It's not an auto-tune. It's a vocoder effect.

Auto-tune literally tunes an out-of-tune note. Go listen to a Britney album. THAT is auto-tune.

What T-Pain and those fuckers do are the same thing Roger and Zapp revolutionized music with in the 70's and 80's - which is a vocoder. Even Bon Jovi, and Kid Rock have used that.

^Oh, no!

Please, don't post things like that. Prince (or someone in his camp) might read it and therefore keep on using it!!

vitriol said:

he did mention something about a "really tight flow" as well

ernestsewell said:

It is actually autotune.

ernestsewell said:

Actually, it is autotune. You can hear the rapid pitch changes. Vocoders do not do that. They effect timbre only. This effect is achieved by setting the key of the autotuner one half step lower than the key of the song so you get this sudden fluxuation in pitch. Also, if I'm assuming correctly, the Bon Jovi song you may be referring to is Living on a Prayer??? That is actually a talk box which is not a vocoder.
[Edited 4/8/10 12:06pm]

It's not an auto-tune. It's a vocoder effect.

Auto-tune literally tunes an out-of-tune note. Go listen to a Britney album. THAT is auto-tune.

What T-Pain and those fuckers do are the same thing Roger and Zapp revolutionized music with in the 70's and 80's - which is a vocoder. Even Bon Jovi, and Kid Rock have used that.

FrenchGuy said:

Oh no!!! Not Colonized Mind!!
WHY WHY WHY? He has such a great voice...or is he losing it in his old age? Hmmm....

Thanks, FrenchGuy!

CallMeCarrie said:

There is no autotune on Colonised Mind!! He is using an effect (sounds more like a modified talkbox effect), but not autotune.

Stick to what you know, people!

Wasn't it obvious he used autotune when 3121 came out?

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]

i don't mind it all that much. especially not when he mixes two
layers of vocals together, like one 'treated' vocal and one
regular vocal track.

it's one of the things i love about his music. there are just
so many official prince songs out there but he manages to sound
different, vocally, on most of them.

even now, with new albums he'll have songs on there where his
voice sounds slightly different from anything before.

that's due to the vocal layering he does and i think that's a
great way to keep sounding 'new' or 'fresh' for want of a
better word.

i was listening to "chocolate invasion" on headphones today and
it struck me how subtle some of this vocal layering he does is.
when you just listen to a track in your car or such you don't
even notice it but on headphones you hear how two, three or four
different vocal tracks are blended into one unique sounding new
'voice'.

whatever means or aparatus he uses to blend alternate layers of
vocals, i don't care. as long as it's not becoming a gimmick
that he can't leave alone anymore.

IstenSzek said:

How do you
manage to
have all your
posts
written just
like this????

Which effect does Prince use to get the "thank you" at the end of Welcome To The Dawn?

Wow! U're good. Just listened to Swami (i'm in love with indian culture so it seemed kinda natural that i'd love it and i did) and it's GREAT. Your post shows that u know ur job, thanks !!!

databank said:

Thank you so much! Glad you dig it. We're working on our new album at the moment. If you're interested you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter where we post updates pretty regularly.

ah, but do you use auto-tune on it?

databank said:

Thank you so much! Glad you dig it. We're working on our new album at the moment. If you're interested you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter where we post updates pretty regularly.

databank said:

just by giving a hard return at the end of every line

IstenSzek said:

Yes
but
why
would
you
do
that?

databank said:

i'm not sure, i just started doing that when the org went from purple
and black to the way it is now. it's just the size of the box you can
use to type your message. i just like the way it looks, i guess.

think of it kinda like prince using autotune

It's not an auto-tune. It's a vocoder effect.

Auto-tune literally tunes an out-of-tune note. Go listen to a Britney album. THAT is auto-tune.

What T-Pain and those fuckers do are the same thing Roger and Zapp revolutionized music with in the 70's and 80's - which is a vocoder. Even Bon Jovi, and Kid Rock have used that.

ernestsewell said:

Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch.

You can configure the retune speed to make the pitch correction more subtle/less robotic.


An artist such as Owl City has the program settings configured to a degree where the transition between notes is buttery smooth while retaining a cyborg like feel.

IstenSzek said:

So you shouldn't be doing it either??