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This isn't a direct answer, however its of interest to people interested in this. Sadly however some of the links are broken or missing information. A member of the SynthDIY mailing list bought a Bell Labs Speech Board and put some info up here : http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell/voicesynth/voicesynth.html Sadly the link to the schematic is broken but I've emailed to see if he can fix it. Jim also did some experiments and eventually made an insanely complex vocal filter board : http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell/vocalfilter/vocalfilter.html He also did a board layout and sold some boards for a vocal filter : http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell/synthmodules/vocalfilter.html I rather expect that the Philips COFFEE machine is closely related to these sorts of circuits. I can't find a link right now, but there was an S-100 phonetic speech synth card that contained a bunch of ROMs and a complete set of vocal filters. It didn't use one of the several LSI chips that were around in the 70s/80s ( Votrax and friends ).

This isn't a direct answer, however its of interest to people interested in this. Sadly however some of the links are broken or missing information. A member of the SynthDIY mailing list bought a Bell Labs Speech Board and put some info up here : http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell/voicesynth/voicesynth.html Sadly the link to the schematic is broken but I've emailed to see if he can fix it. Jim also did some experiments and eventually made an insanely complex vocal filter board : http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell/vocalfilter/vocalfilter.html He also did a board layout and sold some boards for a vocal filter : http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell/synthmodules/vocalfilter.html I rather expect that the Philips COFFEE machine is closely related to these sorts of circuits. I can't find a link right now, but there was an S-100 phonetic speech synth card that contained a bunch of ROMs and a complete set of vocal filters. It didn't use one of the several LSI chips that were around in the 70s/80s ( Votrax and friends ).

This isn't a direct answer, however its of interest to people interested in this. Sadly however some of the links are broken or missing information. A member of the SynthDIY mailing list bought a Bell Labs Speech Board and put some info up here : http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell/voicesynth/voicesynth.html Sadly the link to the schematic is broken but I've emailed to see if he can fix it. Jim also did some experiments and eventually made an insanely complex vocal filter board : http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell/vocalfilter/vocalfilter.html He also did a board layout and sold some boards for a vocal filter : http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell/synthmodules/vocalfilter.html I rather expect that the Philips COFFEE machine is closely related to these sorts of circuits. I can't find a link right now, but there was an S-100 phonetic speech synth card that contained a bunch of ROMs and a complete set of vocal filters. It didn't use one of the several LSI chips that were around in the 70s/80s ( Votrax and friends ).

Dr. Moog was perhaps the best at bridging the gap between artists and technology. He'd be the first to admit he was not the first synthesizer inventor, but he is widely regarded as the synthesizer pioneer because he worked closely with musicians to bring the technology out of the lab and into the studio. Many of his modules are the direct result of trial-and-error testing: he would build a module, say a coincidence switch, then have for example W. Carlos try to work with it and get feedback on what it did well and what needed improvement. It was several years of this sort of engineering->field use->feedback cycle that resulted in the Moog 15, Minimoog and so on. This was Bob's true skill: being able to turn the desires of the musician into something they could actually use.

    Bob's booth at NAMM was a dozen feet from ours from 2001-2003. Bob was such a low-key guy, he often did what lots what other highbrow names in the music industry wouldn't do: he would do things himself. I still remember when he was there alone in the booth, tweaking one of his Minimoog Voyagers, and needed to borrow a soldering iron. Our booth's boss--who like the rest of us staffing the booth became EEs and synthgeeks *because* of the affable white-haired Doctor--had one when Bob walked over to politely ask to use it:

http://www.oldcrows.net/synthshop/moog_setup.jpg

    That picture is what Bob was all about. Always tweaking, never afraid to do whatever was needed himself, even when it was showtime.

    Goodbye, Bob--you were a great teacher but an even greater friend.

http://oldcrows.net/~oldcrow/Lugo_SWR.mpg

So you're downloading the latest Britney Spears album with your power line boardband connection and the RIAA decides to stop you.

Bah, Disney has been bringing anime over here for years.

Like That Atlantis Flick

And who can forget the Lion King
Disney's first original story in what seemed like forever. How DID they come up with that idea!?!?

Look at the IMDB top 50 animation features. Pixar and Studio Ghibli combined share most of the top ten popular user votes. Disney is further down the ladder, their new stuff fails to captivate the audiences the way the other two studios mentioned do. This is no coincidence -- these studios wins out against their competition because of creative talents and skillful directors, the technology employed is not the answer.

Studio Ghibli and Pixar are masters at production design and storytelling, and their works have appeal to children and adults alike. You could argue that Pixar has put out a few 'buddy' pictures following a very safe and mainstream formula, but generally both Ghibli and Pixar pursues original works that aren't derivative.

Disney on the other hand, is content with stealing from other sources and perpetually rehashing their own tired 'success' formulas, often compromising style, pace and adult interest with jarring diversions and noisy, needless extra characters crammed in by accountants and suits in order to sell a few more McDonald's toy tie-ins.

Ghibli and Pixar's stuff is immensely marketable, but that seems like an emergent property, something coincidental rather than the very reason for the production to exist. Compared to Disney, Ghibli and Pixar's studio structures seem to have much thinner strata of lawyers, accountants and other suits for ideas to percolate through, which means more direct creative control from directors and production designers.

This produces richer and much more satisfying features than the bland and safe works that always result from too many suits in a creative design process.

The secret weapon of Studio Ghibli is Hayao Miyazaki. The secret weapon of Pixar is John Lasseter. Tech doesn't have anything to do with it.

Well, in an ironic twist of fate the late Ozamu Tezuka was himself ripped off by Disney after his death, despite his wife's protestations to the contrary (bought out by the Mouse perhaps?).

Or has no one else noticed how blatantly similar Tezuka's "Kimba the White Lion" was to Disney's "The Lion King"? Or that "Atlantis the Lost Empire" is so disturbingly similar to GAINAX's "Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water" to be the most obvious candidate for true Disney plagiarism?

For anyone that doesn't know about the Atlantis scandal, they didn't just "not make up" the story of atlantis, basically they ripped the movie from Nadia and gave it a different title.

It's hard to believe, but see for yourself: Nadia V. Atlantis
~z

At least you could have been honest with us and let us know you and the Taco share the same agenda [oldcrows.net], which would definitely explain your position.

Well duh.

At least you could have been honest with us and let us know you and the Taco share the same agenda, which would definitely explain your position.

(Interesting comparison, BTW)...

Furthermore, the guy who authored the page has added a link to the following statement

Crow didn't author the page. I did, and my own postmortem should be posted later today (Saturday) -- just as soon as Crow wakes up and checks his email.

Furthermore, the guy who authored the page has added a link to the following statement

Crow didn't author the page. I did, and my own postmortem should be posted later today (Saturday) -- just as soon as Crow wakes up and checks his email.

Crow is simply maintaining that mirror for me, ever since my ISP made me take down the original.

Anywho, since Atlantis has been released here in the U.S., I've prepared a postmortem letter and sent it out to my mirrors for posting. It should be up Saturday afternoon, so please check back then.

In a nutshell, my goals and motivation weren't quite what y'all may think...

Stay tuned.