The AIR Vocoder

A quick look at the Korg Digital Voice Processor (DVP-1) from 1986, which was used by Air on numerous productions, including "Kelly Watch the Stars" from Moon Safari.
The DVP was originally designed to give programmable voice effects at an affordable price, but you can run any audio signal you like through it. There's four main engines or "modes":
Vocoder (as the name suggests, a digital vocoder)
Harmonize (add five intervals to an audio signal, also has chord memory)
Int Wave (internal digital waves that can be played via midi)
Pitch Shift (digital pitch shifting)
There's a built-in chorus effect, unison and poly modes and patch memory.
Editing is tedious, but easy; select the parameter button and use the legend on the top of the unit to find the number of the required parameter, then use the value editor to change it. There's various settings for the different modes including formant shift, waveforms, pitch envelope, modulation generator (LFO), harmonizer intervals, chorus speed, intensity, type, MIDI etc etc
0:00 Intro
0:59 The Modes
2:53 Summary & Sexy Boy
Huge thanks to my Patrons who help keep this channel going:
Alex Tucker
Sean Igo
James Huth
Nulani t'Acraya
Kael Driscoll
Nera
Erich Beckmann
i.4m rt47
Tony Shannon
db_shazam B
David Albone
Svlad Cjelli
Paul Smith
Alexander Shvartskopf
Marcel du Bois
Taleau
Benjamin Müller
Matt THOMPSON
Matthew MacDonald
Henning Harperath
Joerg Mueller-Kindt
Alyxx the Rat
solina
Polykit
Stuart
Andrew Fiorella
Graeme Bentley
VimWolf
Paraworld Blue
Petter Nordström
Richard Marshall
josh ludlow
Ian Pritchard
James Cockroft
jer
Colin Allkins
Paul Sheridan
Eric H Klaver
Andreas Horst
john chamberlain
Wrought
Erik Ribeiro
Daniel Pirone
Evan Harmon
Make Something
David Aubespin
Tim Hazeldine
Ashlyn
Stephen Brothers-McGrew
PrepGwarlek36
Chris Wiley
Nathan Hand
Rolf the Whatever
Mark Rowe
Chris Jeter
John Hamberger jn.
Florian Wittwer
Nicolas Ocampo
Viiri
Blonks
Darrin Tidsey
Jrod Ohio
Jon Malinowski
Dominik Merscheid
a TV that looks like an apple
Russ Smith
Jason Kostempski
Andrew Pam
Entomopathogenic
Evan Ferguson
Mercz
Robert Fisher
Serge Pontejos
Umberto Lenzi

[@DavidLee07]

Is Alex now the AIR apparent of vocoders?

[@PaulBoos]

Alex Is Retro (AIR)

[@Maggai]

😂

[@GNeuman]

I was sat in a café bar in Zürich, drinking an espresso and eating a croissant one Saturday morning, early autumn of 97 and this amazing, unique sounding album was playing in the background. I hurriedly called the waitress over and asked her in my (then) broken German what CD were they playing. She understood and brought the CD case over and it was Air, Moon Safari. I knew then immediately at that point that this band were going to be massive... What an album.

[@uly1981]

Those early AIR albums are classics - wonderfully written music, produced with great care and just oozing character

[@Gencoil]

I love all their albums, pure perfection. I wish they would come back.

[@oliverscarlin]

​@Gencoil they have both done some pretty sweet solo work in the last years! (Sadly other than touring, they no longer collaborate)

[@EA7KVH]

I really love AIR. Their first recod "Moon safari" is perhaps the flagship of lounge music.

[@Maddolis]

Also (perhaps more specifically) referred to as 'downtempo,' similarities with trip hop but without as much of the hip hop and not typically as dark. This record got me into Zero 7 (their first two in particular), Morcheeba etc.

[@fungibu7184]

There was something magical happening around French electronic duo scene. Daft Punk, Cassius, AIR and later on Justice. Some of my favourite electronic music.

[@hb-fc3jj]

Don't forget the Crydamore and Roulé labels, both run by different members of Daft Punk. The Eternals - Wrath of Zeus is French House masterpiece which slaps hard. 12 bit samplers and 909s galore. Ooh la la

[@jamesbowsher-murray128]

@@hb-fc3jj can’t find this (on apple and Spotify). Where are you listening to this?

