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History Electronic Music PDF
History Electronic Music PDF
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PAPERS
HARALD BODE
other locations of the string length would produce yet and the frequency-modulated signals, a type of choral
different harmonic structures . effect was produced [28] . This laid the foundation for
The Electrochord as well as the Miessner piano were today's phasers . In the mid 1950s W. C. Wayne, Jr.,
built without sounding boards, thus eliminating their proposed and built a purely electronic choral tone
damping effect and producing tones with longer decay modulator for the Baldwin organ [29] . A different ap-
times . The same was true for the Les Paul guitar, and proach for choral tone modulation was taken by D. L.
it might be interesting to learn that Paul invented the Bonham in the early 1960s [30], after he had created
solid-body guitar as far back as 1927 [24] . In his early successfully a purely electronic vibrato modulator in
experiments Paul used the magnets of the old-style 1958 [31] .
headphones, which were equipped with steel diaphragms A unique contribution in sound modification devices
as membranes . The Gibson guitar evolved in 1941, and was made by Homer Dudley through his creation of
it has since been associated with an incredible number the voder and the vocoder in the late 1930s .
and variety of sound modification devices and methods, The voder [32] was a keyboard-operated instrument
some of which will be discussed in more detail. controlling a number of bandpass channels for simu-
From the beginning one important means of sound lating the resonances of the human voice. With the
modification has been the tremolo and the vibrato, the addition of a tone source called the buzz source and a
tremolo being an amplitude modulation [25] and the noise source called the hiss source, vowels and con-
vibrato a frequency modulation . It is interesting to note sonants of a speaker were imitated .
that post-source frequency modulation initially posed The system became even more exciting when the
a problem . For this reason the first Hammond organs voder, being an encoder, was combined with a decoder .
were equipped with means for amplitude modulation This combination was called the vocoder, which com-
or tremolo . prised an analyzer for analyzing the speech and a syn-
In the mid-1940s a delay line with variable inductors thesizer for remaking the same speech [33], [34] .
was invented by Hanert, and after this a different type For accomplishing this, the audio range was sliced
of variable delay line with a number of delay taps and up into a number of bandpass channels in the analyzer,
a capacitive scanner was incorporated in the Hammond which correspond to an equal number of bandpass
organ (Figs. 3 and 4) [26], [27] . By combining direct channels in the synthesizer . In each analyzer channel
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Fig. 4. Basic diagram of Hammond vibrato unit.
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Fig . 2. Complementary filter responses of Warbo Formant
organ.
Fig . 3 . Delay line for Hammond organ vibrato unit. Fig . 5 . The author tuning his first Melochord (1947) .
732 J . Audio Eng . Soc ., Vol . 32, No. 10, 1984 October
PAPERS HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC SOUND MODIFICATION
Prior to the tape era, Paul created the repetition effect they started to perform as four-quadrant multipliers
on 16-in (406-mm) disks with five playback pickups and became musically interesting (Fig . 8) [43], [44] .
in the same groove with the cutting head. This was in The author's modular sound modification system was
1941 . built in late 1959 through 1960 . In it the multiplier-
Les Paul, of course, stimulated many innovators, type ring modulator and other sound modifying devices
and due to his success encouraged them to work in the were used, such as an envelope follower, a tone-burst-
field of new sound effects . His influence in many areas responsive envelope generator, a voltage-controlled
is felt to this day. The author was so impressed by his amplifier, formant and other filters, mixers, a pitch
work that he later developed a sound modification sys- extractor, a comparator and frequency divider for the
tem consisting of a number of electronic modules, as- extracted pitch, and a tape loop repeater with dual
signed to two separate outputs through a multiple-head channel processing [45], [46].
tape loop device [42] (Fig . 7) . These modules, which The modular concept proved attractive due to its
will be dealt with in more detail, also included a ring versatility, and it was adopted by Robert Moog when
modulator . he created his modular synthesizer in 1964. This syn-
The ring modulator was at the time a relatively little- thesizer included a variety of sound modification devices
known sound modification device, mainly used in sin- and system modules, such as voltage-controlled filters
gle-sideband communication systems . The main reason [47], envelope generators, voltage-controlled ampli-
was that up to the mid- or late 1950s it was known as fiers, and sample/hold circuits. At a later date Bode
a switching circuit, which would have sounded too ring modulators and Bode frequency shifters (which
harsh to be usable for sound modification . It was only will be described in more detail) were also added to
after ring modulators were built with diodes, which the Moog line .
operate in the square law region oftheir transfer function By the late 1960s sound effect devices such as the
(as was the case with certain germanium diodes), that wahwah appeared in the popular entertainment field .
