Incredible Sonovox - Kay Kyser - 1940 film "You'll Find Out"

Amazing device that gives voice to musical instruments. The Sonovox consists of one or two louspeakers placed on the throat that play the source sound. The performer whispers the words while the speakers stand in for the voice box. Used for the talking train in Disney's Dumbo, uncountable radio promos, a tube-in-the-mouth version "Talk Box" was used by Frampton to make his guitar sing, and all-electronic "Vocoder" versions are still used in current pop music.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Sonovox
• Kay
• Kyser
• You'll
• Find
• Out
• Talk
• Box
• Vocoder
• Talkbox

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

They should redo all this but with a '70s-'80s-style vocoder (by EMS or Korg).

[MisterScott99]

@ClassicTVMan1981X Why should they do that?

[yagodequay]

dudes and dudettes, sonovox =/= autotune. The first passes audio through a formant filter, the other re-pitches audio.

[MisterScott99]

@yagodequay that's right. I figure people confuse them because sonovox and autotune sometimes sound alike.

[musicom67]

Interesting how the Film Distributor on the 'end page' was the C&C Television Corp. - Yet, TV really wasn't mainstream until 1947.... unless this was added on in later years.

[MisterScott99]

@musicom67 Yes, this was added later when C&C bought some film libraries for television broadcast, probably in the 50s.

[Hazzoufc]

SCHMOYOHO SENT ME HERE.

[n64wilbert]

REAL MUSIC not auto-tune T-pain crap LOVE THE BIG BAND MUSIC

AND I"M 13

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

@MisterScott99

It is of course easier to do than with the Sonovox.

[cadmus98]

1:23 I laughed when that chorus of "That's Lovely, Jenny!" kicked in.

[cadmus98]

@n64wilbert YMO? They're alright, but they just seem to me like a Japanese Kraftwerk.

[EntropicMisanthropic]

Ginny Simms looks good even in black and white...damn. Awfully nice to hear a white female singer who doesn't insist on trying to be Beyonce because that's what sells.

[jackoshaw]

Remember seeing this movie when I was young. It was a movie the antenna channels would show on New Years eve, back when TV was TV!

[n64wilbert]

@chkjns Do you have Jean-Jacques Perrey in that list?

[donmccullen]

@n64wilbert lol. Did not catch in general music. However they worked great in radio stations jingles. Bill Meeks of PAMS created a jingle package around the Sonovox and it sold well. The sono voice found its voice in station ID's. Jon Wolfert who was mentored by Meeks carried on when he started his own company JAM Creative Productions.

[MisterScott99]

@InsectsGalore The Sonovox of 1940 was preceded by Alvino Rey's talking guitar and Bell Labs' Vocoder, both in 1939, and both on YouTube. I think the Sonovox, modeled after Rey's, was the best version and had quite a bit of commercial success in its time. Rey used a carbon throat microphone, and Bell Labs' version was all electronic and the name stands for Voice Coder-Decoder. The talkbox was indeed modeled after the Sonovox.