Analog Speech Synthesis

[Mike]

Barry L Klein wrote:
> 
> That is the kit that got me interested in electronic music!  It was in my
> electronics class in 10th grade.  I tried making a keyboard for it so you
> could play a tune....  Any extras?  Love to put it up on the wall!
> 
> Barry
> 
> ----------
> From:   B.LAYER at VIKINGELECTRONICS.COM
> Sent:   Wednesday, August 05, 1998 7:35 AM
> To:     SYNTH-DIY at MAILHOST.BPA.NL
> Subject:        Analog Speech Synthesis
> 
> <<File: IST822383_2.txt>><<File: IST822583_3.txt>>
> Hi All,
> 
> I came across something curious recently, an analog speech synthesis
> experiment kit. It was produced in about 1964 by Bell Labs as a part of
> their education program for computer and electronics students.
> 
> It includes a rather in depth book which discusses the fundamental
> theories
> of speech synthesis, all in purley analog terms. When this kit was sold,
> the Votrax SC-01 was still over a decade away. The kit allows you to
> construct an analog vowel synthesizer, comprised of a rectangle wave
> generator, three L-C formant stages (ferrie bobbin type) and an audio
> stage. By tweaking the cap values in the formant stages, the unit can
> (rougly) produce all english vowel sounds, and lots of other strange
> noises
> in between.
> 
> Has anyone encountered anything else related to analog speech production?
> Frankly, I've never seen anything else like it.
> 
> Bill Layer
> "Heavy old junk wanted"
Barry L Klein wrote:
> 
> That is the kit that got me interested in electronic music!  It was in my
> electronics class in 10th grade.  I tried making a keyboard for it so you
> could play a tune....  Any extras?  Love to put it up on the wall!
> 
> Barry
> 
> ----------
> From:   B.LAYER at VIKINGELECTRONICS.COM
> Sent:   Wednesday, August 05, 1998 7:35 AM
> To:     SYNTH-DIY at MAILHOST.BPA.NL
> Subject:        Analog Speech Synthesis
> 
> <<File: IST822383_2.txt>><<File: IST822583_3.txt>>
> Hi All,
> 
> I came across something curious recently, an analog speech synthesis
> experiment kit. It was produced in about 1964 by Bell Labs as a part of
> their education program for computer and electronics students.
> 
> It includes a rather in depth book which discusses the fundamental
> theories
> of speech synthesis, all in purley analog terms. When this kit was sold,
> the Votrax SC-01 was still over a decade away. The kit allows you to
> construct an analog vowel synthesizer, comprised of a rectangle wave
> generator, three L-C formant stages (ferrie bobbin type) and an audio
> stage. By tweaking the cap values in the formant stages, the unit can
> (rougly) produce all english vowel sounds, and lots of other strange
> noises
> in between.
> 
> Has anyone encountered anything else related to analog speech production?
> Frankly, I've never seen anything else like it.
> 
> Bill Layer
> "Heavy old junk wanted"
Barry & Bill,

How interesting! I also built this kit in the 10th grade, as well as
one  where you create a silicon solar cell from a silicon wafer, and
another  where you grow and study various chemical crystals. I learned a
lot from these kits, but the speech synthesis kit was my favorite. I
made the kit on the cardboard layout on the box first, and then designed
and built a PC board for it. Wish I could remember what happened to all
my old projects. They are probably in my mom's attic somewhere... I
still have the manual though, and showed it to my teenage son recently.
He thought it was cool.


Thanks for sharing your experience with us.