CYLON VOICES (How were they originally done?)

[chrisd]

Well, everybody has different questions, like "hey, ever talk into a fan, you get a "robotic" sound or even a "voicebox"? There a millions of ways to achieve what we refer to as "SOUND" But for a fact the Cylons used a device called a vocoder. To make a long story short, before anybody asks anymore questions about how the Cylon voices were done, click on this link: http://www.80skid.com/ when the page opens up, listen to the audio sample, and PLEASE---TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!!! This is an example of the device known as the VOCODER. Did the Cylons use an artificial voice box combined with a vocoder? I seriously doubt it because I saw the deleted scenes of "saga of a star world" and NEVER saw this apparant voice machine for people with difficulty talking. But everbody has questions about the voices and when I give them this link to listen to it nobody gives me feedback.
So my question is: after you listen to this audio sample, on a scale of 1-10 how Cylon does this sample sound to you?

[chrisd]

Everybody PLEASE click on this link http://www.80skid.com/ and listen to the audio sample intro to this site. Does this answer your question? Does this NOT sound closest to the original Cylons? I guarantee you that voice machines such as Cylonix, Boss S-50, and Boss VT-1 do not even COMPARE with the audio sample of the Cylon voice on this site. Thanks to Mr William Fong!

[GoldCylon]

Everybody PLEASE click on this link http://www.80skid.com/ and listen to the audio sample intro to this site. Does this answer your question? Does this NOT sound closest to the original Cylons? I guarantee you that voice machines such as Cylonix, Boss S-50, and Boss VT-1 do not even COMPARE with the audio sample of the Cylon voice on this site. Thanks to Mr William Fong!

With the help of ChrisD I am making a sub-album in the photo gallery that will have voice samples, photos and details on how the Cylon voices were made. It is up and coming, so no feedback if you dont see it right away, but here is the link http://byyourcommand.net/photogallery/B ... tica-Cylon

[deralis]

I heard the Sample and compaired it with audio clips from the show and I would give it an 8,

only because it sounds too clear,
as the Cylons from the show seem to be more muffled...

Sounds great though!!!
how can I order one of the cd's???

Thanks!!! 8)

[chrisd]

:D I heard the Sample and compaired it with audio clips from the show and I would give it an 8,

only because it sounds too clear, :?
as the Cylons from the show seem to be more muffled...

Sounds great though!!!
how can I order one of the cd's???

Thanks!!! 8)

Thanks for your interest! You can reach me here:
chridext257@aol.com
The Cylon cd is one hour long and is $30.00 for one cd and $40.00 for 2 cd's. The 2nd cd is the lower pitch (gold Cylon) voice and if you play the cd's together simultaneously they both interact. I can add the warble sound or just give you the cd's "dry" without the warble sound

[matic]

The cylon sound was definately done with a Vocoder. (Voice Operated reCorDER)
A vocoder, by definition, is a device that continuously analyzes the frequency spectrum of on incoming signal (called the speech signal) and imparts analogous spectral characteristics to another (the carrier signal).

I have several vocoders here in the studio and they all do
a cylonesque sound if programmed correctly.
The early vocoders were very pricey, the most famous being the sennheiser vsm 201. It is generally known to be the device used to do the sound for the cylon. however,
there were other ones around at the same time that could have been used.
the Korg VC10, EMS vocoder,elektor,roland vp 330 and others.

[chrisd]

The Sennheiser VSM-201 WAS NOT the vocoder used for production of BSG. I say this because I own this unit with many other vocoders myself. Click on this link http://www.80skid.com/

Listen to the vocoder sample on the page, DOES THIS SOUND LIKE THE ORIGINAL CYLON VOCODER????

[GoldCylon]

Welcome on board Matic, I wonder if this might help ChrisD out in trying to solve the Cylon voice playback. He has done some great work so far.

[matic]

hey thanks for the welcome gold cylon.

Cris I have been to your site before and there is no link to a page
about vocoders that i have found.
The sample you have on the first page is pretty good, I would even say damned good, but i have made similar sounding clips with different vocoders. I have a digitech vocalist, which does a really good cylon realtime out of the box and the thing is only 10"X2" in size.
Unfortunately they are discontinued.!
It certainly isnt the one used on the series however as the digitech came out in 1989.
The only reason I believe it may be the sennheiser is that it was the cadillac of its day and the studio had one there in the post production studios. I read an article about how some bands were renting the production facilities to use the vocoder! It was worth 100 000 dollars at the time so was in high demand.

