Photo credit: Meghan MacKrous, courtesy of the National Music Centre

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Bode Vocoder Signal Processor

Available for use in Recording Studios

Not currently on exhibit

Artifact TypeSynthesizer, Accessory

Manufacturer Bode Sound Company established 1958

Manufacturer LocationUSA, North America

Date1977

Developed by German engineer and electronic musical instrument pioneer, Harald Bode, the vocoder is a tool used to analyze and synthesize the human voice signal—transforming it in various ways to sound slower, faster, or more synthetic. Originally used in the ‘30s to encrypt and secure voice transmissions over radio, the modern vocoder emerged in the ‘70s as a popular electronic instrument for music and film. Often used in movies to create the sound of a robot talking, this instrument has been successfully adapted by groups such as Kraftwerk and Daft Punk to create a distinct musical sound.

Operation/FunctionThis vocoder features a single 1/4" ‘modulator’ input, switchable between microphone and direct line, a single 1/4” ‘carrier input, a single 1/4” audio output, all with independent volume control, as well as 16 analyzer outputs (1/4”) and 16 synthesizer inputs (1/4”). A toggle switch located next to the audio output selects the effect or bypasses to allow only the unmodified carrier signal through. Frequency spectrum ranges from 50 to 5080 Hz (bands separated at 159 Hz, 200 Hz, 252 Hz, 317 Hz, 400 Hz, 504 Hz, 635 Hz, 800 Hz, 1008 Hz, 1270 Hz, 1600 Hz, 2016 Hz, 2840 Hz, 3200 Hz, and 4032 Hz), with an additional high frequency (5080 – 15 000 Hz) channel selected via a toggle switch. Connections between the analyzer outputs and the synthesizer inputs are achieved via standard phone (1/4”) patch cables. Also features sample/hold (track/hold) control switch. Inputs are accompanied by a single LED, which becomes lit to indicate overload of the incoming signal.Cultural SignificanceAlthough the vocoder had begun its introduction into academic music in the late 1940s, it was not until the commercial and popular advent of pure electronic music, led by groups such as Kraftwerk, who are often considered the forefathers of techno, popularized the devices in the early 1970s. Its dehumanizing effect – a result of the fact that the device only encrypts the spectral components of a vocal signal in isolation of certain inflections that are natural to speech – especially suited this aesthetic, which reflected preoccupations with machinery and automation. Kraftwerk arguably exemplified this better than any other group throughout the 1970s, especially in the eras surrounding The Man-Machine of 1978, Radio-Activity of 1975, and Autobahn of 1974. Today, the vocoder is a staple in popular music, used in a multitude of genres, though often still to achieve a sort of detached or disembodied “robotic” quality.Technological SignificanceThe concept of the vocoder was first developed in 1928 at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, USA by engineer Homer Dudley. Dudley earned several patents for his design, and independently exhibited the decoder, or voder, component, which synthesizes speech from encrypted data, at the famed 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. The applications inherent in this technology were plentiful, however, as one might expect, the first official use of the voder device was in the allied war effort. In 1943, Dudley’s colleagues at Bell Labs developed the SIGSALY system, which employed a voder in an attempt to decode encrypted vocal communications. Later applications of the vocoder unit, which comprises both the coding (analyzing) and decoding (synthesizing) components of the technology, came in relation to audio data compression, especially, as well as in encryption, voice storage, and linguistics. Musical applications began to take shape in the late 1940s, with an essay espousing the use of speech synthesis in electronic music emerging from the Belgian-German physicist Werner Meyer-Eppler (1913 – 1960), a pivotal figure in the establishment of the famed Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) electronic music studio in Cologne, Germany in 1951. Speech and language were especially prominent interests in the requisite experimental and academic music of the era, as reflected in seminal compositions such as Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge of 1956, and Luciano Berio’s Omaggio a Joyce of 1958. The earliest usage of vocoders in music point to the German-built Siemens Studio for Electronic Music, which is sometimes simply referred to as the Siemens Synthesizer, of 1959. Akin to the massive RCA Mark II synthesizer at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, this semi-modular instrument also incorporated a few other interesting devices, including an amplified reed organ similar to the Hohner Multimonica, and a photoelectric tone generator similar to that found on the famed Russian ANS synthesizer. In 1968, engineer and co-developer of the first voltage-controlled modular synthesizer, Dr. Robert Moog (1934 – 2005), produced a solid-state (transistorized) vocoder for the University of Buffalo. That same year, Canadian composer and electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack (1931 – 1988) built his own vocoder prototype, which he dubbed the ‘Farad’ in honour of English physicist Michael Faraday. In 1970, Moog collaborated with electronic composer Wendy Carlos on an iteration of the vocoder that closely resembled Dudley’s original design. This device featured a ten-channel filter structure, and was first employed using a Moog modular system as the carrier signal. Harald Bode, who had already more than done his part to revolutionize the course of electronic music with his conception of voltage-control within a modular context, developed this standalone vocoder in 1977 while technically in retirement. Along with his famed Frequency Shifter and Ring Modulator units, both of which emerged in 1964 and were later licensed to Moog Music, the Bode Vocoder remains one of the most revered versions of the device.Users/PerformersAmong the most notable usage of the vocoder (including units both by Bode and other manufacturers, such as Moog) are Kraftwerk’s Autobahn of 1974, Electric Light Orchestra’s Out of the Blue of 1977, Giorgio Moroder’s Einzelgänger of 1975 and From Here to Eternity of 1977, Pink Floyd’s Animals of 1977, Neil Young’s Trans of 1982, and Michael Jackson’s Thriller of 1982. Arguably the most recognizable popular example is Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” of 1981. In the world of film, Moog’s device can be heard in use by composer Wendy Carlos for the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 dystopian cult classic, A Clockwork Orange.

Object number2002.05.08