Subject:California Love Voice

Posted by: Steele967

Date:10/24/2002 10:09:44 PM

You guys know that robotic voice singing the chorus in California Love? I really need to know what settings to make on a voice clip that would so that it sounds just like it. Little help?

Thanks,
Mike

Subject:RE: California Love Voice

Reply by: TeeCee

Date:10/25/2002 9:14:22 AM

If you're talking about the California Love by (I think) Tupac and Dr. Dre, it's a vocoder. To get that exact effect, you'll need an excellent vocoder (the Akai plug-in is said to be good quality by Jackal of Jackal & Hyde and Dynamix II fame) and the exact synth sound used as the carrier. Hopefully the Akai vocoder works with a live vocal and synth as if the synth is purely built in, you won't be able change the pitch. A vocoder shapes a carrier signal using information from a formant source. Effectively, it uses the frequency information from your voice (or your drums or your cat or whatever) to EQ/filter your keyboard (or your drums, etc.)

Here's a sample from a hardware vocoder (one of the ones I use, but not my sample):
http://www.electrixpro.com/files/mp3/electrix_wf_canyoufeelit.mp3

TeeCee

Subject:RE: California Love Voice

Reply by: spesimen

Date:10/25/2002 9:31:50 AM

Actually, they used a talkbox on that song - I only know because i saw 'em perform it on SNL :)

It's basically a small tube attached to a speaker that you put in your mouth. Then its a fat sawtooth wave from the synth, pumped through that speaker, then you put your mouth by a microphone and the filtering is done by actually mouthing the words silently. It's the same technique peter frampton used on "do you feel" back in the day.

TeeCee is correct, however, in that you can get a very similar effect from a vocoder. Vocoders filter the sound with a multi-band eq that is driven by a sound source like a wave file of talking. A good vocoder can sound just as good as a talkbox although generally i think they have a more robotic sounding character to them (probably due to the fact that discrete bands of eq are used.)

There's a freeware one (not a plugin but realtime) out there called "cylonix" that i've seen. Also, Hyperprism plugins have a vocoder that works pretty well by letting you route the carrier through the left channel into it and the modulator through the right channel. This way you can record your synth melody, then record the vocals, route them correctly, and get pretty similar results.

SOmetimes the antares auto-tune plugin can also get a similar effect although it's closer to "the cher voice" thing than the "california love" voice thing. By completely pushing the speed of it's correction you can force pitches to have absolutely no variation which imparts a very synthetic quality to a singing voice.

Subject:RE: California Love Voice

Reply by: TeeCee

Date:10/25/2002 9:35:00 AM

spesimen: thanks for that info. Talk boxes have been so effective and vocoders can be so hard to use, it's a wonder no one has come out with a prosumer talk box.

TeeCee

Subject:RE: California Love Voice

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:10/25/2002 11:11:56 PM

Actually, DigiTech implemented the Talker on their line of GNX guitar effect processors. (I have the GNX2.) Don't know if that exactly counts as prosumer, but it's easy to use.

Iacobus

Subject:RE: California Love Voice

Reply by: coolout

Date:10/26/2002 12:00:53 PM

i just bought a heil talkbox 3 months ago and it's all over my latest projects. i paid way too much for it, over $200 total because i didn't have a guitar amp to run it through.

2 months later i'm at the small music store down the street (that i never buy from) and they had just in the danelectro talk box. it was completly self contained (built in amp) and selling for i think $140.

man i was upset $70 bucks cheaper and all-in-one.

thats probably the one to go with.

Subject:RE: California Love Voice

Reply by: DjXSoundz

Date:10/26/2002 1:07:32 PM

First of all, yes i luv how they did that part in california love. my Digitech Vocalist II (got its old) can do just about the same thing with its vocoder. you can probably find one cheap since their old but only if you dont mind 32k sampling rate (it does make some differnce, jus add some reverb)

great question

dj xsoundz

Subject:RE: California Love Voice

Reply by: coolout

Date:10/27/2002 3:36:56 AM

i forgot to mention...for all you newbies (anyone who knows old-school R&B knows this) the guy on the talkbox in california love was Roger Troutman (R.I.P.) of Zapp and Roger fame.

he made a whole career using the talkbox for the lead vocal on his songs. he played the talkbox mainly through a yamaha DX7 synth or guitar. he also mastered the whole "heavy funk clap" thang much more than george clinton (no disrespect to "atomic dog", "flashlight", or "knee deep").

califonia love was just a revisit and tribute to the sound roger troutman brought to black music. he was a major influence on dr.dre and the whole g-funk sound.

so check for some Zapp or Roger songs and you'll understand why a talkbox is so much better than a vocoder for vocals.

Subject:RE: California Love Voice

Reply by: oddboy

Date:10/27/2002 6:48:13 PM

he played the talkbox mainly through a yamaha DX7 synth

how would you do that?

Subject:RE: California Love Voice

Reply by: oddboy

Date:10/27/2002 6:48:34 PM

he played the talkbox mainly through a yamaha DX7 synth

how would you do that?

could you do it with the ni fm7?

Subject:RE: California Love Voice

Reply by: coolout

Date:10/28/2002 7:20:30 PM

all the talkbox does is send whatever sound you have coming from an amp into a speaker with a tube attached to it. so the sound comes out of the tube, you stick the tube in your mouth and form the words. it's like a manual vocoder

you can use any sound source that you can amplify just plug it in. keyboards are the easiest and the more basic analog the sound the better for some reason. i have the fm7 but i've never tried using it with my talkbox. i have an old korg preset analog synth that sounds great with it.