History of the vocoder
If you’ve listened to pop music in the past 40 years, you’ve probably heard more than a few songs with a robotic sound. That’s thanks to the vocoder, a device invented by Bell Labs, the research division of AT&T. Though the vocoder has found its way into music, the machine was never intended for that function. Rather, it was developed to decrease the cost of long-distance calls and has taken on numerous other uses since.
Music journalist Dave Tompkins has written a book about the vocoder and its unlikely history. It’s called How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder From World War II to Hip-Hop.
Tompkins says the machine played a significant role in World War II. After the U.S. government discovered that Winston Churchill’s conversations with Franklin D. Roosevelt were being intercepted and deciphered by the Germans, it decided to invest in speech-encoding technology. So the National Defense Research Committee commissioned Bell Labs in 1942 to develop a machine — and Bell Labs delivered.
The vocoder wasn’t without its flaws. Intelligibility of speech sometimes proved a problem, but Tompkins says pitch control was a bigger concern.
“They didn’t mind world leaders sounding like robots, just as long as they didn’t sound like chipmunks,” he says. “Eisenhower did not want to sound like a chipmunk.”
From Military Base To Music Studio
The vocoder experienced a major transition from military device to musical effect when Wendy Carlos used it on the soundtrack for 1971’s A Clockwork Orange. Carlos did a vocoder interpretation of the fourth movement of Beethoven‘s Ninth Symphony, which Tompkins says exposed the vocoder in unprecedented ways.
“Essentially, that introduced the vocoder to its first major audience,” he says. “A lot people had no idea what it was. As the vocoder evolved, they knew the voice but had no idea where it came from.”
After A Clockwork Orange, though it was still an expensive technology, the vocoder saw wider use in music studios. The German band Kraftwerk was one of the first musicians to employ it in its work. It fit perfectly, Tompkins says, because the band’s work was primarily electronic.
Later, in the 1980s, the vocoder became the voice of electro-funk hip-hop. Michael Jonzun recorded what is believed to be the first hip-hop vocoder album, Lost in Space, in 1983. The futuristic sounds complemented the synthesizer, which became widely heard in music from that decade.
The vocoder is less prevalent in today’s popular music, but its legacy lives on. Its successor is Auto-Tune, the pitch-correcting software prominent in popular music today.
To read excerpt from the book and order go here >>
Re-issuing the old electro classic
Dieter Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia) is one of the most important protagonists of avant-garde electronic music in Germany. Conny Plank is the most legendary sound engineer of the German Underground (NEU!, Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Cluster, DAF etc.)
They got to know each other through their work on Cluster’s 1971 album and remained friends until Plank’s death in 1987. They made a congenial pair as musicians, as amply demonstrated by their brace of albums “Rastakraut Pasta” (1980) and “Material” (1981) which are now being reissued by Bureau B. Both releases come as a CD digipak and 180 gram high quality vinyl.
Read the full story here >> PDF BB48+49Moebius+PlankOneSheet
Kraftwerk Kover Kollektion by DJ Food
If you’re in the mood for some Kraftwerk check out this hour long mix of covers.
Kraftwerk Kover Kollection Volume 6 by DJ Food
http://soundcloud.com/strictly/kraftwerk-kover-kollection-volume-6″
Kraftwerk as barbie dolls
Artist Dirk Roessler created these awesome Kraftwerk action figures.
As much as you might like to get your own set, though, they aren’t available for purchase.
Roessler explains:
I collect Kraftwerk records since about 1993. I’m a real fan of them!
So in the year 2000 I’ve decided to sculpt them – just for myself.
I’ve bought some old Mattel Ken figures (that guy from Barbie, you know) at flea markets, “decapitated” them and sculpted the Kraftwerk heads to apply them onto the bodies.
First of all I sculpted them and then I built moulds and casted them with resin.
Then I realized how hard it is to get some clothes for Ken – even in good toy stores!
So I had to sew the red shirts and grey pants on my own – horrible work!
Thank god I found some black shoes at the flea market!
Kraftwerk action figures seem like a completely natural thing, given the groups iconic robotic man-machine presence.
