Wearable Cyberman voice changer

[WayneVenomous]

Just though I'd share something I've been working on recently.

The Dalek ring modulator I built in my other thread can also do another well-known Doctor Who monster voice as I'd previously demonstrated in this video:
Dalek and Cyberman voice changer/ring modulator - YouTube

Now, using massive guitar amps to get the sound is all well and good but someone challenged me to build a wearable Cyberman voice changer that would fit inside one of those Cyberman voice changer helmets.
So I tried a bit of slimming down of the unit:

The carrier sine wave is recorded onto the MP3 player at this stage - not an ideal solution but it helps:
Wearable Cyberman ring modulator: Setting the distortion - YouTube

Eventually I managed to find a digital oscillator to provide the 120 Hz sine wave carrier tone which means I can power everything off one power source and I can now start installing it into a Cyberman voice changer:

And here's me trying out the final unit:
Wearable Cyberman voice changer final test - YouTube

 

[Hybrid01Angel]

Incredable

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Love it! You should do a Vader one...

 

[WayneVenomous]

Funnily enough, I've been working on both a Vader and a Stormtrooper one. It's surprisingly difficult (even in 2012!) to get the pitch shifted down in real time to do the Darth voice convincingly.

I'll probably start a new thread about my Stormtrooper voice once I've got it working properly. I'm quite surprised all versions I've seen so far use a pre-recorded noise for the static burst. Mine just uses a traditional analogue white noise generator and switches between voice and white noise at the end of each sentence.

Oh yeah, here's my Daughter having a go of the Cyberman voice changer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eMHJLPIhLg

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Funnily enough, I've been working on both a Vader and a Stormtrooper one. It's surprisingly difficult (even in 2012!) to get the pitch shifted down in real time to do the Darth voice convincingly.

I'll probably start a new thread about my Stormtrooper voice once I've got it working properly. I'm quite surprised all versions I've seen so far use a pre-recorded noise for the static burst. Mine just uses a traditional analogue white noise generator and switches between voice and white noise at the end of each sentence.

Oh yeah, here's my Daughter having a go of the Cyberman voice changer:
My Daughter has a go at the Cyberman voice changer - YouTube

Awesome work on both this and your Dalek. Do you do kits? Or provide schematics? I'd love to give a couple of these a try, especially the Dalek.

 

[WayneVenomous]

I will be selling these at some point, but if you fancy a go at building one yourself have a look here: Simple Ring Modulator

It's not my site and there's several things I disagree with (the choice of diodes and transformers for instance) but it's a good starting point. I'd just use the cheapest silicon diodes you can find rather than the schottky diodes. You'd need to hook up "Input A" with a mic pre-amp rather than the mobile phone input.

To be honest, building the thing isn't the hard bit. Getting it to fit inside a helmet or shielding it from interference and feedback is the difficult bit.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Cool. Thanks! :thumbsup

 

[WayneVenomous]

Here's another video showing the final system in a bit more depth:
Wearable Cyberman voice changer - setting up the kit - YouTube

 

[WayneVenomous]

The whole thing seems to have come on leaps and bounds since my last posting! I've now started using vacuum tubes to create a unique distortion and it sounds pretty amazing if I say so myself:

Cyberman and Dalek voice changer with vacuum tube - YouTube

Unfortunately the extra power require for the tube brings up a problem of battery life. At the moment I'm trying to get hold of some small RCA Nuvistor tubes which have a much smaller power requirement and the advantage that they have a metal case rather than glass.

 

[WayneVenomous]

Development just keeps plodding on here, the idea is to make a massive impact by making a Cyberman loud and menacing from a tiny speaker in the chest plate. I think that's certainly achievable now!
Cyberman voice changer small speaker with vacumm tube - YouTube

 

[ZomBen]

Just curious on total costs, if you have plans of your own? If your selling the kits yet? I have a costume made all by my self with the help of wondersquids bluebrints

 

[FR0ST]

That's a great item, do you have line drawings/schematics available?