"This circa 1983 Texas Instruments TI-99/4A home computer includes the PHP1500 Speech Synthesizer and manual, original AC power cord and RF television connector, comprehensive "User's Reference Guide" full of TI-BASIC programs, and six game cartridges (excuse me, "command modules"). The system comes in its original box. Module titles include Addition and Subtraction 1 and 2, Learning Fun, Scott Adams' Adventure, and Reading Fun and Speech Editor, which both include their instruction manuals. The unit was fully tested and ran basic programs and all six command modules without any glitches. Coemetically, it shows considerable wear and numerous scuffs and scratches on the aluminum face, but it is clean and has no dents, cracks or structural damage. Its a really fun trip back to 30 years ago. Using it reminded me of the countless times I threw my joystick at it when playing TI Invaders or flipping out when the power went out after typing about 50 lines of BASIC!.."
"Texas Instruments Speak & Read circuit bent to the max by A.S.M.O.
Pitch + CV input Short loop + loop advance Long loop + loop advance Long loop randomize Glitch x 3 Distortion push button Distortion / loop glitch Tone x 2 with volume controls + on/off push button Voltage death / ring mod effect Distortion / loop glitch Blue LED 1/4 audio out jack"
"This is the latest panel in my new Lunetta 11 noise machine. Spock includes:
- 3 x slower CD40106 oscillators used for driving Clock inputs on other things
- 2 x 4 BIT Shift Registers (CD4015)
- 1 x 18 Stage Shift Reigster (CD4006)
- 3 x SPDT electronics switches with external control input (CD4053)
- 1 x Nick Collins / Draal modified / Me modified, with 2 inputs Pitch Tracker (CD4046)
Finally, as you'll hear in this video - pitch changes from the Lunetta 11 start warbling all over the place! :D That is thanks especially to, Nick/Draal's Pitch Tracker. I'll definitatively be building at least 1 more of these!
Note: due to problems with some of the different manufacturers of the CD4046, this one - the Texas Instruments one that Draal and I both use, DOES WORK PROPERLY. :)
You'll find the Circuit Bent Coleco Talking Teacher Sample Pack here. You can find a video of the actual unit used in this post.
"Over 230 glitchy, airy and robotic sounds await in this free sample pack. Also included in this pack are synthetic vocal samples of numbers in case you want some sort of talking clock or something of that nature. I'm offering it free of charge again for commercial and non-commercial use, but please don't redistribute the pack."
Texas Instruments Touch & Tell Sample Pack here
"Here's my first offering, a sample pack of a circuit bent Texas Instruments Touch & Tell educational toy. There are 150 samples of various chatters, blips, tones and speech scrambles in this pack. I'm offering it free of charge for commercial and non-commercial use, but please don't redistribute the pack."
via this auction "This is the voice synth that Kraftwerk, (founders and Gods of all electronic music including techno, ambient, and hip hop), used for the song "The Numbers" and "Computer World". Think back to the song phrases: money-numbers-people-communication-bussiness in the song "Computer World" and the number counting voice synth in the song "The Numbers" and you have the best voice synthesizer ever recorded and popularized.
This unit features the English talking voice synth with a slight British accent. When combined with phrases, individual words contained in the module vocabulary has over 3,000 statements and questions commonly used when visiting another country. As mentioned above, the unit for sale features a English robot voice which translates words and phrases entered into the unit via the keypad in German, Spanish, And French. You can spend hours playing with this talking wonder which was the parent technology to the world acclaimed "Speak and Spell"
As written on the box:
Choose one or more Plug in language modules from our growing selection. Just plug in the module, and the translator will speak the language and show you how to say many words, phrases and sentences-especially those most useful for travelers. The Solid State Speech Technology that gives the module its "voice" is unique. This remarkable Texas Instruments innovation electronically duplicates the human vocal tract on a single chip of silicon. Its the remarkable talking language translator with electronic voice and brain. Translates, pronounces and displays words, phrases and sentences.
The auction includes the unit, case, original strap, original box, FRENCH cart. and the box for that as well, and the manual. The unit works just fine on batteries and AC plug in."
"This is the Texas Instruments TMS320VC5505 eZdsp USB Stick... what???? Despite Ti's bad naming convention, this is probably one of their coolest musician-hacker gizmos on the market. It's an entire DSP platform with USB, Stereo In & Out, and expansion pins galore for buttons, knobs & LEDs. This is a killer way to learn a bit about DSP, and create your own unique sound machine without having to know any electronics.
