#varispeech II

[fuzzkaizer]

Lexicon Varispeech II

"... I was interested in the earliest digital pitch shifter, something I had thought was an Eventide product for the longest time but upon further research found it to be the Lexicon Varispeech model 26, an 8-bit pitch computer that came out ca. 1972. It was clearly designed for military use and speech therapy with its no-frills controls and design, but it can certainly be appropriated for music and can make some interesting effects. Its little brother is the Varispeech II, the same circuit housed in a cassette recorder with the pitch ratio tied to the capstan speed. The idea is that the user can slow down or speed up the tape like you can with many cassette recorders, but the onboard pitch shifter will compensate for the dropped/raised pitch. I don’t know of any examples of it being used for actual music, but it is a very musical device!"

cred: facebook.com/Peter Eugene Foley