Dalek Voice Tutorial

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Dalek Voice Tutorial

Рет қаралды 18,221

Alex Ball

Күн бұрын

How to do the Dalek voice with a ring modulator.
Enjoy!

Пікірлер: 187

@LFOVCF 6 ай бұрын

As you increase the frequency beyond the Dalek tone, you get the Cybermen twangy tone.

@tuftyindigo 6 ай бұрын

though the original Cybermen effect was a voice box, which is a completely different tone and quite hard to voice-act with. If you don't have the real deal, a Mu-Tron gives a reasonable approximation.

@LFOVCF 6 ай бұрын

@@tuftyindigo Just to clarify, my observation was more of the recent Cybermen, but I have no idea how that was done, i just heard the twang when Alex cranked up the frequency

@ReadAndReturn 6 ай бұрын

"life in metal, looking like a kettle"

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

☕

@vinylarchaeologist 6 ай бұрын

lyrics for the ages

@eancurtis9333 6 ай бұрын

Sick !

@entropybentwhistle 6 ай бұрын

A dalek laughing at its own joke would be the ultimate galactic rarity.

@thromboid 6 ай бұрын

Hilariously, some of the early Dalek voices were done by Roy Skelton, who amazingly also did Zippy from Rainbow. Adding a little bit of Zippy to a Dalek performance seems to give it the right amount of unhinged megalomania. :)

@thromboid 6 ай бұрын

This of course gave rise to this gem: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/otN8YMydqqjKaJc.html

@thromboid 6 ай бұрын

Also, please please please do a full version of "Dalek Girl"!

@LFOVCF 6 ай бұрын

We need to hear Zippy's voice through this effect😂

@thromboid 6 ай бұрын

@@LFOVCF Yes! That would be the true test of how similar they really are..

@midimoog 6 ай бұрын

Thanks for the video. The Doctor Who TV was where I learnt the words Exterminate, Annihilate when I was a child. The Darlek voice was where I learnt how to use ring modulation. Both are important landmarks. Kind of.

@brentjeanneret 6 ай бұрын

Missed opportunity to tebrand as "Daleks Ball"...! (And life in metal looking like a kettle line had me on the floor. God I needed that laugh. Thank you.)

@aleksamrkela831 6 ай бұрын

Now, this is a great explanation of what ring modulation does. Simple and concise and, most of all, very fun. :D

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

THANK YOU HUMAN

@SamLowryDZ-015 6 ай бұрын

It is well documented Ben Burt's main sound design tool is the 2600. The Radiophonic dept used what Brian Hodgson referred to as 'the Wobbulator'

@MusicEnthuZone 6 ай бұрын

Wobbulator was a variable test tone generator. Totally different thing. There's lots of ring modulation devices that were in use at the time. VCS3 had one for instance. There's whatever Sabbath used for Paranoid.

@SamLowryDZ-015 6 ай бұрын

@@MusicEnthuZone Unless they had a TARDIS of their own they wouldn't have had VCS3 in 1963 and Paranoid wasn't released until 1970

@JakesOnline 6 ай бұрын

That Star Wars sound can be heard on a shortwave radio in single sideband mode (SSB) tuned slightly off center.

@oscar_charlie 6 ай бұрын

I thought they used a detuned SSB radio to generate all the radio chatter. Now I'm not that convinced anymore.

@JakesOnline 6 ай бұрын

@@oscar_charlie I assumed they did, because I recognized the sound. Just found this Ben Burtt interview. They did use a shortwave radio. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/idVgodCUzs-qeps.html @ 36 : 58

@sP33DyEd 6 ай бұрын

Yes I would say also USB or LSB they used for it

@MathHammer 6 ай бұрын

@@oscar_charlie Same! I suppose a ring modulator on a voice has a similar effect. My little Tecsun shortwave receiver has SSB filters with both LSB and USB.

@ringsystemmusic 6 ай бұрын

Oh my god I need a full version of “Dalek Girl” asap!

@TDRKB 6 ай бұрын

Ohh Alex. What a classic. Very useful information. Thanks for making my Friday morning in cloudy Sydney!

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

Cloudy with a chance of ring modulation.

