VOCODER VERIFICATION???!!!!

Tips, tricks, inside secrets, help, sources, items used on making the Cylon Centurion suit to wear. Tell us your story, how you came about collecting your parts to a Centurion, or if you own a complete Centurion costume.
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EMS Vocoder 5000
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VOCODER VERIFICATION???!!!!

Post by EMS Vocoder 5000 » Sat May 19, 2007 5:08 pm

AS YOU KNOW WE'RE TRYING TO GET IN CONTACT WITH BOTH MR. MICHAEL SANTIAGO (THE CYLON VOICE ACTOR) AND THE AUDIO ENGINEER WITH THE HELP OF "GOLDCYLON'S" FRIEND MARCEL AT GALACTICA.TV!! AND A THOUGHT (BAD) OCCURRED TO ME!! WHAT SINCE IT'S BEEN ALMOST 30 YEARS AND NEITHER ONE PROBABLY HAS THE VOCODER (PERHAPS, MR. GLEN A. LARSON HIMSELF DOES!!), WHAT IF THEY DON'T RECOLLECT PROPERLY AND GIVE TWO DIFFERENT ANSWERS!!! SO THEREFORE WE ALSO NEED TO DO TWO ADDITIONAL THINGS AND THOSE ARE:

#1. FIND THE PERSON (IF HOPEFULLY STILL ALIVE) AT GLEN A. LARSON PRODUCTIONS WHO ACTUALLY PURCHASED THE VOCODER AND HAVE THEM SEARCH FOR THE INVOICE (WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT BE ON COMPUTER, BUT INSTEAD IN AN OLD FILE CABINET, ETC.)!!! AND:

#2. AND SINCE THEY WOULD'VE MOST LIKELY PURCHASED DIRECT FROM THE COMPANY (EMS??) "CHRISD" PLEASE ASK YOUR FRIEND MR. ROBIN WOOD IF HE CAN SEARCH THROUGH HIS INVOICE RECORDS OR GET IN CONTACT WITH THEN OWNER MR. TIM ORR, AND LOOK ON THEIR COMPUTERS OR IN AN OLD FILE CABIN, ETC!!! THANK YOU.

-"EMS VOCODER 5000"-

P.S. THIS WAS DONE IN CAPS LOCK FOR THE OBVIOUS REASON OF GETTING MORE ATTENTION DRAWN TO THIS!!!


The Cylon Vocoder is an EMS Vocoder!!! Also possibly used was the Marshall 5002 Time-Modulator!! Was an electric saxophone used with or instead of an unknown synthesizer or electric/electronic keyboard??

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Post by GoldCylon » Sat May 19, 2007 11:03 pm

My thoughts are these items used were owned by the studio (Universal Studio's) not Glen Larson, but then that is just what comes to mind at first. I can make an indirect email contact with Glen, and ask a question or two, but not to many at once.

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chrisd
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Post by chrisd » Wed May 30, 2007 10:05 pm

GoldCylon wrote:My thoughts are these items used were owned by the studio (Universal Studio's) not Glen Larson, but then that is just what comes to mind at first. I can make an indirect email contact with Glen, and ask a question or two, but not to many at once.
Well, after you (EMS) and I (Chrisd) have done our research on vocoders, we both know which vocoders were NOT used for the production of BSG and that there are just TOO MANY clues as to which one WAS. EMS was the vocoder for sure used to make the Cylon voices, I do not care about typos or anyone telling us anything different because nobody else (that we know of) has spent hours and years on vocoder research trying to duplicate the Cylon voices. The sounds I've personally created on several different vocoders NEVER came close to the Cylon voices as the EMS units. And after you contacted Mr Robin Wood from EMS he came to the conclusion that it was not quite the "5000" because of it's incredible state of rarity and that if in fact an EMS unit was used to create the Cylon voices, more than likely it was the EMS vocoder system 2000 (along with help from a ring modulator) to give the effect the extra "boost" But the next thing is tracking down an EMS unit and spending time experimenting by adding ring modulator effects to it with different carrier inputs to try again making a new cd even better than the previous ones I made and then we can take it from there.....TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!

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Post by GoldCylon » Wed May 30, 2007 10:16 pm

I asked Peter Berkos who owned the vocoder he used, and he said it was property of Universal Studios, and that ha has no idea at all where or what has happened to it. My personal thoughts are that it was sold years ago , if no destroyed in the fire 1991. Remember Universal had the fire sell a while after the arson fire. They did a clean house, and a lot of stuff like the BSG props, and costumes were sold off. I am sure if it was still around then, the vocoder was dismissed then. Just speculation on my part, but Peter Berkos was 100% sure the owners manual he sent me was the manual for the unit he used to make the Cylon voice.

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Post by chrisd » Wed May 30, 2007 10:35 pm

GoldCylon wrote:I asked Peter Berkos who owned the vocoder he used, and he said it was property of Universal Studios, and that ha has no idea at all where or what has happened to it. My personal thoughts are that it was sold years ago , if no destroyed in the fire 1991. Remember Universal had the fire sell a while after the arson fire. They did a clean house, and a lot of stuff like the BSG props, and costumes were sold off. I am sure if it was still around then, the vocoder was dismissed then. Just speculation on my part, but Peter Berkos was 100% sure the owners manual he sent me was the manual for the unit he used to make the Cylon voice.
In that case Hey, EMS, I think one of us should ask Ben Liebrand where he got his information on this. Don't you agree?

