Touch it, Then it Makes Sense

More Info Here    ***    Kickstarter Page

Artiphon all in one instrument will retail for $399

My not being a musician I ask why not play the authentic instruments instead of Midi for the true skill and a more realistic sound?

Midi is good for some if you don't know any better, kind of like that other instrument.

This inventor did do some fine research, I actually like it and hope people see it as more than a toy?

Christopher   

Many years ago, there was a woman who joined alt.musicmakers (this was before TW and before the Levnet) and said she wanted to learn the theremin so that she could play the unaccompanied cello suites by J. S. Bach. She was brimming with enthusiasm, anxious to get started on her great theremin adventure, and wanted advice on how to get a theremin.

She was rather upset by my response.

I told her that if all she wanted to do was play the unaccompanied cello suites, she would be far better off studying the cello which is a much easier instrument to learn than the theremin. Not only that, it is not possible to play the suites on the theremin anyway, no matter how good you are, because the music requires “double stopping” (i.e. the ability to play two notes at once). 

The whole problem boiled down to the fact that the woman was convinced, as so many people are, that the theremin is easy. Hey…..you don’t even have to touch it…..so it must be easy, right?

I'm new in the thereminworld..... Shocked by the difficulty playing a simple melody, allthough I'm a skilled musician..... it really is a new adventure and challence

william

Thanks for this link. I'll be getting me an Artiphon for sure ASAP! 

Why play MIDI instruments? I'm sure there were people who thought why play electric guitars when they came out? Why put a CV out or MIDI on a theremin?

The reason to play any instrument (if you don't have to survive to make $ from it) is simply to have fun and the artiphon looks like a bunch of fun. You can look at any instrument as a toy if you just play "with it", but then you can also look at any instrument (even a toy piano) as a real instrument if you make a concerted effort to "play it". 

I can be a wind player and play a MIDI wind controller and be a violin or a trumpet. I can take a violin controller and be a wind player. Or I can play MIDI keyboard and basically be any instrument I want to be. And double stops on a theremin - no problem - I'll just engage a pedal that will kick in a harmonizer that I can control through MIDI. MIDI has changed the way many musicians and composers think. Certainly has for me.

Few people realize most of the music they hear on TV and commercials is generated using MIDI controllers and sampled instruments (and almost all film composers start by creating MIDI mockups if a real orchestra will be playing - though sometimes films use MIDI as well or often a combination of real instruments and MIDI). And when you go to a Broadway show, some of those instruments you hear are MIDI controllers playing samples because its too expensive to hire a big orchestra for shows (and only union rules probably keep some from being totally MIDI generated).

In 10-20 years, 99.9% of the public won't be able to tell that the orchestra they are hearing is a digital creation or not (most can't now). Perhaps it is sad that the public is losing knowledge of what a real symphonic orchestra sounds like - but for 50 years we have been compressing and altering the sound for recordings anyway. So virtually no one who has not gone to an orchestral concert knows what an orchestra really sounds like (and these days they even amplify things at symphonic concerts too).

But the bottom line is MIDI has changed the way we think, hear, play and compose music. For me it is a God send. The biggest problem any composer has had (and this goes all the way back to Bach and before) is getting instrumentalists. Bach got around the problem by composing for the instrumental and vocal resources he had available on any given week, but what resources does any individual typically have at their disposal? What are the chances of an unknown composer having a large orchestral work played? Virtually 0. Even well known composers have huge issues here. But with MIDI, I have an orchestra at my fingertips at any time and the only limitation is my learning all the MIDI techniques required to make it sound good.

Long Live MIDI!

Welcome William - you said: "Shocked by the difficulty playing a simple melody"

This is what a first time Moog Theremini owner might say?

I prefer the EtherWave Standard above "all others" but off the shelf it does lack in the sound area.

A better theremin is still needed in our small group of enthusiasts but what would better be?

