^I agree...and the fact is, he shouldn't have used it (IMO), whether it is autotune or vocoder or singing into a fan. <--ya'll remember doing that when you were kids to make your voice sound crazy?!?

CallMeCarrie said:

So, are you saying that Prince should never use effects on his voice? Or, just certain kinds of effects?

Mindflux said:

I think it serves no purpose as it is used in this song. It's not his Camille effect, where he is making a purposeful change. To me it sounds like he is using it like those artist who can't sing well and we know he does, so why use it?

I think it serves no purpose as it is used in this song. It's not his Camille effect, where he is making a purposeful change. To me it sounds like he is using it like those artist who can't sing well and we know he does, so why use it?

OK, time for the lesson.


1) Antares Auto-Tune


Looks like this:



Auto-mated (although there is a manual option) pitch-correction software. Set the "Retune Speed" to Fast and "Tracking" to choosy to get the "T-Pain" effect. Popularized in the late 90's from Cher's song "Believe". Picked up by hip-hop and R&B artists a couple of years later, most notably by the aforementioned T-Pain.

Sounds like this (Since everybody in the world knows what the original vocal of this sounds like I figured it would be a good example)



This is what Prince used on "Incense & Candles" although to my ears he used a combination of that and this:

2) Vocoder




My cousin has this exact synth and we use it in our live shows.

There are various kinds of vocoder, both hardware and software, but in layman's terms, what you're doing with a vocoder is blending your voice and words with the sound of the synthesizer.

KORG make the best hardware vocoders. Here's one of their original ones:



German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk really popularized the vocoder in their music and I believe even invented several of their own. If some of you guys aren't familiar with Kraftwerk, Afrika Bambataa sampled their track "Trans Europe Express" for "Planet Rock". Here's Kraftwerk member Florian Schneider's "Electronic Poem" - it's just vocals on a vocoder, no music, so you guys can really get a feel of what a vocoder sounds like:



One of the more popular software vocoders is one called "Orange Vocoder" - I know the sound of this vocoder very well, and to my ears, Prince's vocal on "Incense & Candles" was first autotuned and then processed with this:



I could be wrong with that, but that's what it sounds like to me.

and finally, saving the best for last:

3) Talkbox

One name defines Talkbox more than any other - ROGER TROUTMAN.

Before Roger, Stevie Wonder and Peter Frampton had used the talkbox to a degree. But Roger used it almost exclusively on all 5 albums by his band "Zapp", and his solo albums also, such as "The Many Facets of Roger", and "Unlimited!"

All of you reading this, I'm sure must be familiar with at least one of the following songs:

Zapp's "Computer Love", "More Bounce To The Ounce", "Dance Floor", "Be Alright", "I Can Make You Dance", "Heartbreaker"

Roger's "So Ruff, So Tuff", "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Do It Roger"....

2Pac, Dr. Dre and Roger's "California Love".

Well, that's a talkbox and it looks like this:



That is just one brand. Here's another:



I believe my cousin has both kinds of those. (We're talkbox junkies )

It was designed to be used with a guitar. However, the defining "Roger" sound came from hooking it together with a Moog synthesizer. That's how you get it to sound like this:



Roger generally had custom-built setups with Moog keyboards and talkboxes, one on each side of the stage so he could switch positions at different points.

This is the hardest out of the three to master - because it requires you to play the actual notes of the connected instrument whilst mouthing the words with the tube in your mouth. It also has the best sound of the three, when done properly.

School's out!!!!
[Edited 4/8/10 19:09pm]