DigiTech Guitar Talker

this thing is the best once you get used to it!

are you kidding?? it makes guitar, bass or anything unique and magical!

never have had a problem

never had to deal with them

this thing work like a dream and it also can be used as a trigger too! i can't believe they still don't make it. the quality is unmatched in construction and sound. if you come across one of these rare birds it is worth ever penny spent!

Digitech Talker Repair -

I bought this new about 7 years ago and got shocked violently many times. But when it worked, it was magical.

Also it would sometimes not kick in until I wore socks across the carpet and "shocked" it into working. One day it stopped, but since I am a packrat I threw it in a drawer.

Tonight I googled "Digitech Talker Repair" and found John Lange's fix in this forum. I followed these instructions:

"add resistors from the outputs to ground. I used 100Kohm but other values should work. 3 resistors are required - one for the 1/4" jack, and two for the XLR output (the XLR output is of course balanced and one resistor is required from each side to ground). This worked very well for me, but your results may vary."

(when he says wire to ground, use the ground of the same jack, i.e. pins 2 & 3 to pin 1 in the P.A. output). I soldered in the resistors on the back side of the board (the side with the pots) so it was a piece of cake.

When I plugged it in though, there was still a horrible buzz that appeared to come from the instrument input, but I could faintly hear the effects working.

I then put a resistor from the "instrument input" ground to the P.A. output pin 1 [ground] and voila! It works again!!!

Thanks a million to John Lange for his post. There are no other vocoders on the market like this. Believe me, I have scoured the net and wasn't about to buy another Talker.

With the fix, it plays like a dream.

Now don't blame me if you don't get the same results. I am just telling you my story.

If you have nver soldered, practice on something else and google "how to solder" for a quick lesson. If you bridge the contacts, you are screwed.

When properly grounded as detailed above and in John Lange's post below, it is magical.

I will let you know.

never bothered

As far as selecting patches and switching live, it is very easy. That's why I give it an 8 despite the following:
The key is to spend some time on setup to get the correct levels and figure out your routing options. It's very flexible, but a bit tricky. It's crucial that you follow the instructions and set your instrument and mic levels properly, otherwise it will clip (although these levels will have no effect whatsoever when the talker is bypassed). Also, after some twiddling I found the only way to have both my mic and instrument work when the effect is bypassed is to send both outputs back out of the talker. It also takes some technique to master. Stick with it, and you can coax some of the best sounds out of it.

I play keys and send my mic and instrument through the talker to the same mixer. The effect is really good, much better than just about any vocoder I've heard. The intelligibility is really good. The only one that comes close is prosoniq orange, which is a software vst. I can really closely approximate that Roger Troutman sound. The noise is minimal as long as you set it up correctly. Also the "popping" issue is way overblown. Yes, there is a subtle "click" when switching, which I would prefer not to have, but it is nowhere near the pop heard when a guitarist pulls his plug without muting the channel. I could hear it in the quiet of my home, but never heard it live. The reason for this click is actually kind of a good thing?It is a true hardwire bypass switch, so when it's off it's really off.

A note to guitarists: if you are looking to really get that talkbox sound, it's very good, but not %100 accurate. You may still want to look into a Heil Talkbox or equivalent for the straight up Peter Frampton.

This thing seems to be built like a tank. the switches, knobs, i/o, and housing are all rock-solid. They don't make 'em like this anymore (really, since this product was discontinued).

Again, the product is discontinued, but digitech has the manual online and the power supplies are still readily available.

Excellent product, but not for everyone. I have been a pro keyboard player for 10 years and I play alot of funk. I use this primarily to approximate the Roger Troutman sound heard on songs like "California". Troutman used a custom talkbox with a smaller tube for better enunciation, and I believe a cleaner sound than what you get from a standard Heil Talkbox.
Bottom line: If you want a relatively simple and flexible way to do vocoding and talkboxing effects, this is probably the best unit on the market.

not much to it...manual gives some good ideas for "alternative applications"

awsome! and freaky if you make it so

solid as a rock

its a tank...i wont need support

I'd be devistated if it were stolen as they are not made anymore...already looking collectable. I have an electrix vocoder too...but this is easier to deal with. I play with about 10 ancient synths, a couple of guitars, a rhodes, drums (elec and accoustic). GT5 tubefex

the control interface is very easy...
this is the simplest and wackiest vocoder I've every slept with....

three knobs; trim for mic in and guitar in, and level out (when effec is on),
two switches; one bypass, one to cycle through the 6 presets,
one bypass light (that is ON when effect is bypassed...mmm).

there's also multicolor indicator lights to let you keep the inputs in check.

xlr mic in (balanced), 1/4'' guitar/instrument in, xlr PA out (balanced), 1/4'' amp out (and a switch to select how effect output is routed)...

just talk/hum/coo/growl into the mic while playing, and the instrument comes out in the talk/tone-shape of the mic input. (that's how a vocoder works)...some of the other patches do crazier things...

while the mechanical interfacing is very simple, but tasteful applicaion of the sounds that this bastard is capable of is quite a challenge.

