WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.000 I'd like you all 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.000 to ask yourselves a question 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:09.000 which you may never have asked yourselves before: 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:13.000 What is possible with the human voice? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:21.000 What is possible with the human voice? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:31.000 (Beatboxing) 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:48.000 ♪ Ooh baby ♪ NOTE Paragraph 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:51.000 ♪ baby ♪ NOTE Paragraph 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.000 ♪ baby ♪ NOTE Paragraph 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.000 ♪ baby ♪ (Baby crying) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:58.000 ♪ baby ♪ (Baby crying) 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:03.000 ♪ baby ♪ (Cat meowing) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:09.000 (Dog barking) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.000 Yeah. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:19.000 (Applause) 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:27.000 (Boomerang noises) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:31.000 It was coming straight for me. I had to. It was, yeah. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.000 As you can probably well imagine, 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:36.000 I was a strange child. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:43.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:46.000 Because the thing is, I was constantly trying 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:50.000 to extend my repertoire of noises to be 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.000 the very maximum that it could be. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:55.000 I was constantly experimenting with these noises. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:57.000 And I'm still on that mission. 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:59.000 I'm still trying to find every noise 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.000 that I can possibly make. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.000 And the thing is, I'm a bit older and wiser now, 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.000 and I know that there's some noises 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.000 I'll never be able to make because I'm hemmed in 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:11.000 by my physical body, and there's things it can't do. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:12.000 And there's things that no one's voice can do. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:16.000 For example, no one can do two notes at the same time. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.000 You can do two-tone singing, 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:21.000 which monks can do, which is like... NOTE Paragraph 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:31.000 (Two-tone singing) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:34.000 But that's cheating. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.000 And it hurts your throat. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:39.000 So there's things you can't do, and these limitations 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:42.000 on the human voice have always really annoyed me, 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.000 because beatbox is the best way of getting 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:49.000 musical ideas out of your head and into the world, 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:51.000 but they're sketches at best, 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:53.000 which is what's annoyed me. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:55.000 If only, if only there was a way 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:58.000 for these ideas to come out unimpeded 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:03.000 by the restrictions which my body gives it. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:05.000 So I've been working with these guys, 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.000 and we've made a machine. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.000 We've made a system which is basically 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:14.000 a live production machine, 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.000 a real-time music production machine, 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:22.000 and it enables me to, using nothing but my voice, 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:26.000 create music in real time as I hear it in my head 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:29.000 unimpeded by any physical restrictions 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:31.000 that my body might place on me. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:35.000 And I'm going to show you what it can do. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:39.000 And before I start making noises with it, 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.000 and using it to manipulate my voice, 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:44.000 I want to reiterate that everything that you're about to hear 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.000 is being made by my voice. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:51.000 This system has -- 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:53.000 thank you, beautiful assistant -- 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:58.000 this system has no sounds in it itself 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:00.000 until I start putting sounds in it, 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.000 so there's no prerecorded samples of any kind. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.000 So once this thing really gets going, 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.000 and it really starts to mangle the audio I'm putting into it, 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:12.000 it becomes not obvious that it is the human voice, 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:15.000 but it is, so I'm going to take you through it bit by bit 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:17.000 and start nice and simple. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:19.000 So the polyphony problem: I've only got one voice. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:21.000 How do I get around the problem 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:23.000 of really wanting to have as many different voices 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:25.000 going on at the same time. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:27.000 The simplest way to do it is something like this. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:33.000 (Beatboxing) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 By dancing. It's like this. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:39.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:08.000 Thanks. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.000 So that's probably the easiest way. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:17.000 But if you want to do something a little bit more immediate, 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:19.000 something that you can't achieve with live looping, 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:21.000 there's other ways to layer your voice up. 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:23.000 There's things like pitch-shifting, 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:24.000 which are awesome, 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:26.000 and I'm going to show you now what that sounds like. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:29.000 So I'm going to start another beat for you, like this. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:37.000 (Beatboxing) 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:38.000 There's always got to be a bit of a dance at the start, 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.000 because it's just fun, so 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:42.000 you can clap along if you want. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.000 You don't have to. It's fine. Check it out. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:49.000 I'm going to lay down a bass sound now. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:56.000 (Music) 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:03.000 And now, a rockabilly guitar. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.000 Which is nice. But what if I want to make, say, a -- (Applause) -- 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.000 Thanks. What if I want to make, say, a rock organ? 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.000 Is that possible? Yes, it is, 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.000 by recording myself like this. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:29.000 (Organ sound) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:34.000 And now I have that, I have that recorded. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:35.000 Assign it to a keyboard. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:41.000 So that's cool. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:49.000 But what if I wanted to sound like the whole of Pink Floyd? 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:51.000 Impossible, you say. No. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:54.000 It is possible, and you can do it very simply 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:58.000 using this machine. It's really fantastic. Check it out. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:15.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.000 So every noise you can hear there is my voice. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:40.000 I didn't just trigger something which sounds like that. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:41.000 There's no samples. There's no synthesizers. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:45.000 That is literally all my voice being manipulated, 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:49.000 and when you get to that point, you have to ask, don't you, 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:50.000 what's the point? 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.000 Why do this? (Laughter) 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.000 Because it's cheaper than hiring the whole of Pink Floyd, 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.000 I suppose, is the easy answer. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:03.000 But in actual fact, I haven't made this machine 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:05.000 so that I can emulate things that already exist. 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:08.000 I've made this so that I can make 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:09.000 any noise that I can imagine. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:12.000 So with your permission, I'm going to do 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.000 some things that are in my mind, 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:16.000 and I hope you enjoy them, 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:18.000 because they're rather unusual, 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.000 especially when you're doing things which are 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:25.000 as unusual as this, it can be hard to believe 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:26.000 that it is all my voice, you see. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:35.000 (Voice effects) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:51.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:03.000 Like this. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:08.000 (Music) 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:38.000 So, loosely defined, 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:42.000 that is what's possible with the human voice. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:44.000 Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:49.000 (Applause)