[@hb-fc3jj]

@@jamesbowsher-murray128 kzbin.info/www/bejne/nXWTfn1rqq-raZI

[@hb-fc3jj]

@@jamesbowsher-murray128 Thank me later 😉

[@hb-fc3jj]

@@jamesbowsher-murray128 They were 12" vinyl only labels who also done a couple of retrospective mix CDs/best ofs Like a lot of pioneering indie labels, their back catalogue hasn't made it to the streaming services yet. I'm thinking Rephlex, Mo Wax et al. Some of the big albums are on streaming like Shadow/Krush but the nitty gritty 12" gems haven't had the same appraisal. Probably copyright issues since the majors cannibalised each other in the early 00s and old licensing deals died

[@OTOss8]

I've been to a lot of concerts over the years and I'm lucky enough to have seen AIR play a number of times. One of the only true encores I've ever seen at any show was played by AIR. You know how you'll go to a show, and the band leaves the stage, then the band comes back on and plays their "encore" songs but they're not spontaneous. It's not an extra bit of show that was played to satisfy the insatiable demand. It's all planned out and really, for 99% of shows, there is no encore. Not so with AIR though. It was The Darkside Of The Moon Safari Tour (AKA 10,000 Hz Legend Tour) and Air was doing a quick June/July jaunt through the US and Canada. The 6th of June was a beautiful day in Vancouver. It was somewhere around 20°C with a gentle 15 to 20 km/h breeze from the south. Our destination that evening was the legendary Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver BC. If you've ever seen the photo of Kurt Cobain playing guitar while doing a headstand, that was taken in the Commodore a little over a decade before this evening. The Commodore lives on the second floor of a building on one of the busiest entertainment streets west of Toronto. At ground level, Golden Age Collectibles and the Granville Book Company had not yet been evicted from the Granville mall to be replaced by stores belonging to multinational fashion companies and Charlie's across the street was still a great place to go for skookum deals on used CDs and vinyl. I remember waiting in line for the show with my then girlfriend and now wife and as the security made their way up and down the line. I ended up chatting with the guy in charge of the rodeo. After a bit of banter and some persuasion he allowed us to slip into the venue before the rest of the crowd. It's funny, I remember him offering me a job. He said I had the right temperament for it and if I ever wanted to work security to come chat with him. I went on to make much worse career decisions, but that's a story for another time. Once we got inside, a roadie was making some final adjustments to the theremin that Sébastien Tellier would end up making love to for 45 minutes as the opening act for AIR. His set was more energetic than I was expecting and perhaps a titch more sensual than the crowd of my fellow Canadians were prepared for. I remember him talking about his songs in French. I think at least half the audience understood him even though we're about a week's worth of driving away from the French speaking part of the country. One phrase he kept repeating while talking about his music was, "jamais les batteries." Never any drums. Never any drums. To his credit, it would doubtless have been difficult to maintain a steady four on the floor while playing piano or while trying to seduce an instrument that reacts to you inserting yourself into its warmly inviting electromagnetic field. The other thing that stood out about Sébastien's set was that rather a large number of the house lights were still on. I suspect it was because people were still filing in prior to AIR taking the stage. It just struck me as very odd at the time. Sort of like watching a movie with the house lights on. Sébastien left the stage and slowly the place started to get more and more full. I was keeping my eye on a door that lead backstage and I saw Nicolas Godin’s and Jean-Benoît Dunckel briefly emerge from it, make their way toward the bar, then return a few minutes later. If people noticed who they were, they didn't let on, but the pair kept their heads down and were moving quickly. Around the same time Jason Falkner popped out of the same door and wandered to the bar for a drink and strolled around the room at a much more leisurely pace. I'm certain almost no one recognized him but by the end of the night, everyone realized what a great musician he was after he played lead guitar all show and contributed vocals alongside AIR on People in the City, The Vagabond, Lucky and Unhappy, Radio #1 and a few other songs. More and more people trickled through the door and from where we were standing near the stage, jammed in with a few hundred other people as we were, the lovely mild day was starting to turn into a very warm evening with sweaty new friends. AIR took the stage and immediately had the audience in the palm of their hands playing very polished but clearly live and subtly different versions of the songs people had come to see. Nicolas Godin was wearing a nicely fitted suit that was completely black with slick shirt to match but even better than that and much more surprising, Jean-Benoît Dunckel took the stage wearing what can only be described as a black vampire cape, complete with enormous upturned collar. It was both amazing and ridiculous and when he spread his arms wide to display the full majesty of the garment and the crowd erupted into deafening cheers. If that wasn't enough, he had accessorized the cape with a pirate's eye patch. The majority of the set was from the 10,000 Hz Legend album but they mixed in a few songs off Moon Safari. They ended the show as bands do, then came out for the mandated "encore" and played a very uptempo version of Sexy Boy and left the stage triumphant. Most nights in most towns, that would have been enough to shut the joint down, but that night, Vancouver wasn't having it. We stomped and cheered and clapped rhythmically and bellowed at them in their native tongue, "Encore! Encore! Encore! Encore!" The pair came back out, gave the crowd a wave and a little bow then vanished again. The chants of "Encore!" grew twice as loud and doubled in pace. The foot stomping became so vigorous, the dance floor began to flex and bounce enough that I could feel myself being lifted ever so slightly upward with each rebound the floor made. It's long been rumoured that the floor was constructed over a bed of old tyres stuffed with horse hair giving it the legendary bounce that it's famous for in these parts and on that night I could definitely feel myself being pushed upward by the collective energy of the crowd and the flexing of the unusual floor. Maybe AIR weren't expecting to feel the entire venue start to vibrate and sway and after about ten minutes of this they sheepishly took the stage again, perhaps out of obligation, perhaps out of love for their fans, perhaps just out of fear. This time Nicolas Godin had an acoustic guitar with him and he said in his broken English, "I'm sorry, we don't have any more songs prepared. What do you want from us?" The crowd shouted song suggestions and after some deliberation he treated us to an acoustic version of Kelly Watch The Stars. He bantered with the crowd and from where I was standing I could see him and Jean-Benoît blush as the crowd heaped praise on them for an outstanding show. I've seen some real good shows at the Commodore but this remains one of the best shows I've seen there. When we saw it, the iPhone was still about six years away and about eight or nine from becoming ubiquitous so, for a relatively small band like AIR, there seems to be no known bootleg, no known video recording, nothing. Perhaps they have one? Probably not though. So, unless one of those recordings shows up, as best I can remember, that's the way it happened. How does it make you feel? Edit: Spelling etc.

