Alien First Words

Alien First Words - This was formerly a VTech First Words, an electronic toddler-toy. I modified it over a year ago, and recently gave it an overhaul and labelled it. It has two settings, talk-mode and music-mode. A female voice says things like "Mummy," "Dog," "Bird," etc... and if you switch it over it plays melodies and animal sounds.

Modifications:
- Switchable pitch knob (10k potentiometer). When activated, the normal sounds are pitched down considerably, and can be pitched down further into a bassy sludge.
- Super-speed momentary switch. When pressed, it speeds up whatever button is pressed at the time (to the same speed regardless of the pitch knob).
- Pitch-up body contacts. Two brass drawer knobs which adjust the pitch depending on how much or how little skin touches them. If used with the line-out jack, one contact also adds distortion to the sound.
- 1/8" line-out jack. For recording the instrument.

VTtech toys are apparently notoriously hard to fit with potentiometers, but not so with this model. The First Words Plus, however, wouldn't play ball.

Sound clips:

Pitched words 1	Words warped with the body contacts.
Pitched words 2	Words warped with the body contacts, with the pitch-pot turned on.
Dirge warp	Pitch-pot turned on, body contacts, warping a melody.
Pitched animal sounds	A warped bird tweet.
Super-speed	An example of the super-speed button at work.
Faux wildcat	With a stretch of the imagination, this body-contact warp could pass for a digital wildcat.

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