t1
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is produced where the spacing of the peaks and notches in four independent channels to achieve this and other
equals the reciprocal of the delay time . In contrast, in moving sound effects . Prior to this a system for "mon-
phasers, depending upon the design parameters used aural-binaural transmission of sound for producing a
for the phase filter, the spacing of the peaks and notches Haas effect" had been proposed by D. W. Martin in
can be made to cover equal musical intervals [58] . All- 1959 [64] .
pass phase filters have been known for analog computers Different and still relatively little-known sound
roughly since the 1940s. So basically the technology modification devices are frequency shifters, which are
would have been available to build phasers at that time. capable of producing quite startling effects . The first
According to one report the first user of phasers was frequency shifters were introduced in the 1950s by Heck
Dodie Fields in the mid 1950s . The Countryman phase and Buerck in West Germany [65]. They operated on
shifter became known in the early 1970s . One of the the principle of heterodyning the program material, for
successful phasers of the early times was the Maestro instance through a 20-kHz carrier into a higher frequency
phaser, designed by Tom Oberheim . range passing one of the sidebands produced through
On the Moog 12-stage phaser the number of phasing a single-sideband filter (for instance, passing 20 kHz
stages as well as the number of stages included in the to 30 kHz) and reheterodyning these frequencies back
feedback loop could be selected . The Bode Barberpole into the audio range with a carrier that deviated from
phaser (introduced in 1981) is capable of unidirectional the first (20-kHz) carrier by the amount of frequency
(infinite) movement ofthe comb filter peaks and notches . shift ultimately desired [66].
A very important ingredient in sound modification A different variety of frequency shifters now suc-
is the addition of reverberation to program material . cessfully in use operates on the phase shifter and mul-
In the old days, that is, in the 1930s, one used echo tiplier principle [67], [68] . A dual phase shifter modifies
chambers for this purpose, and with very good results . the program signal to produce output signals, which
But they wre expensive and space consuming . Then in are in 90-degree phase relationship relative to each
1941 came the invention of the Hammond spring re- other over a range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz . These feed
verberation device, which was incorporated in his organ into the first inputs of two multipliers . A quadrature
tone cabinet [59] . It also worked well in studios, and oscillator produces sine/cosine-related shift frequencies,
its offspring are still popular . A different approach for which are fed to the second inputs of the two multipliers .
producing reverberation effects was taken by D. W. The multiplier output signals are typically those of
Martin of the Baldwin Piano Company, who used coil ring modulators. Due to their phase relationships one
springs, which were mechanically coupled with the of the sidebands is suppressed when they are summed
loudspeaker cone [60] . in the output circuit, and the other is doubled in am-
Another way to produce reverberation effects suc- plitude, thus producing a frequency-shifted signal .
cessfully is, of course, with tape repeaters . After the Frequency shifters can be used for a variety of in-
advent of useful delay lines artificial reverberation be- teresting effects, including the spiraling echo effect,
came feasible with tapped delay lines . Schroeder of which is obtained by placing this sound modifier in the
Bell Laboratories proposed a system for natural rever- feedback loop of a delay circuit (or tape delay) . In
beration, incorporating a number of delay lines and cooperation with Robert Moog a special model was
feedback configurations (Fig . 10) [61] ; {62] . One of created in 1973 [69]-[70], which has an exponential
the most successful reverberation devices still in use control voltage to amount-of-shift interface, so it has
today is the EMT plate reverberation device . a keyboard tracking capability. This means that unusual
As was mentioned before, post-source frequency timbres set up with the frequency shifter can be main-
modulation is very important to enhance certain program tained over the entire keyboard range .
material . The most famous device to produce Doppler In the 1973 model a beat frequency quadrature os-
effect vibrato by rotating loudspeakers was and is the cillator was used, which was later replaced by a wide-
Leslie tone cabinet . A purely electronic system for
simulating moving sound sources was described by J.
M . Chowning in 1971 [63], who proposed the use of
all of the required parameters, . including amplitude
modulation, frequency modulati4, and reverberation
Harald Bode, a graduate of the University of Ham- model of the Clavioline (1953), and a modular syn-
burg, Germany, and a postgraduate of the Technical thesizer/sound processor (1959-1960) . The Bode ring
University of Berlin (Heinrich Hertz Institute), became modulators and frequency shifters (1961) are found in
active in electronic music instrument design in the mid- many American and foreign studios . The Bode Vocoder,
30s. His creations include the Warbo Formant organ deviating from conventional concepts, was created in
(1937), the Melodium (1938), the Melochord (1947- 1977 .
