Moog Theremini!

I really liked the editor for the Theremini - fairly intuitive and great fun to play with the parameters of the sound and how it behaves on the Theremini antennae. Has anyone used the Claravox editor - it looks scary in comparison (but also seems scary powerful) - are there tutorials for either available?

Even though the last post is 8 years old, for anyone who' read this, as of January of 2021 I was beset by email and text messages about the difficulties people were having with the Theremini. Researching further, I found that the problems people were having essentially date all the way back to when the Theremini first entered the marketplace.

So, I decided to create a comprehensive suite of tutorials specifically for the Theremini. The response has been tremendous.

I promise that you will not have to "wade through even more piles of crap." With the exception of midi capabilities, everything you need is here. The most crucial element in playing the Theremini is the ability to calibrate it properly (something you have to do every time you turn it on). In addition, the pitfalls of inaccurate calibration (which can happen with the mere slip of a finger) are covered. From there, you're good to go.  To start, just go to YouTube and type in:

Kip Rosser Theremini

You'll see the first video listed, Kip Rosser's "Complete Theremin:" Theremini 101 - Basic Calibration. "
This tutorial and all others has a listing of all the other tutorials in the description field, so you can watch sequentially or skip around.

For those who've been playing and enjoying the Theremini for the last eight years, you may still find things that inspire and challenge you.

"The most crucial element in playing the Theremini is the ability to calibrate it properly (something you have to do every time you turn it on). In addition, the pitfalls of inaccurate calibration (which can happen with the mere slip of a finger) are covered."  - schielenkrahe

This, plus the super weak fields, are everything that's wrong with the Theremini.  In dumbing down the calibration they obfuscated what in the heck was going on, and gave the user no recourse with a bad calibration but to go through the entire laborious, cryptic procedure again.  Manual touch up afterward, or at least separate volume and pitch calibration procedures, and non-volatile storage of the calibration results, would have helped a lot.  Before I unloaded it on the used market, mine only had the initial software, but I recall the linearity was highly dependent on the vagaries of the calibration, which was pretty insane.  Who wants to turn the thing on and have to struggle forever just to get the fields half-way working?  There should be an trivial auto-calibration at power-up that takes into account environmental capacitance, repeatable on demand, with the rest handled by sticky user settings.

Something that most thereminists have never known (interesting that someone referred to it as a Fischer Price theremin) is that in its initial stages (prior to its production), the Theremini was originally intended to be for children, an introductory instrument that would allow them to begin with the quantized frequency and gradually wean themselves in to theremin mode. Imagine a child of six or seven attempting to calibrate it. I actually witnessed first hand some children who were visiting me, aged seven and nine, trying to do just that. Even though I showed them, and they knew precisely how to calibrate, it took a lot of tries until it finally worked. Then, we'd turn it off and they'd try again – still difficult. Eventually they got it. And so can anyone else. Once you "get it," it only takes a minute or so. But even the slightest slip and you have to start over. That can get annoying.

Other than that and its inherent limitations regarding articulation (for which there are workarounds that do improve it) I have a lot of fun with mine. It's just a different animal.

"Something that most thereminists have never known (interesting that someone referred to it as a Fischer Price theremin)"  - schielenkrahe

Oh that is hilarious!

"... is that in its initial stages (prior to its production), the Theremini was originally intended to be for children, an introductory instrument that would allow them to begin with the quantized frequency and gradually wean themselves in to theremin mode."

That makes sense.  I'm sure it can be used as a serious instrument (after a fashion) - I guess I have as many reservations about the way they market it as I do about its technical limitations.

"Imagine a child of six or seven attempting to calibrate it. I actually witnessed first hand some children who were visiting me, aged seven and nine, trying to do just that. Even though I showed them, and they knew precisely how to calibrate, it took a lot of tries until it finally worked. Then, we'd turn it off and they'd try again – still difficult. Eventually they got it. And so can anyone else. Once you "get it," it only takes a minute or so. But even the slightest slip and you have to start over. That can get annoying."

They have FLASH in there, and tiny EEPROMs don't cost anything, why don't the calibration settings persist through a power cycle?  It's lack of attention to major features like this that leads me to believe no one at Moog Inc. actually plays the thing.

"Other than that and its inherent limitations regarding articulation (for which there are workarounds that do improve it) I have a lot of fun with mine. It's just a different animal."

Thanks for your assessment of it!  I'm probably too down on it in general.  The Theremini is a fun thing to have around, it's kind of a shame the sum of those parts don't add up to more, because they quite easily could IMO.  It's frustrating.

I bought my theremini on 2019. It came with v1.1.1. Do I need to install it again inorder to work it properly?