"Up for sale is the rare Voice Spectra Vocoder produced by Sky Soundlab (the same unit alternatively produced by Seekers).
It is in very good used condition with minor rack rash and some cosmetic wear.
It is in fully working functional condition.
Excellent youtube demo linked, it is not of this actual unit!
Comes with power cable. Some more info below:
This has a very clear sound for an analogue vocoder, a big part of why it makes voices so intelligible is the syllable function which inserts noise bursts into the signal for “s” and “sh” syllables. This is a pretty rare feature on an analogue vocoder, and it really helps with intelligiblity. The syllable function is also really cool for creating rhythms.
The Voice Spectra has good reputations in Japan for clear extent, high timbre, and for Speech Tracking Function (STF). STF is basically a pitch- to-voltage converter which functions by reading the glottal pulses of the speech signal. The control voltages from the output of the pitch extractor are fed to the VCO, so that this follow the cadences of the speech signaI. STF is an interesting additional facilities only to be found on more expensive vocoders like EMS.
Everyone familiar with vocoding will appreciate the Voice spectras compressor and Voiced/Unvoiced detector*.
The Voice spectra is a high quality studio-vocoder, appreciated by the staff at music studios, professional musicians, etc. in Japan. The articulation of the output signal is extremely good, being distinguished by remarkable clarity and distinctiveness. This quality of articulation, among other things, is what distinguishes SKY soundlab from other less sophisticated vocoders like the MAM VF11.
"In 1979 Roland released one of the most famous vocoders of all time, the VP-330, but some may not realise that it had a lesser known sibling; the SVC-350.
The 350 is essentially the same vocoder found in the 330, but in rackmount format and without the synth parts. That said, it does have some unique features that don’t appear on the 330.
The 350 went on being made quite late into the 80s and the serial of this particular unit dates to July 1985 which ties in with Roland’s move towards rack mount and module-based gear at that time.
Here’s a 1980 article on “The Roland Rack”: http://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/201...
SVC-350 features: Starting on the left there’s a microphone input section (xlr and jack) which is the modulator and then an instrument or guitar input section that acts as the carrier. The Guitar input also has a “harmonics” knob to balance the incoming sound.
Your modulator and carrier then run through the 11-band vocoder that has 11 corresponding sliders that can boost or cut that particular band to sculpt the sound. These are labelled “voice character control”.
There’s then a balance knob to blend between the direct modulator signal and vocoder as well as quite comprehensive outputs and remote (footswitch) controls for different live or studio applications.
In also has the classic Roland stereo ensemble.
My original intention was to do a talkthrough of its features and also compare it to my Seekers Voice Spectra vocoder which I absolutely love. I started trying out some test sounds for that video and was laying them down and multi-tracking for comparisons and basically I wound up making a whole track so, I decided to follow where that was going and abandon the original talkthrough idea.
There is already a talkthrough video here anyway: https://youtu.be/cOO6xTXTeiA
At the very start of the demo you actually hear a Juno and Seekers Voice Spectra (a bit weird I know, but it was intended as a comparison and this video unfolded in an ad-hoc manner). From 28 seconds we overdub with the SVC-350 and you can hear its mellower sound which compliments the more crystal-like Spectra.
From about 41 seconds I ran a Roland System 100m through the 350 with its own noise generator as modulator and an oscillator as a carrier which gave a slightly unusual texture to the ostinato I’m playing (controlled by the SH-101).
From around 55 seconds I tried a lower part singing an alternative melody and used a sawtooth from the Sequential Pro~One. I also ran a Sequential Drumtraks through the 350 as the modulator with a guitar as the carrier. The cymbals with the guitar created some particularly interesting sounds I thought (heard on the downbeat of every other bar).
As a contrast, in the middle things go acoustic in terms of voices and guitars. I quite like that moment as it’s as though we come out of electronics and into more natural sounds.
Gear / Sounds used:
Roland SVC-350 Vocoder (1979)
Seekers Voice Spectra Vocoder (1999)
Roland System 100m (1979)
Roland SH-101 (1982)
Roland Juno-6 (1982)
Sequential Circuits Pro~One (1981)
ARP Odyssey Mark II 2813 (circa 1976)
Musicaid Simmons SDS-3 (1978)
Sequential Circuits Drumtraks (1984)
Roland TR-606 Hi-Hats (1981)
Alvarez Baritone Acoustic
Squier Jagmaster Vista (1997)
AKG C414S
Stagg SDM-50
G-Force Software MTron Pro (Flutes)
G-Force Software VSM (Solina)
Spitfire Audio Joby Burgess Percussion (Orchestral Snare / Rain Sheet)
Fairlight CMI III Drum samples (end solo only)
Mixed by Jakob at Sonic Peak Studio.