@needfortweed8734 6 ай бұрын

Really fun that the voice in question was demonstrated, but it was also great fun to see the man, the myth, the legend, Alex Ball, goof about and improvise stuff.

@billyruss 6 ай бұрын

Great fun! I love the ring modulator on the Yamaha CS-80 (and the 50 and 60). I had a CS-50 back in the day and spent hours getting Vangelis-like swoops and whistles playing with the ring mod. More recently. the YC range have incorporated a ring modulator that gives some surprisingly great effects - I managed a Vangelis "Beaubourg" tribute (on my channel) using just this.

@unclemick-synths 6 ай бұрын

Ah Beaubourg - contractual obligation album or not? It does have a certain charm all of itself even if my landlady threatened me with eviction if I ever played it within her earshot!😂

@billyruss 6 ай бұрын

@@unclemick-synths Apparently, Vangelis was disdainful of the album in later years but I've always loved it 🙂

@dinogoldie9716 6 ай бұрын

2:39 Mild ring mod sounds like Davros. 2:44 A little more sounds more Daleky. 2:48 Go even higher and that's the Cyberman voice.

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

Yes! Variations of the same effect.

@AutPen38 6 ай бұрын

I was reminded of the Zippy-like "aliens" in the old 'For mash, get Smash' adverts. What I'd completely forgotten was that Smash was made by Cadbury. Those robotic voices were quite different to the silky tones in the adverts for Flake and Caramel.

@greg_d 6 ай бұрын

Wikipedia says the original (1963) Dalek voice was a "midrange boosted human voice" ring modulated by a 30 Hz. sine wave.

@cylobsonicresearch 6 ай бұрын

The Conversation is another film with lots of hot ringmod action

@unclemick-synths 6 ай бұрын

Great movie 👍

@JamesPhipps 6 ай бұрын

Learning how to create the signal chains needed for the sound you’re looking for can be challenging, but having examples I know & love used as reference points really helps. Thanks!

@CORBARocks 6 ай бұрын

Educates, Informs and Entertains!

@GNeuman 6 ай бұрын

And the voice of Commander Powell in John Carpenter's first film, "Dark Star."

@colinmorgan6733 6 ай бұрын

I'm getting over a bout of the lurgy and that made me laugh out loud. Apart from coughing my internals externally that's a brilliant demonstration and description. :)

@Waldemar_la_Tendresse 6 ай бұрын

“I am and always will be the optimist" that there will continue to be great content on this channel.

@oliviaartzmodular359 6 ай бұрын

A ring modulator gives you the product, not the sum of the two signals. Fantastic video! As always

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

Thank you! I've got about a dozen explanations all saying sum and difference. Would you mind explaining "product" as I've not seen that anywhere. Would be good to know.

@hpoz222 6 ай бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic a ring modulator multiplies one input by the amplitude of the other. The frequencies produced are indeed at the sum and difference of the frequencies of the two inputs but the process to get there is multiplicative

@the8bitdeity 6 ай бұрын

@@hpoz222I believe in mathematical terms it's called a 4 quadrant multiplier, correct? Whereas AM is 2 Quadrant

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

@@hpoz222 Thank you. OK, so my explanation was correct, I just didn't get into the multiplication part, although I did show the MS-50 legend with 'A x B' written on it and thought about going into that but it felt like too much info. Perhaps I should have clarified. Edit - Just realised that that is what 'product' is referring to in the original comment - mathematical product meaning the result of multiplication. Ok, so we're all talking about the same thing. In hindsight it would have been better to have explained that rather than jumping to the result. I live and learn. Thanks for the comments.

@KarlAdamsAudio 6 ай бұрын

The terminology around this can be quite confusing - in the RF world, a ring modulator circuit (and other kinds of multipliers) would be called a "mixer", in reference to its behaviour in the frequency domain. An entirely different concept to "mixer" in an audio context, where we're talking about summing signals, rather than multiplying them.

@peter-utrblk 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for this proper lesson. At least i understood Ring Modulation🙂

@chriswareham 6 ай бұрын

The blue on grey of the classic dalek is a dead ringer for the Boss DR-110 drum machine's colour scheme. A coincidence? I think not 😵‍💫

@SpikesStudio3 6 ай бұрын

When i engaged my beloved Penelope, i bought her and engagement ring and in return, she bought me an mf102 "Engagement Ring modulator". True story. 😁

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

True love.

