Talk Boxes

[spudlyff8fan]

For those who don't know, Talk Box is a piece of technology where you plug your guitar into it, and it ends up playing the guitar through the guitarist's mouth, who then actually "sings" the guitar into their mic, rather than traditionally playing the guitar through the amp. A few well-known examples:

Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith
Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi
Several songs by Pink Floyd (this one is Keep Talking)

Different Rock Band and Guitar Hero songs have handled these differently. Man In the Box by Alice In Chains has the singer singing the talk box part in the opening. Livin' on a Prayer has the singer wait through the talk box parts.

So basically...how do you handle this when charting?

[trg007]

Don't forget "Show Me the Way" by Peter Frampton.

Man In the Box by Alice In Chains has the singer singing the talk box part in the opening. Livin' on a Prayer has the singer wait through the talk box parts.

There's a good reason for this. In MitB, there is another guitar part playing along with the talk box part; miss a note while playing the guitar part and you'll still hear the talk box part that was charted to vocals. In LoaP, on the other hand, the only guitar part is the talk box; miss a note and you hear nothing.

So if you have a couple of guitar parts on separate stems and one is using a talk box, you can chart the latter on vocals if you think it makes sense - just don't chart the same part to both instruments. If the talk box is the only guitar part being played, however, you should probably author it as a guitar part.

[wesjett08]

In MITB Layne is actually just harmonizing with the guitar part there ... The guitar for that part was ran through a wah-wah and a talk box.

[Alright_Computer]

In MITB Layne is actually just harmonizing with the guitar part there ... The guitar for that part was ran through a wah-wah and a talk box.

Yeah, this. You can hear Layne's actual voice pretty clearly in the actual mix of the song. They definitely didn't chart the talk box.

It seems like it's standard practice based on a couple of the songs in the game already to chart talk box to guitar, so you should do that.

[spudlyff8fan]

Ok, forget Man in the Box. How do other songs handle talk boxes, relative to singing and playing guitar?

[trg007]

Ok, forget Man in the Box. How do other songs handle talk boxes, relative to singing and playing guitar?

Already answered that.

In LoaP, on the other hand, the only guitar part is the talk box; miss a note and you hear nothing.
...
If the talk box is the only guitar part being played, however, you should probably author it as a guitar part.

Actually, I can't think of any song where it was charted to vocals aside from MitB (which I now understand is actual singing and not the talk box that was charted, anyway).

[spudlyff8fan]

Already answered that.



Actually, I can't think of any song where it was charted to vocals aside from MitB (which I now understand is actual singing and not the talk box that was charted, anyway).

Do You Feel Like We Do had some of the talk boxing done...but only in the part where Frampton is very clearly speaking. In the other parts, they just have the singer wait and map the whole thing to the guitar.

[trg007]

Guitar Hero 5 is made by a different developer so it's not even relevant to RBN authoring. You want to look at songs Harmonix has authored...RB1, RB2, Beatles, Lego, and all the DLC.

[spudlyff8fan]

Guitar Hero 5 is made by a different developer so it's not even relevant to RBN authoring. You want to look at songs Harmonix has authored...RB1, RB2, Beatles, Lego, and all the DLC.

The precedents in Rock Band differ. Even though it's in Guitar Hero, it's still relevant to the question.

[davidshek]

The precedents in Rock Band differ. Even though it's in Guitar Hero, it's still relevant to the question.

No, it's not really. RBN songs are to be authored to the standards that HMX have set with their DLC and disc songs. What Neversoft has done with their chart authoring is completely irrelevant.

Author Talk Box to guitar.