Moog Theremini!

OK. I jumped to a conclusion because there is a current thread on Levnet-on-Facebook where I mentioned this and the next person to post didn't notice. I assumed the same had happened here, (and I know what happens when you assume.)

""That is probably because Lydia's demo was made in August, before the firmware upgrade."  - GordonC

In that case, Lydia did remarkably well IMO! - But hey, if Lydia cannot play the damn thing, I doubt that anyone else could. Lydia is my favorite thereminist but I  thought her playing of the theremini was awful! - I was thinking that for her to be playing so badly, latency must be at least 10ms (I tried to correlate hand movements to audio using Sonar, but was seeing latency that looked a lot more than 10ms, so thought I had it wrong.. now I know it wasn't wrong.)

All we can do is wait for someone to play something with the update.. I advised two people that I didnt expect any firmware update to sort out the latency issue, and they got rid of their theremini's .. So if the update really does fix it, I will be in trouble! ;-)

Fred.

Am I the only one on TW that didn't get the Theremini imminent firmware update memo?  Seems like everyone here has a speed-dial hotline direct to the Kremlin (Moog Inc.) but me.  I would have held onto that godforsaken hunk of white plastic a little longer had anyone hemmed and/or hawed slightly, winked a little, hinted a bit, sent me a cryptic PM, etc.  The secrecy was tighter than for the nuclear secrets hard drives.  Naysayers are always the last to know...

I had no problem finding out. All I had to do was ask them. They've been nothing but kind and open with me (though of course they could not tell me exact details).

They are truly committed to making the instrument better. There are a heck of a lot of other electronic instrument vendors out there that don't listen or respond with anything near the speed and sincerity that Moog does. This thing has only been around for a few months and they have come out with an app to let you create an almost unlimited palette of sounds, made their best effort to address numerous issues that many people have brought up, added new features I didn't even expect and are in no way implying this is the end of the road. I am sure this new firmware release will not be the last (though I am not privy to future plans). 

In fact, I wanted to be proactive in the process so I asked how I could help them and they were surprisingly happy to have me get involved. I've been assisting (I guess now along with Jason and others) testing this new firmware and also the apps since I left this thread. They even incorporated some of my suggestions. How many companies are going to let customers get involved so directly.  THEY ARE LISTENING TO US!!

Rest assured, Moog is trying their best. And after my admittedly bumpy start with the theremini, I am now totally glad I bought it and am having an absolute blast with it (for example their new NOTE CV function lets me now hook up to my modular and do some very interesting things playing along melodically with Eurorack oscillators and cool Theremini patches that I can easily edit and also control parameters with through MIDI). It's a totally cool instrument with an amazing upside potential for a composer or instrumentalist!! In fact, I haven't played the Etherwave in a while now as I have been having so much fun with the Theremini. My piano is even getting pissed at me for ignoring it.

The linearity issue (my initial gripe that I managed to get around by adjusting range) is drastically better now (totally in line with my Etherwave). Maybe its not for the few professional thereminists that need their nanaosecond response, but now I am totally convinced the Theremini is in on track with Moog's plan for it (among other things an entry level theremin experience - but in truth it is so, so much more than that now with all the new stuff Moog has added). Hey, I'm sure it still will not satisfy everyone - but come on - who and what in the heck can! The bottom line for any instrument is: Is it fun to play? Is it rewarding to play? I have to say resoundingly YES now.

Once the new firmware is officially released I plan on making some demos and help videos for beginners like me - though to be honest after hearing Gordon's unbelievably creative music, my interests in using all things theremin/theremini are now totally leaning more and more in his direction than just playing purely melodic music.

Good luck everyone with the new firmware!

Rich

That's a lovely thing to say, Rich. Thank you. :-)

When I first heard Dorit's demo I was totally sold on the theremini - I could hear so much of what I do in her demo. Lydia's video likewise. I honestly haven't wanted something so badly since going on time-share promotions in Spain.

