Theremin with Alesis AirFX (one player)

That's right: a thread dedicated to figuring out how best to incorporate that weird little device from Alesis while playing that weird larger device we all know and love.

I'll start by transferring remarks previously made in other threads, starting with the exchange in which Gordon Charlton (a.k.a. Beat Frequency (http://www.myspace.com/beatfrequencyuk)) got me started on this line of research.

(psst! Gordon, if you happen to have the time and inclination to re-post your content in this thread, then I'll gladly delete my duplications... having my picture next to your observations certainly makes me look good, but doesn't seem entirely fair.)

[b]Here's what Gordon said, on 30 Nov 2008:[/b]

Mmmm. AirFX. Kiki Moorse (ex Chicks On Speed (*)) has one of those - I sat on a divan right next to her playing one when we were recording Abbatoir Hoedown for the Sonic Weekend 2 Kitchen Cuts, and it makes some truly wicked sounds. Very organic and alive - it's the space control interface - infrared on three axes. Synth patches and effects.

I can't believe that I was so busy watching der blinkenlights on my laptop that I didn't pay any heed to it at the time. Now I come to read the manual I can see one mike-stand mounted just beyond the volume loop of my theremin so I can control the volume with my elbow whilst shaping the sound with my hand.


(*) They don't play guitars. (yT (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZMwkDTONpM&fmt=18))

[b]And here's Gordon's follow-up, slightly later on the same day:[/b]

I'll mention that setting 49 on the AirFX; "Sci-Fi Theatre" is distinctly thereminesque with a sawtoothy wave that is particularly good in the lower registers. Or so says some guy that mentioned it in some forum that I found with Google. If you're cool with a ready-made solution I'd say this is seriously worth considering. Of course it would be better with a capacitive interface than optical, but that ain't available at present.

Brian - I'll be exploring alternative ways of playing the volume loop to free up my volume hand before I decide ...

[i][non-AirFX remarks omitted here][/i]

Setting 10 on the AirFX; "Telephone" sounds like a sweepable bandpass with variable bandwidth and mix from the manual. I'm also keen to hear how "Formented" works out - from the manual "Sounds like the music is coming out of someone’s mouth" - both x and y axes are described as controlling "mouth positions" - so I'm guessing we're in formant filter territory. Could be neat if it works out. Then there's the Killswitch - like Telephone but a notch filter rather than bandpass. Sold yet?

[b]The next day (1 Dec 2008), Gordon again:[/b]

Last night's experiments confirmed that I can reach across the loop if it is at the right height and play rudimentary legato with my forearm, then lock off the current setting of the AirFX by tapping the button and revert to my usual "Pamelia style" hand position for better volume control and staccato without the AirFX's dynamics. I can't do both at once, but that is acceptable.

Okay, finally, an original contribution from moi:

First, a confession: I'm just dense enough that the very first time I hooked up the AirFX, I put it right under the volume loop. This placement is counterproductive, because many of the device's programs call for close proximity of your hand to the sensor dome... which of course, silences the theremin. Oops.

Next, I placed the AirFX as Gordon described, but somehow, reaching across the volume loop didn't suit me. If only there were a way to place it [i]above[/i] the volume loop...

The good news comes in two parts: 1) The AirFX is sufficiently lightweight that it can be mounted on a boom mic stand, and 2) its plastic-to-metal ratio is sufficiently high that it can be placed with its lower edge only a couple of centimeters from the volume loop, without drastically cutting the theremin's volume level.

I've just begun to experiment with such boom-mounted configurations. So far, the one that works best for me is with the AirFX mounted beside the volume loop (so that its HAL 9000 eye is staring across the theremin at the pitch rod). It works for me because I've been using the elbow-out volume arm posture (to promote isolation of arm motions), so it's easy to turn my wrist a little more to wave my left palm close to the dome.

And, lastly for tonight, some general remarks, irrespective of mounting/placement:

1) Many (if not all) of the AirFX's programs really require both stereo channels, so even if you weren't planning to play with any other effects, you'll need a way to split the mono theremin signal.* For now, I'm using a stereo chorus pedal, and simply bypassing the chorus effect.