Think of it as a music Arduino on steroids! This kit has everything you need to plug into your computer and start making sound."
via this auction See the seller's other items for more. "This is the voice synth that Kraftwerk, (founders and Gods of all electronic music including techno, ambient, and hip hop), used for the song "The Numbers" and "Computer World". Think back to the song phrases: money-numbers-people-communication-bussiness in the song "Computer World" and the number counting voice synth in the song "The Numbers" and you have the best voice synthesizer ever recorded and popularized.
This unit features the "GERMAN" talking voice synth. When combined with phrases, individual words contained in the module vocabulary has over 3,000 statements and questions commonly used when visiting another country. As mentioned above, the unit for sale features a "GERMAN" robot voice which translates words and phrases entered into the unit via the keypad in English, Spanish, And French. You can spend hours playing with this talking wonder which was the parent technology to the world acclaimed "Speak and Spell"
As written on the box:
Choose one or more Plug in language modules from our growing selection. Just plug in the module, and the translator will speak the language and show you how to say many words, phrases and sentences-especially those most useful for travelers. The Solid State Speech Technology that gives the module its "voice" is unique. This remarkable Texas Instruments innovation electronically duplicates the human vocal tract on a single chip of silicon. Its the remarkable talking language translator with electronic voice and brain. Translates, pronounces and displays words, phrases and sentences.
The cool thing about these units is that different modules can be installed in the back of the unit for translation to English, Spanish, German, and French. I currently have all of the units for sale on ebay in separate auctions so if your interested in having all of the modules available then look for my other Ebay auctions."
via this auction "This is the voice synth that Kraftwerk, (founders and Gods of all electronic music including techno, ambient, and hip hop), used for the song "The Numbers" and "Computer World". Think back to the song phrases: money-numbers-people-communication-bussiness in the song "Computer World" and the number counting voice synth in the song "The Numbers" and you have the best voice synthesizer ever recorded and popularized.
This unit features the English talking voice synth with a slight British accent. When combined with phrases, individual words contained in the module vocabulary has over 3,000 statements and questions commonly used when visiting another country. As mentioned above, the unit for sale features a English robot voice which translates words and phrases entered into the unit via the keypad in German, Spanish, And French. You can spend hours playing with this talking wonder which was the parent technology to the world acclaimed "Speak and Spell"
As written on the box:
Choose one or more Plug in language modules from our growing selection. Just plug in the module, and the translator will speak the language and show you how to say many words, phrases and sentences-especially those most useful for travelers. The Solid State Speech Technology that gives the module its "voice" is unique. This remarkable Texas Instruments innovation electronically duplicates the human vocal tract on a single chip of silicon. Its the remarkable talking language translator with electronic voice and brain. Translates, pronounces and displays words, phrases and sentences.
The cool thing about these units is that different modules can be installed in the back of the unit for translation to English, Spanish, German, and French. I currently have all of the units for sale on ebay in separate auctions so if your interested in having all of the modules available then look for my other Ebay auctions. No one has ever made a sampling CD of this historical piece of electronica and it could be a source of extra money for whoever creates samples of all modules and sells as wave files. Also the unit has a 1/8" output to send to your mixer/interface/sampler.
The auction includes the unit, case, and copy of the manual. The unit works just fine on batteries and I have never had or tried to use the unit by plugging into the wall although there is a AC plug on the unit."
From the man who brought us Bohemian Rhapsody and Funkytown.
"What do you get when you combine retro computer parts and an up and coming robot band?
The Bit-52's
This is dedicated to all fans of The B-52's who are also known as the "Worlds Greatest Party Band". It just so happens they currently on tour so go out and buy some tickets. This idea has been simmering in my mind for the last couple of years and after many months of procrastinating it is finally complete. I was also motivated to finish my robot band after seeing a YouTube Video from "The Trons" from New Zealand.
The Bit-52's consist of:
Fred's Vocals - TI99/4a computer, speech synthesizer and terminal emulator ii module
Kate and Cindy's Vocals - Two HP Scanjet 3C scanners, UBunto and sjetplay written by GanjaTron
The Guitar, Keyboard, Cow Bell, Cymbal and Tambourine are all controlled by various types of push/pull solenoinds for a total of 23. The Solenoids are powered by four ULN2803 darlington drivers and everything is controlled by two PIC16F84A microcontrollers."
