WANT TO BUY ETHERWAVE PRO

Randy George the man of mystery I have one question or maybe two... are you back in So. California? Would you ever demonstrate for children what is beautiful about the theremin.

There is an event coming up in Riverside, CA Saturday October 4, 2014 that I am loaning my favorite vacuum tube theremin that has the classic sound or better and good playability.

T

At the moment, I am in Dallas, but I may be in Los Angeles as soon as mid Fall.  I don't feel that I am a great candidate for theremin demonstrations involving children. In the past, the impression I have gotten from demonstrating to very young people is that the experience is not much different than a clown doing magic tricks. Sure, it is a fun time, to see a musician performing songs and melodies that can be identified on the spot. I just feel like there is no lasting impression with very young children, and as a result I'm less enthusiastic about it compared to the past.  IMO, the best time for showing a young people the theremin is when they are at an age when they have already chosen to participate in music and have committed to studying it.  The audience would be smaller, but the impression left would be more significant. (I may be presuming too much, but mainly my heart is not in it.)

Concerning playability of theremins, I am certain that no theremin will offer me the playability that I get from my own instrument.  This is not because I think I have the best instrument on the planet and everything else sucks... but because I have custom tuned my E-pro to my exacting preferences. On every other instrument, the muscle memory built in my arms/hands is wasted, and I have to work much harder with my ears to play 'in tune'.  The result is slower note transitions, missed notes, delayed reaction time, and poorer playing overall. In short, I could only play something like The Mario Bros theme on my Etherwave Pro. That video was from more than 6 years ago. Today, I play with greater accuracy, (coincidentally, also without filters that sound like a meowing cat) so switching instruments has an even greater amount of undesired effects than it had in the past. 

I don't want to go too far off topic, if you have specific questions, please send me a PM..   I don't think I am any kind of man of mystery. True, on TW I prefer to not participate in every discussion. I found that I allocate way more energy and time than is necessary, I think slowly and type slowly, which is a bad combination for forum discussion. Also, I know I haven't been creating a whole lot of video things in the recent past couple of years, but I'll eventually get back into it.

"The Mario Bros theme on my Etherwave Pro. That video was from more than 6 years ago." - Randy

That was You ?!  OMG, LOL ! ;-) .. Im glad that I didn't make the comments I repressed after seeing / hearing that!

IMO, you have come a long, long way in those 6 years! (-:  ... And yeah, I fully concur with you regarding the cats, but hey - it kind of goes with Mario.. somehow..

Fred.

Hi Randy, TW IM's no longer sends email as of January 1, as past experiences have shown. At this time I have no other good questions and appreciate that long response to my original. An instrument fine tuned to your movement makes perfect sense. I will be visiting California next week to get a better idea of what is needed for the event I mention.

Thank you

T

Cheers, T.  If I don't respond to a PM, it's probably because the message was never sent. I check TW regularly.

Fred, yep, that was me. (uh, perhaps you were not serious, but just in case) I don't know if people notice my name, usually hardcoded as a title in my videos. In the past my youtube user name was ooo6, I changed it more recently to my actual name.  I really haven't made anything in a while so I there is nothing that is totally representative of my playing that exists on the internet.  The closest is what I have posted to my soundcloud page http://soundcloud.com/randygeorge where I have some excerpts posted from a concert in 2011. 

I'm not a guy that just spouts off my opinions of the theremin without walking the walk.  I am not offended that not everyone knows every single thing I've made. (I'm actually not offended by anything, even though that sounds impossible). I have seen the best and worst that the internet has to offer in the comments sections of my videos. Really some of the most beautiful and horrific sentiments in the same place.

I became an Etherwave Pro owner in March of 2007, I paid $1000. My E-Pro serial number is 0405. 

The E-Pro that is posted to the ebay link is 0024. and the seller is currently asking for $8900. I think the main reason the seller thinks they can get away with their suggested price has to do with it being a low serial number and having been physically handled/assembled by Bob Moog before his passing.  While that sounds like it should be a good thing, it is actually is not.  at least not for someone who wants the instrument to actually perform on. 

