Theremin advice

I have a Burns Zep theremin. I use it through a pedalboard with a volume pedal, adjusting pedals as I go. I am not playing it in any traditional way. This Theremin isn't very robust and it is battery powered. Sometimes I forget to turn it off and then I have to change the battery which all feels rather precarious. Since I mainly use the Theremin live I am now looking for something more robust but it also has to be compact. I have been considering the Burns B3. One thought I have though is that there are some advantages of not having a volume control on my current model in that I don't need both hands to play it - I can get on my knees on stage and play the Theremin and control pedals at the same time: https://youtu.be/i0fkfkvl0h8

Any advice anyone?

Theremini was also another one I was considring.

The Burns Zep theremin is a toy. On the good side, it only costs a hundred bucks. If you are just using the instrument for FX, which is the impression I got from the video you linked above, then the Zep may be all you need.

IMNSHFO, you should avoid squatting on stage in order to access equipment because your audience can't see you. Scrambling around on the floor just doesn't look "professional". If I were you, I would learn to trigger my Zep theremin with the neck of my guitar so you can play both guitar AND theremin simultaneously, and control volume with a pedal. This takes a bit of practice, but it is an effective technique I have seen performers use very skillfully - provided all they want from their theremin is FX. To do this right, you will need a high bar stool for your butt during those moments when you are playing two instruments. This will restrict on-stage mobility, but when you play the theremin that is restricted anyway. 

Since you presumably have two feet, you can use one foot on a pedal to control your theremin volume, and the other for control of your guitar FX. The use of a bar stool frees both feet for this type of setup.

You're lucky you're not a pedal steel player because then you'd have to use both hands, both feet, and both knees with each of these six parts of your body controlling a different function!

Thanks for your advice - that's helpful - based on what you say, would you recommend a particular Theremin model?

I'm not sure I agree that playing your pedalboard with your hands on stage is unprofessional per-se - certainly it hasn't held back Radiohead - but I accept that it can be hard for audiences to see what you're up to.

I have always thought that having to duck down or squat on the floor, in concert, to fiddle with equipment, looks kinda hokey but lots of thereminists do it. It looks particularly bad, IMO, when women do it. 

The Moog THEREMINI is an instrument you might want to consider because it has limited MIDI capability and you may find that useful for the kind of thing you do. Strictly out of curiosity, I got a Theremini when they first came out a few years ago, but I got rid of it after a couple of months. As thereminist Carolina Eyck once pointed out, the Theremini is great to take to a party because you can have fun with it.

The only fully MIDI capable theremin ever made, as far as I know, is the Moog MIDI Ethervox. It is capable of both sending and receiving MIDI commands in a huge variety of configurations. These instruments haven't been made in more than 20 years, and when they come up for sale they cost thousands.

"The only fully MIDI capable theremin ever made, as far as I know, is the Moog MIDI Ethervox. It is capable of both sending and receiving MIDI commands in a huge variety of configurations. These instruments haven't been made in more than 20 years, and when they come up for sale they cost thousands."  - coalport

I'm curious, have you ever examined the MIDI stream coming from it?  It must be a flood of information, are there any provisions to throttle it?  Do all synths "play nice" with the data they receive from it, or do they choke / zipper?

While squatting may be considered rude and ungraceful, it is far more so if it is done from an elegant and refined standing posture which enhances the mystique of the theremin.

But seated play has none of those issues and it seems that you like to play the guitar while seated so I recommend considering the Harrison Instruments Model 302 as it is ideal for seated play, although wearing the guitar may prove a nuisance. Setting the volume range very tight would help but pitching would still be an issue.

As for MIDI - who wants to lug a synth onstage as well as your theremin? Effects boxes will make your theremin sound like most anything you could desire - EHX sample converters like the Mel9 work well with theremin - just keep them off the floor on a small table so you don't have to BEND OVER. Keep the pedals to a minimum.

Keep the Burns Zep you have for the special noise effects and get one that you can play as a musician, like your guitar. The Model 302 is very playable and easy. You can make music with it.

Don't spend too much money on a theremin - it will seem like a good idea at the time.

Dewster asked: "I'm curious, have you ever examined the MIDI stream coming from it?"

When Bob Moog built the MIDI Ethervox back in 1996, there were no commercially produced MIDI receivers that were sophisticated enough to be controlled by it. The Ethervox is actually two instruments in a single cabinet: a traditional heterodyne theremin, and a MIDI gestural controller that can operate in 4 different modes. It has two entirely separate voices - VOICE ONE is the heterodyne theremin, VOICE TWO is a synthesized theremin sound like the Moog SERIES 91 instruments, the Moog THEREMINI, and others (which are not heterodyne). VOICE TWO is used for playback (via MIDI IN) when the MIDI Ethervox is recorded to a sequencer.

The Ethervox CHROMATIC MODE is able to send note on/note off commands to a MIDI receiver in user programmable configurations. This allows a thereminist to use the Ethervox as an instrument of accompaniment. The effect is quite stunning!

Although there were no sufficiently advanced MIDI receivers back in the 90's able to read pitchbend info over a nine and a half octave range, now there are. The Haken Continuum can talk to the E'Vox - no choking, no freezing, no zippering - and there may be other devices I am not familiar with that can communicate with it as well.

Yes, I have examined the MIDI stream coming from the E'Vox, and have recently had extensive communication with Rudi Linhard (of LINTRONICS) who is the designer of the E'Vox MIDI software. Rudi is a super guy, and he ironed out a couple of bugs in the MIDI software that should have been taken care of years ago, but they were never identified until now because nobody (other than yers trooly) was using the MIDI capabilities of the instrument. The board uses the old EPROM technology, so there was a lot of back & forth, burning and testing various new versions of the software before things got fixed. 

Randy George has developed a software (MIDI Merlin) that is capable of accepting audio input from any theremin and delivering MIDI output. I have had limited experience with this amazing piece of engineering and it is WONDERFUL.

Thanks much for that in-depth info coalport!

To get rid of the crazy formatting, edit your post and click on the "greater less than" View Source button all the way to the right (I can't use the symbols themselves as they are treated as formatting!) and delete the gobbledygook codes.  Any time you paste (even if you are copying & pasting from inside the post!) you must be in the View Source mode or things will go awry.  And, yeah, it's kinda fucked, but manageable if you know the secret.

Hey dewster - thanks for the tips on how to get rid of the crazy formatting. I did as you said and it all went back to normal (I think).