[@randomaztec2208]

I can feel the vibes.. Decades and 1000's of kms away

[@mmrva]

How about writing a blog?

[@schubertludwig]

Thank you for spelling that out for us so marvelously. What a way to relive sth I never experienced myself!

[@oliverscarlin]

This is amazing, what an exciting time to see them, my favorite Era of theirs. Thank you for sharing❤

[@OTOss8]

@@oliverscarlin You're very welcome friend. They seemed genuinely nice and there's nothing Canadians like more. If you're ever in Vancouver, be sure to catch a show at The Commodore Ballroom. The Queen E is great too but a totally different vibe. Cheers friend.

[@Peter_S_]

Nice bit of kit and I love Air. That brought back some unrelated memories... I wrote a DSP pitch shifter in 1995 and was using an Alvin & the Chipmunks CD as source audio when I discovered that Alvin's voice was simply their human Dave's voice shifted up an octave.

[@AlexBallMusic]

Excellent discovery.

[@darwiniandude]

A lot of early pitch shifting stuff was just audio at 2X, because of fixed speeds on reel-to-reel tape machines, I believe. Like Fish Heads by Barnes & Barnes - slow it by half to hear many of the tracks as they were recorded. More well known and far older, is Witch Doctor by David Seville from 1958, which has chorus vocals at 2X. I suppose now I'm thinking of it not only was 2X possible with tape technology of the time, but it obviously still works musically being an octave lower or higher. Anyway this Korg unit is pretty amazing for the era. I only knew of Roland's Variphrase which came much later - although that allows formant control too.

[@andrewjacobs3731]

When I saw the title I assumed it was gonna be like air guitar 😅

[@merseyviking]

Isn't that just singing? 😂

[@AlexBallMusic]

Not starting lip sync battles quite yet. 😉

[@earlfunkton2745]

You’re looking stacked and striated dog! 💪

[@AlexBallMusic]

I've adjusted my pulse width.

[@XavierRadix]

Putting other instruments besides your voice through a vocoder is so much more fun. Glad you demonstrated that perfectly!

[@AlexBallMusic]

Yep. Might do a video of weirder stuff at some point - piano vocoding a banjo etc. There must be so many new sounds to find.

