Moog Theremini!

SapereAude - balderdash is not a word commonly used in the States so you are likely elsewhere. What is balderdash is that the participants think they can help Moog improve their design which is unlikely or they are mining for knowledge to improve their own design which is also highly unlikely. That is why the conversation is balderdash waffle as it has no useful conclusion. They are not picking on the employees of Moog so I am happy and I think they should continue to be self appointed balderdash theremin authorities. Neither has ever built more than a Jaycar theremin. Waffle is also not a word we use here in the States, it is something we eat. (-'

T

"What is balderdash is that the participants think they can help Moog improve their design which is unlikely " - Its only unlikely because Moog seems to be completely disinterested in theremins or this community. Moog doesn't even consult designers of approved essential modifications to their theremins.. There is no question that Moog could improve their designs - sometimes for the mere cost of a couple of transistors or diodes - but they dont give a FUC*

"or they are mining for knowledge to improve their own design which is also highly unlikely." - Oh, if there was anything to mine, we would be mining it (or learning from it at least) ! - But if there was anything worth mining, Moog would be so far ahead we would be irrelevant.

All we learn from Moog these days is how gullible the theremin community can be at times, and how, were it not for "self appointed theremin authorities" this community could be conned into buying crap (and admittedly many may enjoy this crap, the way that those in the muffwiggler community seem to - so perhaps we are performing a disservice)  - or at least "instruments" completely unsuitable for their needs... We also learn that there are a large number of people who have no idea about what a theremin is, who are ready to be milked by anyone who can convince them to believe their marketing balderdash! (it also seems that there are FAR more people interested in making "cool" non-musical noises than there are folks with enough talent to make worthwhile music [and here I am NOT just talking about classical or "precision" - I am also talking about "experimental"]- and these folks love it.. After all, these folks dont need a musical instrument - they need an expensive array of signal generators filters and effects, and any old crap to 'control' it all - but the more "novel" and "spacey" this crap is, the better.)

"Neither has ever built more than a Jaycar theremin. " - This is just a lie. And you know it.

Oh, balderdash means "stupid or illogical talk; senseless rubbish" - Something you and other trolls are proficient at IMO.

Fred.

"balderdash is not a word commonly used in the States so you are likely elsewhere."

You possibly give a clue to your true identity with this statement - there is one other "member" of this community who is obsessed with geography and where visitors are located... And (strangely?) IMO this individual also appears to stalk me and IMO behaves like a Troll.

hello sapereaude,

seems like you join the party when the shit hits the fan. it's not snobbish at all. maybe technical nitpicking, but that is the regular issue with engineers, it's her natural habit. ;-) so no wonder this new "kid under the block" get's ripped apart in every possible technical detail.  many thereminists and musicians, probably all with a etherwave, expected something like a 21th century instrument and got totaly disapointed by big M's newest product. and i can fullheartly understand it. 

pish-posh in german: papperlapapp. 

"Oh, pish-posh!"

"stupid or illogical talk; senseless rubbish"

;-)

ROFLMAO !!

(I note not a single example of our alleged "balderdash" has been presented)

I can see how a non-engineer might think this thread is gibberish.  And I'll allow that it contains a bit of hog wash, a dash of poppycock, and perhaps a smidgen of hokum.  But balderdash is beyond the pale.  You sir have gone too far.  Go peddle your piffle elsewhere, where blatherskite and flapdoodle are more the norm.  ;-)

Dewster! LOL!

"Go peddle your piffle elsewhere, where blatherskite and flapdoodle are more the norm.  ;-)" - Dewster

Pure comic poetry,  ROFLMAO  ;-)

Did you create this Dewster? Because if you did, its one of those pieces of literary genius that deserves acclaim! (deserves acclaim regardless of who penned it ;-) - In fact the whole 'poem' is superb!

;-)

Fred.

Thanks (*blush*) but the thesaurus I copy and pasted from deserves most of the credit.  There certainly are a lot of words and phrases that don't get much use anymore.

Speaking of which, a master of past argot / idiom was S. J. Perelman, a funnier writer I don't believe I've encountered.  Here is Best of S. J. Perelman in the public domain: https://archive.org/details/bestofsjperelma00pere.  I own a hardcover copy of The Most of S. J. Perelman ($0.36 + S&H) which is a less abridged collection of his essays.

From Best of I highly recommend: Somewhere a Roscoe; Is there an Osteosynchrondroitrician in the House?; Beat me, Post-Impressionist Daddy; Pale Hands I Loathe.

"but the thesaurus I copy and pasted from deserves most of the credit." - Dewster

LOL ;-)

No my friend! - that's  taking humility way too far! ;-) ... I will look at those links! - but not right now ;-) .. I found a full collection of Tom Sharpe's books recently, and lost a couple of days...(had read most before, when living in a country where owning "Riotous assembly" was an offense )   TW is the only time I am able to spare right now - and I shouldn't even be indulging in this..

Fred.

"I did something similar. Stood way back when it told me to step away. Seemed to help."  - Rich

Interesting.  Yesterday I turned on the Theremini and didn't do the calibration it asks the user to do at power-up.  The close hand point was still around 5" or so from the antenna, but due to drift the far hand point was farther away than I had calibrated it the day or so before.  The pitch field was larger than I have previously experienced with the Theremini, giving fairly linear playing over maybe 18" or so (very rough estimate so don't quote me, tested with my body in one spot and using an open/closed hand gesture at various distances - the tuner is quite handy for this kind of testing).  It's too bad we don't have more control over the calibration as the Theremini could likely be tweaked to behave this way every time.

Another thing I noticed was a "tearing" of the pitch.  By increasing the pitch limits I was able to clearly hear it, and I could certainly see it as well on the tuner.  Every here and there the pitch would jump (maybe a 1/4 of a note distance) and then return to where it should be.  It might have been aggravated by my fluorescent desk lamp, but I saw it happening even with the lamp turned off.  I believe it was worse in the far field but need to experiment more.  The effect is very much like livio's video where he compares the UNO oscillator to his own, and the pitch for the UNO version is audibly influenced by environmental or internal noise. It could be that the internal speaker drive, the LCD AC drive, and/or other goings on on the DSP board are being picked up.  Or it could be mostly intrinsic oscillator driver noise.  It might also be aggravated by any quantization and time lag going on between the antenna and synthesis sections.

I believe the low antenna voltage swing on the Theremini aggravates this kind of noise scenario.  HV AFAIKT is the only way to go if you want good results in all conditions.

[EDIT] I fired up the Theremini this morning and so far am not seeing the tearing I was seeing yesterday.  I do see it if I turn on my fluorescent desk lamp located about 3' away but I suppose that's asking for it.  Our house is electromagnetically strange, sometimes my own Theremin circuits are quite calm, other times they're jumping all over the place, so it is likely environmental noise that I was seeing.  And Rich's suggestion of standing way far away during the calibration routine seems to be a useful way to influence the setup.