Understanding NI’s VOKATOR

Native Instruments took the original concept of the “voice coder” – most often called a “vocoder” – and expanded upon it. Fundamentally, a vocoder superimposes the characteristics of one audio signal (most often a voice) onto another. The VOKATOR is built upon this principle, but then adds a powerful integrated synthesizer as well as a sampler with granular synthesis capabilities. It also includes a utility that allows you to play back audio files. A key element in the application is the Breakpoint Editor, which consists of a spectral analyzer (this generates the spectrum of the vocoder output signal along the horizontal axis and the intensity on the vertical axis) and a breakpoint envelope (allowing you to graphically edit the spectral intensities of the output). Anyone who has experimented at all with a basic vocoder knows how addictive it is. By adding a number of interesting new features, NI’s VOKATOR greatly expands your options. You can easily lose yourself for an entire weekend if you’re not careful.