[@XavierRadix]

@@AlexBallMusic I'd love to see that! Good idea :)

[@wingflanagan]

I went to Funky Town to meet Mr. Roboto. Couldn't find him, so I asked Mr. Blue Sky, who said he was on Planet Caravan. It's gonna be a good time - I Can Feel it in the Air Tonight!

[@VarionJimmy]

😁👍👍

[@AlexBallMusic]

Oh, Superman was there too.

[@andlinux]

When I heard you do the Air track, I thought I was back in the late 90's, this gave me back those good summer vibes. Summer sun, nothing to worry, easy life as a teenager. The good old times.

[@AlexBallMusic]

Yeah, deciding what you were going to do with your friends that day was the only thing on the agenda. Remember it well.

[@DJKL]

Really interesting. I love the idea of putting drums and other sound sources through it. I recently discovered that my Roland System 8 allows you to use the vocoder line-in with any/every patch and it's been incredible experimenting with them all.

[@kaekae4010]

one of the songs that I have in the internal memory of my brain is La femme d'argent. It's literally reading air anywhere and those chords come from the depths lol.

[@oscar_charlie]

I think Air deserve to be placed on top, together with Kraftwerk, on the best use of a vocoder. Great demo, as usual. Always a pleasure watching them.

[@brunosco]

Nice! 😀 I fell in love with vocoders back in the 90s and still have an SVC-350. Didn’t know this one… Oh, et j’aime beaucoup Air !

[@AlexBallMusic]

The 350 is great. More flexibility than the 330. Seekers Voice Spectra is still my favourite.

[@brunosco]

@@AlexBallMusicAnother one I didn’t know (never really spent time digging into that rabbit hole), but I see you have made videos about both, so they’re now on my « watch later » list. Great channel you have (including the music, really quality content)! 🙂

[@justindpeak]

Alex Ball + AIR = Instant Watch!

[@kerzwhile]

OMG... I completely forgot about this gem!!😮 Very nice showing sir! 😉

[@PaulBoos]

Woohoo! The first vocoder I ever owned (and still own). Nice to see you cover this... I didn't realize Air used it. That is cool... I actually love using the internal voices and just playing them myself.

[@AlexBallMusic]

Yeah, those voice-like tone generators are fun. They remind me of the VP-330 choir.

[@MichDWhite]

Super fun to do these tricks with the MS2000 vocoder too!

[@davidharrison5873]

I don't know how many hundreds of times I've heard that song... never knew what the lyrics were!

[@AlexBallMusic]

I like sandwiches, you like sandwiches, yeah?

[@pakey423]

Funny, for years I was thinking of buying a DVP-1, because Vangelis used it on his song Message on the Direct album (modifying his voice into the 'Alien Child' voice), but they were difficult to find and I wasn't sure if I should buy it only for the reason that Vangelis used it. Recently 1 unit appeared for sale not that far away from me, but I still wasn't sure. But watching your video convinced me to buy that unit immediately, because I'm sure that a lot of your subcribers are now interested in having a DVP-1 as well, so prices will go up..... ;-) Thanks for the video Alex, it really helped me decide to buy a DVP-1!

[@AlexBallMusic]

Excellent. Enjoy!

[@judsonleach5248]

Love it! - PS - I just ordered one of those Korg Volka Sampler 2's!!! - The mail man is gonna be my "Best Friend" today!! - FACT!! LOL Cheers! -Judson & Buddy!! - God Bless You ALL !!! 🙂 PPS - Who's got 4 AA rechargeable batteries for "Music Papaw"?!? LOL 🙂

[@Pablo668]

Well, within about 5 seconds of the vid starting I wanted one of these. Great vid. Very cool bit of gear!

[@saat178]

It's funny how different the impact Air has outside of France, I've seen a ton of foreigner talking of them, but only a few French, and being quite young when it came out, it has less mainstream impact than DP/Cassius/Etienne de Crécy/Saint Germain

[@AlexBallMusic]

That's interesting. They were huge in the UK.

[@saat178]

@@AlexBallMusic certified gold in France (100k album sold), certified double Platinum in the UK (600k sales) a huge difference

[@needfortweed8734]

The whole sticking other instruments through the vocoder makes me want to try that out for myself on my Korg VP-550

[@filtercustoms3031]

It was also heavily used by Michiel Van der Kuy so it's also the " Laserdance Vocoder "... and all of his Projects The King of dutch Italoesque Space Disco

[@Gazdatronik]

The DVP-1 was a miracle. The fact that we had a digital vocoder that actually worked in 1986 is a ridiculous idea. Add in a pitch shifter, its amazing that nobody knows what the hell it is.

