Not sure of the name of the song - probably “Do you feel like I do,” but the ending is a mechanized sounding voice which I had just assumed was done with a synthesizer. The other night, my s.o. and I heard it on the radio and he says “that’s Frampton talking into his guitar.” Wha? s.o. says someone explained to him how Frampton did it, but all he could remember is he “talked into his guitar.” So how’d he do it?
I don’t remember too much more, but no one else has answered yet. The song was “Do you feel like we do.” He had what looked like one of those headset microphones, and which probably was some kind of microphone. He had it in his mouth, and would mouth the words.
[wag]I imagine the pick up from the microphone was amplified, and played back where it would be picked up by the guitar strings, sustaining the music. The music, of course, is played through the main speakers, which is what is then picked up by the mouth microphone. So the cycle is …guitar strings -> large amplifier -> speakers -> mouth microphone -> small amplifier --> small speaker -> guitar strings -> etc. [/wag]
Because of the shape of his mouth, only certain frequencies would sustain, and other would be damped out, and it ends up sounding like the words he is forming with his mouth.
It is too clear, and so it is hard to see.
Late in the posting of this one, some friendly folks get to the answer–the Heil Talk Box, I think? Sorry to pimp my own thread.
http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/006207.html
Okay, here ya go, courtesy of Mr. Cristi, the professional guitar player:
“The guitarist has a long tube in his mouth. The end of the tube is right next to his vocal mic. The tube runs the length of the mic stand, and the other end is connected to a speaker driver (no paper cone, just the driver). The speaker driver is connected to the external speaker jack of the guitar amp. When engaged, the sound travels from the speaker driver, through the tube, and ulitmately into the guitarist’s mouth. The guitarist does not use his vocal cords. It is the actual sound of the guitar, coming from the speaker driver, up the tube. The guitarist uses his mouth and tongue to make the consonants and vowel sounds–i.e. he uses his mouth to shape the words, but not actually speak them. The vocal mic has to be located right by the player’s mouth to pick up the sound, otherwise, no one would hear it but the guitar player.”
Joe Walsh’s Rocky Mountain Way is another song where this effect can be heard, as well as several songs by Stevie Wonder. Mr. Cristi says that these devices are also fairly easy to build yourself, but you do run an extreme risk of electrocution, and they also do rattle the teeth quite a bit. Frampton was not the first to use this effect, and he won’t be the last.
Just a bit of trivia: Mr. Cristi says that, to his knowledge, the earliest recorded use of this effect with a guitar was by the Lovin’ Spoonful. That’s just to his knowledge, though. He could be wrong. It was definitely used with other instruments prior to the Lovin’ Spoonful.
Hope that helped!
Cristi, Slayer of Peeps
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It’s an effect called (surprise surprise) a Talk Box. ZenBeam is not too far off in describing how it works. There’s a plastic tube that fits into the guitar player’s mouth, and a small amplifier/effect box that attaches to the mike stand (the actual “talk box”. The guitar itself is plugged into the talk box, and the output from the talk box goes into the main sound system. The sound is first created by the guitar, then it’s modulated/blended by the talk box using the guitar player’s vocals, then fed to the main amps. You can get a good look at one in Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer video.
Finally, a doper Q that’s down my alley!
Mr. Cristi got to it first, however, and he’s right on the money. The one bit of trivial poop I can add is that those things can actually rattle your tooth fillings loose if you have them. I never thought my dental bills would be tax deductable.
Another cool talk-box tune is “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith.
Whoops! I meant “Sweet Emotion”. Sorry. It’s especially audible on the “Live Bootleg” album which, in case you were wondering, is one of the greatest rock and roll records ever.
With heavy gain turn your treble and midrange on your amp all the way up. Lift the guitar up to your face and speak into the pickups. Experiment with the pitch your voice. This is not like a talk box, but interesting.
Two wrongs do not make a right…but three lefts do.
Sorry, but you can’t mention the talk box without mentioning Alice in Chains.
Metallica’s House that Jack Built also has some mighty nice talk box effects.
Semi-hijack for related trivia.
This talkbox/sound-effect technique was used on the old “Twilight Zone” television show to create (IIRC) an evil slot machine. The sound of spilling coins was pumped into an actor’s throat, and the actor silently mouthed words, creating an unearthly effect where the one-armed bandit seemed to speak with the sound of jingling money. Although I don’t have the specifics handy, I would surmise that the air dates of the “Twilight Zone” would make their use of this technique either contemporaneous or slightly in advance of the same by the Lovin’ Spoonful.
End semi-hijack…
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Slash has used the talk box too, in Rocket Queen (live) and Dust N’ Bones
and probably a few others… i love the sound!
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Chief’s Domain
Some of the more modern instances of the talk box sound are probably really instances of a vocoder. Vocoders have a very similar sound and effect, but are electronic effects as opposed to an acoustical effect. Vocoders are preferred by many because they are easier to record with and a hellava lot less messy… However, Frampton used a talk box.
A lot of studio recorded instances probably are vocoder, but I’d make a couple points:
A vocoder uses an input audio signal, usually voice, to modulate another audio signal, usually from a musical instrument of some sort. There isn’t a single typical sound associated with a vocoder. When I saw one demo’ed once the sales guy showed how you could do background vocals by modulating stock synth organ (“without hiring a dozen black chicks” was the rather improper way he chose to put it). Most people are probably familiar with vocoders as the “robot voices” from cheesy Sci-Fi movies.
Which brings me to my other point. Vocoders aren’t THAT new a technology. They’ve been around for decades, actually predating Moog’s early synthesizer work by years.
yabob,
I have to disagree on a couple of points:
That’s how it is used today for intrument effects, however this is not a very accurate description of what a vocoder is. A vocoder is a device that partitions the frequencies of human speech (and other sounds) into different bands. This was originally used to improve early telephone communications.
[quote]
Which brings me to my other point. Vocoders aren’t THAT new a technology. They’ve been around for decades, actually predating Moog’s early synthesizer work by years.
[quote]
True vocoders are not new, but it wasn’t until the early 70’s that vocoders were being used in music to add robotic effects, however in those days only a single vocoder was being used, so it was simply a distortion effect. It wasn’t until the mid 80’s when someone put a dual vocoder together with an envelope follower to recreate the talk-box effect. I remember, at the time, talk-box vocoders were very expensive (about $3000). Today you can get them for as low as about $150.
Follow-up:
I just remembered who built the first dual vocoder follower (talk-box): Roland. It was the Roland SVC 350 Vocoder released in 1983.
As you say, vocoders had been around for many years before and had been used to distort the sound of voice and musical instruments, but this was the first device that modulated voice and instrument electronically to create the talking effect.
At least, I’m pretty sure I have my facts straight… until you prove me wrong…
The “background vocals” demo I mentioned was something I saw circa 1984, and the device didn’t cost all that much, IIRC.
Did a quick search - the vocoder, in it’s primitive form, was invented in 1936:
http://retrofuture.web.aol.com/vocoder.html
I don’t think we’re really disagreeing about anything - the device has been around for a LONG time, and has been improved in the last couple of decades.