I was very cautious about the POP issue that people mentioned.
when I was bidding on it, I asked the seller if he'd ever had a problem with popping.
he didn't. I bough it, it sounds fine.
...I AM VERY LUCKY....

other than the risk of switching noise, this thing has
amazing sound quality....
vocoders are not about "pristine", because theyr'e all about having their own character.

the freqency range is quite wider than guitar;
the manual instructs you to use it on anything from guitar to bass, but it starts to sound a little drop-out-y on kick drums.
(...oh well, if I'm going to munge, I GUESS I can do so in low-fi...sigh).

this vocoder has six very distinct characters (4 vocoder programs, 1 auto-wah program, and one face-corroding death growl program).

this is a one-of-a-kind vocoder, because it doesn't work by using a bunch of band-pass-filters,
it works by composite voice modeling,
so that the tone-signiture of the modulator signal can be much smoother and less "pixilated" than most vocoders.

however, each of the six presets makes a different use of the vocoder engine, and how instruments are used.

nuVo gives a normal vocoder sound,
talkbox gives a more mouthy bright tone, really strong on vowels "EEEE" and "UUUU"
autotalk gives a nice twitchy vocoder sound, but only engages when you talk; so that your instrument passes, but when you talk into mic, the vocoder kicks in.
this gating feature is also on the Taz and Alien patches,

most of the patches are rated at the same level, but there's some jump up/down on the gating patches.

Taz is sub-octave version of mic in modulating internal white noise; I use this sound to as an all-natural substitute for groupie-repellant spray...amazing sound...
Alien (octave up modulating instrument) sound patches; I use this sound to laugh so suddenly they blow a snot into their Pabst.

the auto YA is an amazing bloc of formant filters; modulated by combination envelope following and LFOs, this thing will give you wacky "voicy" talking...be careful using this with too much reverb, it makes you think you're hearing voices INSIDE YOUR HEAD...
I had learn not to use this patch when I play down at the ward.

solid metal body, solid foot-switches, decent XLR an d 1/4'' jacks... no battery compartment (psa only).
it's tough enough that I could count on it to help me win a fight.

...but that's not all... it's also the most STYLING goddamn pedal I've EVER seen.

go to digitech's website and download the manual RIGHT NOW... the pdf has a shitty grainy picture of it, and you can KIND OF get an idea of how awesome it is.

it's trapezoid body has sharp corners (DEFINITELY good for self-defense),
the three knobs are vintage chicken-heads,
it's got a big round chrome badge on the front,
a big curving row of six LEDs, one per patch.
and it's god GRILL VENTS on the upper corners.
this thing struts some serious hot-rod attitude, and its performance backs up every ounce of the game that it brags.

reliability?...
I bought this used on ebay, from a guy who bought it used on ebay.
that speaks for itself.
it's too fucking cool ...it's not going back on ebay.

N/A...
i called digitech; they don't have any of these in stock,
but they remember these...fondly...

this is the awesomist fucking pedal I own.
it's big, cumbersome, mean, and require you to be extra thoughtful to use it just to make really un-stable wacky sounds.

...and it' s got sharp edges.

this thing REIGNS SUPREME...

this thing earns me one more fit!
this thing taught me how to make GOLD...Biatch!

I've reviewed the Talker once already telling how crappy it was due to the loud popping issue when it the bypass button is pressed. I'm submitting another review because I FIGURED OUT A FIX TO THE BYPASS POP PROBLEM, and it has radically changed my view of this product! Before the fix, the Talker was worthless due to the loud pop caused whenever it was bypassed or un-bypassed. I sent it in to Digitech support at least 3 times (I lost count) to fix this problem, but they never fixed it. Given so many of the reviews mention this problem, I think this is a design flaw with the Talker. I've asked their tech support about the underlying cause, but they have yet to admit a design flaw OR a repair botch. The problem is that there is DC VOLTAGE on the 1/4" and XLR outputs!!! Furthermore, the DC voltage level changes when the bypass button is pressed. I observed over a 1V DC level at times. It can easily be seen and measured with a multimeter or oscilloscope. When the effect is engaged, it causes the instantaneous switching of DC voltage at its two outputs, which is heard as a loud pop. This problem can easily be overcome by adding resistors from the outputs to ground. I used 100Kohm but other values should work. 3 resistors are required - one for the 1/4" jack, and two for the XLR output (the XLR output is of course balanced and one resistor is required from each side to ground). This worked very well for me, but your results may vary.

I use only the Talkbox setting, and it's awesome!

Built like a tank. But...Requires the resistor fix mentioned above to be useful. Otherwise, you risk blowing speakers. LISTEN CAREFULLY - NEVER USE THE TALKER WITH PHANTOM POWERED MIC SIGNALS!!! Once you do, you will likely have to send it in for repair, and you really don't want to have to do that! The resistor fix won't protect the Talker from damage caused by phantom power. Note - it wouldn't have been difficult for the Digitech engineers to design the Talker to be compatible with phantom powered mic inputs; this is just another indication of a poor design. But if you wanna make your axe talk, all in all, it's not a bad deal. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a backup for those cases when the soundman says convincingly "No there's no phantom power on that there mic cable". Maybe you can get him to pay for the cost of fixing the Talker once it's broken.