[@callakracker]

YES!!! I was always wondering how Air did that famous "gurgling" on Sexy Boy. I love you Alex Ball.

[@AlexBallMusic]

You're welcome. Although, I did have to stick the dreaded musical hose pipe in my gob to do it. Talk boxes are so weird.

[@callakracker]

@@AlexBallMusic They are gross when you think about it. How do you clean yours? Run water through it and let it dry?

[@AlexBallMusic]

@@callakracker Yep, soapy water and let dry.

[@tihinter]

I’ve been playing a musical show for several months during the pandemic. Every second show another keyboard player took over. And we had a talkbox there. I asked a pharmacist for help, and she recommended using sterilization wipes as used by medics. We rubbed the outside and as good as possible the inside of the tube with a fresh wipe. Worked great and was very inexpensive.

[@SailfishSoundSystem]

Always thought it was a Bode vocoder. Thanks.

[@craigie13]

Ah, spotted the KPR77, my all time fav drum machine.... Apart from the DDM 110....... 😜😜

[@AlexBallMusic]

Yep, acquired a peach with the box, bag, power supply, cables, cassette, manuals, brochures and sales receipts! Was a really good price too. I'd been waiting ages for one that wasn't hundreds of pounds.

[@silvertongues2]

The pitched down voice sounds like it was used on their Virgin Suicides album

[@AlexBallMusic]

Could be!

[@qrdnk]

...more than just a fantastic vintage toy

[@AlexBallMusic]

Yep, there's a lot of experimentation that could be done with the harmonizer in particular.

[@JeanDearCanada]

I feel like a Montreal Expos jersey would have been more appropriate for such an exotic piece of francophilia.

[@tinysmallfryskitchen8610]

I love them and that has reminded me I’ve not listened to them for a while.

[@thimthim777]

Such a great sound. It would be really cool to know what vocoder AIR used for each song on "Moon Safari."

[@bobbyx5373]

Ooh I have one of these, I’ll have to dig it out 😮

[@macronencer]

"Moog through Talkbox". Ooooooh, nice!

[@AlexBallMusic]

Ooo-wah-ooo-ooo-wah-ah

[@jakobole]

Lovely quirky!

[@steveh8658]

What a unit! Hey, thanks Alex that's really interesting.

[@orchestratedpassage9468]

keep lookin' for the AudioPilz cameo...😄

[@AlexBallMusic]

He is the vocoder king.

[@molekulaTV]

Great weekend video for sure. Get into that album deeper! Do it! Do it now

[@kaitlyn__L]

Moon Safari and some Basement Jaxx album (maybe Rooty but I think it was the prior one) were my introductions to electronic music! That’s probably why I love Vocoders.

[@russ254]

me too!

[@AlexBallMusic]

Classic times. 🙂

[@callakracker]

Ah Basement Jaxx. Where's Your Head At? and Do Your Thing are timeless to me. Especially the latter. *BUDABADABUDABADABUDABADA BBEDABEBEBEBE BUH BUDABADA BABA BA BA BA*

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@callakracker heck yeah. They were on the Rooty CD, which came later when we got a car with a CD player in! The first album I heard of theirs was thus on tape, and I don’t know which one it was because I’ve not found anything which quite matches it in their CD releases. Maybe it was a compilation album.

[@callakracker]

@@kaitlyn__L Compilation albums have helped me get into several bands at once. So that's great. My introduction to Basement Jaxx was them being on the soundtrack to a game I had as a kid called SSX 3.

[@koosfockens1707]

excellent bit of kit, and great video again :-)

[@AlexBallMusic]

Cheers.

[@sauermusicDE]

Roland had a device called "VP-70 Voice Processor" back in the days (around 1987 or so?).

[@tomahzo]

My fav vocoder is definitely the SVC-350 because of the warm, funky sound. The DVP-1 is a bit more tinny-sounding but has a few more bells & whistles like you discovered ;). Good complement for sure! Always love me some tinny, glitchy, first generation digital sound processors :). I was never sure how GOOD that box was, though. The SVC-350 sounds good no matter what you do to it but the DVP-1 might require some tweaking to get to the right sound. You make anything sound good, though. Very nice video!

[@RawUndergroundMusic]

This machine makes me think of “the bass that ate Miami” and the vocoder from “Miami Bass wars II”

[@justins-d9825]

I've been wanting a DVP-1 for ages but I've never found one for sale for a reasonable price. They sound great, I love their pitch shifting algorithm.

