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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Last Updated on April 16, 2022 by Tomislav Zlatic.