@thelanavishnuorchestra 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for explaining that. I've never used a ring modulator for that purpose, but now I'm going to have to give it a try.

@adastra123 6 ай бұрын

Oh man , I am in bed with an absys in my tooth feeling sorry for my self ( kind of ). But that made me laugh so much I think it got the blood circulation going again giving a bit of relief. Great video , oh man that was funny.

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

Sounds like a visit from the Doctor was helpful. 😉

@mastercylinder1939 6 ай бұрын

Holding out for, “ The Daleks do Disco”.

@David_K_Booth 6 ай бұрын

I was thinking about the MS50's VCA and ring modulator the other day, because of comments we exchanged recently: *if* they both work all the way down to DC, and *if* they are accurately linear, I reckon you will be able to use them to scale and multiply the pitch CVs out of an SQ10 and a keyboard. The output would give you correct pitch transposition of the sequence.

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

My, my. How would one set that up?

@David_K_Booth 6 ай бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic I've had a look at an online manual for the MS50 now, and I need to point out that this won't work if you use the VCA that's got a low cut filter, because that won't pass DC voltages - use the one with no knobs. I sold my MS series kit fifteen years ago when I left the UK, and I'd forgotten there were two separate VCAs on the unit. I think it's going to be necessary to use the VCA to scale down the keyboard CV, because otherwise it might get large enough to drive the ring mod into clipping. First thing, connect the mod wheel of the MS20 or the voltage source of the MS50 to the control input of the VCA and the keyboard CV to the other, and patch the output to the meter. If you set the mod wheel / voltage source about half way up and play a key, does the meter show a steady output voltage or does it drift towards zero? Check this for both the VCA and the ring mod, and if both of them show a steady reading, things might work. It shouldn't matter which way round you plug them into the A and B inputs of the ring mod Second thing would be to check if the VCA is decently linear. Patch the mod wheel of the MS20 or the voltage source of the MS50 to the control input of the VCA and the keyboard to the other, and route the output to the oscillator pitch CV input. You should find that if you hold a key and adjust the mod wheel / voltage source, it will transpose the pitch. If you play octave jumps on the keyboard, does the oscillator jump octaves, or does it go out of tune? If it stays in tune, we're good: try the same thing with the ring mod. If both of them stay in tune, I would set up the patch as: Mod wheel or voltage source to the control input of the VCA, keyboard CV to the signal input of the VCA, output of the VCA to one input of the ring mod, pitch CV from the SQ10 to the other, output of the ring mod to the pitch CV of your oscillators. If you don't have the SQ10 at the moment, but do have a second MS series keyboard to hand, you can do a proof of concept by connecting the second keyboard in place of the sequencer. What I'm expecting is that both keyboards should track octaves correctly, and you should be able to use the control input of the VCA to adjust the overall tuning. So if you play a C on both keyboards, there will be a setting of the VCA that makes the oscillators play C. I hope this is reasonably clear. We can take this to email if you prefer.

@David_K_Booth 6 ай бұрын

I forgot the meter on the MS50 had separate inputs for DC and AC - use the DC one.

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

@@David_K_Booth Awesome - thank you!

@David_K_Booth 6 ай бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic It could go wrong at any point, but it's the best approach I can think of. This is why we ended up with linear 1v per octave as the de facto standard, not Korg's exponential tracking: you don't need to go through contortions like that in order to do something as simple as transposing from a keyboard. Let us know how it works out?

@keyboardkingpin 6 ай бұрын

Hahaha great video Alex! We were all wondering how they did it! Dope video.

@jamesb8573 6 ай бұрын

But if we push the workers any harder they will die. Dalek: Only the weak will die!

@christopheroliver148 6 ай бұрын

There have been a few comments about how (ignoring non-linearity) a ring modulator outputs the product of the carrier and modulator. To see this, we dig out the old high-school trig to get: sin(a)sin(b) = (cos(a-b)-cos(a+b))/2. I.e. ignoring phase, the sum of sine waves at the sum and difference of frequencies a and b. The effect is basically that for a wave with overtones, the resulting sine waves are no longer spaced harmonically. I got to play with some of this stuff when I contributed to an opensource software synth years ago.

