Beat Music - Playing with Low Frequencies

Beat/Low Frequency Experiment

One of the nice things about the theremin is that sometimes you just want to experiment with it and see what kind of weirdness you can get to come out of it. The other day I was at the keyboard and I heard these sporadic low (almost fireworks-like) pops coming out of my speakers and I had no idea what was going on until I realized I didn't mute the theremin and I was getting random beats coming out of it. As I moved, the beat patterns changed obviously increasing in frequency as I moved towards the theremin until perceptible tones came out. As anyone who sets the pitch field on the theremin knows, it's is capable of playing notes so low, all you can hear are the (acoustic) beats.

So I thought, let me play around a bit with that. You can get some very nice and convincing airplane/motor sounds out of it. But the real experiment was to record it and then throw the PSP N2O effects plugin on it and see what kinds of sounds I can get using these low tones. 

The first half of this not for the faint at heart experiment just presents the raw low frequency motions I created (actually not quite raw - they were amplified and enhanced in a few ways). Then the second half takes that sound file and runs it through PSP N2O where I changed patches frequently to see what kind of nice effects I might create with these low tones. I definitely can see that 4-5 of these settings applied to the low frequency theremin sound produce some really interesting effects that I plan on using in a real piece later.

Well - enough of that  for a while!

My Etherwave plus theremin has some truly awesome bass since I modified it with Thierry's ESPE01 module (ESPE stands for Etherwave Standard pitch extension).  I have recently updated my rig to an all tube powered biamped system with a tube preamp.  The treble is a Fender Blues Junior amp and the bass is a front loaded Yamaha 18" cabinet powered by a rebuilt Fender Dual Showman tube amp.  The bass is truly astounding...it has tone like a contrabassoon or organ pipe...not just rumble, but actual notes.  I am currently working on my playing technique in the bass range.  I just wanted to make this comment on your thread to say that the bass DOES exist, and can be played musically with a little work...

Mollydad,

I can't wait to hear that. You don't hear many people playing melodies way down there in the first octave or two of the piano where I assume you are treading.

And for anyone that wants to have a little fun and get their feet wet way down there - if their theremin can handle it - I did up The Elephant accompaniment here.I'm tired of The Swan. Let's get our bass on!

I will say that I had to replace my 6L6 ouput tubes shortly after I started playing with the bass...but it's been fine ever since.  I also replaced all of the tube sockets since they were circa 1966 and getting ratty.  I also had the preamp tubes in the Dual Showman replaced, and it sounds great now.  There is a little bit of 60 cycle hum when the rig is set just right, but one can't hear it when the amp is producing tone.  I'll take a little hum all day long in exchange for what I get in return.  I love tubes/valves and I can not lie...  :-)

With Thierry's module installed what range can you reliably play in on the Etherwave Plus? I have the module but have not put it in yet. 

Can you play notes with reliability from 27Hz to say 55Hz? This would match the two lowest octaves on the piano.

Contrabass goes down to low E - about 41Hz. That would be the lowest practical note of the typical orchestra used with regularity - and in The Elephant. 

Harps can go down to about 30Hz. The Contra-Bassoon goes down to about 32 Hz. 

So I think if the module lets you reliably play 40Hz and above, that's going to let the theremin be a true bass when needed.