I sent my Talker in at least 3 times. They never fixed the popping problem or suggested how to do so. They have not admitted to a design flaw or botched repair, and probably won't for liability reasons. If you happen to mess up your Talker due to inadvertent hooking to phantom powered mic input, you don't have much choice but to send it in. To their credit, they will fix that for you.

Without the resistor fix, this product is less than worthless!!!! It can damage PA and guitar amp speakers with DC signals being switched on its outputs. With the resistors on outputs, the DC signals go away and the effect actually becomes usable. My rating reflects the usefulness of the effect with the fix in place.

Ez to use, But The Mic input can be a little quirky sometimes. Much easier than using a vocoder or talkbox live. I mainly wanted to comment on the the "Thump" situation.

I'm using with keyboards, and it's fun and funky. For keys I've found it best to have presets that are tweaked for the different Talker sounds. Regarding the "thump" problem see below.

After the first week of owning mine, I too thought there was a defect with the thump/pop issue. I sent mine back twice as well, and it was never fixed. It was actually comical to find out others here experienced the same thing.

After giving up on DigiTech ever resolving it, I finally came up with some simple solutions that I use depending on the gig, maybe this will help you too:

I use a Mic cable with a switch for the PA send and turn it off before I engage the effect. (not all that elegant, and fast on your feet, but keyboard players are used to twiddling knobs, singing, changing things at the same time. I've talked to our road crew about the possibility of making the switch on the cable into a footswitch, but it seems kind goofy to have to go through all that. Whirlwind makes cables with switches. I've tried splitters as well but the Talker never seems to work right with those.

Second solution: if I'm on a gig with different production and sound people- I let the soundman know about it and have him/her mute my vocal channel when I give them the signal---not too effective, because the sound guy often forgets to look, or forgets to un-mute me afterwards. So this one works best: I pop the damn thing on a downbeat, and hope I don't fry the guy's system in the process..

I've also done gigs where we've setup another Mic just for the Talker, and that works fine, other than me looking like I'm doing a press conference.

As to friendliness and being helpful I'd give them a 10, as to competence I'd give them a Zero.

They've got great and sincere people who talk to you to set up the repair, but I'm convinced when it actually arrives to the "tech" (who probably has no clue how this thing is to be used live)- he checks it with a meter and says "this switch works fine", and back in the box it goes.

Been playing since Nixon was in office. (you do the math) Professionally for the last 30 yrs or so... I work with a couple of different name acts. Used with taste the talker is a fun thing to use on a couple of tunes.

If I was making the decision to buy it again, I'd probably buy a nice wah-wah and woodshed with some Parliment instead.

Very easy...

OK, I found my holy grail sound with this thing, and not using the settings I expected at all...!!!

I have a guitar strung w/ heavy guage strings and tuned down to "B", so it's a standard guitar tuning but BEADF#B. I have a Chicago Iron Octavian which is a clone of a Tychobrae Octavia and sounds truly wicked (better than Fulltone Octafuzz). I ran this into the Talker and the best sounding setting when used with this pedal was the Alien setting! really surprised me because the Alen sounds pretty silly by itself and everyone here is saying the only decent settings are Nuvo or Talkbox. Maybe because the octavian makes the signal so LOW but anyway Alien was the ticket and I am getting big fat moogish Vocoder sounds especially down on the low strings of the guitar. just thought I'd share this in case anyone else decides to give it a try!

Ease of use is great! Just 2 signals in (instrument and mic) and 1 or 2 signals out (amp).

Use a good mic (sure 58 or something) and a FAT synth-sound for the optimal result (a synth-brass sound works best!)

The Digitech Vocoder can create some nice 'Talk-box'-like sounds, but without the dribbling an sour teeth.
Of the 6 effect-presets only 2 are realy useable in my opinion; the standard effect and the talk-box-effect.
I use mine with keyboards. It sounds great for leads and funky rifs but it also sounds excellent for making choruses under the lead vocal in a band. The quality of the imput sound and the quality of the used mic have GREAT influence on the sound quality!!

What bothers me is that if I connect a good sounding synth on it, I can bypass the digitech talker effect, but then the output is in mono. That shows it probably was designed for use with guitar. By the way; the guitarplayer of my band and I agree that it sounds better with synthesizer than with guitar.

Dropped mine a few times, but it's a rock!! No problems yet. The knobs look stirdy and the steel frame can take some foot-stomping.

didn't need it yet. ( i have it more than a year now)

I like this machine A LOT!! it makes me a real 'funk machine' and it works great on studio recordings and live!!! (you should see people's reaction if they here a computer voice shout out their names , haha!)

Very easy to use. It has a Bypass LED which lights when the effect is not being used. This seems backward to me. Also, it is too easy to hit the left button to engage the effect, making it necessary to press the left button a bunch more times in a row to get back to Talkbox, bascially the only useful effect in the box.

Excellent Talkbox effect. The rest aren't useful to me.

