Haken Continuum as a Theremin Effect

Here's a continuum patch that I created that gets a reasonable voice from the AES theremin input very much like the Talking Machine using BiqMouth formant generation modules - but with a more usable higher end I feel. This one assumes a stereo input but if you are using only mono in, remove the 1s in the BiqMouth1 and Biqmouth2 columns for the input you are not using. Reverb is on so you can adjust that as well at the bottom right and using reverb/recirc gain on upper left.

The .mid file for this should be downloadable here that can be loaded in as a preset (I'm not 100% sure it will function as expected if you are using an older version of firmware - I'm running 7.42).

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hts6phhbcvv4xcr/AAD1vOxHWPfu9tRq4oYuB-AXa?dl=0

This uses a barrel (the parameter control to the right of the Recirc Mix dial here) I called FormBand - alters formant bandwidth on the second BiqMouth formant generator. You can play with (drag) this a bit to slightly alter the vocal sound - and you can greatly alter the sound by fiddling with the Direct constants at the bottom that control the two formant generators. BiqMouth 1 is set to emphasize a female voice. BiqMouth 2 is the male vocal setting. Together they seem to just give a bright male voice with a higher end that moves a little to the counter tenor sound high up. Removing the 1s in the analog inputs (filled triangle column) of either BiqMouth module will turn it off and you can then just hear the male or female setting by itself - which can be used as well.

Note that you can easily input this into the editor and experiment. If you are not used to barrles - just type a 1 where there is a A in the BiqMouth2 sB column. 

https://soundcloud.com/rk53-1/haken-continuum-vocal-patch-pie-jesu-a-grisy

Pie Jesu (no, not by Faure or Webber - but by an unknown romantic composer named Auguste Grisy). One of the little gems you find rummaging through IMSLP on a snowy night with a blizzard fast approaching. Originally for voice and organ. I arranged it for strings here - the original can be found here:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Pie_Jesu_(Grisy,_Auguste)

This is an example of what the female vocal processing in the above patch sounds like. Somewhat forced in the highest notes (high note here is a G). I'll have to see if I can set that a bit better.  This uses the BiqMoutch A module setting above and it's a new patch I created combining my vocal configuration with a patch I modified that was created by Ed Eagan. Played on the Continuum, but I expect the theremin will sound very much like this run though the patch (but I'm kind of into programming the haken right now).

This patch has a very “reedy” sound, a bit like a soprano sax. If I have understood correctly, this is entirely a Continuum performance…no theremin involved ??

The intonation is decidedly better than theremin performances you have offered in the past (IMNSHO), although I find there is a lack of expression, so essential to the human voice, due to the spatial limitations of volume control on the Continuum fingerboard (not your fault). On the theremin, volume control from silence to “forte” extends over several inches, on the Continuum it’s a matter of finger pressure over a few millimeters.

rkram, I have saved your instructions for external sound AES input to the Haken and when I get a chance I am going to experiment with it. Meanwhile, I’m crazy about the ULTRAMATCH!

Yes. This is all a continuum patch played on the fingerboard. I also agree with the expression issue - of course. There are also some other issues to deal with here in addition to just the limitations of volume. Because all the vocal sounds are produced by filters, some notes get more enhanced than others and some notes go to full volume much faster than others as you maneuver around all the center frequencies. And as I get to the top of the useful range the sound gets distorted/clipped when I really want a full expressive note there.

Agreed. The Eagan patch I started with has a more "reedy" sound ("Three Saws"). Hopefully with enough experimentation I can get a more alto vs. soprano vs. counter tenor sound. Also there are some issues with the original patch as it produces a marked "pffft-twang" on release unless you ease up very slowly - so it's hard to get a really articulated sound. Need to do a lot more experimenting to get a better vocal sound out of the continuum (the vocal patches that come with it as you know are all over exaggerated in one way or another).

Frankly, the only real way to learn how to program this beast is to start with Ed's patches and try and figure out what in the heck is going on. Things are not always that obvious. He's a very smart guy!

https://soundcloud.com/rk53-1/haken-continuum-vocal-simulation-2-didos-lament

And here's another patch I created (this time from scratch) for the Continuum trying to simulate a female voice. This one has two parameters (barrels) that can be adjusted to alter the timbre to give it more or less "raspiness" and also turn it more into an artificial voice. This patch also works well when a theremin AES signal is sent into it.

Once again, very hard to get subtle dynamic changes and the high note is forced - so this patch likely would need to only be used to go up to about a high E (its a G here).

I'm wondering if I can use the Y axis for volume as there is a lot more room to play with there than X (which is only about 1/2 inch you can depress, if that). Similar issue i have with my theremins - not that much distance to go from min to max volume - but certainly more room to play there on the theremin than the continuum.

