MOTUnation.com

Hello

This included YouTube link is of a music video by the Manhattan Transfer - Cantaloop (Flip Out).

It includes some extraordinary scat singing. But not only is the singing extraordinary, but also the way in which the singing is processed. The vocals are being electronically processed for a certain effect that is hard to describe. But when listened to, you can hear it for yourself.

My question is how are the vocals being processed to achieve that effect?

Any suggestions what was done to achieve this effect? Please advise. Thanks!

It’a a well-played keyboard from start to finish. You can even hear the pitch wheel during the solo near the end. Voice controlled synth or, more likely, synth controlled voices. A vocoder can get you part or all the way there — x4 or more on the ensemble tracks. Sounds a lot like Take 6, Speaking of which,,,

The one to ask is Take 6 member, Mervyn Warren, who played keyboards on all tracks and produced the album.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn_Warren

My best guess to emulate the effect is to play the track on a keyboard. Edit the piano roll into four parts, one for each voice—you can have some voices sing chords if you like. Use those tracks to control the voices. There are many plug-ins that can let you use the voices as VIs.

I think this is accomplished thru obsessive editing and a fair amount of relatively tasteful pitch processing. I think even the piano may have some editing/quantizing-- but in any case it's a very fun performance.

To their credit, the pitch processing didn't completely kill the vibe for me. The original vibrato mojo was well preserved IMHO.

IMHO, aside some fine studio tracking and processing, this track's strength relies, in first place, on very good singing pitch, great timing, and tremendous choir work. Not to mention fine composition and clever arrangement.

Just a note about the YouTube tag at this board.

When you see a URL like this:
You need paste the url, then strip everything to the right of "?" so it will look like this:
IMPORTANT: If you use the "Share" button on the YouTube website, you'll get an URL that looks like this:
In that case, you paste the URL and strip everything to the left and right of "a6_rbsc1IUo"
In other words everything before and including the "/" after "youtu.be" and everything after and including the "?"
So again, it looks like this:
It's a PITA now that there are two possible URLs a user might post. I need to look into the custom BBCode and see if there's a way to make one that will let he user just use the tag on a complete URL of either type. I'm not sure that can be done.

Thanks for your help!

I looked all over for a tech article where Mervyn Warren would discuss the 'secret sauce' but this was the closest I could find—and it doesn't say much.



I've been listening to MT since the beginning. That vocalise is not the way they phrase but I know a half dozen jazz keyboardists who do in their sleep. Don't get me wrong, It's a wonderful track and a hell of a lot of work no matter how it was done.

Great video clip. Thanks!