A Blog About Making Culture
The Death of Analog, AutoTune Edition
February 5, 2008
One of the things that makes Snoop's "Sensual Seduction" video so compelling is his outstanding use of vocal effects. Let's take a closer look, shall we?
In the video, Snoop makes liberal use of a breath tube on his keytar, an obvious homage to the talkbox made (in)famous by Roger Troutman of Zapp fame. (If you don't know and love the funk, then you at least know Roger from the hook to Tupac's "California Love".) Snoop even even explicitly credits Troutman in an MTV interview, along with the much-more-obvious nods in the video to Prince and Rick James.
The thing is, "Sensual Seduction" doesn't use the talkbox, nor does it use a vocoder, which is a completely different instrument that often gets credit for the talkbox's outbut. The vocoder is an amazing instrument; There's an interesting background on the technology in this survey of milestones in electronic musical instruments, and the good folks at O'Reilly will even tell you how to make your own, if you're so inclined. I've been hoping for the vocoder and talkbox to return to the top of the pop charts for a solid decade now (ever since "California Love", really) and am somewhat chagrined that so much of the recent voice-distortion on pop singles is in the context of rather uninspired songs. But I digress.
Music today isn't made by connecting breathing tubes to home-built contraptions. Instead, commercial music is made in Digidesign's ProTools. ProTools is to commercial audio what Photoshop is to commercial design: Platform, product, and verb. And the first, and signature tool for performing pitch-correction on ProTools was Antares' Auto-Tune. The fun part is, now that we've entered this brave new world of digital distortion of vocals, Auto-Tune isn't just correcting pitch, it's being used to arbitrarily alter them.
You know the rest. Cher's "Believe"? Auto-Tune. Snoop's "Sensual Seduction"? Auto-Tune. And all of T-Pain's career? Auto-Tune. Now, it's possible that some producers are using other software to perform similar pitch-correction/pitch-manipulation duties; There are even free clones of Auto-Tune's functionality. But as often as not, the software that's become synonymous with the effect is the one that's responsible for the sound.
And so, another bit of analog sound-hacking makes way for its digital successor. Even if he's using the latest software, I gotta give props to Snoop for honoring the low-tech inspiration.
- Naturally, "Sensual Seduction" is available as an MP3 on Amazon.com
- You can also buy "California Love" over on Amazon, too. No iTunes links because DRM is wack.
Previously: Snoop Dogg can see the future
Next: When Auto-Tune Strikes
Rick
You can’t talk about the talkbox without mentioning Peter Frampton. It essentially made him who he is.
d.w. 
A little off topic, but “California Love” is actually available sans-DRM at the iTunes store, on the Death Row “15 Years” comp…
Ken Edwards
Yep, DRM is wack. But ProTools is a heck of a lot of fun to mess around with.
Derek K. Miller
Melodyne from Celemony is also a competitor to Auto-Tune.
My immediate reaction to Snoop’s new track is that it takes advantage of his lack of ability to sing by taking Auto-Tune to another extreme.
And yes, Peter Frampton is Mr. Talk Box — designer Bob Heil now makes some very fine microphones.
Derek K. Miller
Incidentally, here are some nice examples of Auto-Tune abuse:
http://www.hometracked.com/2008/02/05/auto-tune-abuse-in-pop-music-10-examples/
theft
What about every Daft Punk vocal ever?
S2
Kinda surprised no one mentioned the Talk Box’s plastic precursor — the Humanatone (aka Nose Flute). Essentially half of a whistle, stiff side flaps loosely cover the nostrils and mouth; air blown from the nose travels down toward the mouth through a fipple, and the mouth forms the whistle’s resonant chamber. Different notes are produced by varying the size and shape of the mouth cavity.
I got my first one around 1965; the guy at the music store in town offered it for a quarter after I shamefacedly asked for something easier than the ocarina I’d picked up the week before ;-) Got my current one in the late Eighties; dunno if they exist anymore.
As easy to play as a “Jew’s Harp,” but with greater range, control and dynamics. Kids in orchestra class used to play them as diaphragm workouts. Still sounds great today (well, the Lexicon really helps!)
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