In fact Jakob has done a walkthrough of the mix of this track:"
Behind The Mix : "Where You Lie" by Alex Ball
Published on Apr 1, 2020 Sonic Peak Studio
"In this video I'll take the viewer through most of the work that went into creating this mix and master. It'll also form the basis for future videos in the series.
1:15 Playthrough with soloing and un-grouping
5:30 Basic EQ details
9:58 : Parallel Compression - more on that later
11:56 : Compression/Limiting/Transient Designing/Clipping
17:33 : Vokal Processing
18:34 : De-essing
18:43 : Dynamic EQ
19:32 : EQ
19:39 : Limiting
20:01 : Bus Compression/Limiting vs "Normal" Compression/Limiting
20:54 : Acoustic Guitars, bussing and processing
21:39 : Send/Returns
21:55 : A Word of Warning....
22:35 : Parallel Compressor
22:45 : Chorus
24:34 : Tal Chorus demo using acoustic guitars
25:10 : Waves Doubler
26:50 : Short Reverb
31:24 : Long Reverb
32:48 : Automation of Reverbs
36:27 : Delay
38:16 : Mastering"
* 16 Knobs
* 8 Switch (Altanate/Momentary assaingnable)
* 8 Slider
* All Controller can assaingnable all midi message easily.
* All Controller can assaingnable Exclusive message! (16byte Max)
* Using 16MHz Clock high speed RISC CPU, so it's hi-speed response.
* Program is save and loadable by exclusive.
* 40 Program memory.
* For Synthesizer programmer, Virtual Synth controller, Sequencer controller, Plugin controller, It's versatile.
Never seen one of these before. Sekeers also made a vocoder. Check out the Seekers label more. You will also find the infamous SMS 2000, a hoax from the early days of the site.
OK, here's an interesting find. If you take a look at this post from 2012, you will see the same vocoder branded Seekers. You'll also find a demo video of it.
A funny side note: Some of you that followed the site early on may have remembered a gentleman by the name of Elhardt. He was a bit of a prankster who would release images of new product teasers. One was the Bahn Sage back in 2005, and his follow-up was the Seekers SMS 2000. People caught on to him with the Sage, so he likely went with Seekers as an unknown but verifiable brand, that or he just came up with the name by sheer coincidence.
"This has a very clear sound for an analogue vocoder, a big part of why it makes voices so intelligible is the syllable function which inserts noise bursts into the signal for “s” and “sh” syllables. This is a pretty rare feature on an analogue vocoder, and it really helps with intelligiblity. The syllable function is also really cool for creating rhythms.
Here’s some info on it pulled of the interwebs [appears to be via Analogue.org]:
The Voice Spectra has good reputations in Japan for clear extent, high timbre, and for Speech Tracking Function (STF). STF is basically a pitch- to-voltage converter which functions by reading the glottal pulses of the speech signal. The control voltages from the output of the pitch extractor are fed to the VCO, so that this follow the cadences of the speech signaI. STF is an interesting additional facilities only to be found on more expensive vocoders like EMS.
Everyone familiar with vocoding will appreciate the Voice spectras compressor and Voiced/Unvoiced detector*.
The Voice spectra is a high quality studio-vocoder, appreciated by the staff at music studios, professional musicians, etc. in Japan. The articulation of the output signal is extremely good, being distinguished by remarkable clarity and distinctiveness. This quality of articulation, among other things, is what distinguishes SKY soundlab from other less sophisticated vocoders like the MAM VF11. The Voice spectra comes with an inbuilt power supply as well.
*If the air from the lungs is not forced through the vocal chords, but simply expelled through the mouth, then so ralled UNVOICED sounds are produced, such as `f' or `h'. These are basically similar to the type of sounds which can be produced by a noise generator. Most excitation signals do not have a sufficiently wide dynamic spectrum to synthesise the sound of sibilants (`s', `h', etc.). For this reason the voiced/unvoiced detector ensures that the noise generator provides the synthesiser section with the appropriate `raw material' whenever the excitation signal cannot do so.
The voice can be seen as a complex sound generating instrument, consisting of a frequency and amplitude-controlled oscillator (the vocal chords and lungs), a noise generator (the lungs) and a set of tone filters (the mouth and nasal cavities).
Technical specifications
Mic-line inputs: MIC -40dBm / 47K Line: 0dBm / 20K
Internal excitation sources: white noise generator and sawtooth oscillator (20-900Hz). Both may be gated by the voiced/unvoiced detector. Oscillator frequency fixed or tracking mode.
