DuranDuran
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Talkbox
The talkbox was originally developed to add a wah-wah effect to a guitar by directing guitar talkbox sound to the mouth through a plastic tube. The mouth acts as a filter and changing the shape of the mouth results in a wah type effect.
When talkbox was first released, it was called by various names such as voice box, talking modulator, mouth tube, or a mouth wah. It is said the name “talkbox” was standardized by Roger Troutman of ZAPP, one of the key persons in funk talkbox history.
The very first talkbox to go out on market is said to be Kustom Electronics' “The Bag,” released in 1969. Its appearance is just like a water bottle in a bag, but this triggered other manufacturers such as Jim Dunlop and Electro Harmonix to start manufacturing talkboxes.
Talkboxers in Funk, R&B and Hip Hop music explored different techniques and performed on synthesizers in place of guitars so it can produce a wide variety of sounds. Stevie Wonder is said to be the first musician who performed the talkbox on the synthesizer. His performance can be viewed on You Tube. Roger Troutman took this to a further level and established his own distinct style. His performance can also be viewed on You Tube. Roger Troutman has made a powerful impact on talkboxers today.
Vocoder
Invented by a Bell Labs whiz named Homer Dudley to improve telephone service in the 1940s, the vocoder broke speech patterns into components, allowing them to be re-transmitted efficiently over a narrow bandwidth.
The unsung Dudley was a pioneer in figuring out how to synthesize sounds and quickly ascertained the vocoder (or voice coder) possessed a creative potential far beyond the transmission of phone calls. In fact, the device proved to be of crucial importance World War II, scrambling transoceanic conversations between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
In 1971, the vocoder entered the pop culture mainstream when Kubrick invited composer Wendy Carlos to score the music to his controversial adaptation of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. Employing a vocoder to "sing" on "Timesteps," Carlos produced a classic of early electronic music.
In the years since the vocoder has leant atmospheric touches and a futuristic ambience to a bevy of songs, including Laurie Anderson ("O Superman!"), Kraftwerk ("We Are the Robots") the Beastie Boys ("Intergalactic"). The vocoder's popularity somehow seems fitting. Its trance-like effect has elements of human warmth but also a decidedly metallic tone. A product of the communications revolution, the vocoder has become a perfect fit for artists seeking a "new millennium" sound.
Sonovox
Incredibly, a precurser to the Vocoder was invented back in the mid-Thirties. The Sonovox used small speakers attached to the singer's throat that were patched through music instruments - horns, guitars, etc. The singer mouthed the words of a song, and by changing the shape of the mouth and position of the tongue, changed the sound of the instrument. It created a pretty weird robot-voice-like effect.
Musicians in the '30s and '40s didn't really know what to do with it, so it was usually used on children's records.
Difference between a Talkbox and a Vocoder
Since talkbox creates sound that is somewhat mechanic compared to a human voice, some people may confuse it as a vocoder. Vocoder's structure and sound differs completely from a talkbox. In a vocoder, human voice and synthesizer signals are respectively directed through 10 to 20 band-path filters and envelope followers to analyze the human voice and reproduce the modifying amplitude by each bandwidth frequency. Talkbox and Vocoder are similar in a sense that it both filters a synthesizer, but band-path filters are used in a vocoder where the actual mouth is used in a talkbox. Therefore, a more precise pronunciation is possible with a talkbox.
The talkbox was originally developed to add a wah-wah effect to a guitar by directing guitar talkbox sound to the mouth through a plastic tube. The mouth acts as a filter and changing the shape of the mouth results in a wah type effect.
When talkbox was first released, it was called by various names such as voice box, talking modulator, mouth tube, or a mouth wah. It is said the name “talkbox” was standardized by Roger Troutman of ZAPP, one of the key persons in funk talkbox history.
The very first talkbox to go out on market is said to be Kustom Electronics' “The Bag,” released in 1969. Its appearance is just like a water bottle in a bag, but this triggered other manufacturers such as Jim Dunlop and Electro Harmonix to start manufacturing talkboxes.
Talkboxers in Funk, R&B and Hip Hop music explored different techniques and performed on synthesizers in place of guitars so it can produce a wide variety of sounds. Stevie Wonder is said to be the first musician who performed the talkbox on the synthesizer. His performance can be viewed on You Tube. Roger Troutman took this to a further level and established his own distinct style. His performance can also be viewed on You Tube. Roger Troutman has made a powerful impact on talkboxers today.
Vocoder
Invented by a Bell Labs whiz named Homer Dudley to improve telephone service in the 1940s, the vocoder broke speech patterns into components, allowing them to be re-transmitted efficiently over a narrow bandwidth.
The unsung Dudley was a pioneer in figuring out how to synthesize sounds and quickly ascertained the vocoder (or voice coder) possessed a creative potential far beyond the transmission of phone calls. In fact, the device proved to be of crucial importance World War II, scrambling transoceanic conversations between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
In 1971, the vocoder entered the pop culture mainstream when Kubrick invited composer Wendy Carlos to score the music to his controversial adaptation of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. Employing a vocoder to "sing" on "Timesteps," Carlos produced a classic of early electronic music.
In the years since the vocoder has leant atmospheric touches and a futuristic ambience to a bevy of songs, including Laurie Anderson ("O Superman!"), Kraftwerk ("We Are the Robots") the Beastie Boys ("Intergalactic"). The vocoder's popularity somehow seems fitting. Its trance-like effect has elements of human warmth but also a decidedly metallic tone. A product of the communications revolution, the vocoder has become a perfect fit for artists seeking a "new millennium" sound.
Sonovox
Incredibly, a precurser to the Vocoder was invented back in the mid-Thirties. The Sonovox used small speakers attached to the singer's throat that were patched through music instruments - horns, guitars, etc. The singer mouthed the words of a song, and by changing the shape of the mouth and position of the tongue, changed the sound of the instrument. It created a pretty weird robot-voice-like effect.
Musicians in the '30s and '40s didn't really know what to do with it, so it was usually used on children's records.
Difference between a Talkbox and a Vocoder
Since talkbox creates sound that is somewhat mechanic compared to a human voice, some people may confuse it as a vocoder. Vocoder's structure and sound differs completely from a talkbox. In a vocoder, human voice and synthesizer signals are respectively directed through 10 to 20 band-path filters and envelope followers to analyze the human voice and reproduce the modifying amplitude by each bandwidth frequency. Talkbox and Vocoder are similar in a sense that it both filters a synthesizer, but band-path filters are used in a vocoder where the actual mouth is used in a talkbox. Therefore, a more precise pronunciation is possible with a talkbox.
