The Communicate & ___ line of academic toys from Texas Devices was noteworthy for its recognition, but in addition for being among the many first low-cost units to function speech synthesis. On this Instructables tutorial, Kevin demonstrates the way to circuit bend a Communicate & Math to generate intriguing sounds excellent for lo-fi music manufacturing.
The Communicate & Spell, Communicate & Math, and Communicate & Learn all used the legendary TMC0280/TMS5100 from Texas Devices, which was virtually solely liable for making speech synthesis reasonably priced within the late Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties. The expertise is fascinating, however to grasp 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 speculation 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. Improve the frequency and also you increase 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 modify the pitch by sliding their determine throughout the floor.
After performing the modification, circuit bending is simple. Simply activate some perform 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!
