The Communicate & ___ line of academic toys from Texas Devices was noteworthy for its reputation, but in addition for being among the many first low-cost gadgets to characteristic speech synthesis. On this Instructables tutorial, Kevin demonstrates the right way to circuit bend a Communicate & Math to generate intriguing sounds good for lo-fi music manufacturing.
The Communicate & Spell, Communicate & Math, and Communicate & Learn all used the legendary TMC0280/TMS5100 from Texas Devices, which was nearly solely chargeable for making speech synthesis reasonably priced within the late Seventies and early Eighties. The know-how is fascinating, however to know this mission you simply must know that the chips synthesize speech by producing tones to construct phonemes after which phrases.
If you wish to know extra about how that works, I made a video concerning the Sears Speaking Computron that makes use of the identical chip:
The idea for Kevin’s Communicate & Math circuit bending modification is straightforward: the addition of a variable resistor makes it attainable to regulate the frequency of the speech synthesis chip’s oscillator. Lower the frequency and also you decrease the generated pitch. Enhance the frequency and also you elevate the pitch.
Right here, Kevin used a Spectra ThinPot linear potentiometer for the variable resistor. That’s good, as a result of it’s unobtrusive and lets the consumer regulate the pitch by sliding their determine throughout the floor.
After performing the modification, circuit bending is straightforward. Simply activate some operate on the Communicate & Math so it begins speaking, then transfer your finger throughout the potentiometer strip to tweak the speech synthesis pitch.
Mix that with a sick drum beat and looper, and also you’re off!