software, originally devised as a “magic box” ...

Even if you don’t fully understand what it is, you’ve probably heard the robotic voice effect of a vocoder on a pop hit, and the questions might start rattling around in your head, wondering exactly ...

It took me a long time to get to grips with T-Pain. I had nothing against his cuddly cheeks or tie-dyed dreads. I didn't even mind his silly lyrics about strippers and being "sprung". No, it was the ...

Stop Smiling Books/ Melville House; 335 pp. The room contains two turntables and a microphone. Hulking consoles line the walls, covered in dials and gauges and blinking lights, like the bridge of ...