Damn thing has broken several times. It's built like a tank, but maybe my sledge hammer can get it open (which I am considering at this point, given all the trouble I've had with it). Even when I first got it, I noticed that it caused a popping through amp and PA outputs when pressing the right button, but it didn't seem unusable. After a few uses, something went way wrong and it wouldn't work at all. I sent it to Digitech and they did fix the "way wrong" problem, but the popping problem was still there even though I had asked them to look at it. It was usable at this point. However, after a few more uses, the popping got so bad that it made the PA sound like it was exploding every time the right button was pressed. I sent it to Digitech, but they didn't fix the problem. I sent it back to them again, and they sent it back to me promptly claiming it was fixed, but unfortunately, it still gas the loud pop problem. That's where I'm at now. I'm going keep sending the f*cker back to them until they fix the piece of sh*t, godd*mnit!!!!!!

See above comments. They say they can fix it. I don't know why the hell they can't seem to get it right. Your results may vary, but for me, this product has been ONE MAJOR PAIN IN THE *SS.

It would be my favorite effect if it actually worked. So far, it's been a $300 paper weight.

After trying to trigger a electrix Vocoder with a Boss bass synth, this thing is a godsend.

No an electrix, but good......good enough for my to use live.....and with the built in pad no trigger is needed, which is even better....

In the stuido I will still use the electrix and a synth (Korg Poly 800)......

I don't touch anything but NUVO......all I use it for is robo-voice.

don't know yet, had it for a week.

N/A

For $200 bucks it has made my set up alot easier......less clutter and rack units on stage......easy to set up and use, tracks rather well......I'm happy with it. The Electrix sounds much nicer, and is more versitile, but Hard as hell to use live.

Basically, It does it's job, and does it rather well........

It was very easy to get a good sound out of this unit.Hook up options are first rate and the manual very well written.

I use a '77 Strat and an '89 Strat with a ProCo Ratt2.The Nuvo effect is the only one that clear and intelligable.They should have a built in distortion though for guitarists.I can nail ROGER TROUTMAN'S sound with little effort.

Now here's where I got serious beef.This thing gives a horrendous thump through your amp and the PA system when you step on the switch to turn it on after a few months.It is so loud it's louder than the band stage volume.I sent it back to DIGITECH and when I got it back same problem.They then told me to take it back to SAM ASH and exchange it which I did.Afew months later same problem.I called them up they had me send it back again,got it back and not only was the switch not fixed but it was really screwing up when I tried to use it.

They don't know how to repair this unit,and instead of admitting they don't they just discontinued it and I'm out of $350.00 dollars.I will never buy a DIGITECH product again,that was my first and last.

I would never buy this or any other DIGITECH product again.The least they could've done was prorated the time that I used it and it actually worked then refunded me some of my money back.And that's really sad because before the problem started it was one of my favorite effects.So I'm back to the talk box('77 E-H GOLDEN THROAT)and after 24 years all I've had to do to it was replace the foot switch.So much for technology.

it's pretty easy, except setting the mic level where the effect won't get set off by the stage volume of the band. flip side of it is that it's much less of a hassle than setting up a Heil sound talkbox.

well, it's really gated sounding, and sometimes clips you hard. on the other hand, the sounds are pretty fun. at first rehearsal for laughs our pop band started playing "man in the box" and we all nearly died laughing we were so fired up. I like that it's true bypass when off, very nice.

I give it an honest 7. I rate these things as I see them.

looks pretty sturdy. i would use it w/o backup as if I lost this effect I could do without it for the night.

they were very prompt about getting me info on a replacement power supply online, which i then ordered from somebody else for $7 cheaper.

I got this unit pretty cheap used, and I have to say for the money I've really enjoyed it. It's fun for shows, the audience takes note and I've gotten lots of questions from other musicians. for the most part, it's like an envelope filter controlled by your mouth. sometimes it's kind of cheesy, very frampton/ bonjovi/ domo arigato mister roboto. but sometimes cheesy is cool. If you can pick one up for between $125-150, I say why the hell not. some people spend twice that on wah-wahs these days.

Effect level output, Guitar level input and microphone input controls presents a challenge to no one.

As I'll discuss in great lenght before, THIS IS NOT A TALKBOX, THIS IS A VOCODER. Judged under fair parameters then, it's incredibly versatile as is, if it will be used with just your guitar and mounth, but lacks (big time) of features when compared to other vocoders (manily targeted at vocalists or keyboard players), every time in processors or keyboards (even pro software or plugins) with price tags of 1,000+. Then, under tis own terms, this one might be the best, sounding, simplest, cheapest vocoder ever (also capable of convincing talkbox simulations) and you can't afford to miss it!

No patch editing, no fancy manuals, no firmware neither revision of it and no possible upgrade, just plug in and enjoy!

I've been wondering why so many people have had so different reactions about this effect, and I guess I know the answer already.

Most of past reviewers regarded this effect as if it is a Talk Box (which is not) instead of a VOCODER (which it indeed is). From there, arguments stop.

If you compare this unit vis-a-vis other vocoders (which but the way are almost non-existing devoted to guitar players) this unit is, indeed: 1. Cheap (no decent vocoder could be bagged nowhere for under 450 bucks) 2. Quality sounding (ever tried a Korg VC1? or even the ultraexpensive Nord Lead?, then you know what I'm talking about...)