@macronencer 6 ай бұрын

Great to see you cover one of my very favourite devices. Every analogue synth should have one of these! It's the thing I most wish they'd included on the MatrixBrute. I also think it's important to tell people that what it's actually doing is multiplying the two waveforms together. I reckon that's just as important as talking about sums and differences, because it makes it easier to imagine what's actually going on. The link between the two is a bit trickier to explain, but anyone who's curious and not scared of a bit of maths can look it up: it's to do with trigonometric identities for sin(ax).sin(bx) making an expression that involves both sin((a+b)x) and sin((a-b)x). I think. It's been a while since I studied it!

@iNuchalHead 6 ай бұрын

Timely and topical. I'm amazed.

@theniceorganization 6 ай бұрын

The voice variable, famously, being provided (in the early days) by (among others) Captain Pugwash, Brains from Thunderbirds and Zippy from Rainbow. This is actually true.

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

I like to think that inside, Daleks look like Zippy.

@stephenswift9868 6 ай бұрын

“Everybody knows that, Bunglebones!”

@deanie557 6 ай бұрын

I am a Dalek & I love Garlic! 😂

@echodelta9 6 ай бұрын

A late turn of the century windows app was an early text to speech converter, with careful misspelling and pitch options I had it say the most often heard order, advance... I have a copy of it around the program has long vanished. It sounds very good. The Outer Limits used the ring often starting with the first show early 60's.

@stereoroid 6 ай бұрын

A Dalek once gave me some great skin care advice ... *EXFOLIATE*

@brettlemmings 6 ай бұрын

yeh, ringmod is a very cool tool,. i use it all the time. great content Alex! 👍

@WoolwichHouseStudio 6 ай бұрын

Cheers m'dear. Will be trying this out at my next team meeting. Just to freak 'em out.

@geertvanschlanger8057 6 ай бұрын

I like having my ring modulated. Yesh.

@MultiSkiez 6 ай бұрын

Geert, how dare you sully the comments under Alex's video with your cheap innuendo! He is sure to be furious.

@GloveBunniesVideos 6 ай бұрын

I always wished a Dalek would roll in and quip, "What's all this then?!?"

@SynthgodXXX 6 ай бұрын

Perfection 👌

@jamisondonald384 6 ай бұрын

Impressively authentic

@JoeJohnston-taskboy 6 ай бұрын

Finally! A synth tip for my generation!

@klinkske 6 ай бұрын

Sorry i only know the polished kettle, that says ‘by your command’. It scared me as a kid. I now love it 🤖

@NeuroPete 6 ай бұрын

I think that is from the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica in the late 1970's. The technique used there was the Vocoder, where the human voice is used to modulate a synth carrier, such as a sawtooth wave.

@klinkske 6 ай бұрын

yes vocoder, the question is, which one was it. There is a website about it somewhere :)@@NeuroPete

@NeuroPete 6 ай бұрын

It was the EMS Vocoder 1000 using an ARP 2500 synth for the carrier, plus other analog gear adding color to the sound, such as EQ, compressor, tape machine and more. A KZfaqr called Supajc talked to someone who actually did the analog audio processing for the Cylon voice. He produced an excellent set of 7 videos detailing his research and demonstrating the sounds.

@HOLLASOUNDS 6 ай бұрын

The windows app Goldwave has a opinion called robot which basically sounds like a Delek.

@supersteveworld 6 ай бұрын

They also used a Ring Mod for the opening theme tune reboot in the Tom Baker era for the cool intro noise.

@MePeterNicholls 6 ай бұрын

I’d love to know how to recreate that scream

@supersteveworld 6 ай бұрын

@@MePeterNicholls there is a BBC Radiophonic Workshop video someplace on YT or used to be..showing how they did the theme remake with a CS80 and ARP Odyssey. It was good.