"USED BY THE TECHNO POP "GODS" KRAFTWERK ON "THE NUMBERS" AND "COMPUTER WORLD". RECALL ON THE SONG COMPUTER WORLD THE PHRASES, (MONEY, BUSSINESS, PEOPLE, COMMUNICATION), THESE PHRASES WERE CREATED WITH THE TI LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR. ALSO, ON THE NUMBERS, THE GERMAN VOICE RECITING 1 THROUGH 6 WERE CREATED USING THIS MACHINE. I SEARCHED FOR THIS UNIT PROBABLY SINCE 1989 WITH NO LUCK, (VERY VERY RARE), AND PURCHASED THIS UNIT APPROX. 1 YEAR AGO. I HATE TO SEE IT GO BUT I HAVE SAMPLED THE UNIT EXTENSIVELY.
DIFFERENT TRANSLATOR MODULES CAN BE LOADED INTO THE BACK OF THE UNIT. THE CURRENT MODULE IN THE UNIT TRANSLATES SPANISH, FRENCH, AND GERMAN TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WHICH IS THE SYNTH VOICE (ROBOT) YOU WILL HEAR. NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A VOCODER BUT A SOLID STATE SPEECH SYNTH.
THE TI LANGUAGE TUTOR UTILIZES THE SAME SOLID STATE VOICE TECHNOLOGY AS THE SPEAK AND SPELL/SPEAK AND ADD. ALTHOUGH UTILIZING THE SAME VOICE SYNTH TECHNOLOGY THE LANGUAGE TUTOR FEATURES A MORE COMPLEX SYSTEM IN WHICH YOU CAN CREATE PHRASING AND OF COURSE TRANSLATE THE PHRASE.
REFER TO THIS WEB SITE FOR MORE INFORMATION AND ALSO A MP3 OF THE VOICE TRANSLATOR. YOU WON'T BE DISAPOINTED"
YouTube via Dogpupkus "Using the TI-99 4/A and its speech synthesizer... and an ancient portable B&W TV. A Terminal Emulator II cartridge and the Speech Synthesizer are required to do text to speech."
Russ's Synth stuff Pictured: "Handmade SN94281-based synth I made back in 1983. The device won the Grand Champion prize at the York County Science and Engineering fair --- I was 12 years old at the time. Last year at this time, I decided to restore it to working order for its 25th birthday. It is basically a "breakout box" for the Texas Instruments SN94281 Complex Sound Generator chip. All features of the chip are available as front panel knobs or multi-position switches.
The chip is showing signs of its age -- the power audio amplifier no longer works correctly, but the output signal can still be amplified if driving a high impedance load.
For those unfamiliar with the SN94281, a data sheet is available here:
via bd594:
"I want to thankyou for commenting on one of my You Tube Videos "Funkytown" your blog was instrumental. Please note I created another Video that I think your readers may enjoy. I think you will find the use of HP Scanjet scanner as the vocals as WOW. Intially I tried to get 4 scanners for each vocal track in Bohemain Rhapsody but this equipment is getting harder to find. I had to record the HP scanner four seperate times to represent each vocal track. I hope you enjoy and thank you for your kind words."
video description
"There are millions of computers sitting idle at home using fantom electricity. Let's see where all that power is going. This is dedicated to all fans of Queen and hey let's not forget about Mike Myers and Dana Carvey of Wayne's World.
Please note no effects or sampling was used. What you see is what you hear (does that even make sense?)
Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound
Texas Instruments TI-99/4a as lead guitar
8 Inch Floppy Disk as Bass
3.5 inch Harddrive as the cymbal
HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals. Please note I had to record the HP scanner 4 seperate times for each voice. I tried to buy 4 HP scanners but for some reason sellers on E-Bay expect you to pay $80-$100, I got mine for $30.
To quote Ben Rogerson "The old computer parts version of Bohemian Rhapsody is surely only weeks away".
