Awesome Talkbox

Daft Punk were masters at incorporating talkbox and Vocoder effects in their music. Nashville-based musician Russ Pahl shows off his skills with an excerpt of the robots’ track Within, performed on a pedal steel guitar, with his vocals processed through an analog talkbox. We also enjoyed Russ’ otherworldly tune Butt Call from Mars.

Daft Punk made music that was decidedly more joyful and danceable than the industrial metal sounds of Rammstein. That didn’t stop Talkbox Gus from mashing up the two groups. His performance of Du Hast sounds like a bonus track from Random Access Memories. His Daft-ified version of KISS’ I Was Made for Love You perfectly suits the disco-rock track.

For decades, musicians have used talk boxes to combine guitar sounds and their voices into a robotic effect. Dunlop sent harpist Emily Hopkins one of their analog talk boxes and some other effects pedals, and she gave them a whirl to see what kind of sounds she could make. Mostly, it’s just a video of Emily cracking up.

“You make the lyrics with your mouth. But you cannot use your vocal cords.” Ever wondered how musicians like Daft Punk make their voices sound like robots? Lorenz Rhode provides a lyrical instruction sheet for creating the electro-funk sounds of talkbox vocals. We think every “how-to” video should have a song.