GLOVOX -New limelight for the legendary glove

GLOVOX 

New limelight for the legendary glove

Only recently, by pure chance, the undersigned, Bernardo Lanzetti, discovered that, on an important software sharing site, in English, a device called "GLOVOX" is presented exploited and promoted.

It is a glove equipped with a contact microphone that, positioned on the throat of a vocalist, is able to pick up the monophonic signal of the vocal cords and direct it to dedicated software able to process it so that the singer can get to play, for example, synthesizers!

Now, Bernardo Lanzetti invented GLOVOX in 1987 as evidenced by numerous documents, audio, video and news also available online.

The equipment was, at the time, considered non-patentable because it was a simple assembly of a working glove, two piezoelectric microphones and a jack or canon cable with switch, but its particular and exclusive user manual was filed with the SIAE and therefore reproductions of it or parts of it violate copyright in Italy and abroad.

In the initial presentation of GLOVOX on the Git-Hub site mentioned at the beginning, Bernardo Lanzetti is referred to as the first inventor/user but he was never informed of the expropriation of his idea and of the original name of his device.

Furthermore, Bernardo Lanzetti is indicated with a certain sufficiency, literally as “one of the singers of the Primiata Forneria Marconi. Yes, Primiata with the "i".

I can say that Glovox has nothing to do with the aforementioned band despite having been their lead singer from 1975 to 1978 and, officially, exiting it in 1979.

Here, then, is a small history of Glovox:

In 1986, the Australian company Fairlight came out with the "Voicetracker", a device, historically the first one, capable of transforming an analog monophonic signal, see the human voice through a microphone, into digital information to play computerized instruments such as midi synthesizers of the time.

Various prototypes were delivered to famous vocalists such as Peter Gabriel, Michael Jackson and Kate Bush and one even came to Bernardo Lanzetti who had already distinguished himself for particular research on voice and electronics.

The Fairlight, revolutionary for those times, revealed some problems including that one of having to use a microphone that, by its nature, picks up every sound, even within a narrow range, and therefore made the equipment unusable, live, on a stage where all the other musicians are also playing.

To be clear, the dedicated processor took too long to distinguish which was the sound of the voice to decipher and decode because it arrived mixed with the indentations of guitar, bass, drums etc.

If we then consider that the vocal cords, before emitting a usable note, take a few milliseconds because, at the beginning of each single vibration considered, they only produce noise, the Fairlight device was always late in responding so that the vocalist was forced to sing anticipating every single note.

Between ’86 and ’87, to overcome the problem of the microphone, Bernardo, while working with the oboist and composer Arnaldo De Felice, had the idea of using "contact microphones" or piezoelectric, similar to small coins, to be placed on the neck in order to pick up the vibrations of the vocal cords right outside the throat.

In this way, only the singer's voice could be taken into account.

To overcome the problem of delay or latency, it was decided to consider only the analog signal or to treat what was captured as if it were, for example, the sound of an electric guitar, in this case with a single metal string ...

Lanzetti's studies were presented by himself, for Fairlight, in London where no other famous vocalist and possible user of the Voicetracker showed up unlike some engineers and painters / illustrators.

With the presentation of Arnaldo De Felice, Bernardo illustrated his invention at the School of Electronic Music in Basel but also manufacturers of electronic instruments such as the American Alesis and the Japanese Zoom were contacted.

All the subjects involved in the above structures and organizations judged the GLovox interesting but only because the undersigned knew how to use it in a curious and exclusive way. In conclusion, they judged the device not a real musical instrument with market potential.

A few years later, even the Chinese came to comment: it costs too little. If we put it on the market, then the Vietnamese make a half-price version!

For more than fifteen years Bernardo's Glovox has been laughed at or, at best, badly tolerated by fellow musicians but, suddenly, the audience present at live performances with groups such as CCLR, Extra, Beggar's Farm, Acqua Fragile and others, has started to get passionate about performances where he sticks his “magic glove” around his throat.

From what was found on the Git-Hub site, the manager of this “usurped” Glovox signs himself with the name Riccardo Yorke Reali.

From first researches on the net nothing has emerged that is certain and in any case likely to be related to what is exposed and described, in truth with competence, in the pages relating to the presented glove.

A mischievous person could imply that the person responsible would like to hide behind some nick name and I'm not talking about the leader of Radiohead ...

In conclusion, the undersigned Bernardo Lanzetti is very happy that there are those who have studied and tried to develop his legendary Glovox.

It goes without saying that not having been contacted to issue an appropriate release and not having been made aware of the operation, sharing the results and perhaps being able to recommend necessary corrections already highlighted, will force him to take every action, even legal, to safeguard the product of its wits and copyright.

I take this opportunity to launch an appeal online so that the subject activated on Git-Hub or others, aware of his work here described, could contact me at:

il blog di Bernardo Lanzetti

https://bernardolanzetti.blogspot.com/

facebook:

Vox 40 Bernardo Lanzetti:

https://www.facebook.com/EventoConcertoVox40

Bernardo Lanzetti The Voice Impossible:

https://www.facebook.com/BernardoLanzetti