Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    I built a PAiA vocoder for $100 and sold it to someone here.
    It is still $100.  It worked.  When I vocoded a pulse tone witha
    pro FM announcer, you could understand 9 out of ten words (no through
    signal).
    I think it has 4 filters per octave over two octaves.
    Laurie Anderson used to use it.  I don't know if she will at BAM
    next season.
    It was cute but I was going a different direction.
    Tom

    
    Korg and Roland used to have one or two vocoders, which were actually
    analog synths with vocoders on board.  They were expensive at the time
    ($1000 + ??) but we're talking pre-MIDI gear, here.....on the other
    hand I never see any going used, maybe they're all holed up in studios? 

    Hello,
    
    	I built a VOCODER from the schematic given in the MAY 1985 issuse
    of KEYBOARD.  It is the same design as the PAIA vocoder, which they
    sold in kit form.
    
    	I still have the schematic, if anyone's interested.  It is an
    8-band vocoder, optimized for VOICE INPUT.  Changing some resistors
    (in the filter circuits) allows optimization for INSTRUMENT input.
    
    _John_
    

    
    hmmmmmmmm, I thought that was in Elec. Musician....
    PAIA stuff never impressed me. You get what you pay for...
    Are you SURE that's the same design? 8 banks is minimum.
    
    Everyone know what were talkin about?
    
    Control input (voice)-->[ bank of 'format' filters]
				|  |  |  .....  |
				|  |  |  .....  | (control voltages)
				|  |  |  .....  |
    Sound input ----------->[bank of voltage controled filters]----->OUTPUT

    	The spectrum of the 'sound' input aproximates the spectrum
    	of the control input. The 'sound' input takes on the tone
    	qualities of the control, which is usually a voice.
    
    	Great sound. But just a craze? It DID have a distinctive
    	quality that could get old.
    
    	Could the new signal processors handle an FFT and subsequent
    	'spectral modification' of the sound digitally and hopefully
    	create a better approximation of the input spectrum (ie, the
    	equivalent of lotsa bands controlling lotsa filters)
    
    	sound 
        

    I am pretty certain that a modern FX box has a vocoder function.
    I thot it was dep50.  
    It's hard to adjust and mix.  On a Fame episode, carol burnett's daughter
    used one and you could just barely hear it.  The engineer has to
    know that it's a special effect to mix in properly.

    There is an article about digital vocoding in a computer music journal
    last year.
    Tom

    
    There's a cmpany in the U.K. that specializes in them -- a whole
    range of rackmount boxes. Anyone know the name?
    
    Richard.

    Roland also made a box called the DVP-1 [Digital Voice Processor].
    
    It was vocoder-like, except that it only had one audio and one MIDI
    input.  You plugged a mike into the input and talked at it.  Meanwhile
    you played on a MIDI controller board.  An internal synth in the
    DVP then generated the "carrier" sound and modulated it with the
    outputs of the formant filter bank.
    
    It was quite understandable- but it "lost" because of the silly
    internal synth (eight patches, no programmability).  I would have
    much preferred a vocoder that allows a user to jack in his own carrier
    sound or use an internally generated carrier. 
             
    However, I've got hopes for a vocoder someday.
    
    	-Bill

    
    I have Roland SVC-350, which was one of the rack mount devices
    from The Roland Rack series. It's a 10 filter design and has no 
    sound source of it's own so you have to supply both carrier and 
    modulation. It also has sliders to adjust the level relationship 
    between the banks. It sounds quite rich. Phil Collins used it on 
    "In The Air Tonight". I recommend it.  I believe they go pretty 
    cheap these days if you just manage find one. 
    
    Timo
    
                                          

    .6> There's a company in the U.K. that specializes in them -- a whole
    .6> range of rackmount boxes. Anyone know the name?
    
    I suppose you're thinking of EMS. 
    To my knowledge, EMS produce two vocoder models, the 2000 and 3000.
    Both are 16-channel, the latter having individual attenuators
    for each channel. There's also a 22-channel model (5000), but this,
    I believe, is only available to special order.
    
    It seems that vocoders are mainly used for non-musical applications
    these days.
    According to an article in Music Technology Magazine, vocoders were
    used extensively in the Falklands war, for scrambling secret
    communications. (And I thought vocoders were innocent little boxes
    from the prehistoric (=analog) days.)
    