The Talker utilizes Advanced Vocal Synthesis Technology (physical modeling, as any vocoder) and its factory presets (fixed, thus no editing whatosever is possible)consist of: Classic Vocoder (NuVo), talkbox emulation (TalkVox), exclusive Digitech "talking wah" and two other pitch altered flavors (down distorted -TazMania- and up clean -Alien-). Completing the package, there's an "AutoTalk" program (as in many vocoders) which shall produce modest, if any, results with guitar input (as with many vocoders).

Obviously, when used as some sort of "talk box" replacement, the only programs that will satisfy you will be the talk box simulator and the linear vocoder. Hence, if the sound of Peter Frampton, Joe Walsh, Slash, Alice In Chains, Aerosmith and countless others is exactly what you're after, go buy a Jim Dunlop "Heil Sound" talkbox It's unsanitary, it's crude sounding, it can be set up with one guitar amp, but requires separate microphone and mic amp... but it's under 250 bucks!

Let's go a little bit deeper into this: A VOCODER is an electronic device with, roughly, two inputs, a electronic musical instrument that provides the basic sound and pitch, and a microhpone input for your voice that provides the vocal intonations. In simple terms, it adds the speech patterns of your voice to the sound being played. The sound/pitch is usually driven by a synthesizer, but can be guitar. DigiTech's Guitar Talker uses this type of technology. On the other hand, a TALK BOX is a guitar and amp driving a midrange horn driver with a tube attached to the diaphram instead of a horn shaped sound output fixture. The open end of the tube is placed in your mouth and the guitar sounds are shaped by your mouth as if you were talking. Some commercial examples of this kind of talk box are: the Heil Talk Box, Electro Harmonix Golden Throat, Rocktron Banshee, Electro-Harmonix Soul Kiss, Korg AX30G multieffector & Kustom Electronics' "The Bag". Knowing that, everything gets more clear, and be certain that you can find many more alternative uses to this vocoder than you will with a talkbox.

Moreover, the "talkbox" is the thing you've heard in Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion"; Alice in Chains's "Man In The Box"; Jeff Beck's "She's A Woman"; Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" and "Livin' On A Prayer"; Eagles' "Those Shoes"; Foo Fighters' "Generator"; Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do?" and "Show Me The Way"; Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog"; Rufus' "Tell Me Something Good"; Scorpions' "The Zoo"; Steely Dan's "Haitian Divorce"; Stillwater's "Mind Bender"; and the unforgettable Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way". The VOCODER is what you hear in all of Draft Punk, Giorgio Mororder, Beastie Boys and Styx's "Mr. Roboto". As you'll agree, vaguely similar is not the same...

The Talker it's completely self-contained, no speaker connections or pop filters are required. Even when this feature is also present in E-H Deluxe Golden Throat and Rocktron Banshee, is very much welcomed, since it reduces the mess and enhances the tone. The Talker sounds g.r.e.a.t with guitar and awesome with a synthesizer, and it's (added bonus) a convincing talkbox e

Regarded as a stomp pedal is rock solid. Considering that is a vocoder, is unbelievable rugged. Nothing less than a 10 will do (in addition is cool looking!).

No need to contact them, so never did.

This is an EXTREME effect. Like an H-Bomb, is so radical that you'll probably use it once in while, unless you want that your audience kill you in annoyance of you are Draft Punk or some other tecnodullroboticspeaking dude. Therefore, if you've got 300 bucks to spare (or even less) to get an H-Bomb, this is a sure shot. BTW, if you want a talkbox, go buy a Heil Box.

I've been playing for more than 20 years now, both as professional and amateur, and nowadays own more than 30 guitars and many, many effects from the 80's to date. If you?re planning purchase, please do not disregard this guitar as some sort of ?novelty? piece, since there's a world of experimentation ahead and there's no cheapest, better vocoder out there (with the only exception of Craig Anderton's kit). From there on, you'll agree that its price tag is appealing, and you?ll find it amusing and tasteful, regardless of style. Considered as a whole, pricing is justified and you?ll be having a ball.

If you?re interested in pictures, original wiring diagrams, parts debriefing or just further details, be welcomed to my homepage at HTTP://ELECTRICGUITAR.50MEGS.COM

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?
The talker can produce authentic talkbox sounds, however to achieve the best sounds you need to have good quality pickups fitted to your guitar, otherwise it can sound very muddy. With quality pickups you can get a spectacular response from the talker (bon jovi/frampton etc). I give it a ten because it only has two switches and also you don't need to fit a silly looking tube like other voiceboxes/vocoders, you just talk into the mike. There are six preset patches which you can't edit and of all six only two of them are useable these are 'Nuvo' and 'Talkbox', Nuvo is the most intelligable patch, i'e you can hear every word and 'Talkbox' sounds like an old talkbox and does good take on living on a prayer.
The only downside to this unit is that you physically have to make a sound with your mouth so while you have to breath and the effect is only produced when you make a sound down the mike so the signal dies when you breath, however with practise it can be mastered.

