Is it possible?

I still think this is what the OP wants to do. I may be just missing the point.  This is a true RF heterodyne pitch only theremin under strict control.

Keyboard Precision .mp3 of a Theremin

When I said: (Let the engineers tell you how it could be done!) I did not realize there would be complete silence and no other sound bytes to demonstrate alternate methods.

Is the sound of this so poor no comments by Zomniac either? Trust me I can screw sound up but now I want to apply this to my Talking Machine. No that would make theremin playing to mechanical as you can only play one tone at a time....   with vibrato added with your other hand. Volume could be done with my stand alone RF volume loop off the knee possible while sitting.

"Satisfied with the Fred's 1b, 1d and any of 3a...3e it is possible with model of hand (metal plate) drived by a servo and controlled in any way (midi-to-position engine, for example).Developing this idea you can provide the audio feedback to escape the R & D of note-to-position tabulation." - ILYA

Hi Ilya,

Yes, that would be a way of doing it! Build a 'robot' to do the difficult job of playing the theremin, while you have the easy job of playing the keyboard! LOL! - just use the wheel to add vibrato, hell, using a 2 axis controller you could control vibrato and tremelo while playing the keyboard - or use one axis to control portamento... You could even use the pitch bend to make it sound like a real theremin - make an occasional note slightly out of tune!

LOL - I love this idea! ;-) - With audio feedback your theremin could be as non-linear as hell, the robot wouldnt mind!

Fred.

Edit (added) 1 > Actually - this idea does have a great use! - As a demonstrator for a new theremin! ... The developer would not need to be able to play the theremin, keyboard or MIDI file would do it... One would get a perfect rendition regardless of how crap the theremins linearity actually was - As long as the theremin sounded ok, I expect they would sell bucketloads.

And end up a highly frustrated purchaser when one finds you cannot play the damn thing - you need to buy a robot costing $2k to actually play a tune!

Edit (added) 2 > To me, there is no logical reason to play a "theremin" in any other way than gestural.. With the exception of the "heterodyne" sound, all other reasons are questionable to absurd - you can do everything with the simplest analogue monophonic synth that you could do with a modified theremin connected to a keyboard - and converting a theremin would be a great effort, and be less stable or reliable than a synth.

The ONLY reason I can see which makes any sort of sense is if one wants the "heterodyne" sound - you cannot (I think) get a synth which produces sound by heterodyning, except for the odes martinot... But, to be honest, I am not sure that the "heterodyne sound" really exists! - Oh, I used to believe that I could tell the difference - but I now think this has more to do with the harmonics in most theremins being identified as "heterodyning" - correctly adjust your VCO waveshapes and VCF roll-off/tracking and you are damn hard pressed to hear any difference (or at least I am!).

"When I said: (Let the engineers tell you how it could be done!) I did not realize there would be complete silence and no other sound bytes to demonstrate alternate methods." - Christopher

Hey Chris -

I believe Gordon showed a method by which a similar type sound could be produced, using a screwdriver - And I expanded this idea a bit by suggesting multiple layers (graduated thickness) of sleeving to give more 'notes'.

Presumably your method was different - I do not know how you did it!

I give up! ;-)

Fred.

"Is anything known about the theremin keyboard, or is it completely lost to history?" - GordonC

The best information I have been able to find on this instrument was in Albert Glinsky's book "Theremin Ether Music and Espionage" [page 145] - it seems to have been quite impressive!

And yes - I think you are right .. I cannot find details about this instrument, But I am sure I have seen somewhere that it was a monophonic instrument using heterodyning.

Fred.

Don't forget, there was already a monophonic heterodyne keyboard that existed in the early 1930's - the ondes martenot.

The ondes had the advantage of having a "ruban" as well as a keyboard, so it could do what a theremin could do only more easily, accurately and efficiently. That is why the ondes attracted the attention of a number of well-known composers of the 1930's and 40's (Joseph Canteloube, Arthur Honneger, Olivier Messiaen, among many others), while the theremin did not. 

So why do you suppose the theremin survived while the ondes slipped into obscurity?

I suppose it's a combination of the higher visual spectacularness of the theremin (creating music out of the air) and the higher price of the Ondes Martenot... I'd love to try an Ondes Martenot, but last time I checked they were selling for more than 10K euros (ouch!). 

Apart from the novelty of space control, and the expense of an ondes, is there an esthetic quality that the theremin has that has guaranteed its future? Is it all about money and glitz?

Jist askin'.

Coalport said: “Is it all about money and glitz?”

With the magic of the theremin we define a sacred arena where miracles come into play. There are profound truths in that old cliché of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat or the expression of a one trick pony. It always astounds me the excitement this simple instrument brings to the human experience of all ages, especially a child.

Do you hear what I hear...?

Christopher

"Do you hear what I hear...?

Christopher"

Yes I do!!!

IHS --- Dana

"Do you hear what I hear...."

We are both listening to the same thing, but I probably don't hear what you hear. Two people hearing the same piece of music are quite liable to have very different experiences of that music. 

If we were to listen to a recording - audio only - of a virtuoso performance on the theremin, without knowing anything about how the sound is produced, is there something that would characterize the musical experience that would set it apart from related instruments such as the ondes martenot, the tannerin or the therevox ET-4?

I have often heard people say, "In order to appreciate a theremin performance you really have to see it being played."

If that is true, then the theremin is a failure as a musical instrument.