The Cylon Vocoder/Voice is the...

[GoldCylon]

The toy Mr Berkos used was a kid voice changing toy that had a robot sound effect. He married that and the voice together, and then the keyboard. Three inputs, not just the voice and a trigger. He also used a low static type of hum to recreate the deeper sound to the Cylon voice. None of this sounds like anything anyone has done yet. He did this on a Sennheiser, not an EMS with out a ring tone modulator or other high tech gadgets. His is an era of effects coming from a toilet flushing, and metal bending, not a modern day effects board. A true recording of a real sound with very little effects added. The Sennheiser to him was a out of the norm thing to use. He was in his 50's when he did this ground breaking work, not 20 something trying all the new things. He fell back to the basics like the off the shelf kids toy used to him him get his foot in the door to make the basic sound, then used the Sennheiser to exploit the rest of the Cylon sound. Now if someone would try this method you might have a surprising result in what you heard.

[Spadinator]

I agreet that the EMS is the Cylon.....I am not sure what one they used in Galactica 1980 (Starbuck Returns). That voice had inflections in it that the "regular" Cylon did not. Does any one have any idea if there is a circuit of "live" voice changer developed yet that could be put into a helmet?

[GoldCylon]

Hey Spadinator
Nothing close has been made that sounds like the Cylon voice except the voice changing toys that have been on the market for decades. Those are easy to find in Halloween type of stores during that time of the year.
As for Cy with The Return of Starbuck that small change in the voice was made on purpose and that was to have more of a friendly voice for younger kids not to be afraid of. Casey Kasem did that voice over work.
If the guys trying to recreate the original Cylon voice would try the method Mr Berkos laid out to me they would have the Cylon voice 100% dead on, except they have tried their own way only to come about 95% accurate.

[EMS Vocoder 5000]

It wasn't Casey Kasem, it was Gary Owens (voice) and Rex Cutter (body).

IMDb: "The Return of Starbuck"

TV.com: "The Return of Starbuck"

[GoldCylon]

It wasn't Casey Kasem, it was Gary Owens (voice) and Rex Cutter (body).

IMDb: "The Return of Starbuck"

TV.com: "The Return of Starbuck"

Your right, sorry I just woke up, my mistake. Gary did the voice over work.

[EMS Vocoder 5000]

Hey Spadinator,

While the Sennheiser Vocoder VSM201 is one of the BEST vocoders (I rank it #3 after the EMS Vocoder 5000 and Synton Syntovox 221) as an expert on vocoders I can most assuredly tell you that it was NOT used for the voices of the Cylons!! However I do believe that the VSM201 may have been used for other effects (since vocoders AREN'T just for making robotic-sounding vocals with, some such as the Sennheiser are great for all sorts of sound-effects).

Please listen to my "Sennheiser Vocoder Demo". Thanks.

Someone "claimed" that they used the EMS Vocoder 2000W MkI and the Marshall 5002 Time-Modulator. UNFORTUNATELY they FAILED to PROVE IT!!! In fact the person I emailed said their contact DIDN'T want to be bothered (making me think there WASN'T one)!! HOWEVER I believe that either the person knows something OR they're just the LUCKIEST guessers of the vocoder used for the Cylons. He/She said that they used the EMS Vocoder 2000W MkI and the Marshall 5002 Time-Modulator, and to me this sounds EXTREMELY LIKELY!!!

[EMS Vocoder 5000]

It wasn't Casey Kasem, it was Gary Owens (voice) and Rex Cutter (body).

IMDb: "The Return of Starbuck"

TV.com: "The Return of Starbuck"

Your right, sorry I just woke up, my mistake. Gary did the voice over work.

Time for me to go to bed.

[Spadinator]

I am not an audio expert and have not claimed to be......but listening to both demos the EMS (to me) sounds closer to the cylon. I guage that also to the album by ELO Time. Since rediscovering that album from my teens and listening to it two to three times a week the vocoder voice on the track "Prologue" sounds exactly like a cylon and I belive the EMS was used on that album. The Sennheiser is good no doubt.

[EMS Vocoder 5000]

I am not an audio expert and have not claimed to be......but listening to both demos the EMS (to me) sounds closer to the cylon. I guage that also to the album by ELO Time. Since rediscovering that album from my teens and listening to it two to three times a week the vocoder voice on the track "Prologue" sounds exactly like a cylon and I belive the EMS was used on that album. The Sennheiser is good no doubt.

ELO used the EMS Vocoder 2000W MkI for both the "Out of the Blue" and "Discovery" albums. However they used the Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus MkI for the "Prologue" intro to "Twilight" from the "Time" LP.

[Spadinator]

Cool thanks for the info. I did not know that. I would be very interested in having something that you could do live (inside a helmet) for my Cylon costume. The "eye" was the easy part. I am currently in negotiations with a friend of mine that is a very good costume maker to do a Cylon. He is on board, we just have to work out the details.

[EMS Vocoder 5000]

Cool thanks for the info. I did not know that. I would be very interested in having something that you could do live (inside a helmet) for my Cylon costume. The "eye" was the easy part. I am currently in negotiations with a friend of mine that is a very good costume maker to do a Cylon. He is on board, we just have to work out the details.

You're welcome.

[GoldCylon]

Just to make notice, I sent Mr Berkos a photo of the EMS 2000, and he said he hasn't seen that unit before. I also sent him a photo of the Sennheiser and he said that was the unit like he used.

Thanks for the information on those other units,and what they were used for, and when. That bits of information I like reading about.

[EMS Vocoder 5000]

Just to make notice, I sent Mr Berkos a photo of the EMS 2000, and he said he hasn't seen that unit before. I also sent him a photo of the Sennheiser and he said that was the unit like he used.

Thanks for the information on those other units,and what they were used for, and when. That bits of information I like reading about.

How about the EMS Vocoder 5000 aka "The Big One"??



SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHER VOCODERS (INCLUDING THE SENNHEISER VOCODER VSM201)!!!

[EMS Vocoder 5000]

The toy Mr Berkos used was a kid voice changing toy that had a robot sound effect. He married that and the voice together, and then the keyboard. Three inputs, not just the voice and a trigger. He also used a low static type of hum to recreate the deeper sound to the Cylon voice. None of this sounds like anything anyone has done yet. He did this on a Sennheiser, not an EMS with out a ring tone modulator or other high tech gadgets. His is an era of effects coming from a toilet flushing, and metal bending, not a modern day effects board. A true recording of a real sound with very little effects added. The Sennheiser to him was a out of the norm thing to use. He was in his 50's when he did this ground breaking work, not 20 something trying all the new things. He fell back to the basics like the off the shelf kids toy used to him him get his foot in the door to make the basic sound, then used the Sennheiser to exploit the rest of the Cylon sound. Now if someone would try this method you might have a surprising result in what you heard.

A toy, like this?

[GoldCylon]

Yes something along that line. The item is an unknown item, but Mr Berkos said he didn't drive a straight recorded voice into the Vocoder but a combo of the voice, and then the same voice with a toy like in the above reply. Mr Berkos said is was a robotic like type sounding voice married into the human voice before it made its way to the Sennheiser.