In 1979 Moog released a vocoder of their own, although its design and architecture is almost identical to the Bode 7702 vocoder. It's a 16-band analog vocoder which separates a given synthesizer sound (carrier signal) into seperate frequncy bands ranging from 50 to 5080 cycles per second. It does not have any internal oscillators so it is designed to be used as a processor for external carrier and modulator wave sources. The modulator is typically a vocal or drum beat used to modulate the carrier/synth sound being processed.

It has microphone and line inputs as well as 16 synthesizer inputs (1 for each frequency band) and 16 outputs. This 16 channel cross-matrix patching system is cumbersome, but useful during the modular synth era, allowing for full external patching between synth and vocoder sections. Other features include a high-frequency bypass, a short 6ms response time for capturing fast percussive sounds, sample-and-hold, and a global bypass switch to turn off the vocoding effect. Unfortunately there is no output mixer, MIDI or CV/Gate. It has been used by Saga, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Wendy Carlos, Moog Cookbook, Devo, and filmaker/composer John Carpenter.

7 VISITOR COMMENTS

NeilYoungFan

July 10, 2011 @ 7:58 pm

Actually I read in Dave Tompkins book 'How to Wreck a Nice Beach' that Neil Young actually used the Sennheiser Vocoder VSM201 for his robotic-vocals on his 'Trans' album!

Beatrage

May 24, 2011 @ 10:21 am

What a vocoder!
It's now on sale on Ebay for 6.200.00 Dollars American. Holy Fudge!

anonymous

March 20, 2011 @ 11:08 pm

'davidhorizon' = ""Alphaville also used it in their song "For A Million". ". I'll have to CHECK-THAT-OUT!!!! LOVE to have one of these!!

davidhorizon

March 10, 2011 @ 9:13 am

Alphaville also used it in their song "For A Million".

anonymous

November 9, 2009 @ 4:08 pm

'Leedamook' Neil's son also had cerebral-palsy in addition to autism. I'm glad to see more people like yourself finding-out that this IS the vocoder used by Mr. Neil Young for his 'Trans' album. The song "Sample and Hold" is Neil's way of saying he used this vocoder. The 'Sample/Hold' switch is the clue. Other vocoders DO have this feature as well...BUT they call it by other names, for example Bode (which the Moog is a clone of) calls it 'Track/Hold', EMS calls it 'Freeze/Slew', Sennheiser 'Silence-Bridging', Roland uses a foot-switch, etc...But ONLY Moog calls it 'Sample/Hold' like the song "Sample and Hold"!!!

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