Gordon,
Sounds like a great weekend. Very inspiring and fun. Wish I could have been there.
[i]-- Kevin[/i]
Sounds like a great weekend. Very inspiring and fun. Wish I could have been there.
[i]-- Kevin[/i]
Gordon's Progress
Posted: 2/14/2007 2:21:03 PM
Guys, the weekend was a blast. Worth every penny.
With regards to the finished product, Pierre certainly has a magic touch at the mixing desk - well, computer keyboard - I missed the final playback as noted, but everyone was raving about it the next morning.
There is of course the possibility that it's like cheap Spanish wine - tasted great while you were on vacation, but had turned into something nasty and unpalatable by the time you got back home. Somehow I don't think that will be the case. We shall see.
With regards to the finished product, Pierre certainly has a magic touch at the mixing desk - well, computer keyboard - I missed the final playback as noted, but everyone was raving about it the next morning.
There is of course the possibility that it's like cheap Spanish wine - tasted great while you were on vacation, but had turned into something nasty and unpalatable by the time you got back home. Somehow I don't think that will be the case. We shall see.
Posted: 2/21/2007 7:24:19 PM
My birthday brought with it another pedal. Thanks Dad!
The Boss PS-5 "Super Shifter" is quite a different beast to the PS-2.
The PS-2 makes the sound more menacing, darker, by virtue of having feedback to push sounds right down to sub-sonics or up into dog whistle territory and by paying no heed to harmonic intervals and generally by being gritty and on the lo-fi side.
The PS-5 does not have feedback - it generates a second note at a specified interval from the source note. These can be mixed to a single output, or to two separate outputs which is neat. In detune mode the shift is 5 to 30 cents and does good things to the timbre. In Pitch Shift mode it knows about intervals of 1, 2, 5, 7, 12 and 24 semitones.
In harmonist mode a second knob comes into play and you specify a major or minor key - apparently this makes 12 in total - and an interval and it comes up with the appropriate note to complement the note being played. The manual reminds the user of the importance of tuning one's instrument correctly before using this. Tee hee. Basically it clings to a note until you are half a semi-tone away and then snaps to the next tone. Only the shifted note does this, the source remains unaffected.
For all three modes (there are two others that don't look very interesting at first glance) the addition of an expression pedal means the shift can be varied continuously from 0 to the specified interval. I have one on order.
The Boss PS-5 "Super Shifter" is quite a different beast to the PS-2.
The PS-2 makes the sound more menacing, darker, by virtue of having feedback to push sounds right down to sub-sonics or up into dog whistle territory and by paying no heed to harmonic intervals and generally by being gritty and on the lo-fi side.
The PS-5 does not have feedback - it generates a second note at a specified interval from the source note. These can be mixed to a single output, or to two separate outputs which is neat. In detune mode the shift is 5 to 30 cents and does good things to the timbre. In Pitch Shift mode it knows about intervals of 1, 2, 5, 7, 12 and 24 semitones.
In harmonist mode a second knob comes into play and you specify a major or minor key - apparently this makes 12 in total - and an interval and it comes up with the appropriate note to complement the note being played. The manual reminds the user of the importance of tuning one's instrument correctly before using this. Tee hee. Basically it clings to a note until you are half a semi-tone away and then snaps to the next tone. Only the shifted note does this, the source remains unaffected.
For all three modes (there are two others that don't look very interesting at first glance) the addition of an expression pedal means the shift can be varied continuously from 0 to the specified interval. I have one on order.
Posted: 2/23/2007 9:25:26 AM
Alex, I feel your pain. And am feeling a teensy bit smug about it. Sorry. :-)
As of about fifteen minutes ago, my theremin has a volume antenna and a volume pedal (see page 27 (http://www.thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=1420&F=557&p=27) of Gordon's Progress for reason), a pitch antenna and a relative pitch pedal for the second voice, provided by the PS-5. I preset the interval of the second voice on the pitch shifter - either a semitone, a tone, a perfect fourth, a perfect fifth or one or two octaves above or below the primary voice. With the pedal rocked to the off position the two voices are in unison and sound like a single voice, but are available separately for subsequent processing. With the pedal rocked full on the two voices are separated by the preset interval. With the pedal part way rocked the voices are separated by part of the interval.
Rocking the pedal back and forth during a long stroke is neat.
Of course there are limitations. One could add more voices with more pitch shifters and expression pedals but that would be an expensive way of going about things and one would still be limited in the choice of intervals.
But it is one step closer to a polyphonic theremin. I know the set of intervals I would like to try out first. For that see the long posting on page 20 (http://www.thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=1420&F=557&p=20) of Gordon's Progress, but ignore the last paragraph and replace with "Part three of the diagram illustrates a suitable arrangement for a pedalboard.")
