Is a talkbox the same as a vocoder?
While they may seem similar, the answer is NO. True, both can make ‘talking synth/guitar’ sounds, but they are are two completely different animals. A vocoder is an electronic device that consists of a network of tuned bandpass filters, each one connected to an envelope follower. It requires two input signals – a “carrier” and a “modulator”. The “carrier” signal would be your guitar, keyboard, or whatever else (sometimes it’s fun to use a drum machine!), and the “modulator” in this case would be your voice talking/singing into a microphone. The different frequencies in the sound of your voice pass through the bandpass filters, which trigger the envelope followers to let the sound of the “carrier” through in that frequency range. The result is that the “carrier” now has the characteristics of your voice – the “modulator”. Sounds complicated….probably because it is. Hardware vocoders, especially the higher-quality ones, can be quite expensive. A talkbox, on the other hand, is very simp
