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 ...

A scientific tool for those lacking a voice, a means of encrypting voices during World War II, and a way to drop the funk, the vocoder has had many exhale its praises, from General Dwight D.

On his 1982 album Trans, Young used the vocoder to empathize with his son's struggles with communication, a result of his cerebral palsy. Neil Young was then sued by Geffen for not sounding like Neil ...

A scientific tool for those lacking a voice, a means for encrypting voices during WWII and a way to drop the funk, the vocoder has had many exhale its praises. Here are five essential vocoder tracks.

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 ...