As of about fifteen minutes ago, my theremin has a volume antenna and a volume pedal (see page 27 (http://www.thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=1420&F=557&p=27) of Gordon's Progress for reason), a pitch antenna and a relative pitch pedal for the second voice, provided by the PS-5. I preset the interval of the second voice on the pitch shifter - either a semitone, a tone, a perfect fourth, a perfect fifth or one or two octaves above or below the primary voice. With the pedal rocked to the off position the two voices are in unison and sound like a single voice, but are available separately for subsequent processing. With the pedal rocked full on the two voices are separated by the preset interval. With the pedal part way rocked the voices are separated by part of the interval.
Rocking the pedal back and forth during a long stroke is neat.
Of course there are limitations. One could add more voices with more pitch shifters and expression pedals but that would be an expensive way of going about things and one would still be limited in the choice of intervals.
But it is one step closer to a polyphonic theremin. I know the set of intervals I would like to try out first. For that see the long posting on page 20 (http://www.thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=1420&F=557&p=20) of Gordon's Progress, but ignore the last paragraph and replace with "Part three of the diagram illustrates a suitable arrangement for a pedalboard.")
Posted: 2/23/2007 12:08:11 PM
This (http://4mspedals.com/nocto/mondoloco.jpg) is what I was looking at to do something similar. It's likely going to be expensive when 4m gets it ready to sell, though. This is how they describe it: "Coming soon, the modded-out Nocto Loco, with independent level controls for octaves 1, 2, and 3, as well as pulse speeds fast, medium, slow. Unity also has a level control instead of on/off switch. Now you can mix in each octave/pulse/unity for infinite sounds... ready for sale soon!"
The problem with boutique stuff is that you never get to play with it before you buy it. I'm now intrigued by the Boss PS-5. Especially the price.
And I concur with Alexander. That is a really good idea. I can't wait to hear what you do with it.
The problem with boutique stuff is that you never get to play with it before you buy it. I'm now intrigued by the Boss PS-5. Especially the price.
And I concur with Alexander. That is a really good idea. I can't wait to hear what you do with it.
Posted: 2/23/2007 4:17:42 PM
Nice box, Ed. Good sound clips (http://4mspedals.com/nocto.php?mode=sound) too. Of course the advantage of boutiques is that you can talk to them. :-) One option would be to send the guy an email.
"Hi. That Nocto Loco looks like it's gonna do amazing things on my theremin. Probably. Trouble is effects work differently with theremins than guitars, so I really can't tell without trying it. How about you send me a review model and if it's everything I think it's going to be I'll post a review at Theremin World and send you a bunch of sound clips. Theremins are a growing market with something of a shortage of effects boxes that are appropriate to them."
So far the best ways to play melodically seem to be to kick in the second voice for occasional short phrases or to play bass notes in unison and open up the interval during a long gliss up to the high notes, closing the gap again on the slide back down.
With regards to the price, without shopping around and hitting eBay to find a pedal at about £95 it would have cost about £160. I feel the EV-5 expression pedal in particular is overpriced at £55 or more, but I managed to get it within my birthday budget. The alternative would have been the Bespeco VM19L (http://www.bespeco.it/detail.php?mac=6&cat=116&sub=0&det=2929&lingua=en), which Bespeco tell me is compatible and is about half the price but requires a cable.
"Hi. That Nocto Loco looks like it's gonna do amazing things on my theremin. Probably. Trouble is effects work differently with theremins than guitars, so I really can't tell without trying it. How about you send me a review model and if it's everything I think it's going to be I'll post a review at Theremin World and send you a bunch of sound clips. Theremins are a growing market with something of a shortage of effects boxes that are appropriate to them."
So far the best ways to play melodically seem to be to kick in the second voice for occasional short phrases or to play bass notes in unison and open up the interval during a long gliss up to the high notes, closing the gap again on the slide back down.
With regards to the price, without shopping around and hitting eBay to find a pedal at about £95 it would have cost about £160. I feel the EV-5 expression pedal in particular is overpriced at £55 or more, but I managed to get it within my birthday budget. The alternative would have been the Bespeco VM19L (http://www.bespeco.it/detail.php?mac=6&cat=116&sub=0&det=2929&lingua=en), which Bespeco tell me is compatible and is about half the price but requires a cable.
Posted: 2/23/2007 5:37:40 PM
I hadn't considered asking for a review model. I might have to go that route. I liked the samples on the smaller one too, which made me really curious about the modified one. I did e-mail them and they said to keep an eye out for an update on the page. They were pretty quick to reply too. We'll see.
I'm kinda curious about the Roland now. I may have to have someone drive me out to Guitar Center and play with one. I'm allowing myself two gear purchases in March so I'm doing my homework now.
I'm kinda curious about the Roland now. I may have to have someone drive me out to Guitar Center and play with one. I'm allowing myself two gear purchases in March so I'm doing my homework now.
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