
The Voder, the First Machine to Create Human Speech - Hooke
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-voder-the-first-machine-to-create-human-speech
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angersock
There is a great book called "How To Wreck a Nice Beach" (
[https://www.amazon.com/How-Wreck-Nice-Beach-
Vocoder/dp/16121...](https://www.amazon.com/How-Wreck-Nice-Beach-
Vocoder/dp/1612190928) ) about the history of voder/vocoders.

The title comes from a difficulty in synthesizing the phrase "How to Recognize
Speech" and having it come out "How to Wreck a Nice Beach". :)

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brianzelip
Such a thorough and weirdo book!

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joezydeco
The Voder begat the Vocoder, which begat SIGSALY.

SIGSALY was a highly classified method of coding, one-time pad encrypting, and
decoding voice transmissions _during World War II_. Churchill used it to
communicate with the US and Allied commanders during wartime.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev1Mc_rOM74](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev1Mc_rOM74)

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versteegen
I never managed to find any recording online of what it actually sounded like.
I'd love to hear it.

"A recording of Churchill talking to Roosevelt is on display in the British
Parliament Building. It is very interesting to hear since the timing of the
recorded signal occasionally varies from that received. The spoken words were
added to a very loud Beethoven recording which can occasionally be heard."

So if I ever visit the UK I know where to go.

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Isamu
Not the first. Maybe the first electronic one.

Some from wikipedia:

.. the bellows-operated "acoustic-mechanical speech machine" of Wolfgang von
Kempelen of Pressburg, Hungary, described in a 1791 paper. This machine added
models of the tongue and lips, enabling it to produce consonants as well as
vowels. In 1837, Charles Wheatstone produced a "speaking machine" based on von
Kempelen's design, and in 1846, Joseph Faber exhibited the "Euphonia". In 1923
Paget resurrected Wheatstone's design.

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JoeDaDude
I've contemplated recreating this machine, in part because I'd like to "play"
it. There is plenty of material on the design and workings of the device but
there is precious little material on how the operators (referred to as "girls"
in the demo) were trained, a process that took months.

If anyone has access to such training material, please contact me:
The_Amazing_Dr_T (remove underlines) at gmail dot com

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guiomie
I really enjoyed the video linked in the article. I wasn't sure what to
expect, I found the Voder "voice" slightly creepy. Sadly I could not find an
emulator or tool online to input text and get a Voder audio output.

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khedoros1
> Sadly I could not find an emulator or tool online to input text and get a
> Voder audio output.

It seems like you'd need samples of the individual sound channels from the
machine, and then a program to map the text to timed signals to produce the
different sounds, along with pitch shifts, etc. Something similar to MIDI,
maybe (vibrato, pitch shift, and the different sounds as different instrument
numbers seems like it would work).

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schwarrrtz
99 Percent Invisible has a great episode on this device:

[http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/vox-ex-
machina/](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/vox-ex-machina/)

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drcode
It's interesting how lifelike it sounded (comparatively speaking) and how much
better it sounds than early electronic speech systems (like the Speak&Spell or
the C64 Sam
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0uexj4OsA4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0uexj4OsA4))

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djh_
I used Voder as a sample for a piece of music I made. Makes a really great
sample, really cool sound, particularly the different inflections.

[https://soundcloud.com/acadiamusic/she-saw-
me](https://soundcloud.com/acadiamusic/she-saw-me)

Sample starts at 1:35.

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kakarot
I enjoyed that. Thanks for sharing ~

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djh_
Thanks!

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SN76477
If you have an old Ensoniq sampler you can get a voder for it.

[http://www.chickensys.com/products2/sounds/waveboy/](http://www.chickensys.com/products2/sounds/waveboy/)

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userbinator
_Even if it sounded like a robot demon_

Maybe a fitting name for it would be Dorth Voder.

More seriously, here's an amazingly small JS speech synth based on a similar
principle (formant synthesis), and thus it has the same "robotic" sound:

[http://heckmeck.de/demoscene/tiny-speech-synth-
js/](http://heckmeck.de/demoscene/tiny-speech-synth-js/)

[http://www.p01.org/JS1K_Speech_Synthesizer/](http://www.p01.org/JS1K_Speech_Synthesizer/)

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woofyman
Kraftwerk immediately came to mind.

