Hey there, >bounce/oz readers! I’m AaronM, a new addition to the site. You may know my writing from Metal Lungies, the blog of the Sound of Young America, Maximum Fun, or my own blog Canned Thinking. Anyway, enough self-promotion for now. Let me set into my topic for today.
Well, the titular instrument at the top of this post is what I’m covering today. I was reminded of the strange power of the talkbox when I saw the fantastic music video for Snoop’s new song, “Sensual Seduction“. The video pays affectionate tribute to the low production values of late ’70s/early ’80s music videos, complete with Zapp & Roger-esque costumes and split images ala “When Doves Cry.” Snoop spends most of the song singing through a talk box to produce that vocoder-sounding singing.
Of course, one of the most famous instances of talkbox use was on the song this blog takes its title from. Zapp’s “More Bounce to the Ounce” is a funk classic and has been heavily sampled in hundreds of songs, including EPMD’s “You Gots To Chill” and Snoop himself on the self-explanatory “Snoop Bounce.”
Wikipedia also has a nice writeup of the basics of the ‘box, along with a short, interesting history. Definitely worth a read.
A talk box is a musical sound effects device that allows a musician to modify the sound of a musical instrument. The musician controls the modification by changing the shape of his or her 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.
More at Wikipedia.
Here are a few more recent talk box classics. Whether on the hook or used for main vox, the talk box is always a welcome addition to any jam.
Chromeo
Fancy Footwork
Fancy Footwork, 2007
An irresistible jammie by fellow Jewish Canadian electro lovers. Encourages men to impress girls by dancing to “show her that you’re not that shy.”
Daft Punk
Digital Love
Discovery, 2001
A really sweet ballad, with a catchy backing track sampled from synthesizer guru George Duke’s
“I Love You More.” Love songs are sweeter when sung through a talk box, it’s true.
Kool G Rap & Capone-N-Noreaga
My Life (Remix)
Soundbombing 3, 2002
CNN pay tribute to the Kool Genius in a nice collaboration. The remix, done by VIC, has some lovely pumping horns on the beat and a SMOOTH talk box chorus by someone named G-Wise. A nice summer jam for partying gangsters and wiseguys.
Snoop Dogg
Sensual Seduction
Ego Trippin’, 2008
I think you already know.
Bonus Beats: Snoop explains how “Sensual Seduction” is intended as a tribute to Zapp and “not T-Pain”. U.S. only, my apologies (I can sympathize; as a Canadian, I only got to see this recently since I went to Florida).
25 comments ↓
too bad roger troutman isn’t around any more – he would have been proud of our boy snoop. and probably in the video.
a pox on his brother for taking roger out of this world. can you imagine what could have been?
but i digress. welcome to >bounce my canadian brother aaron!
I know, it’s absolutely tragic. It’s nice that Roger got to appear on all those G-Funk tracks before he died though.
Thanks Dr. Dre!
And thank you, Gretch, for taking me on as a writer.
Do I get my own bio?
Snoop’s video would be nuthin’ without that wind machine.
Ay yo, why post ‘Fancy Footwork’? That’s got to be the Chromeo track with the least talkbox. What about Destination Overdrive, Woman Friend, or even Needy Girl?
Ah, you got me, man.
You’re totally right.
I was just feeling Fancy Footwork at the time.
Any other suggestions for talkbox classics? Frampton?
sorry, people. i just cannot allow any frampton up in here.
Haha, I kid, I kid.
These are the masters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqynOvM4p0c
Hey Is it possible for you to send me a list of the songs that samples “More Bounce to the Ounce” or any song from Roger Troutman.
I’m tryin to collect them.
Please help me.
Thanks
Kev: Start here-
http://www.the-breaks.com/search.php?term=Zapp&type=0
http://www.the-breaks.com/search.php?term=Roger+Troutman&type=0
In general, I don’t know if that’s comprehensive but it’s should be pretty close.
In general, is a great resource for finding samples. Use it!
I don’t have all those songs but a quick search online should turn up some of them.
Good luck!
Er, I meant, the-breaks.com is a great sample resource.
Here’s the link: http://www.the-breaks.com/
You missed some original classics.
Johnny “Guitar” Watson – Real Mutha For Ya and Superman Lover (before Redman sampled it)
Peter Frampton – Do You Feel Like I Do?
Dobie: The point was to point out MODERN talkbox usage on great songs.
Of course Watson is a classic.
But I promised Gforce no Frampton, sorry
My mistake Aaron. I read it wrong. Since you’re talking modern, talk a listen to this.
