Blezz Beats – HumBox $50
Blezz Beats are purveyors of a relatively small, but quite diverse, range of plugins and sample packs. It’s fair to say, though, that a broad ‘retro’ theme can be found across their various offerings – whether it be cheap, old-skool preset FM synths, chiptune noises or synthesised ’80s funk vocals.
Humbox fits squarely into the later of these, and is a sample-based instrument designed as a simple way of accessing talkbox-style vocals beloved of bands such as Zapp (who went on to influence, and be sampled by, West coast hip-hop producers in the ’90s).
Unlike a vocoder which uses an audio source to modulate another audio stream (usually a rich synthesised tone) a talkbox involvesactually inserting a tube carrying a sound into your mouth where it is then directly shaped by your ‘talking’ and subsequently picked up by a regular vocal mic. In essence, it acts like a type of filter and delivers a distinct effect employed with a suitably played synth line.
