Antares offers the Articulator Digital Talkbox for free FREE when you subscribe to a 14-day Auto-Tune Unlimited trial (read our article about free autotune plugins). The offer ends on May 5th, 2022.
I was pretty excited as soon as I heard the word Talkbox. It’s an acquired taste, but I love the Talkbox sound (either in moderation or severe Funk overload).
By subscribing to a 14-day trial of Auto-Tune Unlimited, you can download Articulator (usually $69) for FREE.
One of the examples of Talkbox use given by Antares is Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer.
While Bon Jovi isn’t the first name that comes to my mind, it’s a good example of different ways to use the Talkbox. In this particular song, you can hear the Talkbox mirror the bassline.
I think of Roger Troutman, Funk, Hip Hop, and one of my favorite modern keyboard players, Shaun Martin. If you haven’t heard it a million times already, check out his Talkbox performance on Snarky Puppy’s Sleeper (We Like It Here).
I wasn’t aware of Articulator till now, and I have to say, after my initial excitement, I now have lower expectations.
The reason for my lowered expectations is that (in my opinion) the official tutorial video makes it sound terrible. It sounds like a very average vocoder, not a proper Talkbox. Then, I watched the short intro video on the product page, and it sounded closer but still not great.
As I haven’t tested the product before sharing this news, I can’t say it’s terrible; it might turn out to be very good.
But, I can say that Antares has done themselves no favors by putting out content that makes Articulator sound far from authentic.
With the negativity out of the way, I do want to get excited about Articulator. So, if anyone has prior experience with it, please share in the comments. I’ll try it out myself, but I’d like to hear what others are thinking as a Talkbox fan.
Does it sound better than the videos suggest?
We can get it for free at the end of the day (although you’ll need to opt-in for that 14-day trial), so I feel like I’m being a bit harsh. I like to focus on the positives, so I’m hoping, after some use, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
If not, it’s still a free vocoder-ish plugin that will be useful to some, no doubt.
We covered The Full Bucket Vocoder (FBVC) a few years back, and it looks like it’s been updated as recently as March 2022.
Articulator is available in AU, VST3, and AAX formats for macOS (10.14 or later) and Windows 10.
More info: Articulator (free with Auto-Tune Unlimited trial until May 5th, 2022)
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7 Comments
samuel
oni honestly love how many comments on youtube point out how it sounds nothing like a talkbox lmao glad you pointed it out as well
i also read i think on reddit that people that applied for the 2 week trial months ago, to claim their free copy of antares chorus (i think it was) could not apply to this one
0kb
onI would make a note to think twice before giving any payment details to Antares… I have seen quite a few alarming posts about charging customers twice and even refuse to unsubscribe people… last post I saw was on gearspace…
“Since January I have been trying to unsubscribe. Their have been monthly billing issues, double billings, authentication issues, licenses disappearing, and the worst part is they are still billing me despite my numerous attempts to cancel and it even says I cancelled on their site.”
https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/1375528-antares-autotune-unlimited-billing-technical-problems.html
and here…
“I did the trial with auto tune, i cancelled before the trial ended and have been charged 3 times. I contacted customer support and addressed that I cancelled and am still being charged, they told me sorry you’re obligated to pay 2 months. It’s been 3 months of charges after I cancelled. Sorry no refunds.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/musicproduction/comments/lxjtk5/antares_auto_tune_unlimited_subscription_problems/hhzgz0m/?context=3
There’s probably more but I have not the time to search…. just wanted to give a heads up, since this is not really free by the proper definition and think posts like this should be taken in consideration before giving up any payment details.
Mike
onThanks for this. I’ll look elsewhere for a talkbox plugin.
Synth Street
onThank you, avoiding this than!
Michal Ochedowski
onYes, thanks for sharing the knowledge. Thanks to info like this one, more people can avoid additional problems.
Tomislav Zlatic
onThanks for the info!
I
onIt sucks that those of us who got the Choir plugin during their previous promotion can’t get this one.