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/still-mo-bounce-roger-troutman-tribute/2864141777
It’s DJ Battlecat and his tribute to Roger Troutman called “Still More Bounce.”
Daam! That’s a great find, Dobie. How did I miss this?
Tash, Xzibit, Kurupt, Quik, Ras & George Clinton! Amazing.
Thanks man. I’m posting this on my other site.
I’ve been a DJ (not full time anymore) for 27 years or so my history and music library let’s me remember old and new. Battlecat has great west coast beats.
No doubt. He does deserve his dues. Thanks for checking here, Dobie.
Have you ever heard Superman by Roger? If not, I’ll put it up on Wednesday. It’s on the work computer but it’s on the newer release of “The Many Facets of Roger.” I never heard until last year. Amazing and unmistakably Roger.
Thanks Aaron.
That’s a great resource
By the way ,Happy New Year~
You got it, Boogie. Enjoy the New Year.
[...] I dunno if anyone checks the blog roll here but I recently wrote a guest post for the dope mp3 blog Bounce/oz about the history of the talkbox. Of course, the blog’s title [...]
Sup Aaron
I just came by this site by chance lookin up ‘talkbox’ on Google, I think your coverage of the Talkbox is great!! and agree with you that it makes any Love Ballad more sensual. Roger Troutman was a genius for bringing the talkbox out from just being a featuring sound on a early 1970’s Rock or Motown track (see Peter Frampton, Joe Walsh, Beck, Stevie wonder,) to actually being a Lead Instrument/vocal-cut throughout a song, or even as the songs ‘Hook’.
In my opinion the TB is second 2 none in comparision to the Vocoder, and Autotune (which both are oftenly being mistaken for the TB) .
I would like to point out also that Snoop is actually using Autotune in his latest song “Sensual seduction” not the TB, but for some reason they have him holding a Keytar with a Tube leading into his mouth, so that he looks as if he is playing the TB in the clip? But any TalkBoxer would know he’s got the placement of the tube in the wrong way and biting it. Which cuts off the sound
In my opinion the Autotune (Made famous by Artists such as T-pain, Cher, and Enrique Iglesias) is a ripoff off the TB sound and requires no skill.. to those that aren’t familiar with AutoTune it is a Automatic pitch correcting software used with the PC and it could even make a frog’s croak, sound like Alicia Keys
The difference between the two is ….Skill!
Check these Pruducers & Artists for best TB songs
Apart from the Califonia Love, and Thug Passion track on 2pacs “All eyes on me” album Roger Troutman collab’ed with other artists and is Featured on R&B artists tracks such as:
H Town- “A thin Line Between Love and Hate”, “Partime Lover”, “Like it slow”.
Jodeci- “Feenin’”
Keith Sweat- “Put your Lovin To the test”
Johnny Gill- “Your Body”
The Next Best “Known” TalkBoxers:
TeddyRiley: Produced and Talkboxed on Blackstreets “Before i Let you Go”, “Dont Leave me girl”, “Deep”, and Foxy Browns “Can i take you home with me tonite”
Dj Quik Produced & TalkBoxed “Quiks Groove III”, “So Many ways”, and on Shaq’s song “Superman” Hi-c’s “Let me know”, Mausberg’s “The Truth is”, “I can feel that” , Erick Sermon’s “Focus”, Xzibit’s “Put you pussy in my face”
Dj Battlecat Produced and TalkBoxed on Daz Dilinger’s song “Might Sound Crazy”, Kurupt’s “We Can Freak it, Dpg’s “Cali iz Acrive”
Dj FredWreck Produced and Talkboxed on DPG’S “Ride wit us”, Daz Dilinger’s “California”, Roscoe’s ” I love Cali”
Donnell Jones- Produced and Talkboxed on”Dont Leave”
DeVante Swing Produced and Talkboxed on Jodeci’s
“Lets Do it all”, “Freakn u”.
I hope that Helps
Wow. That’s awfully thorough. Thanks.
thats hot
We all know that my boy,Roger wuz the king of the talkbox,but i’m glad cats like T-pain and Teddy Riley keepin’ his legacy alive by using it on they records. The talkbox sound makes any record sound that much more smooth and oh so funky!! Can’t wait to get my Banshee talkbox i just ordered a week ago!!
[...] Peter Frampton est avant tout un adepte du talkbox, vous savez cette espèce de petite pédale reliée a un tube qui va dans la bouche employée dans [...]
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