@MePeterNicholls 6 ай бұрын

@@supersteveworld yeh. That screams not as good tho ;)

@furiobisotti8150 6 ай бұрын

As usual. Know how and fun. If only schools could be managed this way...

@streck0486 6 ай бұрын

Any other old gabber heads having a revelation about "I will have that power"? 😅

@Psychlist1972 6 ай бұрын

It always sounded to me like they used the higher-pitched ring modulator for the voice of the Cybermen as well.

@YotamPiano 6 ай бұрын

Hahaha nice once ! Memories of my childhood watching Dr. Who.. I only watched the first 4 seasons and I was told they were the best ones. There's something else in this tutorial, it only works with a British accent xD

@Dolores5000 6 ай бұрын

It’s like instant Hawkwind and Dave Brock too!

@arcanics1971 6 ай бұрын

Oh come now, you cannot tease like that! You HAVE to record a cover of Dalek Girl now. Life is metal, looking like a kettle? DO IT. OR YOU WILL BE EXFOLATED. EXFOLIATE! EXFOLIATE!

@puppetsnob 6 ай бұрын

Natash Beddingfeld has a nice Dalek song... "No one else can do it for you! No one else! No one else!"

@mixolydian2010 6 ай бұрын

Great fun ,cheers Alex

@final_mile_music9713 6 ай бұрын

I’m still scared of the Daleks. It started in 1974 for me.

@Rr0gu3_5uture 6 ай бұрын

I remember years ago, my Dad howling with laughter at the new Moog MF-102 pedal I'd wasted my money on. For the next few days I was subjected to a constant barrage of 'ring' based Dad jokes.

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

All jokes are funnier through a ring mod. This is science.

@MatthewHarrold 6 ай бұрын

I can do it with an epiglottis frig or whatever it is called. My 10-year-old son was impressed with my impression of Davros and you can get as technical as you like, but those fundamentals don't engage with a kid in grade 5. Otherwise ... very entertaining. On the Ball as always. $0.02

@TheSynthnut 6 ай бұрын

Ah, I must find my Dalek relaxation tape for humans. Breath in....

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

YOU ARE FLOATING ON A CLOUD ALL IS TRANQUIL TRANQUIL! TRANQUIIIIILLL!!!

@Beorninki 6 ай бұрын

Oh! I LOVE this episode. May the Daleks not exterminate Alex for a very long time and if they try, I hope he has a screwdriver with him. And a towel, as even the hitchhiker of Galaxy who travels with synthesizers naturally has.

@dillipphunbar7924 6 ай бұрын

Imagine a gathering consisting exclusively of Daleks and Vogons. "Worst party everrrr!"

@Beorninki 6 ай бұрын

@@dillipphunbar7924 :D

@cds9000 4 ай бұрын

I just realized this is the same technique used to do some of the beetle voices in Spoilsbury Toast Boy. Weird. Maybe Alex is a beetle.

@skoog7091 6 ай бұрын

Finally a tutorial we want and need!

@johnnymidnight2982 6 ай бұрын

***SCANNER TO SYSTEM - I SEE THE REBEL BASE***

@SeverityOne 6 ай бұрын

"...put your voice into it and experiment. Experiment! Experiment!"

@gaston-alegre-stotzer 6 ай бұрын

Thanks for this video Dalex. 😮

@pthelo 6 ай бұрын

OMG I'm a Dalek Girl was PURE WIN.

@dagobertkrikelin1587 6 ай бұрын

Meet me upstairs, Mr. Dalek.

@mudi2000a 6 ай бұрын

Ex-ter-mi-nate!!!

@Kurzula5150 6 ай бұрын

"No, R2. I am your father."

@pedrogomis 6 ай бұрын

Great. In my channel I have mine using AJH Synth modules.

@DaraM73 6 ай бұрын

Like this fun tutorial. How about Metal Mickey? He’s well dodgy, even more so than a robo-fascist.

@th3d3wd3r 6 ай бұрын

Fucking mental video... loved it!

@JayKaufman 4 ай бұрын

I have no known fears... I'm not scared of heights, tight spaces, crowds, bugs, etc... Other than Daleks. They scare the living bejebus out of me. As a kid growing up in the 1980s, Dr. Who would come on after Sesame Street or other kids shows and proceed to scare the crap out of me. To this day Daleks creep me the eff out!