[@darwiniandude]

Yeah I'm actually really surprised it sounds as musically useful as it does, given the age of the tech and the relative impossibility of realtime pitch shifting at the time.

[@russellyoung6498]

Wonderful!

[@paulcatt2335]

Fabulous gear. Fabulous album. Why do I feel like a sandwich?

[@AlexBallMusic]

🥪

[@cassettedisco6954]

Maravilloso el vocoder, saludos desde la tierra del taco 🌮 México 🇲🇽❤ thanks Alex Ball!!!

[@markgriffiths5122]

sort of a co-incidence because I have one of these (and the MXR Pitch Transposer). I've used it for one sound only..somewhere in it is a solo female voice which is very like the one on the Chamberlin, it was something like "Lady Voice". With a bit of auto-bend it's quite a useful sound for me. I got it cheap, I've seen broken ones go for twice what I bought it for.

[@princepaul5557]

That was cool!

[@dylan_kelly]

Short, sweet, totally complete.

[@lukemillionmusic]

This inspires me to fire up my DVP-1. Don't think it's been switched on for 5 years lol

[@AlexBallMusic]

You totally should!

[@glenesis]

Great tracking!

[@AlexBallMusic]

It's surprisingly good for a budget 80s unit, yeah!

[@vinylarchaeologist]

When you say “this particular unit was used by Air”, do you mean it literally? As in the physical unit right there with you in the room was the one used on the album? If yes, care to share the story?

[@kaitlyn__L]

I’m pretty sure “this very unit” means more than just the same model yeah!

[@AlexBallMusic]

It's not _the_ one that Air used, but it's another one. I imagine Air might still have theirs, I'll have to ask.

[@nictrax]

Brilliant 👍

[@dougalwilson9612]

Merci beaucoup Alexis das war wunderbår!

[@AlexBallMusic]

Dank you zehr much.

[@dougalwilson9612]

@@AlexBallMusic Also great soundtrack for my pal Chris Landy's short 'Pixel Soldier'!

[@JoshRichmanDesign]

@Alex do any plugin vocoders OR modern Korg have these vintage settings/ capabilities to get the exact vocoder sound of this unit & AIR?

[@officialspacehawk]

Michiel van der Kuy used it a lot in Laserdance.

[@knobsswitches]

Great! I have never had the DVP in my focus

[@AlexBallMusic]

Not a hyped or particularly amazing piece of gear, but a lot of fun.

[@NicholasBryantBonzaiSequoias]

Well if Korg can squeeze a DX-7 into a Volca.. We can hope they watch this video and bring this unit onto our desktops pronto! :)

[@andyjames362]

Short but sweet video this week. Fantastic nonetheless!

[@AlexBallMusic]

Yeah, quick look to cover it off. Didn't think it needed a deep dive.

[@ManCalledMif]

2:57 😮 awesome sound

[@pinkowls2546]

When you mentioned Sexy Boy I thought you would be talking about the vocals. Did they use it also for the female vocals in Sexy Boy? At first I thought they used a female singer, but when I listened more closely to the album track, you can hear the dry male voice. Also, we are all waiting for the Volca Vocoder ("Volcoder"), I guess this model would be perfect as the basis for the Volcoder.

[@AndersEngerJensen]

Hey! I have that one! 🥸😂😘 There’s a melodic demo of this on my channel for those who would be interested. ;)

[@Mouxbar]

Worth a visit for the Kim Wilde cover 🙂

[@AndersEngerJensen]

@@MouxbarHaha, very happy to hear that! 😎🤘🏼

[@AlexBallMusic]

As seen in a certain Korg documentary. 😃

[@this_connor_guy]

Quite lovely! Have you fiddled with the Digitech VHM5 Vocalist before? That's a fun one to run synths through. I like to run my MS20 through it for some fun sounds. :)

[@haydenduvall162]

It's a chunky fella. Feels like the Korg Interface Design Department phoned it in a bit on the layout, though :)

[@matthewh2012]

Finally!

[@marlonalvez9502]

Muito maneiro!

[@eancurtis9333]

🔥

[@vinniefray7299]

OOOH YEAH

[@bernyboss]

Great video and nice vocoder, even if it’s digital and not analog. Can you make a new video about analog vs. digital vocoders? BTW Alex, you got thinner mate! Synth diet? 😉😉😉

[@RoyChartier]

...aaaand the prices on these just doubled.