To get the right sound requires two things, the right reading of the phrase and the right modulator for a signal.
There are at least five bands of signal in the cylon voice, which many other vocoders of the time were not able to do.

I certainly would love to play with a few more old vocoders or get soem definative proof how it was done.
Half the fun is in the finding!
I have been able to creat a great cylon voice myself, but the goal now is to do it with the original gear.

[chrisd]

Actually the website is not mine, I just wanted you to hear the audio sample. I have owned many vocoders and to be honest, I owned the Digitech Vocalist 19" rackmount which retailed for about $599.00 or so and it is a MIDI connection and sounds NOTHING like a Cylon. The vocoder used for the Cylons was not midi but was analog and I will tell you it was NOT the Sennheiser VSM-201 as erroneously reported by such guys as Ben Liebrand who owns one and is trying to get attention by claiming it was used in production of BSG. I would like to know where you saw the info as to where the Sennheiser was used for the voice of the Cylons. I have owned both Roland SVC-350 and VP-330, Electroharmonix, EMS 2000 and VSM-201 and I've played with the Korg DVP-1 and VC-10

Look here on Ebay 260088778776 this is my add!!!! and my email is chridext257@aol.com. If you'd like I can send you a sample of this. The sample you heard on the website sounds WAY more of a Cylon than the VSM-201. I don't care how many effects, reverb, distortion, compression, flanging you use or bands or frequencies, you will NOT get the same sounds as the Cylon with the VSM-201 There's just NO way at all possible. TRUST ME!!! and I will GLADLY confront anybody who "claims" the Sennheiser was used for the voice of the Cylons

[Galactifan]

...To make a long story short, before anybody asks anymore questions about how the Cylon voices were done, click on this link: http://www.80skid.com/ when the page opens up, listen to the audio sample, and PLEASE---TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!!!

It sounds like VH-1's "We Are the 80's" robot voice. It doesn't have the deep distortion you mentioned. It's sort of close to a Cylon but not quite there yet. Do you know what vocoder this voice was created on?

[chrisd]

This was done by me, it is the EMS 2000 which was in production 1977. the EMS has it's own built in oscillater which you can use the vocoder by itself without pluging in a carrier/excitation synth/keyboard. You can hear the sound of the EMS internal oscillator in the deleted scenes of "Saga Of A Star World" they used as a "screen test" for all the Cylons as a fill in.

I also contacted Mr. Robin Wood of EMS in London and he believes strongly that the EMS 2000 was used in production of BSG. The Sennheiser also has a built in tone generator but you can NOT trigger the pitch in this mode whereas the EMS you CAN. I bet my life that the Cylon voices were done by an EMS vocoder

[Galactifan]

This was done by me, it is the EMS 2000 which was in production 1977. ...I bet my life that the Cylon voices were done by an EMS vocoder

I do really like the Cylon voice you created. I would bet that it took many, many, many hours of experimentation of all the different settings to acheive it. NICE WORK!!! Please post a picture of the EMS 2000. Also, can you run through the settings/process of the machine in order to obtain your Cylon voice? Is it as simple as figuring out the right group of settings and plugging in a microphone?

[chrisd]

As for pics of this 30-year-old vintage dinosaur look here

http://filters.muziq.be/model/ems/vocoder2000

I owned the black version. What makes the voice so hard to achieve is not so much your voice (mic Input) but the synthesizer you use (carrier input). You really have to tweak say a "Strings" sound from the keyboard. After all it is the sound that triggers what your voice will sound like. I use a vintage Oberheim OB 8 analog keybaord to trigger my vocoder. Thanks for the comment!!

[Galactifan]

As for pics of this 30-year-old vintage dinosaur look here

http://filters.muziq.be/model/ems/vocoder2000

I owned the black version. What makes the voice so hard to achieve is not so much your voice (mic Input) but the synthesizer you use (carrier input). You really have to tweak say a "Strings" sound from the keyboard. After all it is the sound that triggers what your voice will sound like. I use a vintage Oberheim OB 8 analog keybaord to trigger my vocoder. Thanks for the comment!!

So you need 2 devices to acheive the Cylon voice sound fx? The Vocoder 2000 and a Oberheim OB 8 analog keybaord? Just curious, what is the connection hookup of the devices? Also, how do you know if this was done in the original tv series to ge tthe Cylon voice? Did you contact the audio engineer on the show? I'm just curious of this whole process which seems a bit complicated, but well worth it. Thanks.