Anyone found a cheap and cheerful Vocoder alternative?

[BazookaJo]

My brother does an awesome Cylon impression without any kit whatsoever, and mine ain't too bad.

What it needs however is something just to give it an edge.

I bought one of those "5 Voices in One" fancy dress voice disguisers and it was total cr@p - BUT if the sensitivity of the mic had been half decent (you have to be pretty loud or it keeps cutting out), and the resulting voice hadn't been SO, distorted it would have probably done the job for us (especially in the cardboard helmets - http://www.bazookajo.me.uk)

Anyone come across a decent one on their travels that might fit the bill?

Many thanks in advance

Joe.

[GoldCylon]

Chrisd has a CD I am selling for him, or you can contact him directly .
http://byyourcommand.net/photogallery/G ... cylonsynth

[BazookaJo]

Chrisd has a CD I am selling for him, or you can contact him directly .
http://byyourcommand.net/photogallery/G ... cylonsynth

Cheers GC, but I was looking for something that would work on the fly without spending $100s.

Something that can produce a good basic robot style voice without being to Daleky, the rest me and my bro could do via 'performance' (bear in mind this is for halloween/fun use, not for shows or conventions).

Best regards

Joe.

[chrisd]

Do you want a Cylon Voice that sounds like this???

http://www.80skid.com/

If this is the voice you want I can sell you a cd 1 hour long filled with phrases

[BazookaJo]

Do you want a Cylon Voice that sounds like this???

http://www.80skid.com/

If this is the voice you want I can sell you a cd 1 hour long filled with phrases

Cheers Chris, but as I said above - I'm wanting to be able to go off script. Spontanuity will be more important than accuracy

Regards

Joe.

[chrisd]

I'm sorry but I'm still not understanding. Do you want the Exact Phrases? or just some sort of different vocoder sound?

[BazookaJo]

I'm sorry but I'm still not understanding. Do you want the Exact Phrases? or just some sort of different vocoder sound?

Basically I want to be able to say anything I want i.e. "By your command" or "Fish and chips three times please" and sound reasonably like a Cylon

I have the free Cylonix Vocoder software which is good enough for me, but I wanted something that would work on the fly i.e. something that I could wear underneath the suit that would disguise my voice (doing my best Cylon impression) while giving it a little bit more of a Cylonesque twist.

[chrisd]

I was going to do something like that with my vocoder (the same vocoder I used for the voices you've heard on the website) but to wire the vocoder and do it "live" is just a pure headache, that is why I used the 1 hour cd I made and ran it through speakers powered by an mp3 player. Look at this example in my video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTP8159DCuo


and when I wore my costume inside the contest I had the volume cranked and still it was hard to hear the cd, so it is only good to interact with a live vocoder if 1) you will be in one particular spot the whole time and 2) if it won't be a noisy large crowd so the people can hear you.

[matic]

I have been selling an MP3 player with tons of cylon samples from the show and reads using a vocoder for common phrases.
IT includes an amp system which fits inside the front armor and is pretty loud.
It has a remote control that goes into your glove and you can say just about anything on the fly by calling up the sample you want.
It takes some getting used to to know where the sounds are, but once you do it is fun!
When you aren't running phrases, it will play the eye sound continuously.
I used a cd player many years ago in my R2D2 sound system and i found there are so many issues with using a spinning disc in a mobile costume, that i went solid state.
I have been working on an on the fly vocoder system for several years, and I am getting there. I will definitely let everyone know when i have a working solution as it really is the "holy grail" when it comes to this type of costume.

[GoldCylon]

I guess I have to a degree followed in your foots steps with the sound play back. I started out with a MP3 player that used a battery power stereo speaker system that had a built in amp. The MP3 file ran about 45 minutes in a non stop loop. It had the non stop eye warble, and then the random insert of Cylon voice commands. I had it Velcroed inside the chest piece. Worked out great.