The Song Fight Bulletin Board

So I got Daft Punk's "Discovery" over the holiday break, and listened to it like a million times in the last week, and now I really want to know how to do some of the stuff they do to their vocals. I don't know if it's all vocoding, or if some of it is autotuned... I know next to nothing about either except the basics of what they do. Correct me where I'm wrong:
-Autotune is simply pitch-shifting of the waveform, and you can vary the attack speed and sensitivity to create more or less of an electronic effect?
-Vocoding is recording the timbre of your words and applying it to a synth which you then play all crazy insane like for maximum awexome?

And if anyone knows of some free applications/plugins that I could experiment with (for a Mac), that would be cool too. Also, can anyone who is familiar with Kontakt (Puce, others?) tell me if it does either or both of these? I see "pitch-shifting" in the list of features, but I'm not sure if that's the same as "autotune". Also, can anyone go to the store and buy me a candy bar? Why or why not? Show your work.
(I also have been reading America: The Book.)

EDIT: I just went and read the "Pitch-Correction Software" thread, so I guess Autotune is a brand of pitch-correction software, like Kleenex is a brand of tissues? Yes? No? Also I feel the need to add a disclaimer to protect from the angry masses: I do not intend to use this info for Evil, only for Awexome.

the Jazz wrote:EDIT: I just went and read the "Pitch-Correction Software" thread, so I guess Autotune is a brand of pitch-correction software, like Kleenex is a brand of tissues? Yes? No?

i can't help you with any of the above requests, but as for this question, as far as i know, Autotune is the name of the pitch-correcting product manufactured by the Antares corporation. (also, it's available as hardware OR software).

-Autotune is simply pitch-shifting of the waveform, intended to correct the pitch of singers and instruments, so you don't have to do another take. If you want to, you can vary the attack speed and sensitivity to create more or less of an electronic effect

-Vocoding is recording the your words and mixing the vocal track with the timbre of a synth, which you then play all crazy insane like for maximum awexome. Done well, you can still understand the words, but it will have the "sound" of the synth patch.

Well thanks for the tips... still holding out for more, anyone else got two cents to throw in? And where's my candy bar?

Here is a freeware vocoder in Mac and Windows.
http://www.epiphyte.ca/code/vocoder.html

Here is same program for mac, but a different version.

http://andydrabble.users.btopenworld.com/

The first link has some good tips on using vocoders, so look around and read things. i think vocoders can be cool if done right, but they can be hard to get the sound you want with out working hard to get it. A lot of variables come into play, probably the most important is the quality of the vocal track you are using. Sometimes you just can't get the sound you are going for and have to give it up.

yes, vocoder can be very difficult and nonintuitive. small changes in the vocal can wreak huge havoc on the final product. play with the parameters a lot. hey, that's what i need to do this week.
-bill

daft punk = vocoder.

while kontakt has some neat audio mangling features, it doesn't really have a vocoder (or an autotune type thing, for that matter).