Talkbox on bass

[bassbrad]

Kind of off topic, but how much of the pitch is actually controlled by your voice? I've always been kind of curious to try one of those things out, but I can't carry a tune in a bucket, so I've never been sure enough that I could actually use it to drop the money.

The pitch is provided by the instrument all you are doing is shaping the envelope of the note with your mouth.

 

[niftydog]

...and it's optional to actually voice a sound, you can just mouth shapes.

 

[Sir Edward V]

yeah my friend uses one as a sweet sounding wah

I'm trying to get a vocoder soon though

it works similarily right? tone controlled by mouth (singing in this case) pitch controlled by keys? (I want it to work with bass actually, I assume it will work...)

 

[niftydog]

The way they work is nothing alike, but I guess you could say the sound is somewhat similar.

 

[Sir Edward V]

The way they work is nothing alike, but I guess you could say the sound is somewhat similar.

yeah, I know, talkbox is physical manipulation of sound in a chamber (your mouth) and pretty simple to make. vocoder is most likely pretty complex... but I really have no idea how vocoders work, I just know it is all in the circuitry

 

[niftydog]

Vocoders are essentially a ring modulator that multiplies your voice with the instrument signal.

 

[Sir Edward V]

Vocoders are essentially a ring modulator that multiplies your voice with the instrument signal.

don't know how ring modulators work either... haha maybe I will look it up

but anyways, with a vocoder, is any of the pitch controlled by the singing?

the idea I have in my head is that the tone comes from the singing and the pitch from the instrument

 

[niftydog]

In a vanilla ring modulator, vocal pitch would have an effect, yes. But I have very little exp. with vocoders, so...

 

[Sir Edward V]

In a vanilla ring modulator, vocal pitch would have an effect, yes. But I have very little exp. with vocoders, so...

o.k.

this thread makes me want to make another thread called "TalkBass on Box"

 

[bongomania]

I have done a lot of vocodering, and I have to say unfortunately the pitch you sing/speak at really does impact the frequencies that the vocoder will play. The "formant" of your voice is a resonant peak in its frequencies, and the incoming instrument signal is shaped by the formant of your voice. It's a lot like applying a radically-set graphic EQ to your bass signal. So if the resonant peaks of your voice are higher than the frequency range of your bass notes, you won't get much bass. The only work-arounds I know of are:
Sing low.
Sing into a high-quality octave-down effect going into the vocoder.
Only switch on the vocoder when you plan to play high notes.