A complicated 1980's kit to build a whole vocoder! POWERTRAN ETI VOCODER

[@curtishoffmann6956]

I want more of the toilet roll song! It's sounds really flush!

[@cleverhardy5230]

Sounds flush! 🤣🤣🤣

[@officedurapquebecois]

The drum machine + poly synth combo was glorious

[@emdotambient]

Vocoders are so awesome, but they are rarely used to full advantage. Everyone immediately goes for the robot voice thing, which is cool and all, but hardly the most creative use of these devices. It's kind of like using a sampler to only play songs using a dog barking or something. You can get more interesting results when you start running guitars or anything other than a voice through them. I remember my music collaborator and I using a PAIA vocoder in the early 90s where we used a guitar as the carrier, and a sequence from an Ensoniq EPS as the modulator. It turned the guitar into an otherworldly gurgling, bubbling water sound.

[@VarionJimmy]

Totally agree. 👍👍👍 I was honestly a bit surprised when I noticed that most people thought that putting drums, guitar, etc thru it was a new thing. I’ve always had two things I tell people who just started and wants new inspiring gears: Get a reverb/echo. And get a vocoder. -And experiment!

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

While it was an expensive project back in 1980 (£175 in 1980 is about £1000 today!) I had a friend who played keyboards and other electronic instruments and he had had it demoed to him at a show and thought it was a bargain, a commercial instrument of similar quality would be 3 or 4 times that. Powertran produced some amazing products, I only wish I had the money and skill at the time to build one or two of them!

[@professornuke7562]

Good old ETI. I built several kits. I built the ETI 480 50watt amplifier as my first guitar amp, and a little 5watt one as a practice amp. Used it for years.

[@tcpnetworks]

I built the ETI 499 amplifier - and I also built the Electronics Australia Playmaster 3. I ended up with 4 of them in a surround sound setup. They were all good.

[@donerskine7935]

Richard Becker and his wife owned Powertran. Elektor magazine also published a Vocoder design.

[@timesquare5473]

Indeed; I worked for them for 3 months.

[@skyrocketautomotive]

If that was a Georgio Moroder impression at 10:55 you nailed it my friend 😅 What an awesome and versatile machine!!

[@PaulTheSkeptic]

I want my voice to sound like this all the time. I wonder if I can have one surgically installed. Then instead of speaking normally, when people say "Some weather we're having eh?" I can say things like "Atmospheric conditions are adequate to maintain peak performance on all my systems.". Or "This food is good." "Thank you for the information fellow human. I also intake dead bio matter in a disgusting process of digestion instead of more efficiently recharging like a higher life form would."

[@dfxmonkeyhead]

I built the Paia vocoder... sitting on a rack in my garage gathering dust. I should go rescue it and see if it still works - it actually never worked all that well; I remember being slightly disappointed after I finished it - it didn't perform as well as I had dreamed. The ETI sounds like I wanted the Paia to sound.

[@pheotus]

Man I wish there was a diy kit made today of this.

[@neeneko]

yeah, as much as I love all the FPGA and SoC systems we have today and the projects people build off them, I kinda miss this style of kit. tindie has some, but what I wouldn't give for someone to reboot the old heathkit kits or stuff like this.

[@GizzyDillespee]

There's somebody from Kazakhstan, on MW forum, who's selling unpopulated PCBs to make a clone of an old German (I think) vocoder... there are projects like that, but I don't know of an affordable convenient kit?

[@MattOGormanSmith]

Julian Ilett built a copy of this a few years ago. You can still get all the components and have the PCBs made, kzbin.info/aero/PLjzGSu1yGFjXKZ5igKxwlgfGdy25yZoPN

[@VarionJimmy]

Yes please 😁 I saw the responses. To bad that KZbin doesn’t allow links…

[@fluke196c]

@@GizzyDillespee What is the MW forum? Can you drop some links here so I can find what you're referring to?

[@markedis5902]

I miss the electronics magazines. Used to waste a lot of time drooling over the adverts.

[@BillHustonPodcast]

Man, that thing sounds great! I built a PAIA vocoder when I was a kid, and I never could make it sound good. The filters really kind of sucked, IMHO. Needs a sharper Q? Or more stages? Dunno what the secret is. I also tried building one in Pure Data, and could never get that Phat Sound!

[@Super8Rescue]

I have always wanted a vocoder. Kenny Everett was the Genius when it came to vocoders. He sung my name jingles for radio with a vocoder back in the 70's Plug a keyboard in to it to play chords with the vocal.

[@professornuke7562]

He'd sing whole choirs with them, and use video feedback as well when he made it to the telly. But never forget the BBC radiophonic workshop. EXTERMINATE!!!!

