Gordon's Progress

Hi guys.

Thanks Kevin.

Yup. I find myself wanting another theremin so that I'll be covered next year if Peter isn't there to save my hide, and to have a choice of voices when things go right.

There was a contract waiting to be signed in my email when I got home. It's for a 59 second track on a compilation that won't have mass appeal, but I am optimistic that the royalties will pay for the clip-frame I bought to house my copy of the contract. :-)

Eddie, it was a great time. So much going on. On Sunday lunchtime a fair percentage of the whole motley crew lined up and paraded through the local town behind an effing Marching Band: brass, glockenspiel and big bass drum! It was one heck of a party. Getting to perform just added the cherry on top.

Oh, and something else - I didn't go to any of the very late night events (including a dance competition for the women) but they relocated for those to the home made geodesic dome. (Apparently they found the instructions on the web.) I didn't pace it out, but I'm guessing about 25 metres diameter. Certainly big enough to arrange up to perhaps a couple of dozen theremins around the circumference and stand a conductor on a podium in the centre. That could be fun.

That's a terrific track. The Boomerang looks pretty good. I had a quick look around but didn't find any shops selling 'rangs. But I did find a whole range of similarly priced alternatives, all with differing feature sets, so there's bound to be one with capabilities that appeal to me. And it looks like a pretty good learning/practice tool - an easy way to hear what you played immediately after playing it. And I see some of them come with USB, so a very easy way of recording tracks too.

And, sigh, that's not quite the end of my newly acquired wish list. When we got home there in the post was the tube of inexpensive little glow-stick bracelets we ordered off eBay to use as night-lights for Laura. So I set about dressing her in a whole bunch of them, making a chain-mail jerkin.

Which set me thinking about a stage costume (I wore my red, Indian pyjama suit to perform.) Glow-sticks remind me of the theremin's voice, which I visualise as a thin, luminous line, but the most interesting part of a generally static theremin player is the hands, and glow-stick gloves would be impractical. So I'm thinking of mounting a short UV tube atop the theremin and wearing gloves that fluoresce in black light.

Does anybody know if fluorescent tube circuits interfere with theremin circuits?

There was one other thing I noticed during my performance which I wanted to think about for a while, and try out on my Kees - which is now fully recovered from its stage fright.

This is the thing - I swear I was getting tactile feedback from the theremin, particularly on the melodic piece. The air was thick and syrupy in the volume field - I had to push down into it, and my pitch hand was slotting into notes like the click-stop volume control on my stereo amplifier. (Usual caveat applies to this - I was in tune according to my own personal scale - how well this conforms to even temperament I have no idea.)

Of course, this is impossible, so I tried it again at home and it happened again. The effect is very subtle - I spotted it on stage I think because of the heightened awareness that being in the spotlight brings with it.

I'm pretty sure what was going on - I'm using those muscles that oppose the direction of movement to give the impression of tactile feedback, like isometric exercises (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isometric_exercise), as made famous by Charles Atlas.

So, I guess if you're fed up with the bigger thereminists kicking sand in your face, try dynamic tension!

:-)

(Picture of me on stage. (http://myspace-192.vo.llnwd.net/01110/29/11/1110721192_l.jpg))

Gordon, you are showing your age with that one...I haven't seen Charles Atlas hawking his wares for many years.

A far as fluorescent tube circuits interfering with theremin circuits, I woul dbet that they would.

I remember a recording seesion we did at a friend's apartment and I kept getting a hum in the four-track recorder I was using. After much jiggling of wires and switching outlets we figured out it was the fluorescent light fixture underneath the coffee table we had the machine sitting on.

It looked neat when he turned it on (sort of like the ground effects lighitng the kids used to put on their cars) but the recorder did not like it at all.

Apparently he died when I was ten, so not really showing my age. Er, except that that was thirty five years ago so, yup, I'm feeling grey haired and doddery tonight. Nonetheless he has a website. http://charlesatlas.com

With regards to the light, I figured as much - nonetheless I found a cheap battery powered hand-held one in an online joke and party supplies shop. http://sillyjokes.co.uk It should not have any mains hum problem at the least.

If it interferes or isn't bright enough the kids can have it to play with, and maybe I'll start looking at UV LEDs, which I chanced across whilst browsing. (Showing my age again - when did LEDs get bright by the way? The last time I bought a torch was when desktop calculators used LEDs and it was rubbish. We bought LED torches for the party and darn me they're good!)

And if it's portable I can take it with me to a formal dress shop to check out handwear. (I have in mind that I arranged ages ago to play at a friend's Halloween party. I'm thinking maybe a skeleton costume along with the gloves.)

You could consider using chemical glow tubes and replacing them for each performance. At least they wouldn't provide any electrical interferance...

I'm not too sure how to wear glow tubes on my hands without their being restrictive.

Besides the good news is the little fluorescent tube arrived. It's a 4 watt tube, and lights up white gloves brightly at 50 cm. (And visibly across the room in pitch dark.) I can stand it on the theremin without interference, but it lights up the wrong parts of the gloves.