The 20 best electronic albums in the past decade
Hi all
Time to sum up the past ten years and list the 20 best / most important electronic, electro, EBM and synth albums that has been released. This is of course a tricky quest and will most likely create some debate. Numerous of good albums has been released and I have certainly not listened to all of them, but still someone needs to make a statement :-). The albums are listed in order of importance, but may not be absolute, in the sense that – if they are rated as number 6, they could easily be argued to have place number 7 instead etc, but still…
Number 1:
Kraftwerk – Tour de france soundtrack
Number 2:
The Knife – Silent Shout
Number 3:
Goldfrapp – Black Cherry
Number 4:
Covenant – Skyshaper
Number 5:
Colder – Again
Number 7:
Daft Punk – Discovery
Number 8:
Felix! – Kittenz and thee glitz
Number 9:
Welle: Erdball – Die wunderwelt der technik
Number 10:
Suicide – American supreme
Number 11:
DAF – Fünfzehn neue D.A.F-Lieder
Number 12:
VNV Nation – Futureperfect
Number 13:
Röyksopp – Melody A.M.
Number 14:
Rammstein – Mutter
Number 15:
Vive la fete – Republique populaire
Number 16:
And One – Agressor
Number 17:
Jeans Team – Musik von oben
Number 18:
Recloose – Cardiology
Number 19:
Melotron – Sternenstaub
Number 20/21:
Télépopmusik – Genetic world
System – Self organizing
Retro Musical Droid Arrives… from the Future
If HAL 9000 mated with R2-D2 and their electronic offspring was tutored by Kraftwerk it would probably end up something like the Bliptronic 5000 LED Synthesizer.
At once a minimalist musical plaything and a hardcore old-skool synthesizer, the Bliptronic defies categorization as it belts out 8-Bit style style tunes from its grid of glowing buttons.
You’ll notice sound similar to a retro Casiotone with an interface not unlike a simplified Yamaha TENORI-ON… if that makes any sense. Either way, once you start touching the keys of the Bliptronic you’ll be hooked by it’s simple pattern-based approach to music.
Product Features
- Unusual retro synthesizer is played with a grid of glowing buttons
- Create looping patterns and change them dynamically while playing
- Chain multiple units together and create more complex melodies
- One octave range. 8 notes can be played simultaneously
- 8 different old-skool synth sounding instruments to choose from
- Sounds created using FM waveform synthesis
- Set the BPM (beats per minute) from 60 to 180 in 20 BPM increments
- Built in speaker with headphone jack and line-out jack
- Front panel is constructed from brushed aluminum
- Includes, manual and 2 link cables for connecting additional Bliptronic units
- Requires 4 x AA batteries (not included)
Doepfer, Dieter and Kraftwerk
An interview with the great man himself, taken from the documentary ‘Totally Wired’.Dieter talks about the inspiration for the A100 series, his collaborations with Kraftwerk, and the future of modular. Unmissable!
‘Totally Wired’ is available on DVD from amazon.com
Kraftwerk's Sennheiser Vocoder in action
Since people have understood that I am keen on vocoders I got an e-mail the other day with a link to a video clip with the original Sennheiser VSM 201 from Kraftwerk in action
Owned today by DJDonotask
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjn8PU5s4uQ&feature=player_profilepage]
Cheers Ola
Fancy wallpapers of your favorite synthpop artists?
Stereoklang has put together a page dedicated to synthpop nostalgica. The page will be filled over time with things like; what synthesizers did Kraftwerk use in this or this video/gig etc.
In the mean time check out some of the uploaded synthpop wallpapers that has been gathered around the web and if you have any of those orginal artists you would like to submit we are more than welcome to upload them as well, e.g. YMO, Logic System, Yazoo, Welle:Erdball, JM Jarre etc
Kraftwerk songbook
Have you ever wanted to play Kraftwerk songs by the camp fire on your guitar – now Bosworth has made it easy for you by publishing the Best of Kraftwerk Songbook.
http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/0700021/details.html
The songbook contains arrangements for piano, vocal and guitar for 12 Kraftwerk songs, all collected from their 1970’s albums “Autobahn”, “Radio-Aktivität” and “Trans Europa Express. The complete list of songs:
- Autobahn
- Kometenmelodie 1
- Kometenmelodie 2
- Radio-Aktivität
- Ätherwellen
- Antenne
- Ohm Sweet Ohm
- Trans Europa Express
- Metall Auf Metall
- Schaufensterpuppen
- Spiegelsaal
DATAMASKIN
