Robot Voice

March 1, 2008 1:39 PM

I am looking for any examples of the use of "robot voice". For example, early 80's electro, the famous Robby the Robot, or "robot voice" used for artistic purposes such as this. Any and all suggestions welcome. utubes, songs, movies, anything.
posted by vronsky to media & arts (49 comments total)

Egyptian Lover
posted by LoriFLA at 1:46 PM on March 1, 2008

Reminds me of Joshua from WarGames (he appears around the 5m mark).
posted by knave at 1:47 PM on March 1, 2008

REPORT TO THE DANCE FLOOR
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:54 PM on March 1, 2008

Console - 14 Zero Zero
posted by subtle-t at 1:54 PM on March 1, 2008

The Fearless Four, an old school hip-hop crew best known for "Rockin' It," released a song in the early 80s called "F-4000" that was entirely done in robot voice.

(Actually it's a heavily vocoder-ed rap, dispassionately delivered, clearly meant to evoke a robotic voice...I'm not sure if you're looking specifically for synthesized speech.)
posted by Ian A.T. at 2:03 PM on March 1, 2008

Air - How Does it Make You Feel?
posted by subtle-t at 2:03 PM on March 1, 2008

PRIME TIME OF YOUR LIFE.

And a bunch of other things by Daft Punk.

Like, you know, ROBOT ROCK. (It's in the name!)

Technologic, too. Seriously, most of the non-sampled vocals Daft Punk.
posted by disillusioned at 2:08 PM on March 1, 2008

Mr. Roboto by Styx.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 2:08 PM on March 1, 2008

I hope you meant that about any and all suggestions.

You can get a bunch of clips of the character JP from the movie Grandma's Boy.
posted by JaredSeth at 2:09 PM on March 1, 2008

Small Wonder
posted by kitty teeth at 2:11 PM on March 1, 2008

Pimpbot, whitebread.
posted by cog_nate at 2:11 PM on March 1, 2008

Recently, the Flight of the Conchords wrote 'The Humans are Dead'.
posted by scabrous at 2:12 PM on March 1, 2008

The Humans are Dead doesn't use robot voices, though. It uses Jermaine and the other one pretending to be robots. 1 0 0 0 0 0 1... hehe.
posted by disillusioned at 2:15 PM on March 1, 2008

Also, Kraftwerk used a lot of robotic voices in their music. "The Robots" that comes up in the search is one of my favorite songs.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 2:17 PM on March 1, 2008

I think some bands used the Speak and Spell. (Kraftwerk?)
posted by dudeman at 2:28 PM on March 1, 2008

Radiohead - Fitter Happier.

Many songs off The Apples in Stereo's New Magnetic Wonder use vocoder'd backup vocals.

Pink Floyd's Keep Talking. This is supposedly Stephen Hawking.
posted by kpmcguire at 2:30 PM on March 1, 2008

btw, the robot voice can be either a talkbox or a vocoder..

I think a lot of songs on Neil Young's Trans album have a talkbox..
Peter Frampton also uses a talkbox.
Daft Punk uses a talkbox to get their robot sound..
I guess a lot of 80s / synthpop bands use talkboxes or vocoders
posted by majikstreet at 2:44 PM on March 1, 2008

I was just listening to Radiohead's OK Computer, and a track in the middle is completely computer voices. I don't know the name of the track, and I don't remember which number it is.
posted by santojulieta at 2:53 PM on March 1, 2008

I think a lot of songs on Neil Young's Trans album have a talkbox..

Sample and Hold, Computer Cowboy, We R in Control, Transformer Man. Was just rocking this today. It's a great (and greatly misunderstood) LP.
posted by porn in the woods at 2:54 PM on March 1, 2008

(plus the reworked Mr. Soul and the awesome Computer Age, later covered by Sonic Youth.)
posted by porn in the woods at 2:55 PM on March 1, 2008

Cylob's Cut The Midrange Drop The Bass and Rewind use synth voice to good effect.

Black Neon did a robot cover of You're So Vain.
posted by meehawl at 2:58 PM on March 1, 2008

some of my favorite 80s electro with the robot vox:
Midnight Starr - Operator, No Parking on the Dance Floor, Freak-a-Zoid
posted by porn in the woods at 2:59 PM on March 1, 2008

good call on trans! I actually bought that on LP. I played it around my friends who were more of a rockist crowd, and got a lot of sideways glances. So I got new friends. Here is computer cowboy aka"Skycrusher" recently featured over at moistworks.
posted by vronsky at 3:08 PM on March 1, 2008

MC Hawking.
posted by mmascolino at 3:17 PM on March 1, 2008

someone mentioned in the MWx post that Neil had begun to experiment with robot voice because his son, who is autistic, responded to it, so he would use it to communicate with him.

