Is there a reason why I can't hear anything when I push play?
I really hope that the restrictions which apply to Pandora radio don't apply in the podcasts.

Hi, Jacob,

You aren't being restricted. Often the audio file buffering takes at least a few seconds, so after you push play, wait a bit for it.

Also, if you press play a second time, it re-starts the process, so be sure to press it only once.

thanks for the lesson on reverb that cool little echo sound spectrum (msp?) use to use in the girl bands. also now i know the names of the sounds that i am not fond of. hope pandora can keep on keeping on, i know your giving a lotta people cool info w/out boring them to death. ssrb

How do i get the song i chose instead of a staion like the song that i chose.. I want to listen to what the station is titled.

I loved it. Great lesson, I learned a lot. My friends in the studio doing this kind of stuff to her album so it's cool tolearn the terms so I'm not lost wen she talks to me about it.

Thanks Kevin.

Anywho, if your interested her myspace,
http://www.myspace.com/intentionallyleftblank

Her Song 'Volatile' is awesome.

Thank you for this great intro to that fun-est of toys, the reverb unit.

Great podcast and examples. Thanks for posting the same artists for dry vs. wet vocals, that was great to compare the two. One other thing i thought was interesting about the sibilance examples, particularly the madonna and destiny's child is that the sibilance is accented by other aspects of the mix. In the madonna the reverb makes it more prevalent and in the destiny's child the high hat has the same effect, being in the same range as the sibilance itself.
Also, in listening to the vocoder examples, i really found myself wanting to try that out, that seems like it would be a really fun effect to work with. :)
Anyway, thanks for the podcast and keep up the good work!

The reverb unit is definitely fun, Edith.

And Ashley, that's a good point that the other instruments in a similar range (hi-hats in particular) can accentuate the sibilant sounds. Sometimes the "s"s and the sizzling cymbals bleed into each other, and it's hard to tell what is a mouth sound and what is a cymbal hit.

test

hey all,

thanks for listening! singing in the studio is a blast! www.myspace.com/ariahfirefly

Thanks alot. This was a really nice introduction!

I am kinda into the basics of the vocal-mixing, but I'm sure you know way more than me. I don't get it to "burst out there" - if you know what I mean. I don't quite seem to agree with myself on what suits what.

I was really eager to learn more, so I was hoping it'd be 3 times longer. ;) - I really enjoyed the part about "if you wanna get it to sound like a 60's track..." - If you are ever to go in-depth of mixing vocals again (I really hope you will!) - Please give us more of that. :D

Anyway, thanks again for a great podcast!

PS: Ariah Firefly, you seem very talented and I wish you the best of luck! :)

Thanks for listening, Erlend. I'm sure we'll go into mixing vocals more at some point down the line.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know much about studio recording, but the vocoder (machine where you modulate certain frequencies of a track using another) is not the same as the talk box (filter where the sound is fed through a plastic tube into the mouth, then re-recorded), right? Roger Troutman uses a Talk Box, not a vocoder, on the Zapp and Tupac tracks.

Hi, Birdseed,

Thanks for listening. Great name, by the way.

The vocoder is indeed different from the talk box -- both have tubes into which you sing, though. The vocoder is a keyboard device, and the talk box is for guitar. Troutman's definitely using a vocoder on both of those.

For talk box, check out Frampton Comes Alive.

hey thanks for that. I thought of something though. If u listen to the songs done by the group "celldweller", would they be using a vocoder? I thought of this when I listened to the songs "Switchback", "Switchback (clayton's revision)", "Own Little World (remorse code remix)" and "Tragedy". What do u think?

Another great podcast..

I've always found vocoder interesting in terms of the effect it can bring to a song.

I was suprised that you didn't include in your examples one of the earliest uses of vocoder that I'm aware of, which was on the first Alan Parsons Project album. I believe it was used in the song 'The Raven' unless my memory is failing me once again. It is a classic of sorts, and the feel it brings to the song is just wonderful.

Thank you, Chuck!

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I've never heard the first Alan Parsons Project album (Tales Of Mystery & Imagination, right?), or their song "The Raven." I will so check it out forthwith. Thanks for the tip.

I appreciate everyone listening :)

I just thought I'd suggest adding "melisma" to the "MUSICAL TERMS INCLUDED IN THIS PODCAST" section; it's a great term to know, and you guys explain it concisely, providing good contrasting examples. Thanks for the great series!

Also, it would be cool if you could turn the lists of included musical terms into something like tags and add a search field to the podcast main page. It would enhance your existing "Category" feature. If I were interested in learning about finger-picked guitar or diatonic versus chromatic chord progression however, I wouldn't think to check out the "Song Lyrics" podcast. Just a thought. Thanks!

Good call, J. I just added "melisma."

I'm about halfway through converting all of these various terms from the podcasts into a searchable, alphabetized index... so indeed, agreed, folks shouldn't be expected to know which episode features those specific terms.

As a college grad with a music degree I am always seeking to broaden my horizons; looking to learn more and to sharpen my craft. The educational aspects of Pandora are astounding.

allo lol

Cool. Happy to hear it, Tulips & Music. Anything we haven't touched on yet that you'd like to hear covered?

Great information. I definitely have to agree with Birdseed that the "tube" devices are all talkboxes, whether attached to a guitar, keyboard, or whoopie cushion.

I think the vocoder produces a more robotic sound which often gets blended with a dry vocal. The talkbox effect sounds more human.

TALKBOX: Roger Troutman and Zapp; guitar effect in Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer"

VOCODER: Older Kraftwerk; the beginning of the second verse of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" ("Well I remember...")

To play with them yourself, Google "free vocoder" or "ghetto talkbox".

There's so many different robotic voice effects in use these days, it's confusing. Sometimes a single artist (Daft Punk) utilizes ALL of them!

Yeah, those Daft Punk songs feature multiple ones, layered on top of each other and answering each other at times, 'tis true.

Not to flog a deceased stallion, but... well, here's what Answers.com has to say about Troutman:

http://www.answers.com/topic/roger-troutman

"Innovative funkster Roger Troutman was the master of the vocoder -- a keyboard synthesizer that created robotic-sounding vocals through the simultaneous use of a piano-like interface and a breath controller (breath tube), somewhat like a guitar talk box. What James Jamerson did for the bass, Jimi Hendrix for the guitar, and Stevie Wonder for the harmonica, Troutman did for the vocoder."

Great series. I listened to all 8 episodes today, but I had to download the episodes. Clicking "Listen Now" changes the button to yellow, but I don't hear any audio. Also, the Reggae episode cuts off at 7:37. I look forward to listening to the next episode. Thanks!

Here's one of the single most horrible devices / piece of software that has emerged in recent years : Autotune.
Man, I really hate Autotune. Now, maybe, it's not Autotune's fault but the way that Autotune is so overused by producers and studios. You can hear it so easily and quickly in so many recording artists (especially amongst pop artists) and there is nothing more irritating than a fake, auto-tuned voice. Autotune should be used sparingly and only when necessary, or to add a bit of an extra touch but generally I would prefer to stay away from it. I'm happy to see that many bands are trying to do so, but it's still used so heavily by a lot of producers/mixers/studios.

Mozilla has problems playing the file. Try cutting/pasting the url into explorer and it will play fine.

Love your work