"I was ticked off by that April Fool's video they put out. Moog has all the money, time and ambition to produce that elaborate video but they can't put a 99 cent mute switch on the Etherwave or come up with an alternative to the EW Pro that they stopped producing!" - Bisem
"An April Fools joke is a prank that is presumably pulled off, and FINISHED, on the first day of April. It is entirely confined to that particular day." - Coalport
I think the above two comments are related - The reason that Moog chose to produce the elaborate "joke" and spend money on this is (I think) because its one off - There is no additional expense required, no real work involved (updating design files etc) - it was a bit of fun at company expense - and publicity for Moog.. but it is "pulled off, and FINISHED"
"The problem with a prank like Moog Music's April Fools polyphonic theremin video is that once it's posted to the internet (and copied by God knows how many people) it's there forever. It's no longer limited to the context of April 1, and many people continue to believe the multiple-antenna theremin is real." - Coalport
True - But with the huge number of myths and fallacies out there regarding the theremin, does this little nonsense make any real difference? " for most people today it's misleading and deceptive." - I agree, and would much prefer that bogus "information" was somehow filtered - but it aint going to happen, not for theremins, not even for (IMO much more important) issues like the validity of evolution or the age of this planet.
There are no (and can be no) arbiters of what is "true" and "false" - Those who KNOW cannot "prove" that they "know".. There is no way that someone who is unwilling or unable to investigate claims for themselves can determine, even on something as technically simple as the theremin, when they are being given information based on sound understanding, or whether they are simply being lied to. (or misled by an ignoramus).
If the "Moog Polyphonic" had been presented as a "fact" without being "covered" by April 1, there would have been many who would have believed it - The Moog reputation would be enough (and perhaps is enough that people will believe in this PolyMoog theremin, when its context is forgotten), and anyone contesting the claims would most probably be disregarded, even if they presented sound reasons based on analysis, as to why the claims were bogus..
Anyone thinking about the theremin and simultaneously using their brain, would have seen that the April 1 "performance" was an impossibility - they do not even need to understand the capacitive sensing principles or decode the "IDIOT" mynomics, just watching the movements and "resultant output" gave it away, so those in this "small community" were never at risk of being mislead.. Alas perhaps though, now that the original joke is deleted, there is a possibility (?) that an undying myth has been created...? How long before "Retired European engineers" are accused of dismissing the Moog claims and causing this wonderful theremin advance to be squashed .. ? ! ;-)
IMO It is only those who are ignorant enough to attempt to build or buy a Glasgow theremin, or undertake other obviously nonsensical theremin endevours, who could be misled... And IMO, anyone who jumps into theremins and doesnt take the time to read up, investigate, and listen to / watch performances (the state I was when I started, LOL ;-) - well, no-one can save them from themselves! ;-)
Fred.
Just as an aside - There IS a way to have multiple capacitive sensors operating in close proximity, but the principle of operation is quite different to the conventional heterodyning theremin method.. All the sensors must operate synchronously, either at a constant frequency, or sequenced rapidly to allow each ones individual sensed capacitance to be derived.
However, even doing this, a polyphonic implementation like the Moog video is (IMO) not possible - each antenna would produce an output which sensed the capacitance it sees - each would be observing the same "object" from different angles and distances.
With my 3d sensor, I use 4 "antennas" and from this can derive X,Y, and Z data to high resolution - and have a seperate more distant pitch antenna.. It may, with complex digital processing, be possible to derive more complex gestural data from an array of capacitive sensors - but this is beyond me! - I am having enough difficulty getting my 3d sensor to a form that it can be manufactured.
I remember (I think) that "Isosynchronous" was a word used in the Moog video - Interesting - I suspect that many people have explored the idea of theremin polyphony, and that sensor synchronisation is an obvious direction..
But the theremin is a Monophonic instrument - IMO, A polyphonic variant can never be a theremin.. Its like a Mini Moog... You cannot have a polyphonic version - the (IMO most important MiniMoog class of) sound depends on portamento between played notes - as soon as you add multiple portamento paths required for polyphony, you lose the control (it gets taken over by the processor).. And the same would be true for any polyphonic variant of the theremin - only more so.
I have analogue polyphonic synthesisers - some of the poly portamento sounds great - but it aint a Mini Moog or even a Prodigy!
