Five String + Talkbox ??

[TheSilentCircus]

Hey Talkbass,

I've been lurking for awhile, this is my first post. The community seems very helpful, so I thought I'd put out a question I've been wanting to ask for awhile.

For those who don't know what a talkbox is, this video should help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX5v-S_jGD4

Basically, the keyboard sound is sent through to a small speaker which is housed in a small chamber, or box, with the clear tube running from there to the vocalist's mouth, where the shape of the mouth/throat affect the signal, making it 'speak', which is all picked up by the mic.

I've seen it done with guitars and keyboards. My question is does anybody know, or can anybody predict the outcome if I were to play a five string bass through one ? I mostly play with my fingers, and slap is a favourite style of mine.

Thanks !

[bongomania]

It works, but the size and shape of your mouth cavity, as well as the tiny speaker driver, severely restricts the range of low frequencies that will be heard through your vocal mic. Basically you end up talkboxing just the higher notes, and the upper harmonics of the lower notes. Still fairly cool though, and I'd say blending the miked/effected signal with your clean bass would sound good.

[TheSilentCircus]

Hey, thanks for the tip. Do you have any suggestions as to how I'd do what you suggested ? That sounds fairly interesting too.

[bongomania]

Blending a mic signal with a bass signal requires a mixer of some type, one that has both a mic preamp channel and a Hi-Z instrument preamp channel. There are some small mixers by Yamaha, Behringer, ART, Rolls, etc. that would do the job. There are also a couple of bass amps and studio preamps that have the ability to mix a mic and an instrument.

[roosterbike]

I used the rocktron banshee one and had a pretty fair result, but had to use too mch gain do get the low to really come out, still a great effect.....the crowd loved it

[Getaway Driver]

maybe run a separate loop through an octave pedal to the talkbox? Like +1 octave on a whammy or a Pog?

[sonic assassin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIxDBQl98nI

i demonstrate a 5er though a talk box. never had any problems

if you want the low end to come through, you're going to have to run a split and send a clean signal to your amp. i normally do this with the other output of my stereo chorus pedal

[TheSilentCircus]

Thanks for the responses guys, and a huge thanks to Sonic Assasin for the video. I dropped you a comment, thanks a lot for that !

[sonic assassin]

no problem. a couple months ago people requested a talk box demo and i happen to play 5's exclusively.