I recorded this aria (DIDO'S LAMENT) years ago with the Ethervox theremin. I don't know you if you have heard it or not but here is the url. If I were to do it today, I would play it differently, perhaps a bit faster, more passion, and I would use an RCA (with the Radiola 106 loudspeaker). 

http://www.peterpringle.com/music/dido.mp3

No I don't think I've heard this one. Nice - but I agree a bit too slow. I always prefer Baroque music a bit on the faster side in any case.

Yea - I'd love to hear it on the RCA and a bit faster. And as I've said before - I really love the theremin with strings much more than with piano. Frankly I think its easier to play in tune with strings as well, as that piano is so darned fixed in pitch but the strings are not so I think that malleable pitch combination really works much better. But that's just me.

And the new Continuum firmware is supposed to be out any day now that has new sound features and more new presets. I'm working on a programming guide for the thing - mostly to help me as I learn more about it. But it might be of interest to others.

It will certainly be of interest to me. BTW, I may have mentioned this before, but there is apparently a new neoprene stenciled keyboard surface that is smoother that the one currently in use.

I am currently working on a Continuum emulation of a traditional instrument that cannot be distinguished from the real thing. I have the sound, but the tricky part is developing the necessary fingering techniques to “shape” the sound so that I don’t betray the fact that it is electronic.

There is an interesting phenomenon I have observed over the last few years having to do with the reactions of people to the Continuum when it is used to emulate an acoustic instrument they love. This does not apply to Continuum aficionados like thee and me, but a lot of people will accept a Continuum performance as long as they do not SEE it.

If you make a video of a solo saxophone Continuum performance and show only the empty streets of Chicago or New York City, you can blow saxophone fans away. If you show the actual fingerboard performance, the reaction will be quite different and the same people will come up with 100 reasons why it doesn’t work.

It is an interesting example of how what we HEAR is powerfully influenced by what we SEE.

With the theremin, the opposite is true. The magic of space control is so beguiling that you can get away with a level of playing that can be tolerated only as long as your audience can see what you’re doing and be carried along by the novelty effect.

I totally agree. It's the reason so many TV show, films and especially commercials get away with bloody murder playing samples. But who is going to go to a concert where someone is sitting in front of a computer playing orchestral samples?

Well maybe if you call it "avant-garde" music a select audience will come. Way back when the Commodore64 computer first came out and I was in music school we had a concert in Philly on South Street (a very happening place back then) and I programmed the thing in Basic to play a piece that was for the most part a bunch of musical FOR loops. I stuck the thing on the stage - went out, pressed the button and disappeared until it was over when I came back to take a bow. This was one of the first concerts of that sort so people were wowed even though it was crap. However at the time it was quite a novelty. As you imply, novelty can be confused sometimes with "good". I recently found the old 1/4" tape that was badly damaged and restored it the best I could.

http://imslp.nl/imglnks/usimg/b/b8/IMSLP308552-PMLP498765-Variations_I-IV-V_filtered.mp3

I'm wondering what sound you came up with? Like the theremin, to me it's playing the continuum that is the most enjoyable experience. There is something so tactile about that neoprene and the way you can just manipulate it in the X,Y,Z - and of course time dimensions.  

And after 100 years or so, few who are new to hearing the theremin have any idea of what good is. And because of the nature of the thing everyone new thinks they need to put up a video playing in their living room. I'm waiting for a theremin YouTube video in the kitchen with a cat going at a parrot in the background. Not me!

That's what sets all your performances apart - not only the playing - but you strive to create a video that is for the eyes as well as the ears - because that theremin can be so visually addicting to watch. From what I figure, that "Somewhere over the Rainbow" of yours may well be the single most heard theremin performance of all time. So in many ways you are defining what the thing should sound like to the masses. I know a lot of people buy them thinking "I want to learn how to play like that" (me included). Same for the continuum. You have one of the most watched YouTube performances there as well.

But by and large you don't see virtuoso continuum performances, just mostly slow stuff emphasizing the vibrato and expressive control. I'm not sure there is a true virtuoso on the thing in the same sense as there is on the piano. You can actually play very, very fast on the continuum with the right patch, but I haven't heard performances where someone is really wowing me with speed and virtuosity (some ethnic performances I've seen do though - but in that context). I bet there are some jazz players that can wail on it - but I haven't seen them online. That is what will wow people - seeing performances using say a sax sample but bringing it to a new level where the unique functions of the continuum are brought out center stage (without a bunch of "whooshing" which some people tend to do in performances for the novelty of the effect - like with the theremin).

Back to the continuum. I'm playing around with learning the ins and out of oscillator modulation right now.

Lots of interesting insights re. the visual performance influencing the audio performance. 

I think the Continuum, being a specialty almost one-off instrument that is mechanically and electrically complex, is priced out of most people's ranges, which limits the number of virtuosos one might encounter playing it. 

And the lack of tactile feedback as to where you are on the thing likely hinders high speed playing.  There's always a trade-off with continuous controllers when it comes to playing on-pitch.  Bare minimum here would be small ridges or grooves in the playing surface at the center points of the notes.