Achieving a good tone

I get a pretty decent Cello sound by running my Theremin through a talkbox, with the tube stuck in a plastic water pitcher/jug. One pitcher works particularly well. There are so many unique sounds that can be acheived depending on what you place the tube in.

Instructions for cheap talkbox construction can be found here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EIQxwotn3k).

Holy moley! There's more angles to this than I could have imagined.

Jeff, I am using a mighty 2 Watt Roland MicroCube on the acoustic setting for my amp right now, +/- a Digitech RP250 pedal. That got me close with Thierry's original suggestion for settings on the theremin. I think you and I may be the only people in Ohio who even know what the thing is.

Christopher, the mp3 was incredible in terms of its cello tone, and the set-up makes perfect sense. With piezo transducers going for about $2, I'll have to give it a try.

Carport, thanks for the reference to the YT video...I had no idea that a talkbox could be made that way, but I can see how it might influence the tone in a cello-ish direction. I love that one water pitcher works better than the others...a mystery, and a cool one, at that.

Thanks to all for the expert assistance.

Pod

podmo wrote:

I am trying to achieve a warm, cello-like tone with a Moog Etherwave Standard in an effort to attempt and play the inital part of Khatchaturian's Adagio from the Gayane Suite (a heartbreaking, lonely but beautiful piece of music, well-suited to the theremin).

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A beautiful piece of music to be sure, but I think you will find that, contrary to the impression you have, it is not suited to the theremin because of the intervals involved.

Often pieces that are quite easy to play on other instruments present formidable obstacles to thereminists because of the intrinsic difficulties involved with technique, and the challenge of playing on a single, invisible "string"! (Particularly when playing on an entry-level instrument like an Etherwave standard).

Give it your best shot, HAVE FUN, and good luck.

Peter Pringle

Podmo - Your equipment may be a little more useful for guitar work, but it sounds like you have a lot of tonal options at your disposal. It will certainly get you by until you decide that you are going to stick with it and upgrade.

With the Roland Micro Cube there's probably little fear of having too much fullness in the bass. In fact, you have something to look forward to whenever you get the chance to play your Etherwave through a full size amp with plenty of power. Uh...I mean with a speaker at least ten to twelve inches in diameter....not a full wall of Marshall stacks! 8<0

Counting myself, you would be the fourth thereminist I know of for sure in Ohio. That's assuming we hear from you again after this week. Some people pop in once or twice and are never heard from again.
Besides me, there is Teslatheremin in Toledo who posts here every once in a while. There is (was?) a guy named Seth in Dayton, but we haven't heard from him in years.

If you haven't already, you should check out http://www.peterpringle.com . Also known as "coalport" (above) and "copperleaves" on youtube.

*QUICKLY RECORDED* Sound sample (http://www.mediafire.com/?mqenomwuz0f) of my Cello/Violin-like sound.

Etherwave Standard Waveform/Brightness are half past ten, and just about 3, respectively...run through a Rocktron Banshee talkbox into my favorite shaped pitcher, mic'd with a crappy computer mic and recorded with Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/).

~Dan

Dan, that sounds not bad, but much too "nasal" for me.

My ideal of Cello sound is more like this... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiEIncHviyU)

Unfortunately, I am beginning to realize that my statement about the Adagio..."well-suited to the theremin"...was an intemperate, rookie mistake. However, that it lead to a swarm of suggestions for how to achieve the desired tone is a very happy outcome.

Grateful thanks to all for the suggestions - I will have many hours of pleasant diversion trying all of them out.

Best wishes,

Pod

How about Purcell's Cold Genius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQrqgSK8-XU

(Don't worry, the costume is optional.)

Gordon, I'm sorry, but you lost me on this one. I must admit that I did not watch the video to the end, however, and may have missed the tie-in.

Pod

Sorry again. I was suggesting a piece that might be better to start with than the Adagio.

I went to youTube to find a good example of Cold Genius in case you weren't familiar with it - I'm not sure if I found a good version or not, but this was the one that caught my attention.