Thomas Grillo was last seen here over 2 years ago, unfortunately.
Moog Theremini!
Posted: 7/8/2019 5:07:13 AM
Hello,
I have always wanted to learn to play a theremin. My husband surprised me for my birthday with the Theremini by Moog and I have been playing with it today and it doesn't seem to be what I had in mind. I found this forum and have been reading various posts. I appreciate everyone's input and I see there are many negative comments about this....device. Mostly, people are ridiculing it and saying it's not a "real theremin." I have been watching videos of professionals and amateurs playing theremins and I'd like to land somewhere in the middle.
Although this has been commented on in many different posts, I would like to hear people's suggestions for a theremin that would be a good investment in the $300-$500 dollar range. I am not a professional musician, this is for my own personal enjoyment. I play piano and have a very good ear and sense of pitch. I am hoping to get one that has a more rich tone and doesn't sound only like the background of a bad 1950's sci fi movie.
Many thanks in advance for your time and insight.
Sherri
Posted: 7/8/2019 5:46:17 AM
Sherri, we are in the same time zone, that must mean something.
I know what you should have but my main question is can your husband solder?
This is the 100 year anniversary of the theremin and a pivoting point.
There is no profit in theremin design so you must sneak in through the back door, whatever that means.
Christopher
Posted: 7/8/2019 5:53:49 AM
Hello Sharri,
Yes I am difficult to understand, my brain is wired differently than most.
Listen to my theremin design.
Give me a thumbs up if you like it.
This is where I want to get you but he does not solder. Oh well.
Christopher
Posted: 7/8/2019 4:51:02 PM
Hello Sherri,
After 100 years the theremin’s evolution seems to have hit a wall, partly because demand is so low and most want the theremin to be a cheap gimmick with a funny sound rather than be a beautiful musical instrument.
Instead of funny words like Midi, CV and triggering interesting computer sounds my research was always about rediscovering and improving upon the Original Classic Theremin Sound and response. I call my sound Clara’s Voice as I like to think she would have enjoyed playing my design. She avoided playing the early EtherWave Standard in her last days, she thought it was a toy, and that is the best we have even today. EW Plus is the same as the standard but you can also make computer noises with it.
I tell people to gut their EWS and stick in my $100 worth of easy to get parts for the true theremin experience. I do not sell anything and clearly explain how to build my stuff @ Hwy79.com
You could pay a local builder $1000 to put my $100 worth of stuff together and you would end up with a theremin much better than a $6500 Epro. Not bragging just fact. Listen to an Epro then listen to mine sitting on a cardboard box. This is why you need sound samples and not engineer BS.
If you build it yourself (he will come) you will be able to fix it and make improvements in the future yourself.
Randy George is one of the finest Thereminist playing "The Swan" on an Epro, sounds good, now compare back to my original design "The Swan" Classic Sound
Always get a sound sample of any theremin model you are interested in and remember some Pro's Thereminist often follow up the audio out with a $5000 sound processor to get the results you hear so what you hear may be an illusion.
I sent my stuff to a Thereminist in St Petersburg Russia, friend of the Theremin family, where the original theremin was invented to get his honest opinion right out of the shipping box. A good design and a talented Thereminist is where the magic hides.
In my video at one point not seen… Valery states this is much easier to play and he is a completely unfamiliar with my instrument ...
Christopher
Posted: 7/9/2019 4:04:59 PM
Hi Sherri,
For me the Theremini did serve alright for getting into playing theremin for almost one year, although it's a hybrid instrument and has its limits and shortcomings. Since I got my Etherwave Plus, the theremini has kind of moved to the background, and I've been running into some software buggyness after setting it to the 'theremin mode' in Advanced Settings (Master Volume settings that jump back to where they were after trying to change it or finding it set to 0 after switching it on).
To get some workable dynamic range at the volume loop/plate is very finnicky, mostly going from off to full volume within only a few cm / about 1" while when for example the filter peak is getting controlled by the volume antenna, it does change over a much larger range (as set during the callibration), but it seems that the volume is perhaps mapped linearly instead of logaritmically over its range, so you get a similar volume curve as when a linear potmeter is used instead of a logaritmic/audio-taper potmeter as a volume/gain control, initially a big change and then a large stretch that adds next to nothing to the volume. It should be possible that Moog could fix both these issues with a firmware upgrade.
To minimize latency/lag between hand movements and the sound, in the settings change it from medium response time to fast. I also found it helpful to turn off loading effects settings and correction from the presets, and set the scale to chromatic and make sure pitch correction is off (unless you want to use the pitch quantisation explicitely as an effect, or want to have some fun listening to and exploring the different scales and modes that are programmed in, but for playing it as a theremin as a kind of 'training wheels' to me the pitch correction was more disturbing than helpful.
The tuner display on the theremini can be helpful to silently find your starting note, and while looking at it while playing is not really advisable, looking at it at the end of playing through a phrase or melody unaccompanied, you can see if, how much and in which direction you may have drifted off key, which initially was quite a bit for me I found, but having this feedback helped improving staying on key.
The Etherwave Standard or Plus (if you want the extra headphones practice/audio pitch preview output and/or the control voltages out to connect to an analog synthesizer or effect pedals/boxes that can work with that) would be the best easy available choice for getting into a more serious level of playing, and there are several known ways to improve it or have it improved/upgraded as well.
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