@Psychlist1972 6 ай бұрын

This works so much better if you have an English accent :)

@flourfree2K 6 ай бұрын

The Doepfer A-114 Dual Ring Modulator MULTIPLIES the two inputs. Curious, isn't it?

@peterstanchion3197 6 ай бұрын

I ate the jam sandwich.

@ramsaysg 6 ай бұрын

great fun

@B1SCOOP 6 ай бұрын

At brief moment at 2:48 you sound like Max Headroom who hacked Chicago TV in 87. Ironically they were airing a Dr Who episode exactly in that time. Same ring mode technique was also likely also used when voicing Helper robot from Venture Bros, but with different wave than pure sine.

@gingenie 6 ай бұрын

I tried to use some tricks, sometimes it was very close to Nick Briggs' voice

@crunchyfrog555 6 ай бұрын

After many years of wanting one, I recently bought a Behringer 2600. Can you guess what the first thing I did was to annoy the missus with?

@user-ec3tb9xe6p 5 ай бұрын

Try moving the formant up a bit; or even the pitch. Sounds Dal-icious!

@mraduanemc 6 ай бұрын

Leave it to Alex Ball to give an informative and entertaining demonstration of an ancient technique I previously assumed I had a perfectly good understanding of. Props.

@U2031 6 ай бұрын

Does this effect go in before the mic pre-amp I'm guessing? I'm thinking about making a pedal that does this and getting my mate to sing part of a song as a dalek at our next gig.

@echodub81 6 ай бұрын

Dude 😂 0:52 had me crying

@AudioPilz 6 ай бұрын

I'm a Dalek Girl😂😂😂

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

You need to do Dalek Patreon shout outs.

@SomeMorganSomewhere 5 ай бұрын

"I'm a dalek girl..." ended me ;)

@Reg-Edit 6 ай бұрын

love it 🖐😂❤️

@DetroitMicroSound 6 ай бұрын

😄 Super fun!

@mycosys 6 ай бұрын

Does the MS-50 have a real ring mod? The thing marked as a ring mod on the MS20 is a logic gate iirc

@newenglisharchitecture1012 6 ай бұрын

Giving Nicholas Briggs a run for his money. Or behind his sofa.

@FatNorthernBigot 6 ай бұрын

It almost sounds overdriven, too. Amp'ed

@mastercylinder1939 6 ай бұрын

Next, Metal Mickey...

@MePeterNicholls 6 ай бұрын

You need to try less pitch variation except to the key words very deliberately

@iamyourfuture808 6 ай бұрын

Bang on

@mikemnemonic311 6 ай бұрын

@ 3:40 Me terrified. Job done

@rich_in_paradise 6 ай бұрын

I was wondering when you'd do some Dr Who content. I've been watching the old Who (the true Who, I'd say) now that it's all on iPlayer. Most of the early '70s series with Jon Pertwee are scored entirely with synths of the era and it's a veritable bleep and shreak fest. When you get to Tom Baker they'd gone for more orchestral sounds (though not a full orchestra - got to think of the BBC budgets!).

@AlexBallMusic 6 ай бұрын

I've seen very few of the very early ones. I'll have to have an iPlayer trawl.

@jokkemursula8731 6 ай бұрын

@@AlexBallMusicEvery season 8 (Jon Pertwee's second season) score was done electronically. After that it varied a bit but The Sea Devils has an extremely experimental electronic score by Malcolm Clarke. As mentioned, the small orchestra playing music composed by Dudley Simpson became the norm in the Tom Baker era. This changed in season 18 when John Nathan-Turner became producer and decided that the music should be done electronically by the Radiophonic Workshop. The early 80s scores mainly featured the CS-80, the mid 80s had A LOT of DX7 and occasionally the Elka Synthex and the late 80s stuff is more varied but generally features lots of samplers, the D-50, some DX7 and the M1. Keff McCulloch's work is about as 80s as you can get (the amount of orchestra hits is INSANE at times).

@unclemick-synths 6 ай бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic the Autons were great in Jon Pertwee's debut. Definitely got me peeking round the sofa!