(The missus and I enjoy a good sales pitch! In Spain this includes a free lunch and getting roaring drunk at someone else's expense. We are also highly resistant to sales pitches. Top tip - if you're going to do anything like this, leave all your money apart from bus fare home in the hotel safe, along with your passport and any other papers that could prove your identity so you are physically unable to enter into any financial arrangement. And then stick rigidly to a three day minimum cooling-off period afterwards. Also, buy some cookies to eat on the trip back to the hotel and remember The Oracle's advice. http://youtu.be/g3babyGdnoM )

But - after cooling off, grasping the bull by the tail and looking the facts in the face, I really don't need a theremini. Four albums and two EPs of not having one rather confirms that it would only be a convenience for me, not a necessity. So until finances determine that the cost of a theremini is within my allowable impulse-buy range I'm probably going to be the world's biggest theremini fan who doesn't actually own one. :-)

Gordon wrote: "....I really don't need a theremini"

A neighbor of mine built a magnificent house a couple of years ago and, with great pride, was giving me the grand tour of her newly completed mansion. We went into the all white marble master bathroom which was vast and equipped with an enormous hot tub, two showers, two bidets, two toilets and two sinks.

"What on earth do you need TWO of everything for?" I asked foolishly.

My friend looked at me incredulously and replied, "NEED has nothing to do with it."

OT

"NEED has nothing to do with it."

- Yeah.

In this one phrase, the root of all (or the majority of) the problems for life on planet earth is IMO encapsulated - If we only consumed what we needed, had only as many children as was needed... we may be 'round a lot longer, perhaps even long enough to find or engineer ourselves another "home" planet.

But we all want things we dont need.. A few years ago in Myanmar there were no mobile phones, and almost no crime (other than that perpetrated by the generals) - Now, since it opened its border to outsiders, people are mugging each other for mobile phones or the means to purchase these - even those in abject poverty are conned into believing that they need one.

Marketing - IMO We have no hope as a species while that crowd can manipulate the masses.

Fred.

Fred, not only do we want things we don’t need, we buy them with money we don’t have! 😡

Aha! That's where I've been going wrong all these years.

(A couple of my personal definitions...

Interest: Something banks pay me while I save up for stuff.

Credit Card: A convenient way to squeeze a couple of week's extra interest out of banks after I buy stuff.)

"I am sure this new firmware release will not be the last (though I am not privy to future plans)."  - rkram53

You may want to be careful about getting people's hopes up about something that is completely unconfirmed and out of your control, particularly now that you seem to be representing the company in some small way.

"The linearity issue (my initial gripe that I managed to get around by adjusting range) is drastically better now (totally in line with my Etherwave)."

Linearity for a digital Theremin can be drastically better than an Etherwave (given the largely 1/d dependence of capacitance).  I wouldn't be surprised if the open.Theremin is more linear than the Theremini.  The open.Theremin definitely has more gestural bandwidth (pre firmware upgrade anyway).

"Maybe its not for the few professional thereminists that need their nanaosecond response"

You seem to be saying the latency may still be an issue for some?

"Hey, I'm sure it still will not satisfy everyone - but come on - who and what in the heck can!"

The Theremini hardware platform, with a few tweaks to the oscillators, has the potential to satisfy just about everyone.  It's mainly the firmware, and to a lesser extent the controls and display, that prevent it from doing so.  In retrospect, Moog Inc. clearly wasn't targeting the pro market with it, and had they been more up-front about that there would have been fewer sour grapes around here (I for one probably wouldn't have bought it).

Sorry I can't be more rah-rah about this product.  I wanted to like it, but it turned out to be an odd assortment of not very well implemented features.  I'll probably have to eat my words at some point, but I don't think the Animoog synth engine - or at least the very limited subset of it that they implemented in the Theremini - is a particularly good fit for the Theremin.  The spaced out weirdness makes a big initial impact - that quickly wears off if you are already familiar with magic of Theremins in general.  A vocal & string synth (with lots of customizability) would have been much more apropos IMO.  I was completely bored with the Theremini about an hour after unpacking it.  Like too many modern electronic musical instruments, it seems designed by a check-the-box committee, and implemented by uninspired engineers with insufficiently broad backgrounds given too little time to market.