Speech Synthesis (formerly known as) Re: Kraftwerk + something on-topic

[JWBarlow]

In a message dated 5/12/98 2:57:33 PM, bduggan at netcom.com wrote:

> On the Radioactivity album that Kraftwerk released in 
>1975, there is a track called Uranium that sounds like it is being done 
>by a very primitive form of speech synthesis (not a vocoded human 
>voice).  I thought that speech synthesis did not come about until 
>sometime in the late 70's (i.e. sometime after 1975).  Does anyone have 
>any idea what they used to pull this off back in 1975?

I've been under the impression (for about the past 20 years) that the word
*SYNTHESIZER* (a word which I've never liked) came directly from the old RCA
Mark II synthesizer which was used on all Milton Babbit's early hits (before
he sold out!). The RCA Mark II was built, I believe, as an early experiment in
SPEECH SYNTHESIS, but was unable to put ATT's operators out of work. They
decided to donate it to Columbia/Princeton Electronic Music studios, and the
term synthesizer followed it. I further believe that a famous piece was done
on the beast before being given to the universities: "Daisy Daisy give me your
answer too...." I remember hearing this on a "noveltey" record in the
early/mid 60's; before Kubrick's "2001" used it.

I have no sources to support any of this story, but some of the older (and by
that I mean smarter) guys must know if any of this is true.

Time for my Geritol!
John B