    Anyhow, EMS can be contacted at:   
    
    Trendeal Vean Barn,
    Ladock,
    Truro TR2 4NW,
    England.
    
    Tel. 0726-883265	   
    
    
    JVE
    				    

    Vocoders are from Bell Labs, pre-1940.
    Tom

    
    And (supposedly) vocoders/voice scrambler technology was the particular
    piece of still-secret information that brought Alan Turing to the
    attention of the Crown in his post-war trial for "gross indecency
    between adults".
    
    What a wonderful history for the technology!
    
    	-Bill

>			< Note 2048.3 by MRSVAX::MISKINIS >
>                        -< Vocoder Schematic Available >-

>   	I still have the schematic, if anyone's interested.  It is an

	Are you still around?  I sent mail twice but you didn't answer.  I'd
really like to build one.

	Also, does anyone know what kind of job Pink Floyd used on
`A New Machine' part 1 and 2?  It sounds almost like the source input sound
was a Hammond organ.

--mikie--

    >>Also, does anyone know what kind of job Pink Floyd used on
    >>`A New Machine' part 1 and 2?  It sounds almost like the source input sound

    While were asking....does anyone know what kind of setup Midnight
    Star uses?
    
    "jackin' the house", Bob

	I was the anonymous person who bought Tom's PAIA.

	It works. Good toy for $100. I used it recently to do a performance
	art work where I took Bob Tilton's (a Dallas religious dial-a-prayer
	charismatic) voice and overlaid it on a Hammond organ sound. It works
	much better with limiters on both inputs and both outputs. Certainly
	could be built for less than $100 but it's not worth the effort.

	The filters are called "formant" filters, not "format". Formants are
	the result of many high-resonance filtering operations simultaneously
	on a high-harmonic-content source. Formants sound like this:

	aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy
	oooooooooooooooooooooooooo
	ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh  (imagine a monophonic tone)
	eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
	uuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 

	I built a formant generator from Bell Labs when I was a kid, it came
	with a nifty record of what ended up being HAL's voice from 2001, it
	sang "Day-zee, Day-zee, gib mee yoor ann ser doooooo" among other
	things they were doing in the 1960's with Hollerith cards and large
	banks of formant generators. The PAIA is a bit noisy, but what do
	you want for 100 bux.

	/pjh 

    Can somebody send me a vocoder schematic in france by INTERNAL MAIL.
    
    Thanks a lot.
    
    PAT.
    
    DIGITAL EQUIPMENT FRANCE
    11 avenue Joliot Curie
    Renouvel Patrick
    91000 EVRY CEDEX          
    
                            

    	If I got the plans for the PAiA vocoder (8 band), could someone
    help me with modifiying the design to be 16 band?  I mean, the formant
    filters are all configured for certain bands.  Is there a nice formula
    to compute the band, so I could expand the number of filters?  Ya know,
    so it will sound better?
    
    Mike

    You would have to calculate the values of the tanks for inbetween
    center frequencies and also new component values for halving the
    bandwidth of each filter.  it might ring a lot.
    The components would probably have to be smaller tolerance and more
    expensive as a result.
    Have you ever heard the PAiA vocoder?  It isn't bad.  When I had one,
    I could vocode a professional FM announcer into a pulse tone with no
    through signal and understand 9 out of 10 words.
    The main requirement for that vocoder, in my opinion, is limiter
    compressors on the instrument and voice input to prevent peaking and
    distortion, and higher gain on the mic input.
    Tom

    Hello doctors,
    
    
     One of you sent me SCHEMATICS of the Vocoder PAIA last year,
    
     but I had many problems of many sort , and could not begin 
    
     the VOCODER.  I gave to my cousin the SCHEMATICS,and he tell
    
     me that he need the "DRAWINGS"  I don't know if this term is correct
    ???
    
     to build the Circuits ?.!*#\' 
    
     Could somebody of you send me this Circuit Drawing ?
    
     My Internal Adress is:
    
      Digital Equipment France
      Bois Briard 
      Service IS 5113
      Attn PATRICK RENOUVEL
      91000 EVRY 
    
      THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR PRECIOUS HELP...
    
    
    
    Pat