Congratulations to ThereminWorld member MarbleMad on hitting the youtube home page yesterday with his solar powered Altoids can theremin.

It may have rolled off by now, but was there long enough for three people I know to have seen it, and of course many more must have too.
Now they know the word Theremin and if one of them seeks further and gets hooked... well that's part of World Thereminization!

The ThereminWorld membership has been growing a lot this year, and we have arrived at major milestone.
We got our 2000th active user today!
Thanks to all our members new and old for keeping TW interesting, helpful, and supportive for all the Theremin players, builders, and theorists around the globe.

Keep up the good work,
and keep on Thereminizing!

It is getting close, the aether-hand-wavers are ready to do their thing in Lippstadt. Wish we could all be there! Cannot wait to hear the reports.

More Exciting Festival News! The Conrad-Hansen-Musicschool in Lippstadt / Germany has posted details for

WITHOUT-TOUCH 2.0 Festival of THEREMIN Concerts & Workshops  September 12 -14 2008 with Lydia Kavina, Barbara Buchholz, Carolina Eyck, Wilco Botermans and other participants

Organized by the Conrad-Hansen-Musikschule der Stadt Lippstadt Von Galen-Platz 1, 59557 Lippstadt / Germany.  Check out their site for lots more info.  Yet another wonderful gathering of aether enthusiasts, it's looking like a banner year!  Thanks to Gordon and the posters of the Without Touch form thread for helping keep us posted!

Here's a short roundup of some interesting theremin-related videos posted to YouTube recently.

• I Love Theremins (comedy) - Comedian Hal Sparks on why he loves the theremin. Ignore the fact that his technical description is WAY off ;)
• Dorit Chrysler - Sustain Me (live @ electric ecclectics '08)
• A bit of theremin jazz...
• Japanese theremin busker in a subway station

Enjoy!

For those of you craving a Theremin-to-MIDI controller, here's a free program you can run in Pd to do just that! Percussionist and music/technology blogger Charles Martin created this app in order to use his theremin as a controller for effects. It makes use of the "fiddler" object in Pd for pitch to MIDI conversion.

One thing that stands out immediately to me is the 0-127 (7 bit) control accuracy. Other Theremin to MIDI devices (e.g. the Moog Ethervox) output a 14-bit high resolution signal. Of course, it can be challenging to find a MIDI device that will actually support 14-bit signals for controls like pitch bend. In my experience, however, it's practically necessary when using a theremin as a pitch controller. With 7 bit resolution, you'd hear "chops" between the jumps in the pitch signal depending on how far you're bending it.

I've never used Pd myself, and I'm curious to hear how likely you would be to use a tool like this in a performance? Obviously you'd have to have a laptop connected to your theremin rig somehow - is that too much to deal with in a typical performance?

Read: Theremin to MIDI Control program in Pd (Charles Martin Percussionist Blog) via CreateDigitalMusic

It does not seem like three years since Bob Moog left this world.
(May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005)

His genius and spirit continue to speak to us in the instruments he built and in the many writings and recordings he left behind.

His foundation continues to preserve his legacy and his company Moog Music is still going strong making incredible instruments keeping Bob's constant intent that they must become a direct extension of the player.

Bob was the main reason the theremin survived into our time, by making instruments (he started his electronics career building theremins) and writing articles that helped other builders and many hobbyists get started making them.

We still feel the loss but celebrate his life and astounding contributions to modern music. Bob, we thank you and remember you.

Don't forget to tune into the live Electro Music 2008 theremin performances starting tonight! Our beloved Theremin World members Kevin, Kip, and John are each taking the stage over the next 3 days, and you can listen to their acts live over the Intertubes.

John Hoge kicks off the event tonight at 8pm. Kip Rosser performs Friday night at 7pm. Kevin Kissenger wraps up the theremin trinity on Saturday at 9pm (all times Eastern time zone).

When the audio stream is available, a button should appear on the electro-music radio page to start the stream, the players you can use are listed there and free to download if needed: http://electro-music.com/radio .

The Schedule for all performers is posted on the festival web site:

• Thursday, August 14 - http://electro-music.com/event2008/Thursday.html
• Friday, August 15 http://electro-music.com/event2008/Friday.html
• Saturday, August 16 http://electro-music.com/event2008/Saturday.html

I'd love to see your comments after each performance. Share your thoughts in our forums!

This Friday is Lev Termen's birthday.
Lev (Leon Theremin) was born August 15, 1896 in Russia.

Where would we be without him? Life would be very different for a lot of us and the world of modern music as well.

His invention the Theremin remains the simplest and most elegent music playing interface.
And though most were lost, his genius produced many other inventions that inspired modern synthesizers and set the stage for the electric age as well as the tone of modern day espionage.

It turns out that the electro-music Festival is featuring three thereminists this weekend, and Kip Rosser will be performing on the date. That's great aether timing.

Are you playing theremin this Friday?

Lev tells a little of his history in the excerpt from Olivia Mattis' article here on TW.

Happy Birthday Lev
We're Gald You Came Along!