Bell Labs Speech Synth

23isgood

Hi folks. I just stumbled across a great post on Matrixsynth about the Bell Labs speech synth kit from the mid 60's. After looking around on the net I found the original manual which contains the schematic for the circuit and loads of other great info on speech synthesis and electronic components. Its a very good source of info for beginning diy'ers.

There are some unusual components in the circuit. Could these be replaced with some modern day equivalents? This thing has to sound nice.

http://www.porticus.org/bell/belllabs_kits_ss.html

EdisonRex · Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 1:20 pm Post subject:

I had one of these. The 45 that came with it was fun, it had the original "Daisy, Daisy" song which ended up being sung as HAL's penultimate performance on 2001 - A Space Odyssey. Except it was a lot more mechanical in the Bell Labs 45.

Anyway, the kit itself was mostly about formants and how to make "oooo", "ahhhh" and "eeeee" sounds.

This was one of my formative (no pun intended) kits, right up there with my Raytheon Lectron electronic block set, and my Archer analog computer.

etaoin · Joined: Jun 30, 2005 Posts: 761 Location: Utrecht, NL

I'm not sure there are that many unusual components in there. Some large inductors of which might be hard to get the right one. The black transistors look like germanium ones (I have a couple of those black ones lying around). Other than that just electrolytes, ceramic caps and resistors.

Or am I missing something?

EdisonRex · Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 2:47 pm Post subject:

I don't recall that anything was that unusual. A bunch of (yes, germanium) transistors, and 60s era caps/resistors and those coils. The most interesting thing was the 45 record.