My main guitar which i use with this is my strat plus deluxe (lace sensors) it makes this unit sing ( no pun intended ). Digitech recommend a distortion effect on your guitars signal before this unit (sounds best with a distorted guitar signal) and time based effets after it so i set it up as follows:
My guitar plugs straight into my Roc Pro 100 and in the fx loop i have, in order, talker, zoom 4040 (Me30 in 4040 Fx loop). This set up allows me to use the great distortion which my amp gives (via amp footswitch) and then selct the talker and bypass the 4040 as i never use an effect after the talker, there is no need but if i bypass the talker i can use the boss me30 and zoom 4040 as normal (i use the amp for distortion the effects boards are purely for delay chorus,etc. With my set up id give the talker a nine however with a lesser distortion pedal who knows?

I have used this effect for loads of gigs (with great audience reactions) and it has never broken down, after all its digitech and is encased in a steel chasis and has rubber feet to stop it from going skating. I don't have a bacup but this is a serious looking unit and i trust it.

Never had to deal with digitech

I play in a band which mostly plays rock and ballads and this pedal provides a great effect is used sparingly (don't over use it or the exclusiveness goes) i have owned many guitar effects and i'd say this is the most inspirational pedal i have evr owned it's irresistable to break into the it's my life riff and watch the whole band moan during rehersal. If it were stolen i would definately buy another. Well done digitech on another quality effects pedal. Take the dipp and buy it you wont be dissapointed, any questions or comments just email me

the unit is easy to use, its basically plug in and play. then when you have done that just go for it and see what happens.

with the exception of taz "devil voice" and auto talk the effects are grand, but when going through the rp7's distortion the effects sometimes sound over sensitive.

as with most of digitechs floor units i feel i could use it to hold my car up while i changed my tyres.

i have sent digitech a few emails and have had no reply as of yet andi will not be holding my breath for one either

i currently own an rp7, the talker and an old pds1550 "programmable distortion" all digitech, this is not an addiction to digitech, more like they effects had the sounds i wanted at the time.
as the talker is my first vocoder type effect i cant compare but the sounds from it are great and i would recommend it to someone wanting to acheive the vocoder style sounds.

How easy? I think I could teach a rhesus monkee to use it. THAT easy.

I'm running the Talker along with a Boss Distortion pedal(maxed out), and using an SM57 Shure mic, with LOTS of compression. I've stumbled across the fact that using a strong triangle wave gets me even more close to the Roger sound than a nice sawtooth. It still freaks me out. I've been looking for that sound for 8 years. Gets the Cher sound(w/Auto-Tune). Only the NuVo program for me. The others don't even matter.
The 10 rating is based on the Talker giving me what I need.

So far, so good

haven't needed it

I play mello-soul w/a radio friendly edge. There are elements of funk,classical, jazz, techno, etc. in my sound. The Talker is EXCACtly what I've been trying to get in a vocoder. Its The Bomb.

Very Easy to set-up. It's a no brainer. As a matter of fact the set-up makes the ussage of it easy. Instead of using a talkbox with a tube and an external amp. All you need is a Mic. The Mic goes directly into the unit. Not only is it easy to set-up, it's convienent.

What everyone else said is true. The only patches that sound decent are the NuVo, Talkbox, and Alien Patches. The best one out of all of them is the NuVo.

The Talkbox is the same as the NuVo, just EQ'd a little different and it has a little nuance to it. It sounds a little more muffled (not as clear) and the words sound a little different. It makes an attempt to mimmic a real talkbox. They do ok, but not that good.

The Alien is a little noisy. I would use it musically. I'd use it for a special FX for a play or something. It's OK.

The real beast is the NuVo. I do gospel music and I use it in church (all to the glory of God), and I have the Banshee talkbox too. So I tested it out. I taped the talkbox with the Banshee and compared it to the NuVo patch. Mind you, I'm using a keyboard not a guitar. The sound sounded better. The key to making it sound like Roger (Zapp) is tweaking the sound on your keyboard. To make it sound real I used a super Saw mono lead and I added a distortion effect to it. On this effect it has different options and I chose fuzz. Make the overall effect dry. The sound should sound almost like a motor engine (if you know what I mean). If you do this and play it throuhg the NuVo patch, it will sound just like a talkbox. In fact, it sounds better, because the words are understandable and clear. If you play the lead by it's it will sound very ugly. That's good. The more "fuzz" and the tighter the saw, the better.
*Don't use sine waves or squares. If you look at the wave pattern of a normal voice, it best mimics a saw wave. That's why the saw wave is the best to use. I fortunately have a Yamaha EX5 that has a portion of the VL1 on it, so my lead sounds very analog.
For that Vocoder effect; use a synth saw. Your synth saw should sound something like a buuuzzzzzzz or zzzzzzzz (if you know what I mean). This will sound very good when building fat chords. You sound kinda like an electronic Take 6. Still use the NuVo.
The key is to use your keyboard to get the sound you want out of it!

Never had a problem. It seems pretty durable. I'm not too sure about the electronics on the inside. You might fry something if you go in to it to0 hot from your synth

Never had to use them!!!

I play contemporary gospel, with a jazz/R&B/funk feel. I love this unit. I prefer this over my Banshee Talkbox, because it's clear and you can understand the words. Understanding the words is very crucial in Praise and Worship, because you want to exhort the people to praising God and not have the people sitting there wondering what in the world you are talking about.
The features are pretty good. You have various options: for different setups. I use a headset mic right into the unit with my EX5. If you don't have an additional channel out, you can use the same Phono out that you use for your keyboard. *Note: try to get a separate out, so you can EQ it like you want to. The NuVo and the Talkbox are the only ones I use. You have a bypass switch that you can hit with your foot to go from effect to keyboard. Pretty easy and convenient.

