Carl Sagan…sings? : Pharyngula

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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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Carl Sagan…sings?

Category: Weirdness
Posted on: September 25, 2009 5:21 PM, by PZ Myers

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Comments

Posted by: Somnolent Aphid | September 25, 2009 5:29 PM

nice hair for a dead guy.

Posted by: Owlmirror | September 25, 2009 5:30 PM

It's called "autotune".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune

Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline. | September 25, 2009 5:33 PM

Feel free to call me uncultured, but I liked that much better than the John Tavener on Radio3 that I had to turn down in order to listen.

Posted by: cameron | September 25, 2009 5:34 PM

I think it might be a vocoder, actually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocoder

Posted by: Somite | September 25, 2009 5:37 PM

The first good use for autotuning!

Posted by: Feynmaniac | September 25, 2009 5:38 PM

lol
By chance I actually read this a few days ago:

Dr. SETI, calls himself "a cross between Carl Sagan and Tom Lehrer: he sings like Sagan and lectures like Lehrer." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer)

Posted by: Bobber | September 25, 2009 5:38 PM

This... is... COOL.

Posted by: 386sx | September 25, 2009 5:42 PM

It's called "autotune".

I think it might be a vocoder, actually.

You're both right...

http://www.antarestech.com/

Posted by: Form&Function | September 25, 2009 5:46 PM

This is quite possibly the geekiest thing that has ever made me tear up.

There's no way to explain how much I adore Carl Sagan. He's the reason I am where I am today.

#10

Posted by: Glen Davidson | September 25, 2009 5:50 PM

And he wasted his life on doing science?

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p

#11

Posted by: forthesakeofscience.wordpress.com | September 25, 2009 5:53 PM

I love this.

#12

Posted by: amandakcampbell | September 25, 2009 5:57 PM

This just blew my mind. AWESOME!

#13

Posted by: whydowebelieve | September 25, 2009 6:01 PM

So cool!

#14

Posted by: Eliot Fischer | September 25, 2009 6:15 PM

That is SO awesome! I'm already a geek for autotune, and I just adore Dr. Sagan and his work, but this is fantastic.

#15

Posted by: the_fishiologist | September 25, 2009 6:29 PM

so geeky, it's awesome...

#16

Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage | September 25, 2009 6:31 PM

As Lawrence Welk put it so well: <Germanic accent>"Play that funky music, white boys.</accent>

#17

Posted by: funnyguts | September 25, 2009 6:43 PM

Did anyone else think that the vocoder made Sagan sound a bit like Kermit the Frog?

#18

Posted by: Andyo | September 25, 2009 6:52 PM

Better than Cher and Kanye West.

#19

Posted by: R. Schauer | September 25, 2009 6:52 PM

Form and Function,

I miss Carl, too. And feel much the same. That was a stupendous video...wasn't it? Just finished reading Billions and Billions...Carl was pure genius. There are great teachers and he cared enough to be one of them. He risked it all for us...huge heart! Rock-on, Bro. -R

#20

Posted by: chuckgoecke | September 25, 2009 6:54 PM

I'm stunned! Anything that can make Sagan and Hawking hip and new, I'm all for it. I don't care what all you nay-sayers say, I say science ROCKS!

#21

Posted by: Parrotlover77 | September 25, 2009 6:58 PM

Two of my heros set to a slamming chill jam. That was simply.... AWESOME! I am downloading it now!

Why does everybody immediately think the autotune effect is a vocoder? Almost every major audio production software has a built-in autotuner now. It has the ability to flatten (remove vocal inflection), adjust pitch, change volume, adjust dynamics, add back (artificial) vibrato, move vocal snips along the timeline, and compact or stretch vocal snips in the time domain (speed up, slow down).

Doing all that with a vocoder and standard audio editor is unecessarily complicated when you have some form of autotune tool.

I guess the reason it gets mistaken for a vocoder is the autotuner uses some similar algorithms to the vocoder (in particular, the FFT), but the autotuner is using the frequency domain to adjust pitch without affecting time, whereas the vocoder is looking for frequencies of your source signal (your voice) in common with a carrier wave, so in the end, it's just not the same.

#22

Posted by: bastardsheep.com | September 25, 2009 8:07 PM

That's still less voice manipulation than Madonna uses.

#23

Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage | September 25, 2009 8:09 PM

Better than Cher

That's not saying much.

#24

Posted by: shegeek1000101 | September 25, 2009 8:10 PM

Would be good, except for the autotune/vocoder thingamabob. That technology, or at least the over use and abuse of it, must die a horrible death. Soon.

#25

Posted by: cmflyer | September 25, 2009 8:20 PM

Amazing how rhythmic his dialog is. Didn't need much speeding up or slowing down. His words are songs...

#26

Posted by: https://services.mozilla.com/openid/IanWatson | September 25, 2009 8:29 PM

For those of you who enjoyed this as much as I, you can download the MP3 here:

http://www.colorpulsemusic.com/youtube.html
I've been playing it over and over for several days now.

