Sennheiser VSM 201

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The Sennheiser VSM 201 is a vocoder introduced in 1978 by the Sennheiser company .

history

The VSM 201 was developed as a 20-band vocoder by Fritz Sennheiser . The German composer Heinz Funk produced a demonstration cassette in 1977 with the beginning of the piece Lili Marleen as a text example. In 1977 Sennheiser commissioned the synthesizer specialist and composer Kai Krause to perform the vocoder musicians, music producers and film composers in Los Angeles. The introductory price in 1978 was 16,000 marks. Economically, the development turned out to be a flop for Sennheiser. However, it became one of the most influential vocoder models. There is no software emulation, but the matrix vocoder from the German company VirSyn is based on the VSM 201.

use

The VSM 201 has been used live and in the studio by numerous musicians since the late 1970s. Kraftwerk used it in 1978 on the album Die Mensch-Maschine , Herbie Hancock in the same year on the album Sunlight. Hancock became aware of the Sennheiser vocoder in a keyboard magazine and bought two of them for about $ 10,000. With his technician Bryan Bell he developed a way to use the vocoder together with a portable keyboard on stage. Neil Young used the VSM 201 in 1982 for his album Trans . The vocoder has also been used by Frank Zappa , Stevie Wonder and Daft Punk .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dave Tompkins: How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks, Chicago / Brooklyn, 2010.
  2. ↑ Vocoder VSM201 Various Sennheiser Electronic Labor W; Wenne. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Sennheiser: The audio legend with a technician image. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
  4. ↑ MATRIX. Retrieved April 21, 2020 .
  5. ^ Herbie Hancock / Lisa Dickey: Possibilities, New York, 2014.