Tag: pitch control

A Record

…so I have been curious as to how I can record my progress on the Theremini, as playing the thing is a 2-handed job and I do not have a video setup that records picture and high quality sound out … yet.

In the mid 90’s, before I had a smartphone, I went through a bunch of musical appliances that let me carry recorded music around with me – cassette-based walkman, MP3 player, CD-based diskman and finally a mini-disk player-recorder.

Minidisk

I actually used the minidisk to record all of the stuff in the UoD collaborative project, and when I graduated to a smartphone with sufficient storage capacity, the minidisk was dismantled and put carefully into storage (and obscurity at the back of one of the shelves in the stereo unit). I wonder what happened to the rechargeable battery?

Digging through my cables, I re-discovered my Sony stereo microphone and minidisk, along with a large collection of disks (many unused). I put a newish AA battery in and, to my absolute amazement, the device sprang to life. I plugged it in to the headphones socket of the Theremini, plugged my headphones into the lineout of the minidisk and pressed record – again to my delight it captured the sound beautifully. I forgot how much I loved that thing, for many reasons including the wonderful sound quality (full digital recording) and the ease of use.

One problem solved then, I can record the sound – must get a sound editor (I think I used Audacity back in the day, must see if there is anything better that is free).

Pitch control is variable – some days it is really good, others it is really not good, not sure why. I continue to plug away at it, although I am also branching out and trying some of the other presets – some fab on-board sounds and an editor to let me make my own – so much to play with.

My Setup

Let me introduce you to the gear I have at the moment:

As well as the Etherwave Theremini, I have some Audio Technica monitor headphones, and can connect my iPad to it via a lightning->USB->USB mini dongle collection.

practice setup

The iPad runs the Moog Theremini Editor – something I am beginning to explore – it lets me create “presets” which are combinations of a sound generation technique, properties and in-line effects coupled with antennae sensitivity and other parameters that control how the noise will be played, sound and it’s relationship to the antennae.

theremini editor on iPad

The Theremini has only a few knobs and controls on the front panel, along with an LED screen showing current machine/note state. Initially I thought it would be really easy to watch the notes as the way to play something, but the more I watch, the worse it gets so I think I will try to use my reasonable sense of pitch to play it by ear. It tells you how close to the note you are playing – the slightly sharp or flat is really hard to control, and can be a result of pulse, fingernail or slight postural change – I guess muscle memories will need to be learned to better control this.

sharp/natural/flat
slightly flat, on target and slightly sharp

The knobs are relatively straight forward – volume is just that (there is also a “master volume” setting that is in settings, so this knob’s max is governed by that). Beside the volume knob is a “gateway to hell” known as “pitch correction“. Purists will bristle even at the mentioning of this feature – when ramped up it causes the theremini to “snap” to the note, ignoring the glissando. Purists warn that you can create the “stepped” gliss by quick finger movements and strategic use of the volume loop and I agree. I am not using this knob (at the moment) – I do not want to get used to it doing the job of pitch control, I need to learn to control it. We can also choose the “scale” and “root note” – I do not pretend to know what these mean, yet.

highway to hell

On the other side of the LCD screen, we have setup, effect (with amount knob) and preset knob. Effects can be dialed up and down, you get a real sense of the tone colour with it minimalised, but often there are resonances, filters and other spatial distortions that can be added – more on that in posts to come (when I better understand how to control that). The preset knob lets you dial any one of 32 on-board preset “instruments” in the factory default set. These presets can be changed to those on the iPad effortlessly, or an entire preset library can be brought in, making the theremini a really varied and versatile instrument.

preset and effect

I have lots to learn, but am getting my head around the actual instrument.