8

In Funkify Your Life by the Meters (and many other Funk tracks I've heard), the guitar line blends with a vocoder effect. You can hear it in the first 30 seconds here on YouTube.

How was this achieved back then and has anything changed with modern recording techniques?

unor
  • 3,448
  • 4
  • 23
  • 49
codecowboy
  • 181
  • 4

1 Answers1

6

That would be a Talk Box (the track referenced in your questions is listed on the Wikipedia page).

The gadget works by having a small loudspeaker linked by plastic tube to the musician's mouth, allowing the shaping of notes with the mouth, much as a singer would.

There is a nice clip on YouTube of Peter Frampton using such a device.

DaveP
  • 491
  • 2
  • 10
  • I can't remember exactly who it was (hence this being a comment),but I seem to recall someone saying they were going to stop using such a gadget because it vibrated their teeth loose! – DaveP Jun 05 '15 at 19:01