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 ...

On Version History: how to play your voice like an instrument, with a little help from Chromeo. If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. is ...

The vocoder—code name Special Customer, the Green Hornet, Project X-61753, X-Ray, and SIGSALY—started distorting human speech in earnest during World War II, in response to the excellence of German ...

The vocoder was never intended to change the music scene. In fact, it wasn’t meant for music at all. Its origins trace back a century, when engineer Homer Dudley at Bell Labs sought a more efficient ...

Next up in our guide to making music with the internet's most capable freeware, we decode the mysteries of the vocoder When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

From Stevie Wonder and Queen to Vangelis and Dua Lipa, we bring you a short musical history of this influential vocoder When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission ...

Among the group’s top five vocoder tracks are a Belgian disco stomp from the 70s, Anderson’s O Superman, Kraftwerk’s Robots, and a slice of fine Italodisco This Belgian disco number is a fine example ...