#27

Posted by: Epikt | September 25, 2009 8:32 PM

cmflyer:

Amazing how rhythmic his dialog is. Didn't need much speeding up or slowing down. His words are songs...

Give a listen to Steve Reich's "Different Trains."

#28

Posted by: Ben | September 25, 2009 8:33 PM

Off-topic, but I ran into this poll on the internet and I thought "I'd better call out SquidMan's (OctoMan? - I dunno. I'm still working on the super-name. The costume is gonna be tricky, too. What size are you PZ?) minions before the faith-heads find it":
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/2009/09/24/poll-is-the-no-religion-boom-in-america-a-good-thing.html

Then I saw the poll results after I voted.

Way to go, fellow minions!

#29

Posted by: nelc | September 25, 2009 9:17 PM

Professor Squid, surely?

#30

Posted by: John Morales | September 25, 2009 9:29 PM

Reminds me of this: Sound from Britney's microphone.

Looks like a good aerobic workout, though. :)

#31

Posted by: Marella | September 25, 2009 10:00 PM

This is absolutely amazing.

I think Carl Sagan sounded a bit like Kermit the Frog even before all the digital acrobatics!

#32

Posted by: RamblinDude | September 25, 2009 10:08 PM

Say, that was weird and awesome at the same time.

#33

Posted by: Conscious Machine | September 25, 2009 10:15 PM

Woop!
Ah Ah!

#34

Posted by: Creature of the Universe | September 25, 2009 10:15 PM

...with you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbp7dyRNKnM&feature=related

#35

Posted by: Lilie | September 25, 2009 10:42 PM

OOOOooooooh, goosebumps. I love it. It is exactly what I try to communicate all the time. It is what gets me excited and passionate about the universe and our place in it. How can crappy religion even compare?

#36

Posted by: Markita Lynda: Healthcare is a damn right | September 25, 2009 10:50 PM

It sounded like Sagan was chanting along with Stephen Hawking. It made me smile.

#37

Posted by: Aratina Cage | September 25, 2009 11:29 PM

Can't stop listening to it. I keep hearing Kermit the Frog instead of Carl Sagan during the refrain.

#38

Posted by: arrakis | September 26, 2009 12:26 AM

Stunning. I miss Carl. This totally made my weekend.

#39

Posted by: SEF | September 26, 2009 4:42 AM

Public Service Post:

#40

Posted by: SaintStephen | September 26, 2009 4:51 AM

That was delightful.

I think Carl Sagan called to me from beyond the cosmos... how else to explain the luck in getting a little high earlier tonight on some sweeeeeet California zoysia grass before I watched that spacey video?

Or maybe it was just PZ's radar love. Fridays continue to be good on Pharyngula. Say it three times fast.

#41

Posted by: Archereon | September 26, 2009 5:50 AM

Wonder if Nick Sagan approves, Nick if you are reading this please let us know

#42

Posted by: Pacal | September 26, 2009 9:31 AM

Much as I like and admire the late Carl Sagan, my only thought upon hearing this was:

"Come, come sweet death and spare me anymore of this agony!"

#43

Posted by: DingoJack | September 26, 2009 11:54 AM

I know it's probably been posted a gazillion times before but. - DJ

#44

Posted by: Lurky | September 26, 2009 12:32 PM

Ha! By coincidence I just finished, not 15 minutes ago, watching that episode of cosmos where he starts by cutting that apple pie. What an uplifting episode it was too - I just love how we're made of star stuff!

#45

Posted by: mcbender | September 26, 2009 3:15 PM

I am addicted to listening to this now.

#46

Posted by: Rey Fox, Bird Caller Guy | September 26, 2009 3:52 PM

It certainly makes more sense than making any random R & B singer sound like a robot.

#47

Posted by: Pascalle | September 26, 2009 4:47 PM

I thought that was quite beautiful :) It sure made me smile to hear his texts in such a way :)

#48

Posted by: rock-biologist | September 27, 2009 12:45 AM

May I recommend Auto-Tune the News by the Gregory Brothers. ATTN #1 is somewhat forgettable, but check out #2 through #8. You'll get to hear the likes of Katie Couric, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Dick Cheney, Sean Hannity, Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, Donna Brazile, John Boehner, and many others "sing."

They also turned Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech into a song, which becomes a rather inspirational homage to the original.

#49

Posted by: xenolith | September 27, 2009 5:07 PM

Looks like Nick Sagan loves it too:

http://nicksagan.blogs.com/nick_sagan_online/2009/09/a-glorious-dawn.html

#50

Posted by: Tom Anderson | September 27, 2009 7:03 PM

I cried at the beauty of it.

#51

Posted by: Dr Benway | September 28, 2009 11:15 AM

Stanley Fish, you have been served.

#52