*(that is, unless you're playing a stereo theremin)

2) Even more so than other musicians who've reviewed the AirFX, I'd like to take a moment to drop my customary benevolence and violently curse the RCA inputs and outputs. My suitable cables aren't long enough to reach the floor, so I have to put said chorus unit on a small table... and then also use a passive mixer to take the AirFX's output and pass it to a longer, standard instrument cable that will reach my amp. Brief web search suggests that the least painful solution will comprise buying a specialized cable (1/4" Mono jack to 2 RCA Male, for connecting theremin's cable to AirFX) and a couple of adapters (RCA Plug to 1/4" Mono Jack, for connecting AirFX to standard instrument cables).

Hi Brian. I'm happy with the thread as it is.

(In case anyone thought a stereo theremin was a figment of Brian's imagination, click here (http://www.no1derland.com/web05/009.htm).)

I haven't had chance to play with my AirFX much at all, having been in Berlin for Carolina Eyck's birthday/CD release party. (Randy George was there too! He's just as lovely and unassuming as you would imagine.) And since my return I have succumbed to a touch of winter flu. Ugh. But that's OK - I've had plenty of time to think about how the AirFX would fit into my music...

To summarise - (1) echoes and are a big part of my sound. (2) I make "hand-made" music (pun intended) - imperfection is integral to my musical philosophy - a reaction to a mass-produced, production-line world where perfection is a machine attribute. (3) When I am not actively producing sounds the echoes take centre stage bringing with them the exact, perfect repetition I strive to avoid. (4) It's hard to keep the sound controlled without leaving spaces for the echoes - or everything just builds up and up. Conclusion - the obvious place to introduce the AirFX is when I am not playing, but when I am allowing the music to continue on the echoes. So in the effects chain I'll be putting it after the delay pedal.

That will be a starting place - so perhaps for me directly under the volume loop is not such a silly idea, but I also own a boom stand, so I'll be trying a side-on approach too.

Brian's comment about stereo is interesting too - but better to say "two channels" - in, for example, Gently Drowning and Iron Sun I use a ping-pong delay to split the sound into two channels before recombining them with my ring-modulator. At that point between the ping-pong and the ring-mod I could make use of the stereo facilities of the AirFX. (But, d'oh, I anticipated the problem with RCA sockets and bought some long cables with mono jacks at one end and RCA plugs at the other, but only two of them, because I did not anticipate wanting the stereo facilities. Ah, well.)

(And to bring the credit full circle I should mention that it was Brian's observation about the lack of timbral variation in Bouncing Blumfeld that kicked off my interest in shaping the timbre, firstly with Brian's wah pedal, and now the AirFX. Which is ironic, because that was an exercise in [i]not[/i] leaving space for the delays but continuously stamping over what has gone before.)

Enough for now. I'm off back to bed with a hot lemon drink. Happy New Year everyone.

Gordon, sorry to hear you're feeling under the figurative weather.

Thanks for pointing out how different musical contexts can affect the choice of where to mount the AirFX in space, and where to place it along the signal chain. (I'm primarily pursuing a more classical, shaping-the-theremin-signal-in-real-time, without-other-effects approach... at least, for now.)

Now that you mention it, when I get to the stage of re-introducing the JoMoX T-Resonator to the chain, then it'll definitely come before the AirFX, as I also grow woolly--I mean, weary--of excessive literal repetition.

There is also a thread I started a while back about the same thing. I was wondering if it would be possible to play both at the same time and someone suggested playing the AirFX with my feet.

I didn't go there.

I was thinking you could put the AirFX under and in front of or behind the volume loop and work it that way.

Either way it would be pretty difficult but it would be impressive if you could pull it off in a musical way...

Hi DD. I found the thread. (link (http://www.thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=2051&F=557&p=1))

I'm not sure about foot control - with one of my feet already operating a wah pedal I might be a little unstable!

It's interesting that you were wondering about a one-handed theremin. Although development is currently on hold TW member Fred Mundell is working on just such a beast.

http://www.therasynth.com/home/

Clearly this would be the ideal instrument to use in conjunction with the AirFX, but in the meantime I'll settle for being half musician, half juggler/acrobat.

:-)