I wanted to learn how to use the vocoder on my Virus TI Polar, so I cracked open the manual and found a decent amount of information on the vocoder parameters (bottom of page 62 and up in my TI reference manual). I also found on the web that I can select the factory vocoder patches to get something to start off with.
Unfortunately, there is nothing I can find about how to create my own vocoder patch. The manual indicates that the vocoder is accessible as an effect, but if I cycle through all the effects by pushing the Select button in the Effects section of the front panel, it just loops around from High EQ to Delay and Phase to Distortion without ever exposing a Vocoder page.
Some questions.
1) How can I access the effect pages for (Others) referenced on page 33 of the Quick Start manual, specifically Ring Modulator, Frequency Shifter, Input Ringmodulator, Vocoder, and Input Follower?
2) If I have an existing patch that I want to turn into Atomizer mode, I simply go in to the Edit menu and change the Atomizer setting. Is there a similar way to switch a patch instantly into Vocoder mode? If so, what is it called and how do I access it?
3) Is there any more documentation on the vocoder anywhere for me to look at?
4) Why isn't this documentation included in an obvious position next to the vocoder information in the manual for dumb users like me?
For the curious, I was able to get the vocoder working with ROM-L 124 VocoPad XM. Here's how.
a) Once you have selected this patch, start playing an audio signal in to your TI. Hold down some keys on the keyboard. You may not hear anything if your input settings are not set up correctly.
b) Keep holding down some keys, and go in to the Config menu. Under the Inputs 1/2 page, set the Sensitivity and Boost until you can hear your signal. Note that turning Input Thru to anything other than 0 will send the raw, un-vocoded signal into the signal path. You can use this to mix the original signal with the vocoded one if you like.
c) Using the filter controls at the top right of the control panel, use the top four knobs (Cutoff, Resonance, Env Amount, and Filter Balance) to alter the vocoded signal.
I got a passable, pad-like robot voice with the following settings. Note that the filter controls become vocoder controls in this mode, so I have put the default filter knob name first and the vocoder mode name in parentheses below.
- Cutoff (Vocoder Center Frequency): -14
- Resonance (Vocoder Q-Factor (Carrier)): 58
- Env Amount (Vocoder Freq Spread (Carrier)): 62.5%
- Filter Balance (Vocoder Balance): +6
Anecdotally, turning the Vocoder Balance all the way to the left seems to give you the raw patch sound, while turning it all the way to the right will give you the audio signal you are feeding into the Virus with some of the basic patch signal processing applied.