It is, DP is the talk box king. Proof coming soon...
The one in my avatar is a Rocktron Banshee which i used for the past 5 years. But now i use a custom talkbox made by Terry Troutman, brother of the late great and all time best talkboxer of all time Roger Troutman. The Heil talkbox is pretty good but honestly it never sounded right to me, the horn driver inside is just not that powerful IMO. But it's good if you are barely learning how to talkbox. I would suggest you get a banshee though cause it's much simpler to use since it has it's own power supply and you dont need an amp for it. Mike Philly is tight! I've seen him play the talkbox and i agree with you that he is amazing! But if you really wanna get the ultimate talkbox sound i would suggest buying (or building) your own custom talkbox. It is really easy to do all you need is a horn driver, a little box, and a soldering gun. Also get a Yamaha DX100 thats the same keyboard that Roger used and i can hook you up with the Roger Patch so you can achieve the same sound as he did.
Oh man, you got a custom talkbox from Terry??????!!! How did I not know about this before??? That's fucking sick man! I'm a massive Zapp & Roger fan. My cousin has all the original vinyls and I think I was about 9 years old when he sat me down in his studio, pulls out Zapp I on vinyl and drops More Bounce. I've been a hardcore Z&R fan ever since. I've got all the CD releases, all Roger's solo stuff like The Many Facets Of, Bridging The Gap, Unlimited.......I got Roger Troutman II's album....
Sometimes when we play live, my cousin will mix in Zapp samples over a couple of our tracks life. Dance Floor is his favorite to mix in over one of more popular tracks.
there's a few things still unavailable on CD though which sucks cos I don't have decks here at my place, so I just pull out the vinyls at my cousin's studio all the time - like for example have you heard the album "Sugar Kiss" - by Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner from the Ohio Players? He did the Sugar Kiss album in the 80's and Roger produced all of it. It's fucking dope.
Ah, man that would be dope to build one. My cousin was talking about doing it before. Do you think you can send me a PM with some more info about how to do it? That would be tight man :thumb: And yeah definitely hook us up with the patch too!!
Man. We are going to need to continue this Roger discussion for sho!!!
I grew up listening to Zapp and Roger and they are one of my all time fav. bands. My cousin was real cool with Larry Troutman and actually took me to a Zapp concert back when i was a little kid. I got to meet all of them including Roger but i was so young i didn't even think that i would someday grow up to love this mans music. My cousin even gave me a Zapp IV promo poster autographed by all the members that he had put away with some other Zapp memorabilia that he still has. I framed that muthafucka up and it's in my studio right now.
But yeah if you wanna build your own talkbox hit me up and i will give you the diagram on how to build it and i will give you the codes so you can input the Roger patch into your keyboard. I think i might make a thread in the Art Of War section on Talkbox 101. There is so many different sounds, pitches, and styles you can get on a talkbox. It all depends on the talkbox you use, keyboard, patch, etc. I alone have 4 different talkboxes that i use for different tracks. If you are really interested in learning to talkbox, i suggest you get yourself a DX100 and a Rocktron Banshee. It's the best way to go. Just to show the things you can do with the talkbox, i was bored the other day and did a quick More Bounce remix. Check it out in the link below.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/3209803d2af94a/