On Sun, 30 Dec 2018 01:40:17 +0100, Dominique Michel wrote: Congratulations Dominique, that's a very nice project :), nice that you make the schematics public domain. I guess I tried to play Thermin a long time ago for less than a minute ;). How long does it take to learn how to play it in a usable manner? Unfortunately playing a Thermin has got a learning curve, while playing the Animoog via touch screen is easy to do and does sound almost the same as a Thermine. However, I like all kinds of synthesizer keyboard replacements that could add some extra touch to the playing, that can't be done by a keyboard. Unfortunately I'm not aware of Thermin antennas, guitar synth and even something comparable to the Animoog touch screen thingy, that is able to provide the data by MIDI out. The Animoog as well as the Roland GR-55 guitar synth provide MIDI out, but the MIDI data does not provide what you get while playing the Animoog with a finger or when using the Roland GR-55's onboard synth. Guten Rutsch! Ralf -- pacman -Q linux{,-rt{,-securityink,-cornflower,-pussytoes}}|cut -d\ -f2 4.20.arch1-1 4.19.10_rt8-0 4.19.8_rt6-0 4.19.5_rt4-0 4.18.16_rt9-1

Super! Thanks for sharing! :) -- Set Sakrecoer

Le Sun, 30 Dec 2018 12:29:10 +0000, Bill Purvis <bill(a)billp.org> a écrit : Thank you! I like the idea to be the first to make such a device with external antennas. I don't know if it is already a patent for that, but if not mine is the first one and is into the public domain. The rest is just classical valves electronics, nothing new. Depends what you want to play. For types of experimental music, it is just to play it. The problem is when you want to play a melody. I don't know because this is my first theremin and I am currently not at that level. The difficulty to find a given pitch depend for a part of its octave. It is much easier to find a F4 than a F1, I think mainly because a F4 is much more familiar to my ear than a F1 (or a F7). Also the hand synchronisation to get the right volume at the right time is very different from other instruments like piano or guitar. But that's easier than the pitch. I can get a lot of different sounds with it, and for modern highly saturated sounds, I get much warmer, dynamic and less noisy sounds without external fuzz or distortion than when using one. A very cool effect with it is these old Mu-Tron Octave Dividers. For the theremin, some provide MIDI Out and some Moog models have CV out connectors for the volume and the pitch. This CV out solution seam to be the best one when used with the thereminator: https://www.wavelicker.com/en/thereminator/ Best, Dominique -- If you have a problem and you are not doing anything to fix it, you are at the heart of the problem.

On 30.12.2018 01:40, Dominique Michel wrote: Projects like these are one of many reasons I really enjoy being on this mailinglist. Thanks for sharing, and happy New Year! Alf

On Mon, 31 Dec 2018 14:49:22 +0100, Dominique Michel wrote: Me too! Friends owned and still own CV/gate instruments, but they just used it before we made music together, the Prophet 5s of a friend for example are all MIDIfied. I started with the first DX7 and even my Oberheim Matrix-1000 doesn't provide CV/gate anymore, but it provides a guitar synth mode, each voice of a sound could get its own MIDI channel. Until now I didn't use the Matrix-1000 with my Roland GR-55. I guess it takes more than just a MIDI channel for each string, to get the full guitar synth experience. Nowadays a lot of new synth provide CV/gate again, but I tend to buy proprietary virtual synth instead of new hardware synth. On proprietary platforms, unfortunately not on Linux, they work nearly as good as CV/gated modular rack synth when using a host such as Cubasis on iOS and they nearly sound as good as Curtis CEM Chip based hardware synth, while some of them emulate real synth quite good.

Le Mon, 31 Dec 2018 19:40:23 +0100, Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf(a)alice-dsl.net> a écrit : To learn that instrument, I am following Kip Rosser's lessons: http://kiprosser.com/ I like his approach based on experimentation. The first lessons present the fundamental techniques. As example, the lesson 12 show a left hand technique which allow to make a vibrato like effect with the volume, resulting in successive pitches. Lesson 20 show the vibrato technique for the pitch. I think the main difficulty when playing a theremin, as we get a concert piano range into something like 50 to 60 centimetres, and no other mean to know where are the notes than our earring, is the resulting constant imprecision of the pitch. A good theremin player will succeed very well to mask it. Another difficulty is than for a guitar player like me, pitches in the C1 to C2 range or C7 to C8 range are very extreme ear training. The C7 to C8 range is the worst because the antenna cease to be linear at that distance (only a few centimetres from the antenna) and that octave is shorter than the others. At the same time, this is what make that instrument so fun. With the null of the pitch, you get a barrel like shape at 50/60 cm from the antenna, it have a few cm more width at the center of the antenna than at its extremities. This is our instrument and when playing it, it will react from all directions and with any part of your body. I can change the null and set it at only a few centimetres from the antenna. With such a setting, it is very weird to play, also because I can add pop like sounds between the pitches by touching the pitch antenna. Also it seam to have a terrific sound, because a neighbour tell me than he can ear me when I play it in the basement, with him in the house opposite making music with a computer and his headphones. For that, to play a theremin is worst than to play bass, you get a powerful sound but on the whole audio range. -- If you have a problem and you are not doing anything to fix it, you are at the heart of the problem.