Metering: LED for speech and excitation levels"
So, regarding Seekers, some of you might remember this beauty. See the Seekers label below for more. There was a real Seekers manufacturer that made this vocoder and then there was Elhardt.
via the synth hoax king Ken Elhardt on the SDIY list, the frame of the SMS-2000 is for sale. If you don't know what the SMS-2000, click here, scroll to the bottom of the page, click older posts and scroll down to the first SMS 2000 post. Don't miss the Bahn Sage while you are there. Some truly amazing work.
Notes via KH on SDIY:
"SMS-2000 Synth expansion box wood frame. If you build DIY electronics projects and want something a bit nicer than an ugly, unfinished looking plastic or aluminum box to put knobs/buttons on and electronics inside, then pictured below is a nice wooden frame. It fits a 10.5" by 7.75" piece of metal or whatever material your panel will be. See pictures below. Note that my router took a small chip out of the upper left corner as barely seen in the bottom image in the first picture below. Only held together by wood screws, so it can be taken apart and a refinished or laquered up for a glossy shine if one desires. $20 plus $7 postage for the lower 48 states, Paypal." More images here.
Remember the SMS 2000? There was and still is a huge debate whether this thing is real or not. Well, it keeps getting better. Here's a video of it. : ) So, physically it definitely exists. Now, you have to ask yourself, is it producing the sound in this video or is the player is "lip singing" to it? Hey, if Britney Spears can do it...
Update: Here's the thread Dr. Kyle Han Ten found the video. If anyone reads dutch, feel free to comment if there is anything interesting in the thread. I beleive I already posted all the shots in my previous posts when the SMS 2000 first surfaced.
Remember the Kinetic Sound Prism? Title link takes you to a 3.99M demo according to Elhardt. The question mark? Well Elhardt is the man who brought us the Bahn Sage, and is suspect number one on the SMS 2000, so...
"The following excerpt is a mp3 I recorded off of the Prism demo tape. As
can be heard, it's probably a better advertisement NOT to spend $30K on this
synth. It doesn't seem to be making any kinds of sounds that couldn't be
done on something like a Prophet-5, except that with the polyphony and
multitimbral capabilities, maybe it can be done without multitracking. And
by the time the Prism appeared, NED had added sampling to the Synclav, and
there was the Fairlight. Both with demo tapes that made you want to buy
them. If I can find somebody to host large MP3 files, I can record those
demo tapes too.
I should point out also, that bubble memory was not a useless or obsolete
technology. It maintains memory on power down without battery backup, just
as my Apple ][ bubble memory card has been doing for the past 25 years, and
might be able to do so even with an EMP from a nuclear bomb. Bub mem was
still being sold up into the 90's in the form of RAM Disc computer cards.
Maybe still is."
Update: Kirikai's Website: link. And we have an update on the SMS 2000. If you remember, the man in the second shot of this post donned a badge with the name, "Mr. Kirikax." The badge was obviously meant to lead the viewer into believing that this was Mr. Kirikax showing his new synth, the SMS 2000, a follow up to the Seekers SMS 1000, which was never released. What follows is an email exchange between Fredrik in Sweden and Mr. Kirikae (Kirikax).
"in the middle of the sms 2000 hysteria I did some research on the web, and found mr Kirikax's email adress - or at least I assumed it was his. I sent a mail asking if there was any such thing as a sms 2000(check the forwarded mail) and didn't receive any respons - until today! Assuming the mail is real, which it certainly appears to be, we can draw the conclusion that the sms 2000 certainly is a hoax : )"
The following is the reply from Kirikax in the forwaded email:
"Dear Mr. Fredrik
I designed SMS-1000 mono synthesizer, but I don't know about SMS-2000. I am treating [illness] now, so I can't make SMS-1000. SMS-1000 's formal name is Elebus-1. I append the image of Elebus-1. Elebus-1 is RackMount type Synthesizer. The keyboard has not adhered. My sickness is a serious illness, and doesn't have the capital either. So I cannot sell Elebus-1. Elebus-1 might be produced and be sold when the capital can be procured by recovering from an illness in the future.
Regards, Masamichi Kirikae. (Kirikax is nickname. this is My real name)"
If this is real, I send my condolences to Mr. Kirikae, and I hope he gets the help and support he needs, both with his illness and in getting the SMS 1000/Elebus-1 off the ground. He mentions lack of capital or monetary backing. What's interesting is that the Elebus-1 above is different than the other Seekers SMS 1000 shots out there. However, before you dismiss the new shot, note that the old shots of the SMS 1000 are old in synth years, and designs and names can easily change prior to release, and sometimes even after. Title link takes you the the new images sent by Mr. Kirikae.
There are some interesting updates on the SMS 2000 in the comments of this post as well as this HC thread. Entertaining stuff if you don't take all of this too seriously. I don't. Apparently all shots of the SMS 2000 have been saved with Photoshop 5 and have the same RGB profile as an image recently posted by Elhardt. Smoking gun?