Yes, I agree but what was suppose to take weeks took me months"
YouTube via pixelform "http://www.art-rash.com/pixelform
Statement: Within all media technology, signal and noise are held apart as polar opposites. The vary nature of digital encoding and transmission technologies eliminates the possibility of noise from corrupting the fidelity of a signal. This feature is necessarily political in nature and brings with it myriad issues of content creation, control, and dissemination. There are political ideologies embedded within the very systems we use to create art and express ourselves from the manufacturing and distribution supply chain arising from post-industrial systems of capital to the capturing devices of media technology, all the way down to the software we use to cut, splice, effect, process, and manipulate streams of data. Apeiron | Peras is not overtly political in nature, but starts with the notion of blurring the boundaries between analogue and digital signals video as well as audio - as a metaphor for dissolving hierarchies and exploring interrelatedness. The resulting audio visual work is the end of a process seeking to exert some measure of expressive control over an otherwise raw electronic signal stripped of its usual conventions of format or data type.
Design Concept: The concept behind the VGA Synth begins in the design of a finite, circularly organized circuit which produces complex and unpredictable behavior in response to minute external changes. The system stands as a representation of binary relationships codified in the design of the core electronics. On one hand is the continuity and fluidity ascribed to analog circuits and on the other is the abstract, quantified discrete and discontinuous nature of digital electronics. However, the electron indifferent to human intent - cares not for digital or analog. Audio signals are converted into a video outputs which is then fed right back into the instruments audio inputs, closing a loop that is constantly churning out electronic signals shaped by the slightest change in the system. There is an intricately tangled relationship between what is heard and what is seen as the sound and image cycle through, taking turns leading and following the other."
TI99 - Modifications Documentation - Phillip Stearns (Pixel Form) "http://www.art-rash.com/pixelform Documentation Clip of my Texas Instrument TI99/4a computer modifications. I started outwith a circuit bending approach and moved gradually to more advanced modifications and hacks. 5 Different versions exist. The prototype and v1 Pixel Maelstroms, as I've named them, are both raw circuit bent machines. Version 2 introduces some rudementary audio ractivity circuitry for functions resembling a glitched music visualizer. Version 3 integrates an onboard oscillator bank in addition to the audio reactivity circuitry, creating the possibility for mixer fascilitated feedback. Version 4 integrates light sensors in addition to the onboard oscillator bank and audio reactivity circuitry."
NES - Circuit Bent Mod - Phillip Stearns (Pixel Form) 2008-2009
"I have been commissioned to modify another NES console. This audio reactivity mod will feature 3 x 12 position rotary selector switches to combine up to 3 different bend points at once. Audio reactivity will also be selectable from one of 4 filter outputs. There are some special features in there too. This clip shows the prototype circuit in action, which I'm currently tranferring to a final perf board layout.
"This is a shamless ripoff of James Houston's remix of Radiohead's Nude but I decided to try it for Funkytown by Lipps Inc. I choose Funkytown and only used computers from the early 1980's that were destined for the Junk Yard. This is how I got the idea for Junkytown. I also used a modem but DTMF tones are lousy for musical notes (no harmonics) but I was very lucky to find two notes that did sound good. On your phone punch in 3 3 2 3 and you got the beginning part of the solo and the rest is history. Please note no synthesizer or audio effects were used and all the audio was recorded from either a microphone or direct line. Some of the audio was amplified when it was mixed down because the levels were unusable ie. the printer and modem. The Commodore 64 was used for the main Bass and Guitar. The Ti-99/4A was used for the second part of the solo because of the limitation of DTMF tones. It was tempting to just sample the modem but I did not in order to keep it 100% original. Finally it was difficult to video tape the printer because it kept shaking the table so I looped the printer video in the begining of the video. The printer sometimes caused the harddrive head to shake out of sync so I inserted a screw into the mechinism and this some what helped."
"ULTRA RARE - Texas Instruments Language Translator and Cartridge. Made in 1980 and famously used by Kraftwerk on the Computer World album. Follow this link for more info. This is an utterly cool piece of retro kit. Bright green fluorescent display, TI's famous robot voices, runs from 4 AA batteries or a standard ac adapter, has a built-in speaker, audio output and volume control. But, if you are looking at this then you probably know all about it anyway. This one works perfectly, is in great condition and complete (including battery cover). As well as the voice functions (spoken words, phrases and letters/numbers that you can type in) it also makes all the usual blips and beeps like the Speak & Spell and other similar TI units. The only minor cosmetic faults are a couple of small indentations on the metal grille covering the speaker. These could be easily removed with a bit of care. Originally designed for word and phrase translation, it can translate between French and English, Spanish or German in either direction, and is complete with the French voice cartridge (tres sexy!) and a printed copy of the manual. I will also include a set of new batteries."