[@NONFamers]

I read the first article on the ETI vocoder and desperately wanted to build one. However, I had several things working against me. Firstly, I was still at school at the time with only my allowances to save up from. Secondly, I lived (and still live) in Denmark, and electronic components were hard to come by. Thirdly, I never got my hands on the issue holding the second article in the series, and when I finally managed to track down a copy of it, ETI had gone out of business! However, I did learn a lot about the inner workings of a vocoder by studying that article. Thanks for sharing this!

[@miahsbrokengarage]

Amazing. I don't do synths, or vocoders, and I'm terrible on my guitar (though I still like to pluck the strings). But I love your channel. The energy you put into these videos and knowledge you drop is just perfection. Thank you!

[@wideyxyz2271]

Dude it doesn't matter how good you are as long as you have fun and enjoy doing it keep on keeping on!

[@Hoptronics]

I don't play anything.. I love music and electronics so I've been working on a project for my friends.

[@pianokeyjoe]

Ok.. so.. Now I hear what it is I have been wanting in a Vocoder since I was a child! In the early 80s no less! So I check eBay and everything vocoder is mostly modern electronic preseted vocoders.. nothing like this that has individual knobs and controls for EVERY function and part of the vocoder.. I have a ton of vocoders already but again NONE sound like this because none of them are analog. PAIA used to have a kit but from what I saw in youtube it is only 8 bands? There was something else out there for the USA market, where I AM, that was close? But today I am not finding it. Any clues? Analog vocoders or at least kits that can still be built using modern parts?

[@tomahzo]

Your seventies twin DEFINITELY needs more screen time :D.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Love the vocoder-enhanced narration parts, they give off strong Kraftwerk vibes, or a cheesy scifi movie with an army of murderous robots

[@Kaminskip]

That sounds awesome with the drum machine running though it!

[@infn8loopmusic]

@10:00 putting drums through a vocoder 🤔😲 not sure why I never thought of that. I've been trying to build more musical / but percussive drum sounds. That's exactly what I need!

[@dcallan812]

Neal Armstrong was a big synthesiser user, he loved the echo you got in space, apparently it was out of this world (echo in a vacuum🤣😂) Interesting vocoder 2x👍

[@mediaphile]

In space, no one can hear you scream...

[@wideyxyz2271]

@@mediaphile In the Nevada desert at night with a synthesiser you can pretend you are on the moon!

[@MattOGormanSmith]

His nightclub was awful though,. No atmosphere.

[@robertkielty5094]

The KZbin caption generator as a vocoder decoder was un-phased up until the load of Toilet Roll Mumbo Jumbo Song.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

6:45 Cat was laying relaxed but is now looking at Me in confusion looking like He is thinking "What the fxxx is that sound?".

[@Doctormix]

😍

[@dfxmonkeyhead]

Love the 70's fro and stache. You were really, groovin', man. Right on! Solid and outta site!

[@padders1068]

Sam! Brilliant and hilarious as ever! Keep up the good work mate! 🙂

[@shansoley]

Admit it Sam, you played a Dalek before making music.

[@shawnlennon1947]

excitation signal? my schematic refers to it as a "good vibration signal!"

[@sojiro288]

Sounds like the vocoder used by the bestie boys on intergalactic

[@mikrikbell]

Hitting my ears like Intergalactic by The Beastie Boys

[@StooCambridgeArtist]

Since watching BattleStar Galactica in the late 70s I wanted a vocoder. The sound of the Cylons - Awesome! They were used so much during those early years, defined a lot of music of the day. Love it! Vocoder'tastic!

[@littlebacchus216]

And cheaper than the ARP 2500 synthesizer they used.

[@helpermonkey6641]

Battlestar Galactica. I thought the same thing.

[@gamusino78]

Quickly, watching this video, the memory of this song came to my head like a punch... Beastie Boys - Intergalactic, could you do a version of the theme with it?

[@catface101]

What does a harmonica thru a vocoder sound like?

[@hjalfi]

I actually had to stop this video in the middle to go watch The Beastie Boys. You know which song.

[@i_never_asked_for_an_alias]

Love your enthusiasm in everything you do.Big love my good Sir.

[@EdEditz]

That sounds amazing! Very Battlestar Galactica Cylons ^___^ (Well they used an EMS 1000 for that so no wonder it sounds very close). I think the 14 or 16 band Vocoders sound the best. I love these things. That patch at 16:00 sounded awesome too! Very Daft Punk I thought. ^^

[@curtis8516]

Is that shirt a Todd Rundgren reference?

[@catandtheostrich]

By your command, imperious leader!

[@teaurn]

Ooh, getting Astro Blaster vibes from parts of this! "Alert, Alert. Invader in Sector 1, Player 1 to battle stations!" God, I'm old... 😁

[@pswanberg1]

someone get this man a level and stable table.