The earlier EPro's had more problems than the later ones. The Pitch an Volume PCBs had seen a couple board revisions. If I am not mistaken, the threads on the pitch rod were easy to strip because of being so finely threaded. The early EPro's also did not have the factory Volume Response modification that Bob designed to lessen the problem of the ultra snappy volume response. Later, Thierry Frenkel further improved this with his EPVM1345 module, but according to the listing it has not been installed in the instrument for sale.  I think the Epro stand has changed slightly from the earlier serial#s, but it was (and still is) the achilles heal of the instrument. 

Roger Ballenger and I came up with a solution to make the EPro stand more stable. I'll write a separate post about it when I make the time and gather the pics we took.

It is possible that the Ebay seller wants to sell to a museum as an artifact. In that case, it make perfect sense to sell the instrument beyond what musicians are willing to pay. It is however, IMO, super lame. I hope some filthy rich parent buys it for their uncharacteristically non-spoiled disciplined aspiring thereminist child.

Randy Rote:  "I am not offended that not everyone knows every single thing I've made. (I'm actually not offended by anything, even though that sounds impossible)."

It is not possible to offend the enlightened man. Since he has no illusion of self-importance, there's no one there to insult!  

I'd say there is not one person that exists that is more or less enlightened than anyone else, but some may disagree with that, call me crazy, and I still would not be offended. 

I'd say I do operate under the illusion of self-importance. I've just graduated beyond the foolishness that I am any more important than anyone else.

OT

"(uh, perhaps you were not serious, but just in case) I don't know if people notice my name, usually hardcoded as a title in my videos" - Randy

I really pay almost no attention to theremin videos unless I am looking for something technical - and I wouldn't have looked at any Mario Bros theme by anyone! ;-)

Generally, apart from for technical reasons, I tend to just listen to music on headphones with my eyes closed - I find (mostly) that video diverts too much of my processing power and reduces the enjoyment (or suffering ;-) I get from listening - so watching the video sometimes makes horrible performances more bearable! ;-)

Interesting about the E-Pro serial numbers - I know someone who had an early E-Pro and had several boards changed by Moog, but then sold the instrument.. The only little inside information on the E-Pro I have came from these early boards - but sadly I still have never managed to get schematics or details about the oscillators.. I wish I could get hold of even one dysfunctional board for a week!

Fred.

"I'd say I do operate under the illusion of self-importance. I've just graduated beyond the foolishness that I am any more important than anyone else." - Randy

Hmmm.. Been thinking a lot about those words - Thanks Randy, Yeh - me thinks there may be deep wisdom there.. Much better (even if it is an illusion) to see oneself as "important", but no more "important" than anyone else, than to see oneself and everyone else as "unimportant" (even if this was the "truth").. Links in neatly perhaps with all the things that seem to make people happy or unhappy - sense of self esteem and worth, shit like that.

A sense that they are "significant" perhaps?

Randy Rote: I've just graduated beyond the foolishness that I am any more important than anyone else.

That sounds like a definition of enlightenment that might have been spoken by the Charioteer himself! 

Oh hell - this is so OT!

Coalport wrote "It is not possible to offend the enlightened man. Since he has no illusion of self-importance, there's no one there to insult!  "

Does this (if true) mean that "enlightenment" and "offense" are mutually exclusive? - I dont see it.. Can an "enlightened" person not be offended by acts committed against others - can they not find cruelty against people or animals offensive? .. And if this is "allowed", why should this feeling be limited to "others" ? surely cruelty they are subjected to "qualifies" as much and gives them as much "right" to be offended as it would if this cruelty was being perpertrated on "others". If we are all equally important (or insignificant ;-) then...

?

To be honest, I think "enlightenment" is probably a word without any substance.

Fred.