Other people had opinions on it, but my personal opinion is that this is the best on the market. If you can't get the sound out of it you desire; then just make the sound on your keyboard. Just like a talkbox, you have to make the right sound on your keyboard for it to work right. Even sin waves on a talkbox don't work as well. I talk to some guys and Roger uses a Yamaha DX7 and he uses some sort of super saw sound on his stuff.

Hope this helps

No magic buttons here... Very simple and straight forward controls.

The NuVo is great... All the other settings (except for bypass) are worthless. The noise gate is standard Digitech, pulling a Lorena Bobbitt on your signal... (CHOP! Sounds done!) I wish the noise gate would go away.

It's built of solid armour.

Hmm... Somewhere I read that this was the piece of equipment used in Cher's "Believe" and Kid Rock's "Only God Knows Why". I can't get my stuff to sound anywhere NEAR that. No one will seem to help me get it right. Anyone know???? Pleeeease????

It has yet to become one of those often used piece of equipment in my studio. All in all, neat product.

I would give it a ten but because of the different output levels of the presets you have to work something to get them equal

If you've never tried other vocoders/talkboxes you might think this is awesome but it just do o good job, it's too "clear" wich might be good if you want your words to be understanded clearly but I would have prefer a more dirty or "lo-fi" sound, in the "Nuvo" preset if you feed it with a non guitar or "sine-wave" like signal it just sound like if you were mixing them on a chepo mixer with almost no blending between the signals (especially with drum loop sounds); Of the 6 presets just "Talkbox" and "Alien" are the ones which are useful but "Alien" is the same as "Talkbox" with just a pitch shifter, the other presets are just unuseful and stupid, the noise gate wich activates the "Devilish" voice and the Auto Talk is set TOO HIGH just as Digitech usually does on it's procesors but this time you don't have a way to adjust it or disable it, it's just there!, the "Nuwah" preset it's just a BAD envelope follower, The "Hardwire" bypass is a GOOD point. I think the guy who payed +400 and give it a 10 on all of the categories is working for Digitech!

It looks very sturdy

I've e-mail them various times to make them comments about this pedal and possible upgrades for it but I've been ignored all the times, No replys yet!

I'm primarly a guitarist and I think It's good for live guitar perfomance but not for recording or other signal processing except for distorted and sine or square synth leads, the only preset that works it's the "Talkbox" 'cause "Alien" the other one which does it too it's the same just with a pitch shifter added, most of the multieffects today incorporate a pitch shifter and most of us have one in our rig, why do we have to pay for another one? it's pricey for just an usable sound, I think we will save more money if this were an "effect on/off" pedal only (just the "Talkbox" preset!), why they didn't use the white noise generator already built in to make a preset mixed with the guitar sound and not just with the voice? or, if they want to get serious into this vocoder stuff they at least should let you do some editing into this thing!, I bought mine without giving it a chech first 'cause I hadn't the chance to do it, (I just told a friend who travelled to the U.S. to bought it for me) and I thought it was cool 'cause of some comments I read in some magazine reviews, I live in Guadalajara, Mexico and here the music stores doesn't carry too much variety and new things (I've haven't seen one here yet after year and a half since I bought mine!, They doesn't even know it!), of course a dedicated vocoder will do a better job but this still has some nice features that a normal Talbox wont let you do and you doesn't have to put a plastic tube in your troath, I can sell it to you if you want it, just contact me.

Very simple interface. Just the program and bypass controls. The program button scrolls through the 6 effects onboard, and one can use the bypass switch (which is hardwired) and then scroll through the effects without having the different effects enabled.

The effects are very well made. This is largely due to the fact that Digitech spent 2 years analyzing voice patterns and applying it to the talker. For somereason, the effects have different volume levels, so in switching effects, you have to turn the volume down or up depending on which effect you are using. For some of the effects, you can play guitar, and then when you talk into the mic, the guitar cuts out and the voice taskes over, but you still need to be playing for the voice effects to work. On some of the effects like NuWah, there is no voice effects, but it is simply a guitar effect (which incidentally is very cool)

It is made out of metal and the knobs seem to be dependable and sturdy. I would have to use it without a backup because I can't afford to have two of them

Never dealt with them

I play mainly hard rock/ heavy metal so this is cool to make devil sounding voice effects (ie: taz effect which turns you into the devil himself). I only wish it could have the guitar coming through with the regular tone, and also have the voice effects working at the same time. This could easily be fixed via a splitter box anyway.

Given the flexibility, this unit is utterly simple, provided you have a mixing board. Both the "PA" out and the "Amp" out can be routed into the board (make sure to match the levels), then the effects can be panned using the "effect" control. The manual is simple to understand, and this unit is essentially plug & play

Insane...the best sounding effect unit I've ever heard. Sounds exactly like ELO, Out of the Blue album (the one with Mr. Blue Sky). But then it includes effects like "alien" which have built in eq/filtering to give you messier sounds if you like. The only one that sucks is the "NuWah" which is completely useless. Also, the "taz" (the devil voice) is great, but it gates on and off unpredictably. For vocoding, this unit is the finest ever.

