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Re: Talking piano: Sparky debate on the auditory list



Bob is right, sort of.

Apparently the piano sound is fed to loudspeakers on a speaker's
throat, and he manipulates the sound with his vocal tract. The
device was called a Sonovox, and it was used in a lot of movies
and recordings. Sparky's Magic Piano was recorded in 1947.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparky%27s_Magic_Piano
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_box

Thanks to Matthew McCabe for pointing this out.

Still, it *was* analog filters.

Jim

Bob Carlyon wrote:
>From: Bob Carlyon <bob.carlyon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:22:05 +0100
>Organization: Medical Research Council
>To: "James W. Beauchamp" <jwbeauch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: Talking piano: Sparky debate on the auditory list
>CC: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>You can't fool  me with all your clever talk. There's a little /man/ 
>inside that piano, I tell you.
>
>James W. Beauchamp wrote:
>> I have to say that Sparky's talking piano voice is a lot more 
>> intelligible than the other examples given. Sparky's piano
>> evidentally used some kind of (analog) vocoder method. It's just
>> an example of subtractive synthesis winning out over additive
>> synthesis, especially when the atoms are not sine waves.
>>
>> Jim Beauchamp
>> Univ. of Illinois
>>
>> Bob Carlyon wrote:
>>   
>>> From: Bob Carlyon <bob.carlyon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:11:37 +0100
>>> Organization: Medical Research Council
>>> To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Subject: [AUDITORY] Talking piano: Sparky debate on the auditory list
>>> Comments: To: Markus Noisternig <Markus.Noisternig@xxxxxxxx>
>>>
>>> Is it just me who was reminded of Sparky's Magic Piano?
>>>
>>> Check out
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3etiNLAFi0
>>> and start the video after about 3 mins 15 seconds....
>>>
>>> bob
>>>
>>> PS. Before anyone asks, no I was /not/ around in the 1940s when this
>>> came out first....
>>>     
>>
>> PSS
>>
>> I was but I missed it somehow.
>>
>>  These cuts are followed by:
>>
>>   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYGmerbDs-w  (part 2)
>>   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OmTgHf0Z8o  (part 3)
>>   
>
>-- 
>Dr. Bob Carlyon
>MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit
>15 Chaucer Rd
>Cambridge CB2 7EF