The polyphonic me
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0:01 - 0:03I'd like you all
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0:03 - 0:05to ask yourselves a question
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0:05 - 0:09which you may never have asked yourselves before:
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0:09 - 0:13What is possible with the human voice?
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0:13 - 0:21What is possible with the human voice?
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0:21 - 0:31(Beatboxing)
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0:45 - 0:48♪ Ooh baby ♪
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0:48 - 0:51♪ baby ♪
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0:51 - 0:53♪ baby ♪
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0:53 - 0:55♪ baby ♪ (Baby crying)
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0:55 - 0:58♪ baby ♪ (Baby crying)
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0:58 - 1:03♪ baby ♪ (Cat meowing)
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1:03 - 1:09(Dog barking)
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1:10 - 1:12Yeah.
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1:12 - 1:19(Applause)
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1:19 - 1:27(Boomerang noises)
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1:27 - 1:31It was coming straight for me. I had to. It was, yeah.
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1:31 - 1:34As you can probably well imagine,
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1:34 - 1:36I was a strange child.
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1:36 - 1:43(Laughter)
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1:43 - 1:46Because the thing is, I was constantly trying
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1:46 - 1:50to extend my repertoire of noises to be
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1:50 - 1:53the very maximum that it could be.
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1:53 - 1:55I was constantly experimenting with these noises.
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1:55 - 1:57And I'm still on that mission.
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1:57 - 1:59I'm still trying to find every noise
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1:59 - 2:01that I can possibly make.
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2:01 - 2:03And the thing is, I'm a bit older and wiser now,
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2:03 - 2:05and I know that there's some noises
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2:05 - 2:07I'll never be able to make because I'm hemmed in
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2:07 - 2:11by my physical body, and there's things it can't do.
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2:11 - 2:12And there's things that no one's voice can do.
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2:12 - 2:16For example, no one can do two notes at the same time.
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2:16 - 2:18You can do two-tone singing,
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2:18 - 2:21which monks can do, which is like...
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2:21 - 2:31(Two-tone singing)
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2:31 - 2:34But that's cheating.
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2:34 - 2:36And it hurts your throat.
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2:36 - 2:39So there's things you can't do, and these limitations
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2:39 - 2:42on the human voice have always really annoyed me,
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2:42 - 2:46because beatbox is the best way of getting
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2:46 - 2:49musical ideas out of your head and into the world,
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2:49 - 2:51but they're sketches at best,
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2:51 - 2:53which is what's annoyed me.
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2:53 - 2:55If only, if only there was a way
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2:55 - 2:58for these ideas to come out unimpeded
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2:58 - 3:03by the restrictions which my body gives it.
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3:03 - 3:05So I've been working with these guys,
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3:05 - 3:09and we've made a machine.
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3:09 - 3:11We've made a system which is basically
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3:11 - 3:14a live production machine,
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3:14 - 3:18a real-time music production machine,
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3:18 - 3:22and it enables me to, using nothing but my voice,
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3:22 - 3:26create music in real time as I hear it in my head
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3:26 - 3:29unimpeded by any physical restrictions
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3:29 - 3:31that my body might place on me.
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3:31 - 3:35And I'm going to show you what it can do.
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3:35 - 3:39And before I start making noises with it,
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3:39 - 3:41and using it to manipulate my voice,
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3:41 - 3:44I want to reiterate that everything that you're about to hear
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3:44 - 3:48is being made by my voice.
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3:48 - 3:51This system has --
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3:51 - 3:53thank you, beautiful assistant --
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3:53 - 3:58this system has no sounds in it itself
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3:58 - 4:00until I start putting sounds in it,
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4:00 - 4:04so there's no prerecorded samples of any kind.
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4:04 - 4:06So once this thing really gets going,
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4:06 - 4:09and it really starts to mangle the audio I'm putting into it,
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4:09 - 4:12it becomes not obvious that it is the human voice,
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4:12 - 4:15but it is, so I'm going to take you through it bit by bit
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4:15 - 4:17and start nice and simple.
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4:17 - 4:19So the polyphony problem: I've only got one voice.
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4:19 - 4:21How do I get around the problem
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4:21 - 4:23of really wanting to have as many different voices
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4:23 - 4:25going on at the same time.