1953), most widely known through the work of Stock- Bode holds more than 50 US and foreign patents .
hausen at Cologne, West Germany . Further instruments He served as AES session chairman for music and
include the Polychord (1949), the Bode organ (1951- electronics in 1962 and 1964 . He is the head of the
later known as the Estey electronic organ), the concert Bode Sound Company of North Tonawanda, New York .
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HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC SOUND MODIFICATION
by Harald Bode
INTRODUCTION .
since the late 19th century, when Thaddeus Cahill created his
Telharmonium .
invention of the electron tube and in the more recent decades through
the present, and with tape recording=_ covering a time span of more
the time span, which preceded the purely electronic era, and also
Cahill, which was built around 1897, This instrument used the
the nurnose of aeneratinff Dure sine waves for this synthesis, the
f ormants,
In contrast, the German J6rg Mager built an organ like
ccmplPxity than those used before . It had two sets of filters and
which again made use of f ormant f ilters for overtone modifica tion
and means for envelope shaning to produce tones of wind and string
type instruments . 1Z
tive) along the strings . For instance, when picking up the oscilla-
tions in the center, all odd harmonics would appear . At one third
without sounding boards, since these did not a nymore se rve any
useful purpose . The same was true for the LPs Paul guitar , and
ments Les Paul used the magnets of the old day type headphones,
modification has been the tremolo and the vibrato, the tremolo
organs in the early 30's were equipped with means for amplitude
modulati on or tremolo .
tyre of variable d elay . line with _ a _._. number of .. delay taps and a .
devices was taken by Homer Dud ley, by his creation of the Voder
SZ.-~
and the Vocoder in the late 30's .
buzz source and a noise source, also called the hiss source,
of the 17 ocoder .
Thus far we have observed, that one important element in
organ and the band pass filters of the Vocoder . Another instrument
1 R4 with strong formant filters was the Bode Melochord, which was
late 40's and the early 50's . The Melochord was also equipped
' Y /) 7 /,?S. with circuitry for the control of attack and decay envelopes,
that around the same time I created the Bode organ, later known
as the Rstey electron -ic crgar. of the 50's, which used the prin
pure1Y electronic, it did not need means for post source vibrato
n7 RCP. synthesizer, which was created under Harry F . Olson and made
its debut in 1955 . The PCA synthesizer was (and is) controlled
S, U
by preprogrammed punched tape . It has such features as digitally
Around the same time Les Paul became famous with his multi-
effect was done with a 5 head recorder . His tape speeds were
16" discs with 5 playback pickups being in the same groove with
systems . The main reason was, that up to the mid or late 50 's
this device was a switching circuit, which sounded too harsh to
later date also Bode ring modulators and Bode frequency shifters
mid 60's, is in the category ef_ the so called Fuzz Boxes, The
story goes, that the Fuzz started with Jeff Beck making .a guitar
recorder .
a jet flies overhead, and the direct sound .and the sound reflected
resulting in
from the ground are summed i n the ear of the observer, )OaMd as~cxx
different Vsneeds or. the niece "The Big Hurt" the flanging effect
with 2 disc recorders, of which one had variable speed control (1945) .
time and the industry was only w&a waiting for usable integrated
circuits to make delay lines of. sufficient quality and delay time,
of. 1975 . It was later followed by the Pitch Change Module for the
1745M DDL and then by the Model H910 Harmonizer, which was the
and for which new analog delay IC's were developed . With this Time
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Modulator a large variety of Effects .can---be,<PTodddAd, such as
2 Drum Slans, Reverb with Detune and others . The Parshall Time
produced, where the snacinq of the peaks and notches equals the
upon the design parameters used for the phase filter, the spacing
vals . All pass phase filters have been known for analog computers
report the first 'User of nhasers was Dodie Fields in the mid 50's .
that is in the 30 " s, one used echo chambers for this purpose, and
with very good results . But they were expensive and space con-
beration effects is, of course with tape repeaters . After the advent
reverb device still in use today was the EMT plate reverberation
device .
tape speed within the 12 steps of the tempered scale . (PnQ~~~ '~»e)
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was called "The Bag" ; with the name of Bob Heil associated with it .
sneaker driver system with a vinal tube from this driver feeding
into the mouth of the performer, who then since vowels with the
on vowels, the use of this. device was limited for intelligible speech .
nnly the vowel frequencies had to be encoded and decoded and not
-~tg- built under the same patent . After my vocoder a number of other
.SG 9 vncoders anapared on the scone, such as the Korg, the Rlectrohar-
S v mnnix, the Syntwox and the Roland, which use the conventional
I
svstpms annroach
history
`~ of electronic sound modification . D, 'im+t-e', time
10 -
available I was only able to touch the tip of the iceberg, but I
hope, that I have been able the expose some interesting hidden
treasures,