The set of subchannel signals of a vocoder can be transmitted by a time—or a frequency—multiplexing system. It is shown that pulse techniques allow for a considerable reduction of hardware of the desired goal for a vocoder system is not minimum transmission‐channel capacity but minimum hardware. Instead of using a fixed time frame for the transmission signal and a fixed sampling rate, the simplified system samples and transmits spectral data at the instantaneous pitch frequency. Besides its application for speech transmission, the described system offers several advantages for speech processing with relatively small and slow computers. Experiences with a channel vocoder system connected to an IBM‐1401 are reported.