HumBox

Many plugins have attempted to emulate the sound of one of the many great physical "voice boxes" by processing audio in a similar way that vocoders do. But let's be frank - it just doesn't sound right (until Vocodine).

HumBox is a sample-based VST plugin designed to spice up your productions with the authentic feeling innovated by Roger Troutman that has since spread out through the west coast to the whole world.

12 Articulations

HumBox doesn't shape your words but rather hums along to your music with different articulations.

You can make it sing "nanana"-phrases like "Doo", "Yeah", "No", and "Baby" and add layers of whopping funkafying to your tracks.

Built-In FX

To give you some instant gratification there are also some built-in FX on the HumBox panel:

• Reverb: Add some ambiance to your sound and create interesting atmospheres with the Freeze button.
• Tremolo: A BPM-timed tremolo to get a stuttering or flailing effect, great for chords.
• Chorus: Widen the sound instantly with the Chorus button.
• Bitcrusher: Crunch it up at the flick of a switch and get that Robot Rock vibe.

The Story Behind HumBox

HumBox was found in the attic of an old farmhouse in the deep woods of northern Sweden among the rubble of untouched artifacts. There is very little documentation on the subject, but according to village locals, it was owned by a woman named Berit Flemmingson in the 1960s. Berit was a very secluded person that kept to herself most of the time and very few knew much about her personal life.

Legend has it that Berit built HumBox herself with the intention of communicating with aliens through music and that she was successful at it too. Apparently, she had grown a substantial amount of wealth within a very short amount of time, which struck everyone as odd seeming that she was locked in her basement around the clock.

After picking it apart to analyze its components, engineers found nothing out of the ordinary. That led speculators to believe it possessed some sort of magical power, and some believed she might have been communicating with a far more occult being.

What is a physical talk box?

You've heard it in the music of Zapp, Bon Jovi, Daft Punk, Bruno Mars, Kanye West, and countless other artists. Maybe you've wondered just where the heck that robot sound is coming from?

A common misunderstanding is that a Vocoder is responsible for it. Vocoders are very cool too, but the sound is processed in a very different way. It mixes the signal of your voice (modulator) with a synth (carrier) and is more difficult to produce a clear and articulated sound with.

So how does a talk box work?

A talk box feeds a synth signal (usually a sawtooth wave) through an amplifier and compresses the actual physical sound through a tube, which is inserted in the player's mouth. The synth sound is actually transferred into the mouth and then shaped by the player and recorded by a microphone.

That's what we've done - for you.

Whether it's true or not, use it at your own risk.

{See video at top of page}

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