Talk box

Peter Frampton's talk box

A talk box is an effects device that allows a musician to modify the sound of a musical instrument. The musician controls the modification by lip syncing, or by changing the shape of their mouth. The effect can be used to shape the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto a musical instrument, typically a guitar (its non-guitar use is often confused with the vocoder) and keyboards.

Overview

A man using a talk box

A talk box is usually an effects pedal that sits on the floor and contains a speaker attached with an airtight connection to a plastic tube; however, it can come in other forms, such as the 'Ghetto Talkbox' (a homemade version which is usually crude) or higher quality custom-made versions. The speaker is generally in the form of a compression driver, the sound-generating part of a horn loudspeaker with the horn replaced by the tube connection.

The box has connectors for the connection to the speaker output of an instrument amplifier and a connection to a normal instrument speaker. A foot-operated switch on the box directs the sound either to the talkbox speaker or to the normal speaker. The switch is usually a push-on/push-off type. The other end of the tube is taped to the side of a microphone, extending enough to direct the reproduced sound in or near the performer's mouth.

When activated, the sound from the amplifier is reproduced by the speaker in the talkbox and directed through the tube into the performer's mouth. The shape of the mouth filters the sound, with the modified sound being picked up by the microphone. The shape of the mouth changes the harmonic content of the sound in the same way it affects the harmonic content generated by the vocal folds when speaking.

The performer can vary the shape of the mouth and position of the tongue, changing the sound of the instrument being reproduced by the talkbox speaker. The performer can mouth words, with the resulting effect sounding as though the instrument is speaking. This "shaped" sound exits the performer's mouth, and when it enters a microphone, an instrument/voice hybrid is heard.

The sound can be that of any musical instrument, but the effect is most commonly associated with the guitar. The rich harmonics of an electric guitar are shaped by the mouth producing a sound very similar to voice, effectively allowing the guitar to appear to "speak".

History

Singing guitar

In 1939, Alvino Rey used a carbon throat microphone wired in such a way as to modulate his electric steel guitar sound. The mic, originally developed for military pilot communications, was placed on the throat of Rey's wife Luise King (one of The King Sisters), who stood behind a curtain and mouthed the words, along with the guitar lines. The novel-sounding combination was called "Singing Guitar", but was not developed further. Rey also created a somewhat similar "talking" effect, by manipulating the tone controls of his Fender electric guitar, but the vocal effect was less pronounced.

Sonovox

Another early voice effect using the same principle of the throat as a filter was the Sonovox. Instead of a throat microphone modulating a guitar signal, it used small loudspeakers attached to the performer's throat. It was used in films such as A Letter to Three Wives (1949), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), the voice of Casey Junior the train in Dumbo (1941) and The Reluctant Dragon (1941), the instruments in Rusty in Orchestraville, the piano in Sparky's Magic Piano, and the airplane in Whizzer The Talking Airplane (1947). The Sonovox was also used in many radio station IDs produced by PAMS of Dallas and JAM Creative Productions. Lucille Ball made one of her earliest film appearances during the 1930s in a Pathé Newsreel demonstrating the Sonovox.

The Sonovox makes an even earlier appearance in the 1940 film "You'll Find Out" starring Kay Kyser and his orchestra, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre. Lugosi uses the Sonovox to imitate the voice of a dead person during a seance.

Talking steel guitar

Pete Drake, a Nashville mainstay on the pedal steel guitar, used talk box on his 1964 album Forever, in what came to be called his "talking steel guitar." The following year Gallant released three albums with the box, Pete Drake & His Talking Guitar, Talking Steel and Singing Strings, and Talking Steel Guitar. Drake's device consisted of an 8-inch paper cone speaker driver attached to a funnel from which a clear tube brought the sound to the performer's mouth. It was only loud enough to be useful in the recording studio.

Talk box

The first high-powered Talk Box was developed by Bob Heil but there is clearly prior art in the form of the Kustom Electronics device, "The Bag", which is the same concept housed in a decorative bag slung over the shoulder like a wine bottle using only a 30-watt driver and sold in 1969, two years before Heil's high-powered Talk Box. The Bag is claimed to have been designed by Doug Forbes, who states that the exact same concept (horn driver attached to a plastic tube and inserted into the mouth) had previously been patented as an artificial larynx.. But it was Heil that came up with the first high-powered Talk Box that could be reliable when used on high-level rock stages. His first Heil Talk Box was built for Joe Walsh's Barnstorm tour. Heil, Walsh and Walsh's guitar tech "Krinkle" used a 250-watt JBL driver and suitable low-pass filter that was used for Walsh's single "Rocky Mountain Way". Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi used the Heil Talk box on "Livin' On A Prayer". Alice in Chains, Adam Jones of TOOL, Slash, the Eagles plus dozens of groups continue to keep the Heil Talk Box in their song sets. Metallica have used the talk box in the beginning of "Holier Than Thou", on the 1991 album Metallica, or the Black Album, and during the solo on "The House that Jack Built", from the 1996 Load.

The band Iron Butterfly used a talk box in 1970 in the song "Butterfly Bleu".

Jeff Beck used the talk box on his 1975 release Blow by Blow.

In 1975, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry used a talk box in their highly popular single "Sweet Emotion".

In 1973, Heil gave one of his high-powered talk box to Peter Frampton as a Christmas present (pictured above). It was a hand built Talk Box in a fiberglass box using a 100-watt high-powered driver. This was the Heil Talk Box used for the Frampton Comes Alive tour and album. Frampton first heard the talk box when Stevie Wonder was using it for his upcoming album Music of My Mind. Then when he was playing guitar on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, he saw Pete Drake using it with a pedal steel guitar. Frampton used it on his album Frampton Comes Alive! Due to the success of the album, and particularly the hit singles "Do You Feel Like We Do" and "Show Me the Way", Frampton has become somewhat synonymous with the talk box.

In an interview with Nuno Bettencourt, Brian May was questioned about whether the song "Delilah" was recorded using a talk box on Queen's "Innuendo" record. May answered: "Yes, I finally succumbed and used one ... I suppose there’s no other way to make the meow sounds, meow, meow, meow".

In 1988, Heil sold the manufacturing rights to Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc. who currently builds the Heil Talk Box to the exact standards that Bob Heil designed in 1973. Peter Frampton also now sells his own line of custom-designed "Framptone" products, including a talk box.

See also

• Auto-Tune
• Effects pedal
• Effects unit
• Robotic voice effects
• Sound effect
• Stomp box
• Vocoder
• Phase vocoder