"About a week ago I received a call from a friend who likes to hop from shop to shop looking for vintage gear or interesting new items. He was standing infront of a synthesiser and describing it to me on his mobile. His description intrigued me to such an extent, I decided to take the hour plus drive to see it for myself. It happened that the synthesiser just arrived that morning and wasn't there more than three hours. After playing around with it a tad, I knew I had to have it. The synthesiser is a programmable monophonic analogue by Seekers called the SMS2000. I had never heard of the manufacturer but the bloke at the shop told me they made an analogue vocoder too.
What is it? The SMS2000 reminds me quite a bit of the Minimoog Voyager. It has an adjustable knob interface like the Minimoog, a 3 1/2 octave keyboard, a crazy set of performance levers, and even a joystick. See pictures at the URLs provided below. But it seems as if Seekers wanted to one-up the Moog Voyager in almost every respect. One more oscillator, one more LFO, one more ADSR, ring modulator, fixed filter bank - like a Moog MuRF right in there but with frequencies set to those of a typical equaliser, full dual filters, and something called an XCU is also included. That's an expansion control unit which is a breakout box similar to the Moog VX-351. I don't own a modular, but it will come in handy patching into my MS-20.
I had been on the fence for some time as to whether I wanted to put out the money for a Voyager. But there always seemed to be too many little niggles and limitations with it. The Seekers seems to have overcome many of those. For example the Voyager can't invert control voltages, the Seekers can. The Voyager forces you into using the display for programming, the Seekers puts every function out there with its own knob or button. The display is only used for patch storage and retrieval, and MIDI related functions. The Seekers has a joystick on the knob interface where vertical controls one filter and the horizontal the other filter. At first I thought it a bit daft that it couldn't be patched to control all kinds of other things too, but when I considered that it seemed like an extra bonus thrown in there, and most synthesisers don't have one at all, then it seemed pretty cool.
The manual is adequate but full of typos and poor translations. Seekers is a Japanese company. There is no mention as to whether the filters are imitations of well known filters or not. Only that the 24dB/octave is a ladder filter and the 12dB/octave is a state variable. But both filters contain lowpass and highpass which can also be combined for bandpass. Both can self resonate.
I've only had the SMS for a week, and with a busy work schedule I haven't had much time to delve deeply into it yet. I'll write a more extensive review after I spend more time with it. The owner of the shop seemed to indicate these are trickling off the assembly line and it could be a couple of months before another shows up. I would expect major players like Turnkey to carry them when they begin to proliferate.
Here are some photos of the SMS. My flat is getting a bit too crowded with audio gear, so it's only a temporary setup. The MS-20 went to the floor to make room for my SMS. My Micromoog will probably be up for sale soon. I can't keep it all."
Title link takes you to an interesting bit of synth history. When Synthesizers.com first came about people questioned whether it was real or another hoax like the Bahn Sage.
"Monday morning I woke up to many dozens of emails with 'synthesizers.com' in the subject. Wow, something has happened - but what? As I start reading them, some are not very nice. This is a unexpected slap in the face for 3 years work, but why? Come to find out, a few weeks/months earlier, a prankster had posted a professionally created set of graphics depicting a new synth which had duped many people. Not being a reader of the Analog Heaven mail list, I missed the story. Paul Schrieber of Synthesis-Technology who lives nearby told me about it at lunch one day but I had no idea it was such a big deal and caused such a big stink. Anyway, this caused many folks to assume my work was another plot to overthrow the analog synth world. They began by pixel-picking the Q119 Sequencer picture which caused me a lot of grief to create. This was compounded by my whimsical depiction of a synth monolith linked to the home page. And I was so proud of my new found PhotoShop abilities too! On top of that, there were even questions about the photographs I had taken on the About Us page which were only cropped before placing on the website."
It's a fascinating read and it really makes you wonder about the SMS 2000. Another manufacturer that was questioned was Cwejman. I remember when renders first appeared of the S1. People questioned whether it was yet another hoax.
Elhardt even had a little fun: "Just like the Cwejman and Dotcom, I kind of wanted people to suspect me. I even faked a picture of a Cwejman sitting in my rack to just lead people into thinking it was a hoax. That makes it more fun. I prefer to just keep quiet and make people suspicious."
Well, Cwejman and Synthesizers.com are most definitely real. The SMS 2000? Time will tell. The one thing to note is that with both Synthesizers.com and Cwejman, the manufacturers and others came out relatively quickly, putting the rumors of a hoax to rest. That hasn't happened with the SMS 2000 yet. Anyone out there know anything? : )