What always intrigued me about the theremin was not the non-touching aspect but a fluid beautiful sound that it "alone" can generate. So far this is lost when built completely from solid-state. This might be a delusion of mine and no others have heard it or pass it off to just the way a theremin is played. I call it the "Fat Sound" which is very musical or angelic to the ears.

The theremin is basic electronics that will kick the ass of most engineers, just ask them for a sound byte. 0-:

Christopher

"People expect to go over to the theremin and IT PLAYS. No! It takes hard work, sensitivity, sensibility....attention to detail. You have to learn it and it's not easy. The music comes from the heart, the mind, and years and years and years of the study of music............The theremin is the most difficult of all musical instruments. It is much harder than the violin which I played for years".  Clara Rockmore

Which then brings up an interesting question. For people that have played a very wide range of theremins, which ones are considered the considered the "easiest" to play?

I have 3 theremins... An Epro, a Wavefront Classic and a Subscope V3.

Of all 3, I find myself more at ease with the Subscope V-3. It is a fabulous THeremin!
Thanks Dominik!

When someone first finds the theremin and says I want one that is easy or cheap… or that boojie engineer shows up and says that this is simple stuff I just cringe!

Those of you that dial in your own technique of play I admire what you have accomplished as you have a personal skill I will never have. You know your limitations but will not accept them, I say that in a good way.

Christopher

This is not only a valid, but also an extremely important question for a beginner to ask who is interested in moving to a new instrument. I did not ask for an easy theremin to play. None of them are easy to play, but I can guarantee you that some are easier to play than others for a variety of reasons. 

I can't think of one instrument that does not have models with playing differences, some extreme that can eventually boil down to a discussion of "playability". The theremin is no different. And perhaps it's even more important to ask this question of the theremin because you just can't walk down to your local music store and try out all the theremins you might be interested in (if they even have one model).  

I have found from the limited number of theremins I have played that there is actually a very wide and marked difference in playability ("ease" if you will) between them. This seems to involve a combination of factors - linearity, response (both pitch and volume) and to a lesser degree tone and output level and of course physical design (some theremins may not be as easy to play taking height and arm length into consideration). 

For example, I have an Etherwave Pro and a Burns B3 Pro and to me they are completely different animals. The Burns is much less responsive.  Can't get as crisp and fine a vibrato or tone. But the end result is that the Burns is a heck of a lot easier to play in tune as the Etherwave will fluctuate in pitch more so improving vibrato technique becomes more important to play in tune on the Moog. For some types of music, that may well be an important factor to consider. So to me the Etherwave is capable of more expression (but it also translates in my mind as being harder to play). I like them both, and I actually might play different music on them right now (I expect even professionals might chose a different instrument based on the style and difficulty of the music they are playing).

So I would expect the people who have become proficient and who have played a wide range of theremins will definitely be able to pronounce some instruments are "easier" to play than others. And for people like Luna, who are signing up to buy an expensive instrument based on hearing a few internet recordings of someone else, this may well be a very important question (especially because not all Subscope theremins may well play the same way so quantifying things a bit may be very helpful to her so she can better tell the instrument maker what she is looking for).

Though Amey says she "doesn't know why" the Subscope is best for her, if she thinks about it a bit, I bet she can quantify more why that Subscope is so great for her (and of course just because she prefers a Subscope may not mean everyone will). It would be interesting to hear Amey discuss what about each of her three instruments she likes and does not. Why is the Subscope "easier" for her to play? How is the response vs. the others? Try a vibrato on all three and discuss the difference. Is it easier to play in tune? Does it have better response over all octaves? Is it more tone she loves? Tone can affect you greatly. This is in no way saying the Subscope is easy to play. I bet Luna would be very interested in that discussion.

Then there are folks like Peter who have probably played 10 or more different instruments at length. What are the pros and cons of these? Any student at some point that gets some proficiency will get a hankering to purchase a "better" instrument. With the theremin, unfortunately you have to take a lot on faith as there are few choices and most you just can't try out so you want to gather as much information like this to make informed decisions as you can.