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Post by EMS Vocoder 5000 » Wed May 30, 2007 11:06 pm

GoldCylon wrote:I asked Peter Berkos who owned the vocoder he used, and he said it was property of Universal Studios, and that ha has no idea at all where or what has happened to it. My personal thoughts are that it was sold years ago , if no destroyed in the fire 1991. Remember Universal had the fire sell a while after the arson fire. They did a clean house, and a lot of stuff like the BSG props, and costumes were sold off. I am sure if it was still around then, the vocoder was dismissed then. Just speculation on my part, but Peter Berkos was 100% sure the owners manual he sent me was the manual for the unit he used to make the Cylon voice.
Not if it's a Sennheiser's manual since it's impossible to create the Cylon voice with one, enough ppl such as ChrisD and Robin Wood, etc. have experimented with the Sennheiser, EMS, and perhaps others to come to the inevitable conclusion that an EMS unit was used. However despite an email I received from Mr. Wood saying why he believes it's an EMS Vocoder 2000W MKI, and that his company's records show that only Stevie Wonder (in Pennsylvania) and Audio Technics? (in L.A. for an exhibit) had two out of the thirteen units made, I still believe the BSG production one to be the "Big" or 5000 possibly even the upscale of that the "Synthi Vocoder". I believe someone at either Universal or Glen A. Larson Productions bought it in Europe and brought it to Hollywood therefore Mr. Wood (actually Mr. Tim Orr) wouldn't even be aware of it!!

That Sennheiser VSM-201 that Mr. Peter Berkos gave you (GoldCylon) an owner's manual to MUST have been for something else, or was the original vocoder they wanted to use until they were told (or heard for themselver) the EMS units sound more "robotic"!!!

I've come-up with a fool-proof way to settle this EMS vs. Sennheiser vs. Any other brand/model of vocoder available in 1978 and prior, and that is:

Simply take audio samples of the Cylons speaking from the original BSG series and compare them to all existing vocoders at the time and run them through an audio analyzer ((after-all they have analyzers that can tell what type of typewriter (back in those days) someone used, computer being used for emails, video analyzers to detemine if footage such as ones from UFOs are real or not, etc.)), which will tell us the vocoder used for the Cylons of BSG:TOS!!! I predict despite Mr. Berkos' Sennheiser VSM-201 and Mr. Robin Wood's EMS 2000 that it will be revealed to be either the "Big" aka 5000 or it's upscale the "Synthi Vocoder"!!!
The Cylon Vocoder is an EMS Vocoder!!! Also possibly used was the Marshall 5002 Time-Modulator!! Was an electric saxophone used with or instead of an unknown synthesizer or electric/electronic keyboard??

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Post by EMS Vocoder 5000 » Wed May 30, 2007 11:07 pm

chrisd wrote:
GoldCylon wrote:I asked Peter Berkos who owned the vocoder he used, and he said it was property of Universal Studios, and that ha has no idea at all where or what has happened to it. My personal thoughts are that it was sold years ago , if no destroyed in the fire 1991. Remember Universal had the fire sell a while after the arson fire. They did a clean house, and a lot of stuff like the BSG props, and costumes were sold off. I am sure if it was still around then, the vocoder was dismissed then. Just speculation on my part, but Peter Berkos was 100% sure the owners manual he sent me was the manual for the unit he used to make the Cylon voice.
In that case Hey, EMS, I think one of us should ask Ben Liebrand where he got his information on this. Don't you agree?
YES!!!!
The Cylon Vocoder is an EMS Vocoder!!! Also possibly used was the Marshall 5002 Time-Modulator!! Was an electric saxophone used with or instead of an unknown synthesizer or electric/electronic keyboard??

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Post by GoldCylon » Wed May 30, 2007 11:14 pm

Mr Berkos answer was so quick about the manual that I believe he he is correct about using the Senn for the Cylon voice. He had great recall on some of the stories he told me, and was up front about the foggy things.

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Post by EMS Vocoder 5000 » Wed May 30, 2007 11:29 pm

GoldCylon wrote:Mr Berkos answer was so quick about the manual that I believe he he is correct about using the Senn for the Cylon voice. He had great recall on some of the stories he told me, and was up front about the foggy things.
If it was indeed the Sennheiser VSM-201 Vocoder he used, then he somehow managed to get it to sound like an EMS Vocoder most notably the 5000 or the Synthi, and why did he do that instead of an actual 5000 or Synthi??
The Cylon Vocoder is an EMS Vocoder!!! Also possibly used was the Marshall 5002 Time-Modulator!! Was an electric saxophone used with or instead of an unknown synthesizer or electric/electronic keyboard??

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Post by GoldCylon » Wed May 30, 2007 11:32 pm

I am sure he used what was given to him. I am not sure if he had a choice in what was going to be used to make the Cylon voice. Remember Mr Berko is able to work with what he has to make the needed sound. Hell he won an Academy Award for the sound effects used in the Hindenburg, and the was mostly from leaning back in an office chair to make that crashing sound.

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