So the plan has developed to projecting UV light from a more distant position. To which end I have ordered two 75 Watt incandescent bulbs - I figure they're good for a couple of metres - and two inspection lamps to house them. And hey, Tool Time fans, they're not just any inspection lamp, they're Gripper 2000 (http://www.workshopsupplies.co.uk/media/ehl2000c.jpg)s.

And, as it happens, my crimson Indian pyjama suit is decorated with short white lines that luminesce. So that's neat.

I'm kind of loathe to paint my instrument or stick stuff on it, but I've spotted a bag of metre long luminescent balloons, and I figure I could slip two over the antennae like prophylactics.

That will certainly prebent any baby theremins from cropping up after your performance.

I'v always liked the chemical glow-stick idea myself.

I currently have a Barbie doll head on my pitch antenna and I want to poke the eyes out an put a mini glow stick inside it.

The gloves idea sounds good, though, especially with the UV lighting.

Are we going to see the video on Youtube?

The video could very well appear on youTube, if it's any good. We'll see.

I finally got my light bulbs. And some that have the wrong sort of fitting. They came first. I might pass on the balloons though. I need two. They come in packs of fifty. If I buy four packs I will make the minimum purchase requirement for the online store in question. When I think of something useful to do with 198 fluorescent balloons I'll be right there.

I happened upon a small recording studio locally advertising an hour for 20 pounds with tech/engineer. Don't know much about it, except for this website (http://www.envyradio.com/), which does not exactly inspire confidence in me. Still, should be more interesting than owning 198 overpriced balloons for only twenty pence more, and they don't charge postage on top. So I'm going to see tomorrow about booking an hour.

I've got plenty to fill an hour with. There's In The Potting Shed and The Medusa Plait, and a couple more things.

I've been messing about with nursery rhymes in preparation for my Halloween Party gig. (Typical audience age - 5 years.) Nursery rhymes on the theremin are creepy, like poking the eyes out of a Barbie doll. There's been a couple on Spellbound recently, and I could have some of that. In particular my two seconds of delay is just enough for half a line of London's Burning. The sound produced is not really suitable for 5 year olds, but I want to hear what a recording of it sounds like anyway.

Also I have found a really powerful Industrial noise drone. It kind of grew out of the Medusa Plait. Putting the echohead on minimum delay (20ms) and maximum feedback - near as darnit 100% - is interesting. There are a whole bunch of notes that resonate inside the pedal. They boom. Getting beat frequencies is a doddle. The bass notes are pure evil. Throbbing Gristle would approve. It's a big, big sound, like Careering off Public Image's Metal Box played at the volume it deserves. (Which scared my father silly when he yanked the headphone cable to speak to me twenty seven years ago. Loud enough that I still remember it vividly!)

At the moment the working title is Feersum Endjinn, after the Iain M Banks novel. (FWIW Iain M Banks is probably the best sci-fi writer, bar none. Dark, smart, witty and compelling.) In the book the "fearsome engine" moves a planet. This is the sound of it in operation. If I can think of a title that expresses something even bigger, nastier and louder then I'll go with that.

Oh, and talking about big ugly sounds...

Check this (http://iwantoneofthose.com/stadium-horn/index.html) out, and believe the hype. And while you're there, these (http://iwantoneofthose.com/airzooka/index.html) are also as much fun as they look. Nothing to do with theremins, but fun anyway.

And finally... I think I got the nicest compliment ever. Someone on mySpace compared my music to that of Raymond Scott (http://raymondscott.com/).

One other thing.

I'm getting closer to knowing what my ideal theremin would be.

I already knew that it looks like the one played by the Hands Off 2007 logo person...

[img]http://myspace-739.vo.llnwd.net/00898/93/78/898288739_l.gif[/img]

Now I know why there is a thick pedestal. It is a housing for a modular analogue synth. The Doepfer A-100 (http://www.doepfer.de/a100e.htm) in particular. It looks brilliant. Every review I have read just glows about the sound quality, the range of modules and the price.

They even do theremin antenna modules that provide a CV output. They are not ideal - the telescopic antenna plugs directly into the unit, putting the adjustment knobs right next to the antenna and I have no idea about the linearity of their response or the depth of the control fields. Has anyone here had experience of them?

Gordon,

You should definately pursue adding an analog synth to your setup. You and the Doepfer synth would likely make a good pair.

The only disadvantage of having a modular patchcord synth in your Theremin's pedestal would be the difficulty of patching something near the floor... you may not want to have to sit on the floor to do your patching.

What might be possible would be to have knobs in your pedestal that are merely control sources that would, in turn, connect to your (remotely located) synth.

You might want to check out Doepfer's "Signal processing systems" ... looks like they would work well with the signal from a Theremin such as the Kees. If your intention is to process your Theremin's signal (as opposed to generating waveforms and noise from the synth) then a Signal Processing system might be a better way to go.

All the best!

-- Kevin

btw -- I have heard that the Doepfer Theremin CV source has a small range and is not as versatile as a Theremin such as the Kees or Tmax. You might do better with an envelope follower module to which you can hook your Kees' signal -- or to purchase something like the Theremax that produces Control Voltages.