The vocoder was never supposed to be a revolution in music. It wasn't supposed to be anything in music, really. Its development began a century ago, when an engineer at Bell Labs was looking for a simpler way to send phone calls across copper telephone lines. The engineer, Homer Dudley, built some pretty neat technology that could both capture and synthesize the human voice. As so much great tech does, the vocoder immediately took on a life of its own. It played a key role in World War II, enabling secret communications across the ocean. And then, only a few years later, it started to become a musical phenomenon. At first a few artists were … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/JvpTkHV
Sonos is no stranger to the occasional sale. The iconic audio company routinely runs sales around Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day, and the Super Bowl, though it’s rare to see substantial discounts on its portable speakers outside of tentpole shopping events. Fortunately, if you have no interest in the Sonos Move 2 or forthcoming Sonos Play , the Sonos Roam 2 is currently available from Amazon , Walmart , and Sonos for $139 ($40 off), which is just $5 shy of its lowest price to date. Sonos Roam 2 Where to Buy: $179 $139 at Amazon $179 $139 at Sonos $179 $139 at Walmart The original Sonos Roam was by no means a bad speaker, but the quality-of-life updates on the Roam 2 are genuinely meaningful, particularly if you were the kind of person who constantly struggled to pair the first-gen model with anything via Bluetooth (guilty as charged). The latest Roam has a dedicated pairing button on the back — meaning you don’t have to hold down the power button for a set period of...