[@jenshoffmannolsen]

why?

[@weapea]

You should have seen my cats react when he hears that voco-delay The first time 😳😂

[@morris7025]

Intergalactic, planetary, planetary, intergalactic Another dimension, another dimension... 🙃🙃🙃

[@suitandtieguy]

I really like how Powertran used the KLF font. hadn't noticed that until now and as a synth nerd who is obsessed with the KLF I'm rather disappointed in myself.

[@swedishpsychopath8795]

Why isn't there a plastic tube instead of the microphone? Like the one DrMix has got?

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

That's not a vocoder. That's a voice box

[@swedishpsychopath8795]

@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER Ohhh... thanx for the clarification. Me stupid ape.

[@MrGlenfraser]

I used to talk to his brother John Becker about this back in 2003 when I worked at Essex Radio in charge of Engineering. John used to live in Kent at the time but travel down to another electronics magazine.... This was a great product and later In the 1980's they issued I am sure some mods to that project with values etc...... I will try to visit your musium one day as when I left school in 1981 I worked on ZX81's BBC Micros and a host of other computers repairing them as my first job....and at Amstrad.

[@davidmarshall5665]

I love seeing all these old synths and the building processes but I’ve never wanted any of them like I’ve wanted this vocoder❤️❤️

[@gnarlysoundscapes7210]

That last jam vocoding the bassline was badass. You should build a whole song around that.

[@Barnaclebeard]

YES!! VOCODER are the coolest instrument OF ALL TIME and anyone who disagrees is a dirty dirty shizno ha ha ha

[@JanicekTrnecka]

Why the hell did I recall the scene from Monty Pythons meaning of Life, when I heard words "juices flowing"? Roughly at 13:15

[@russellwaite5874]

I really enjoyed this one ! Just past 14 minutes I thought you were about to go into DALEK mode. :-) I remember them when they first came out, ( black and white ). While I'm here, Just wondered if you'd had time to do a bit of tuning on the organ ? ps, I still play around with my old Echoman EM150 analogue echo unit, good fun. Take care and keep it up

[@sapphiresphone7144]

In each filter band, is the voice element the control or the input to the VCA? The article initial text indicated it is the control, but later explanation was the other way around. Which is it? Also, thank you for the detailed description and walk through, learning a lot!

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

In actual fact it can work either way round. But look at the block diagram cv comes from excitation. In the end it would work like a four quadrant multiplier so similar results either way

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

Regarding the vca that is

[@baddriddimworkshop]

i found that when you speek in the mic at the lowest freqs your vocal chords get go (you know like odb at the beginning of a tune), how can i explain, you know whati mean, that kindof weird vibratin voice tone, whatever, speak like this in the mic when using a vocoder, you will see what you say get exytremelly lear and you can use low freq vocal chord vibration voice timbres in combination with the vocoder to acheive different textures of speach...

[@MEANASSJAMSTER]

yeah, - using a drum machine to modulate the amplitude of whatever synth; - that's one part of the current scene in reason studios (OBJEKT) ...I like my virtual instruments but also value real ones as I don't like to fire up an entire DAW desk just for relatively petty things... - those boards look easy enough to assemble = I would just get my boards made by PCBWAY etc ...I did plenty of pcb making and even built a Z-80 computer test jig there at THANET... = be careful what legged birds you invite back to your flat, - you can be back on the road with nothing in NO TIME!!!

[@Jkauppa]

try a water hose transistor computer (similar to a vacuum tube transistor computer), yep fully mechanical, similar to a switch computer

[@danhat606]

Diggin' the 80's dress up----Although you look like one of the Scousers off Harry Enfields show lolololo!

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

3:00 The Smash Aliens called - they want their colleague back!

[@pauljs75]

Which setting is more fun, Cyberman or Dalek?

[@jochenstacker7448]

10:43 channeling Giorgio Moroder, I LOVE it!😅 Sam, you are a treasure.

[@Aeduo]

At one point the effect sounded like maybe heterodyning but I'm not super familiar with radio heh.

[@Pintosonic]

lol « Change your sex with PowerTran ». Lots of people would be offended by an ad like that today.

[@marcus0018]

Hello just a heads up Julian Ilett of the Julian Ilett KZbin channel is building one from scratch

[@KristofferEngdahl]

Almost spat out my muesli when you said Powertran e-t-i. I hear something completely different.

[@colday74]

So used for the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica and the intro for Night Flight to Venus by Boney M?

[@silaswallflower8938]

I loved ETI - was fascinated by the Vocoder but could never afford to build it (not that I have any musical talent to use it with!). It was an interesting to compare the design of this vocoder with the Elektor vocoder which came out earlier the same year but which had fewer channels.

