Altered Voice

Songs for which a singer's vocals have been altered, apart from subtle, run-of-the-mill autotuning.

Majority or theme of song

• '85 Radio Special Thank You - Time shifting
• Announcement B - Ring modulation on Flansburgh's voice
• Announcement G - Heavy echo and reverb on Flansburgh's voice
• Announcement Q - Pitch shifted up
• Baroque Hoedown - Vocoder
• Bastard Wants To Hit Me - Heavy pitch correction, AutoTune
• Be Patient - JF's voice slowed down a bit
• Chicken And Ice Cream - Vocoder
• Crushed By Dust - Pitched up and distorted sections
• Didn't Kill Me - Sped up slightly
• Dig My Grave - Distortion effect
• Dollar For Dollar - Reverse reverb
• Dog Walker - Formant shifting and pitch shifting
• Door To Door Minotaur - Various voice effects and slowed down
• G-L-O-ckenspiel Intro - Vocoder
• HAEC QVOQVE EST RES - Vocoder
• Historical Landmarks - Echo
• Hovering Sombrero '05 - Pitch-shifted and EQ'd chorus effect.
• I Am A Robot - Pitch shifted
• I Broke My Own Rule - Reverse reverb
• I Love To Sing - Jedediah Deeply
• I'm Def - Time shifting
• John Postal - Formant shifting
• Last Wave (Alternative Version)
• Mario Speaks
• Miniature Sidewalk Whirlwind
• Monsters Of Mud
• Mysterious Whisper - Pitch-shifted
• Outboard Part Of Man - Time shifting
• O, Do Not Forsake Me (Richard Reagan Demo) - Flansburgh's voice is pitched down
• O We - Pitch-shifted
• Puppets Gonna Fuck You Up - Jebediah Deeply
• Robot Parade - Vocoder
• Rolling O - Pitch-shifted
• Sammy Intro
• Shape Shifter - Formanted
• (She Was A) Hotel Detective (1985 Demo)
• (She Was A) Hotel Detective In The Future
• Somebody Stole My Hairstyle - Distortion
• Somebody Took My Eyeball - Vocoder
• Stomp Box - Distortion effects on Linnell's voice
• Too + 3 R One - Pitch-shifted like there's no tomorrow
• The Greatest - Sung through telephone
• The Vowel Family - Flansburgh's voice is pitched up for the "Vowel Family's' lines
• Twisting (Remix)
• Welcome To The Jungle - Chorus features choppy effects on Linnell's voice
• Why Did You Grow A Beard?
• Whence That Wince - AutoTune
• Window

Briefly used

• A Self Called Nowhere - Phase/flange during one of the last choruses
• Alarm Clock Catastrophe - The “ding-a-ling” parts are pitched up
• Alphabet Lost And Found - Vocoder on the pre-chorus
• Broke In Two - The very last "I'm an orangutan"
• Cage & Aquarium - Last 2 choruses
• Can You Find It? - Linnell's voice is pitched up as "D" and pitched down as "W"
• Chip The CHiP - Chip's voice in the bridge
• Circular Karate Chop - The voice of the sensei
• Cyclops Rock - Distortion during chorus
• D & W - Linnell's voice is pitched up as "D" and pitched down as "W"
• Dan Vs. Cog - Vocoder for Linnell's part
• The Darlings Of Lumberland - Flanger for chorus
• Devil Spawn
• Doom Doom - Pitched up and distorted sections
• Doris Cunningham (WFMU Demo) - Strange "awwwww" sounds during a portion of the interview
• Electric Car - Vocoder in the background joining Robin on the last syllable of each line in the verses
• Electronic Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - Vocoder
• Fibber Island - Pitch-shifted Flans represents kids and a deeper-voiced singer
• Garbage In - Flansburgh vocalizes either through a kazoo, or a kazoo-like filter
• Good To Be Alive - Vocoded accordion punching up the verses ("inspecting," "reflecting," "hand") and adding "yeah"s to the last two choruses
• Hate The Villanelle - Fourth stanza
• Havalina - Vocoder for the repeated word "Havalina"
• Here In Higglytown - Pitched up for the line "Our heroes!"
• How Many Planets? - Vocoder for Jupiter
• Impossible - Pitch-shifting on "Doh-doh", flanger and distortion effect on the "octo-flange" line
• I've Got A Fang - Just before the instrumental break, Linnell's voice is slowed way down, and then sped back up before the final verse
• Kids Go! - Different exhortations such as "Move like a monkey" are heavily processed
• Lie Still, Little Bottle (Demo) - Strange time-shifted scatting noises during the break
• Man, It's So Loud In Here - Vocoder on the "Man, it's so loud in here" background vocal; AutoTune is also briefly used
• Mr. Mischief Night - Used in the backing vocals in the latter half of the song.
• My Man - Vocoder harmony vocal by Linnell during the ocean simile parts
• Nanobots - Vocoder on Flans' backup in chorus
• Old Pine Box - Vocoder and formant shifting in the bridge
• Photosynthesis - Vocoder for verse
• The Secret Life Of Six - Pitch-shifted Flans: down for when Six pretends he's Nine, up for Nine pretends he's Six
• She Was A Hotel Detective - Pitch-shifted Linnell for the chorus
• Skullivan - Linnell's voice is altered for the part sung as Skullivan
• Sleep - Chopped up vocals
• Then The Kids Took Over - Spoken word bridge
• Thermostat - Flanging during fadeout
• They Might Be Giants - During fadeout
• Thinking Machine - Vocoder Flansburgh harmonizes "What does it mean?"
• Through Being Cool - Linnell's voice is occasionally distorted in the verses
• To All The Girls I've Loved Before - Vocoder
• Tractor - The backing vocals on the chorus use altered voice.
• Tubthumping - Kaoss Pad vocal effects for Linnell's part
• Turn Around - Linnell has confirmed that his voice was sped up for the backup singing parts in the final iterations of the chorus
• Unpronounceable - The "vocals" during the bridge and in some portions at the end are heavily distorted and chopped
• Wearing A Raincoat - Ring modulation on the "Demanding constant attention" section

Honorable mentions

• The child crowd shouting on various songs on Here Come The 123s are the Johns pitch-shifted up.

See also

• Accents
• Falsetto