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4:25 - 4:27The simplest way to do it is something like this.
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4:27 - 4:33(Beatboxing)
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4:33 - 4:35By dancing. It's like this.
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4:35 - 4:39(Music)
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5:07 - 5:08Thanks.
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5:08 - 5:10(Applause)
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5:10 - 5:14So that's probably the easiest way.
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5:14 - 5:17But if you want to do something a little bit more immediate,
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5:17 - 5:19something that you can't achieve with live looping,
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5:19 - 5:21there's other ways to layer your voice up.
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5:21 - 5:23There's things like pitch-shifting,
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5:23 - 5:24which are awesome,
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5:24 - 5:26and I'm going to show you now what that sounds like.
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5:26 - 5:29So I'm going to start another beat for you, like this.
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5:29 - 5:37(Beatboxing)
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5:37 - 5:38There's always got to be a bit of a dance at the start,
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5:38 - 5:40because it's just fun, so
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5:40 - 5:42you can clap along if you want.
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5:42 - 5:45You don't have to. It's fine. Check it out.
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5:45 - 5:49I'm going to lay down a bass sound now.
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5:49 - 5:56(Music)
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5:59 - 6:03And now, a rockabilly guitar.
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6:15 - 6:19Which is nice. But what if I want to make, say, a -- (Applause) --
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6:19 - 6:21Thanks. What if I want to make, say, a rock organ?
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6:21 - 6:24Is that possible? Yes, it is,
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6:24 - 6:26by recording myself like this.
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6:26 - 6:29(Organ sound)
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6:29 - 6:34And now I have that, I have that recorded.
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6:34 - 6:35Assign it to a keyboard.
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6:35 - 6:39(Music)
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6:39 - 6:41So that's cool.
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6:41 - 6:43(Applause)
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6:43 - 6:49But what if I wanted to sound like the whole of Pink Floyd?
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6:49 - 6:51Impossible, you say. No.
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6:51 - 6:54It is possible, and you can do it very simply
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6:54 - 6:58using this machine. It's really fantastic. Check it out.
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6:58 - 7:15(Music)
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7:32 - 7:35So every noise you can hear there is my voice.
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7:35 - 7:40I didn't just trigger something which sounds like that.
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7:40 - 7:41There's no samples. There's no synthesizers.
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7:41 - 7:45That is literally all my voice being manipulated,
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7:45 - 7:49and when you get to that point, you have to ask, don't you,
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7:49 - 7:50what's the point?
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7:50 - 7:54Why do this? (Laughter)
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7:54 - 7:57Because it's cheaper than hiring the whole of Pink Floyd,
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7:57 - 7:59I suppose, is the easy answer.
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7:59 - 8:03But in actual fact, I haven't made this machine
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8:03 - 8:05so that I can emulate things that already exist.
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8:05 - 8:08I've made this so that I can make
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8:08 - 8:09any noise that I can imagine.
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8:09 - 8:12So with your permission, I'm going to do
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8:12 - 8:14some things that are in my mind,
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8:14 - 8:16and I hope you enjoy them,
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8:16 - 8:18because they're rather unusual,
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8:18 - 8:21especially when you're doing things which are
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8:21 - 8:25as unusual as this, it can be hard to believe
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8:25 - 8:26that it is all my voice, you see.
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8:26 - 8:35(Voice effects)
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8:40 - 8:51(Music)
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9:01 - 9:03Like this.
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9:03 - 9:08(Music)
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10:34 - 10:38So, loosely defined,
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10:38 - 10:42that is what's possible with the human voice.
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10:42 - 10:44Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
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10:44 - 10:49(Applause)
- Title:
- The polyphonic me
- Speaker:
- Beardyman
- Description:
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Frustrated by not being able to sing two notes at the same time, musical inventor Beardyman built a machine to allow him to create loops and layers from just the sounds he makes with his voice. Given that he can effortlessly conjure the sound of everything from crying babies to buzzing flies, not to mention mimic pretty much any musical instrument imaginable, that's a lot of different sounds. Sit back and let the wall of sound of this dazzling performance wash over you.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 11:10
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The polyphonic me | ||
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for The polyphonic me | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for The polyphonic me | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The polyphonic me | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The polyphonic me | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for The polyphonic me | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The polyphonic me | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for The polyphonic me |