Great stuff so far! Thanks everyone.
posted by vronsky at 3:26 PM on March 1, 2008

They Might Be Giants, "Robot Parade"

Transformers theme
posted by kirkaracha at 3:37 PM on March 1, 2008

Cylons saying "by your command" in the original Battlestar Galactica series and new series.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:03 PM on March 1, 2008

GortTraum "Klaatu Barada Nikto"
posted by kirkaracha at 4:17 PM on March 1, 2008

Milch(r), "0-0109zisch"

The easy place to find it is on Cliff Swank's Robopop set. Bonus: this mix also includes the console bit mentioned by subtle-t above.
posted by gyusan at 4:37 PM on March 1, 2008

The movie Short Cicrcuit
"Number 5 is alive"
posted by Jazz Hands at 4:50 PM on March 1, 2008

The songs "I am Electro," "Three Floors Above You," and "What Does It All Mean?" by Meat Beat Manifesto.
posted by infinitewindow at 5:15 PM on March 1, 2008

Benny Benassi uses computer synthesized voices and vocoders quite extensively (example [warning: creepy]).
posted by spiderskull at 5:52 PM on March 1, 2008

There's always Laurie Anderson.
posted by DarkForest at 5:54 PM on March 1, 2008

Still Alive and the rest of Portal.
posted by agentofselection at 6:04 PM on March 1, 2008

I was just listening to Radiohead's OK Computer, and a track in the middle is completely computer voices.

As kpmcguire said, the track is called Fitter Happier.

I recorded a song about wanting to be a robot. Robot voice occurs around 2:25, followed by human voice morphing into robot voice.
posted by ludwig_van at 6:12 PM on March 1, 2008

Computer Love by Zapp & Roger.
posted by Bookhouse at 6:18 PM on March 1, 2008

Newcleus -- Compter Age (Push the Button)
posted by Bookhouse at 6:24 PM on March 1, 2008

First thing that came to mind was Beastie Boys' Intergalactic from '98. Great video, too.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 7:40 PM on March 1, 2008

Limp Bizkit's "Behind Blue Eyes" includes a brief bit of the Speak & Spell. (dudeman totally deserves bonus points for his link to the emulator!) Far from the lengthiest / most involved clip, but something about that little clip is downright awesome.

Seconding Pink Floyd's Keep Talking and the belief that it's Stephen Hawking.
posted by fogster at 9:28 PM on March 1, 2008

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk

The first track of Made from Technetium by Man or Astro-Man, where the CD introduces itself to you (sample on the linked page).

Generate Bodies by MJ Lan
posted by kosmonaut at 9:47 PM on March 1, 2008

Totally what JaredSeth said. Grandma's Boy. Although the robot voice is actually spoken "live" by the actor, there is none more memorable in what I've seen.
posted by telstar at 9:57 PM on March 1, 2008

Metal Mickey
posted by Ulleskelf at 11:11 PM on March 1, 2008

Marvin, I Love You
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:45 AM on March 2, 2008

The Simpsons, "Pray for Mojo."
posted by kirkaracha at 10:08 AM on March 2, 2008

Jonzun Crew - Pack Jam
Freestyle - Don't Stop The Rock
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 - Scorpio
Man Parrish - Boogie Down Bronx
Dynamix II - Just Give The DJ A Break
Cybotron - Clear
posted by p3t3 at 6:57 PM on March 2, 2008

I don't know how I managed to forget this one, but it just came up on random play and I realised it's all vocoder:

I-F - Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass

Ferenc van der Sluijs's magnificent 1997 stomper is usually credited with kicking off the "electroclash" electro revival/mutation, even though he himself was pretty down on the whole thing.
posted by meehawl at 8:49 PM on March 2, 2008

Oh, why the hell not...
posted by tjvis at 9:52 AM on March 3, 2008

Herbie Hancock rocked the Vocoder in quite a few songs...I'm thinking specifically of his Sunlight & Future Shock albums.
posted by ekstasis23 at 8:01 AM on March 4, 2008

Dictionaraoke!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:17 PM on March 5, 2008