[@lurkersmith810]

When are you going to release "There's a Crackle In My Heart and a Crackle In My Vocoder"?

[@3D6Space]

I love the giant turny knobs, straight out of some Frankenstein movie or Batman computer.

[@KarldorisLambley]

your seventies twin appears to hail from liverpool. i can see him saying "calm down, calm down!"

[@phoenixx5092]

nowhere near your level but i found running a mic into an overdrive pedal allowed me to use my voice for heavy metal sounding power chords. That was kinda cool so i got a bowie stylaphone and a gen x1 stylaphone and a few mic input splitters then plugged them all in together in series, then got some ever more interesting cool sounds as the input splitter let me plug a guitar in too.. and the x1 allowed you to feed audio into it too which it was able to do synth things too. Thats probably the functions of two of your basic modules and you have walls of hundreds of them. You must have fun making wierd sounds

[@jusch5937]

omg you build the vocoder julian ilett is buildung for what feels like 10 years

[@lurkersmith810]

My take away: Aliens are here to take our toilet rolls. So, I'm pausing the video so I can go hide my toilet rolls!

[@shearfury147]

This is the most ridiculous vocal effects of all time...tell me they used this in star wars? Just the inards of this machine look like a hyperdrive! Carry on and cheers!

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Why can't the signal be processed to get the FFT then processed then put through the inverse FFT to get the signal that you want.

[@macronencer]

That trip through the magazine was a nostalgia fix! My grandad had a ZX80, and he also built the Maplin organ, which I remember playing when I visited. My first job after leaving uni was actually in Maplin Electronics in Southampton as well :) I spent a couple of years there before starting a career in software. It was quite instructive, and my staff discount was handy for getting and building kits now and then too.

[@daf666]

I dunno how you knew I wasn't deserving of all those bog rolls, but you nailed it.

[@mikethetexan76]

I really appreciate the synth patch walkthrough on the Furby machine.

[@NVM_S]

Dalek Voice * " Exterminate "

[@russ254]

ring mod

[@deefman123]

i respect what goes into vocoders, but i absolutely cannot stand the sound of them.

[@headfirstonly]

Watched this entire video with a huge grin on my face. Brilliant!

[@paulklasmann1218]

So that's how they did the evil computer voice in the film Collossus. 😊

[@soulflower8687]

I want to hear more of the song from your 1970's twin. Getting wiggy wid it.

[@the_jcbone]

This sound like the majority of the hitchhikers sound FX.

[@patpopov]

How much are Fisherman's Friend paying you?

[@ThaRealChuckD]

You're gonna love this one if you've not seen it yet. There's a part 2 also. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGOolYd3fbWWp8k

[@AdrianHiggins83]

Hope to see you in bgt

[@undereeries]

dude vocoders are SICK AND THIS IS COOL ANDTHANKS

[@75Krusty]

00:15:29 [HRheeelloooowww...HrrrhhhlooooWWW...WaaaArrrUhhhWaaarhhhuuuu] 😀

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

There is a guy in the IOM that likes to do this sort of thing as well as solar electronics.

[@MrOtistetrax]

Your 70s twin looks an awful lot like Georgio Moroder...

[@VEC7ORlt]

Hah this made me remember that Bode vocoder video from the ancient times of youtube.

[@scramblesthedeathdealer]

When he plugged in the delay, did it say "toilet ROMs?"

[@Peter1Europe]

What's a trade name of this magazine holder/binder ?

[@MrMargaretScratcher]

I like the 4 little circuit diagram dudes hanging out at 4:32 :ø

[@JK-of8tb]

16:35 when you're calling tech support but you are on hold for an hour

[@arjanvanraaij8440]

Cool piece of kit, you can make Daft Punk obsolete.

[@Nobe_Oddy]

I just had a VOCASIM!!!!!! OMG!!! You just brought back so great memories.... but you REALLY TICKLED MY PICKLE with that vocoded b-line!!! - You BETTER make a dope ass track with that and POST IT ON YT!!! HAHA!!!! LUV YA M8!!!!!

[@AnalogDude_]

This circuit will suppress mains-borne interference every time the car drives over a buried power line. : ) They switched the CD4006 designation with the CD4030 in the paper, it's very hard to acquire CD4006, they only make military version at 10us$. I tried to change their minds and removed it all together, alternative CD4021.

[@craigparsons7595]

I was also built in September 1980

[@buffplums]

Going to build one of these from scratch …

[@makers_lab]

C;lassic kit and lots of memories in those mags. We built a comp80 at school, and I had fun secretly patching CP/M to behave a little differently, ZX80 kit as my first computer, and was really keen on the transcendent 2000. Still got an original demo tape for it somewhere.

[@Crackalacking_Z]

I really enjoyed the impromptu jams XD