Obsessive Compulsive Sound Tweaking

This is much more an adventure than I first realized. I have discovered the “1000 ways a theremin could die” and then she teases a little and gives me something.

What I hear in the acoustics from the room I experiment in is completely different from what a direct feed cable for recording captures into the computer, then played back. Better yet, what I record at night with tired ears sounds good, then worse in the morning on playback.

The sound I am after is more a bass to a soprano voice rather than a stringed sound. Observing Clara, 400 to 700 Hz is a nice range and mostly songs played below 1000 Hz.

My brother in-law gave me an EtherWave Standard for my wife to learn on but I have since met a theremin enthusiast with knowledge of construction here in Southern California.

I liked the Thierry demo using the low end; I bet a creative musician could do something interesting with this range, like shake a stage. (Heavy Metal)

My sound sample below is not from an EtherWave, rather something original. The RF volume hoop is on its own stand with a 6' cable and can be positioned anywhere that is comfortable to play around you. It is especially useful for left handed playing or backing up your position of stance for those really low notes.

My sample starts in the Thierry 20/30 Hz range for fun then I wiggle up a bit. This is a direct feed into the line input of my cheap sound card. Now I need to learn how to play.

My Evolving Sound ( http://mysite.verizon.net/resshk58/sound/sample_30hz.mp3)

"I have discovered the “1000 ways a theremin could die” and then she teases a little and gives me something."...."My sound is not from an EtherWave, rather something original." - Touchless

Is it me, or are you being cryptic on purpose? That certainly doesn't sound like an Etherwave to me. The waveform (and sound) is much too smooth from top to bottom. I checked your prior postings, and I don't believe you've revealed what you are playing, have you?

"What I hear in the acoustics from the room I experiment in is completely different from what a direct feed cable for recording captures into the computer, then played back." - Touchless

Not only the acoustics of the room, but more importantly the coloration of the amp/loudspeaker.

"Better yet, what I record at night with tired ears sounds good, then worse in the morning on playback." - Touchless

No doubt about it. Not only can the ear and brain be fatigued, but playing can suffer from body fatigue late in the day.

Misjudging the quality of your work often involves something far more subtle than fatigue. We tend to hear what we want to hear, especially when we are heavily focused on creating something. This is not a bad thing, in fact it may even be essential to the creative process. When we listen the next day to something we recorded the night before and hear it with "fresh" ears, its not just that we aren't tired. We are no longer surfing the crest of our own perfect musical wave. The "spell" is broken.

The morning after may be a slap in the face, but it is an incredible opportunity to learn and to grow.

Unfortunately, many people never get to this moment of awakening and remain great concert thereminists in the theater of their own minds.

Joe Theremin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi69hDPupGs)

AMEN. ;)

I've found my self in this catagory more and more as I produce videos for youtube. One of the reasons I've slowed down production is for the reasons Coalport has described above. I'll do a full out shoot, and the next day when I go into the edit suite, and watch the raw footage, I'll often find that I need to do a lot more rehearsing, and then try again after a lot of damage control.

Even with some of my recent videos, I find issues that make me question if I should have released a given video, or not.

I guess it's like proof-reading your own text. You miss stuff that another reader would find. Same goes for music.

@Jeff - Is it me, or are you being cryptic on purpose?

[i]"I have discovered the “1000 ways a theremin could die” and then she teases a little and give’s me something."...."My sound is not from an EtherWave, rather something original." [/i]

I was hoping that those who know the TV show here in the states would think that comment was funny; to often humor on the net does not work.

If I am cryptic, it is because of the nature of the business I am in. After a little searching on the internet, my friend George found a theremin enthusiast nearby who wants to remain anonymous and had little interest of furthering his study or exposing his theremin research. “I made him an offer he could not refuse!” This was a giant leap forward into my own theremin studies.

The theremin in my sound byte is just a big shoebox construction which is “one of a kind” waiting for a proper enclosure. “Clara has her sound” and “I will have mine”. There is nothing more I can say.

@Coalport
[i]We are no longer surfing the crest of our own perfect musical wave. The "spell" is broken.[/i]

Maybe my next goal should be to encourage a musical talent that has steady hands and has not caught their first theremin wave. In my sound byte you can hear how my own arm jerks once in a while. It is still early morning here; maybe I will put on my wetsuit and walk down to the waters edge.

Thomas Grillo wrote:

Even with some of my recent videos, I find issues that make me question if I should have released a given video, or not.

***************************

Join the club, Thomas!

If you have the slightest doubt about a video, my advice is to delete it. I used to make theremin videos with terrific enthusiasm and post them right away while I was still sailing happily along on my little pink cloud. In the last couple of years I have trained myself, no matter how satisfied I am with my work, to wait 24 hours before making something public. That's about how long it takes me these days to wake up and regain my objectivity.

The biggest trap of all is that there will be people who will tell you, after you have posted something that is far from your best work, that it's just the greatest thing they have ever heard and that tears were streaming down their cheeks as they listened.

We must beware of hearing what we WANT to hear, specially when it comes in the form of praise from well-intentioned and totally sincere people who don't know their arse from their elbow.

That's my take on it - for what it's worth....

Indeed, Coalport.

I think that bit about what the audience will tell you goes right back to what you said in another post regarding "the novelty effect".

So, we not only have our own objectivity to worry about, but the novelty effect, or wow factor on the part of an audience which is new to the instrument to worry about too.

I have indeed deleted a few videos here and there in the past, and will likely privatize a few more that nolonger need to be there.

I have learned to ask my self "would I pay for that performance?" It does take a while to go from "heck yeh!", to "maybe not".

I am reading you both, Thomas and Coalport and I do understand what you both are saying. I have had so many requests from people for me to sing live some classics and I just don't feel ready for that (eventhough I've been singing for a long long time). I couldn't EVEN imagine recording myself playing something on the THeremin. That's would be the fastest way for me to be totally be insecure in my learning process...

Kudos to you both!

Thank you Amethyste.

I have sung with opera choruses for nearly a quarter centrury up to the present, and you just would not believe how nervous I get doing that.

I can often rehearse a piece very well, and once the cameras are on me, that's when it all goes down hill. It's as if the whole world is watching, even though I know I can always do a retake. I have to practice quite a bit with cameras in place before I'm ready to do the real shoot. :)

Thomas, back in 1996 there was a news segment on CNN documenting the outdoor celebrations in New York City of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leon Theremin (born 1896 in St. Petersburg, Russia). There were quite a number of thereminists, with their instruments, playing at the event and the whole thing was presented live in Manhattan. The wandering CNN reporter mingled with the crowd and went up to one of the spectators (a middle aged woman with a heavy Noo Yoahk accent) and asked her what she thought about the event:

"I'd nevah hoid of the theremin befoah! It's maaahvelous! I am so glad I came!"

"Yes, Madame, but what do you think of the music you are hearing?"

"It's tarrible. My cat sounds bettah than that!"

The moral of this story is that when it comes to the theremin, people can be thoroughly entertained without being musically uplifted in any way. It reminds me of the old remark about the elephant ballet: "It's not the beauty of the dance that entertains us, it's the fact that the great beasts can do it at all."

Clara Rockmore wisely refused a request to attend this event, even though she lived only a few blocks away from it. At the time, I had only been playing the theremin for a few months and was shocked at what I considered to be nothing more than a sonic free-for-all. This all happened before I had realized that Clara Rockmore was the only living person in the world who could play the theremin worth a damn!