Orrery — Copenhagen

OR-0032

Salo Oy
Salo, Finland · 1991 – c. 2004

Ser. VX-9640-0088
1996 · effect

Issued as VST3 · AU

Restored 2025 from 1996 hardware.

Salo 6210 — Vocoder

Salo 6210 · analysis/synthesis voice processor · restored from unit no. VX-9640-0088 · Salo Oy, Salo, Finland, 1996

The restorer's note

The robot voice, from the company that already owned the mathematics of speech. Salo built it for secure comms; musicians would have loved it, had they ever been let near one. Serial 0088 — an early, low-numbered unit, restored with its bands untouched.

Acquisition

The Salo Collection $49 · €45 · £39 · 329 DKK The Complete Catalogue $149 · €135 · £115 · 999 DKK

Prices are exclusive of tax. Customers in a country that charges VAT or sales tax will be liable at the rate set by that country; the relevant amount is added at checkout to the purchase price.

Borrow it from the archive for a short time, or acquire it for your collection.

Runs in your studio as AU and VST3 on macOS, and VST3 on Windows.

Download — macOS: installer · zip · Windows: installer · zip

The plate

The restored Salo 6210 — Vocoder: its faceplate as issued.
Plate 32 · as issued

Listening

Listening

Demonstration recordings, prepared at the bench.

  1. The voice, played

    The note reads dry for six seconds; then the Internal carrier takes it — a held line sung by the filterbank, sixteen Bands wide — and the reading becomes the machine's.

    0:00 / 0:30

  2. Eight bands to thirty-two

    Bands step from eight — barely words — to sixteen, then thirty-two, the reading sharpening at each move: the resolution of the filterbank, heard arriving. Mode then switches to LPC, and the same voice is carried by the all-pole model instead.

    0:00 / 0:30

  3. Spoken through the pad

    Carrier switched to Sidechain: the pad is made to speak. Sibilance rises to 80 % and the consonants return; Formant is pushed up seven semitones, then down; Attack and Release open at the close and the words smear.

    0:00 / 0:30