If anything the vocoder has become more of a fixture in popular music in the ten years since this article was published.
A little-known inventor named Homer Dudley invented the vocoder. Although the origin of vocoder is far removed from the world of pop music–originally Dudley was hoping to improve phone service–he quickly ascertained that the vocoder (or voice coder) possessed a creative potential far beyond the transmission of phone calls. In fact, the device proved to be of crucial importance World War II, scrambling transoceanic conversations between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
Years later it was resurrected by hipster musicians looking to lend a futuristic ambience to a track including Laurie Anderson (“O, Superman”), Kraftwerk (“We Are the Robots”) and the Beastie Boys (“Intergalactic”).
But it’s safe to say Dudley had something less glamorous in mind when he invented the device at Bell Labs in 1936.
Dudley had a long and productive career as a researcher into the nature of speech and its transmission,” points out Sheldon Hochheiser, corporate historian of the AT&T Archives. “The vocoder is his best known achievement.”
How did his invention work? Dudley discovered that if you broke speech down into its basic components they could be transmitted over a narrow bandwidth. He designed an electronic device that took speech signals, divided them into component parts, analyzed them through a filter, and then re-synthesized them at the receiving end.
In effect, Dudley had figured out how to synthesize sounds. And, thus, he quickly ascertained the vocoder (or voice coder) had creative potential beyond the transmission of phone calls.
To publicize his breakthrough, he created an offshoot called the Voder for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Using a trained operator who manually pressed keys to produce sounds, the Voder (or voice operation demonstrator) could transmit complete intelligible sentences and imitate the sound of various farm animals.
The public was reportedly mesmerized. “The Voder can do practically anything the human voice can do,” claimed the New York Times in a front page article in early 1939, “from producing the lowest pitch of eight or ninety cycles to overtones up to almost 10,000 cycles. It can also sing.”
The musical capabilities of the vocoder took a backseat to more pressing matters during World War II. But the device proved to be of crucial importance, scrambling transoceanic conversations between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
After the war, electronic music pioneers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen began to recognize the vocoder’s musical potential, employing the device in experimental compositions. In 1971, the vocoder entered the pop culture mainstream when Kubrick invited composer Wendy Carlos to score the music to his controversial adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. Employing a vocoder to “sing” on “Timesteps,” Carlos produced a classic of early electronic music.
A product of the communications revolution, the vocoder has become a perfect fit for artists seeking a “new millennium” sound. Its trance-like effect has elements of human warmth but also a decidedly metallic tone.
More recently, the otherworldy effect has shown up in work of Air, Daft Punk, and Beck. Homer Dudley’s invention has contributed to the sound of 1999.
Tags: electronic music, Homer Dudley, vocoder
“Time will tell if we’ll thank Cher or curse her” I don’t curse Cher. She used it tastefully. I blame dumb kids. Music execs, and parents.
First, Homer Dudley? Now that’s name!
So that’s who we have to thank for all the fake singers out there now. This is the worst music ever invented. I’m 30 and a musician, and even an electronic dj, and I am saying this vocoder/auto-tune crap is an abomination. Let’s here them all sing without it! I hope someone comes up with a guitar that plays by itself too. Maybe replace all drummers with drum machines? Seriously, it’s killing singing as an art, as we know it.
Btw, you kids today are as lame as they come. Not only are you all materialistic to the core, but you don’t hold your musicians to a higher standard. You will listen to whatever the radio and Disney will feed you like sheep!
I remember when Cher’s song came out, it is actually a cool song…because her use of the vocoder was very subtle, and we all know she CAN sing without it!! That’s what made it interesting.
I heard that Katy Perry was on sesame street, singing with a vocoder! I could not believe what I was hearing. Life is over as we know it. I would block that show if I had kids. Not only because she is a floozy, and I would not want my daughter to idolize her, but also because it’s total crap. I want them to know that is not real singing, or real music.
You parents that allow your kids to have iphones, webcams and watch crap like this when they are preteens are who’s to blame!! Nobody else!! I hope you all get diarrhea forever! I hate worthless parents, why did you have kids if all they are to you is cattle! Your raising a robot!