Haven't had it long, but no problems to date

haven't called them.

Best applied to guitar with "metal zone" or similar pedal to compress and overdrive the signal, but also extremely useful for analog synth filtering (try the Novation BassStation with it). Also, clean guitar gives really silky tones too. Try running everything through it! Further, for the money it can't be beat.

Quite easy to use. Just plug it in, adjust your levels and fiddle around until a sound you like comes out of it. There's not much on the unit that is user adjustible. All parameters are hard wired in. This can be good and bad.

The straight vocoding effects are superb. These include the patches 'NuVo', 'TalkBox', and 'Alien'. They are astoundingly clear and intelligible; Far better (clearer) than even the most expensive vocal processors on the market can produce. Some people don't like this, because it doesn't sound like a "vintage" vocoder (if there really is such a thing) which basically means it's not muddy and difficult to understand. A slight touch of creative EQ'ing and you can get the old style analog sounds out of this unit with very little effort.
There are however three other presets available on this little silver box, 'NuWah', 'TazMania', and 'AutoTalk', and quite frankly, they all suck. 'NuWah' is basically an envelope follower auto-wah type of effect that not only has no reason for being in a pedal like this, but it fails miserably at what it attempts to do. I do not understand what made the Digitech engineers think that it was a necessary or desirable feature to have in a vocoder, but there it is all the same... If you're looking for an auto-wah, go buy an auto-wah. Don't expect much out of this thing.
'TazMania' Is very cool sounding, when and if you can get it to work properly. It's basically just one of the plain vanilla vocoder effects, but instead of using the "instrument in" signal as a carrier, it provides it's own built in white noise generator which gives you quite a devilish sounding voice. The problem is in the noise gating the brilliant Digitech engineers decided they needed to throw in for no good reason. It is not nearly sensitive enough, and it frequently causes the effect to cut out on spoken consonants which are normally a little quieter than vowels. Even if you crank the mic input all the way up to the point where the clip light is on solid red, it still isn't enough to get past the noise gate and your signal is constantly breaking up. What's worse, the noise gating is neither adjustable, or switchible. It's just there. You can work around this problem by using a buttload of compression on the mic signal and cranking up the treble, but this is an awful lot of nonsense to go thru just to get around this stupid design flaw.
This is the same problem with the 'AutoTalk' patch. It's basically the same as 'NuVo', except that great noise gate is enabled on it so that it can supposedly detect when you want to use the effect, and when you just want to play straight thru. Would be nice if it worked, but I'd rather step on the switch when I need the effect than have it decide for me. Especially when it's decisions are almost always wrong. Get a clue Digitech. You should never put a noise gate in anything without making it adjustable. Never!

It's not given me any technical problems other than the design flaws mentioned above. I cracked it open to see if maybe there was a surface mount adjustable pot controlling the noise gate or something, and it is quite sturdily made. I don't think it's likely to be damaged by any treatment you might want to give it save for extreme humidity. Digital electronics don't like that sort of thing. Especially not salt water. The jacks are all plastic though. Minus one point for that.

I wrote to Digitech to bitch about the noise gating thing, they responded within a day, but their response contained no useful or helpful information. I was basically told that I was imagining things and that there was no problem. Sort of an old Jedi? mind trick I suppose. Screw 'em.

It's a great vocoder, a terrible prodcut. Digitech really needs to plan things out a little more carefully in the future, and possibly even let some real musicians test out there designs (what a novel idea that would be!). The bad presets wouldn't bother me quite as much if it weren't for the fact that you have to step thru them in order to get to the ones you want (in typical Digitech fashion, you change presets by stepping on a single footswitch which takes you thru them all one by one in a forward direction only). Luckily, you'll probably be able to find the one preset you like, stick with it forever, and never have to worry about any of the other crap. If you really like 'TazMania', you can always build your own white noise generator and plug it on in to one of the regular vocoders without noise gating, which again, are really quite excellent. Would definately buy it again despite it's problems. Nothing else like it on the market for this price. I'm still not convinced that this should be a floor unit, nor that it should be marketed directly at guitarists. It's really something that tends to appeal more to keyboard/electronics types IMHO.
One final interesting tidbit: The tag that was affixed to the knob on this unit proudly proclaimed "Made in USA", however the silkscreened print on the unit itself says "Designed & made in Canada". Who's lying?
P.S. The other guy who reviewed this payed waaaaaaaay too much! $400???!

It's very easy to use. You cant go wrong. You can control mic, instrument and effect depth. Manual is also very good and helpfull in getting the most out of the Talker.

It's very quiet and the NuVo and Talker patches are incredible. Hook a fuzz/distortion box between the guitar and Talker and you sound just like Roger Troutman. Put a synth into the input (instead of the guitar) and you have cleen funky talking basses and synth's.

Yes

Very good. I get a serious informative response to every question.

The talker is probably best used with rap/soul/funk and dance music. If your into classical this unit is probably wrong for you. It funky, fresh and easy.