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"For sale is a very cool late 1980s voice controlled music synthesizer. It's basically an electronic kazoo that emulates different instruments and supports rhythm backgrounds.
I'm the original owner. I bought it new around 1989. It hasn't seen much use and has lived in a drawer most of it's life.
I haven't sold anything on Ebay in the last year, so my positive feedback is currently 0%. But check out my 100% positive feedback on 27 Ebay sales and 100% positive feedback on 88 Ebay buys.
As far as I can tell, all the Vocalizer functions on the main unit work fine. There are two buttons on the handset that are missing and do not work, the "slide" and "octave up" buttons (see the photo of the underside of the handset). However, these same functions are available on the main unit with a "slide" button and octave "+" and "-" buttons. On the handset, the voice mic plastic attachment and red mic windscreen is missing and not included. Its the part with the red mic windscreen the 80s chick is singing in to on the box cover. The kazoo attachment is included and works fine.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The handset is a bit flakey, and stops working sometimes. My guess is the single electrolytic cap on the handset PCB is drying out (see photo of opened handset). I have to screw open the handset and move the electrolytic cap slightly occasionally to get the handset working again. The cap should really be replaced -- so having some electronics repair experience or knowing someone who does is highly recommended. It's possible there are other caps in the main unit that should optimally be replaced too. I've never opened the main unit.
Included with the package:
* Main Unit
* Handset with long cord
* AC to DC Power Supply
* Original Manual
* SmartSongs ROM cartridge
* Misc parts - kazoo windscreen, sound out to left/right RCA
If interested, do a search for "Vocalizer 1000" on YouTube and you will find Captain Kazoo Vocalizer videos and others.
The Vocalizer was a small module designed as a pitch to synth converter and built around the Ensoniq Q chip. While only marginally effective as a pitch to MIDI converter, it does have the same soundset as the Ensoniq ESQ-1 but without the analog filters.
The unit has sixteen note polyphony and responds to all sixteen MIDI channels. It is not possible to restrict MIDI response to only a few channels, making the module inconvenient to use without a MIDI filter. The unit responds to MIDI volume , pan, and program changes, the latter being the only way to select sounds on channels 2 - 16. The Vocalizer features the same waveform set as the Ensoniq ESQ-1, which means you get the same grungy basses, pianos, and synth sounds. The lack of analog filters is a dissappointment, but considering the unit's original sub-$400 price tag, not surprising. A cartridge slot is tucked away inside the battery compartment and appears to have the same form factor as ESQ cartridges, but is not compatible. ROM carts were available from Voice Crystal for a short time, long since discontinued. The Vocalizer pales in comparison to today's synthesizers, but in 1990, was a great expansion to my single Casio keyboard sound palette.
Doing a Google search on "Vocalizer 1000 Midi" will bring up links that describe the MIDI capabilities of the unit."
Note the K3 does not allow you to sweep through wavetables like PPG and Waldorf wavetable synths. The "wavetable" is more like a PCM single cycle sample based synth where you select a specific digital waveform. I owned one and did sound good. With the SSM filters it had a presence other PCM sample based synths lacked. I beleive there was also an additive synthesis aspect to it where you could create your own waveforms similiar to the Korg DSS-1 - see this video.
"For sale is a very cool late 1980s voice controlled music synthesizer. It's basically an electronic kazoo that emulates different instruments and supports rhythm backgrounds.