[@ryel4189]

Hey Alex, just thought I should let you know that you uploaded the same track for both the 3rd Wave Intro and Flight Risk on Bandcamp.

[@AlexBallMusic]

Ah, thanks for the heads up!

[@matthewharty6531]

grand lad

[@gladlawson61]

What brand is your watch? I like it

[@Emehanika]

Alex похудел сильно)

[@zibbybone]

I still have one (check out my channel for quick demo of it). Not the same unit I owned in the early 90s, but what I mainly used the DVP-1 for back then was adjusting the pitch on sampled loops after they've been sped up or slowed down (to match tempo) on my Roland W-30.

[@AlexBallMusic]

The harmonizer and pitch shifter have a lot of potential, yeah. The vocoder is quite functional.

[@nondogma4799]

❤

[@MonsieurC64]

Hi Alex, I love this Air track but something's been bothering me for years. As an english native speaker maybe you can answer this question : Is "Kelly watch the stars" proper english ? To me it doesn't sound like something a native speaker would say. Does it even make sense ?

[@IcySlavKat]

This almost looks like the same Vocoder that Peter Howell used for his arrangement of the Doctor Who theme in 1980

[@AlexBallMusic]

Another rack Vocoder - the Roland SVC-350.

[@Anamnesia]

I saw one of these back in the day for sale 2nd hand - going for fairly cheap... Unfortunately, friends managed to talk me out of buying it! Instead I recently got myself a 2nd hand (worse for wear, but still working) *_ROLAND SVC-350 - VOCODER_* ...

[@AlexBallMusic]

The 350 is classic!

[@Anamnesia]

@@AlexBallMusic A longtime acquaintance demonstrated his 350 doing the Drumloop trick to the Inputs... But then used the S/H switch on the 350 to create variations! Really cool... 😎

[@mrbreaker101]

*he wasn't using a vocoder in the intro. He'd just inhaled a LOT of helium.

[@kristoferulfves2677]

Cool, didn't realise that Air used DVP-1, thought they were using VC-10 also on record as they are doing in this live clip from 1997: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXXIZqGsmp1pZsk

[@AlexBallMusic]

They had several - VP-330, VC-10 and DVP-1. The use was confirmed by Nicholas Godin. Listening to the record, I actually wonder if the VC-10 is mixed in with it because there's a little whispery layer going on that's separate and I remember the VC-10 being able to do that.

[@SanderAnderon]

OK finally got to ask, Alex --- the Astros t?

[@AlexBallMusic]

Raided a vintage t-shirt rack and I just liked the look of it. Had no idea who the Astros were.

[@Rompler_Rocco]

You should do a quick one like this featuring a new one each month, and call it something really lame like "Monthly Vocoder Shoutout"!

[@erikdam8850]

00:00:49 I heard "Eternal Tone Generators" and had to pause the video in order to regain control of certain parts of my body.....

[@kendanger748]

Kenny wash the starch?

[@Mouxbar]

Sounded like The Knife vocals on pitch shift, hmm.... all you need is a lump of black pudding in the other cheek and your entry into the The World Gurning Championships is sealed! 🙂

[@AlexBallMusic]

😂

[@MaggieKeizai]

Yeah, dude, I *DO* like sandwiches. Like, a lot. Thanks for acknowledging. Sandwiches forever!

[@AlexBallMusic]

🥪🥪🥪🥪🥪

[@trharding]

I do like sandwiches, how did you know?

[@AlexBallMusic]

Had a hunch about your lunch.

[@peterstanchion3197]

A floating vocoder?

[@Sweaty_Ken]

thanks, now I think it's 1998 and I have a comedown...

[@gravityfreaksmusic]

Have you been working out?

[@stoatystoat174]

:)

[@tz64nk41]

2:30 this kind of sounds like the drums on "We Share Our Mother's Health" by the Knife

[@AlexBallMusic]

Kinda does, yeah. Sounds like they used a more lively pitch shifter with feedback, the DVP-1 is a bit too tame.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

I think alot of people will know the Micro Korg vocoder, I wonder how much of the DVP1 is in that.

[@AlexBallMusic]

No idea how similar the technology is. I'd guess quite different given the years between the two? Korg has a long vocoder history going back to the VC-10. They do seem to like making them.

[@egregiousviolations8033]

AIR Yordan