Pitch-only theremin for a bass player, any advice appreciated !

Hello everyone !

I play the electric bass, and I always had this dream of having a theremin which I would play with the head of my bass as I play the bass (metallic strings close to the antenna).
Therefore I kind of forced it on my band.
We play some kind of 90s alt rock noisy punk I would say, but I suppose this is a detail. I have zero knowledge in music theory and a tiny bit more in electricity. Or maybe not.
I chose a pitch only theremin from Lostvolts, the LV-2, which is battery operated.
I got a pitch-only theremin because I thought volume and pitch would be very hard to play while playing the bass, plus I do not want to play elaborate melodies I guess ?

It was working relatively fine, except during my first two gigs. For the first gig, the sound of the theremin simply did not go through. It might have been because of a DI box I suppose.

For the second gig, what was frustrating is that if I was getting away from the theremin, like with the intent on not playing it, it was emitting a pitch.
What I mean is that when I was getting close to the theremin as expected, the pitch was increasing, and decreasing when I was getting away. Then further away, the pitch stopped, again as expected. But when I was properly getting far away, it was as if the effect was inverted, the pitch would get back to being low and then increase as I got further. It was always on after this point.

I have been told this could be due to the theremin catching interference of electric equipment in the room. I would like to know what is your opinion on this ?

The problem is that this is a variable I will never get to control. I am thinking of getting a volume pedal, but if there was a solution which prevents me from having yet an other piece of gear to cope with while playing, this would be amazing.

I thank you very much in advance for taking the time to educate me !

"What I mean is that when I was getting close to the theremin as expected, the pitch was increasing, and decreasing when I was getting away. Then further away, the pitch stopped, again as expected. But when I was properly getting far away, it was as if the effect was inverted, the pitch would get back to being low and then increase as I got further. It was always on after this point." - caroz

This is normal behavior for an analog Theremin.  When you get far enough away the variable oscillator frequency gets higher than that of the fixed oscillator, and you get an increasing pitch with increasing distance.

One way to tamp this down is by coupling the oscillators to some degree, which also gives richer harmonics on the low end, but makes low notes less linear.  The Etherwave does this, and the newest one has a variable control for coupling.

The way to totally kill it is with an appropriate digital Theremin, where the heterodyning process is a simple subtraction done in software, and negative numbers get clamped to zero.  The D-Lev is the only one I know of that does this though.  Perhaps the OpenTheremin does too?

Fred's Skywave H1 mutes audio in negative area. My Paradox MX does this too.

caroz,

if you're really interested in deep bass (the kind perceived by the body, not by ears), you should be looking at digital theremins (those that are essentially "ether-driven synthesizers"). For various reasons, analog tereminss can't provide a clean sound in the bass end.

I think I would prefer a real analog theremin just for the sentimental value. I got in touch with Lostvolts who told me the same thing as you basically, and that they could perform the coupling modification you mentioned before shipping the theremin. They have always been very helpful and patient towards my naive questions, so I think I will get it from them again ! They have an amazing support service.
If any other suggestions for improvement  come to your mind please let me know

Thank you very much !

caroz, if you're really interested in deep bass (the kind perceived by the body, not by ears), you should be looking at digital theremins (those that are essentially "ether-driven synthesizers"). For various reasons, analog tereminss can't provide a clean sound in the bass end.

Thank you ! But since I already play a 5 strings bass, this might be an overkill ? I suppose as I get more and more familiar with the theremin my expectations and standards will probably change, and I will get back to you

An option would be, like the very first theremins which were pitch only, to put the theremin audio signal through a volume pedal (or just pedal with a "kill switch") so you can easily mute it and bring it up in volume whenever needed.

Eric: "One way to tamp this down is by coupling the oscillators to some degree, which also gives richer harmonics on the low end, but makes low notes less linear."

I thought the linearity is enhanced in the near zero difference range due to coupling to some degree. Pulling effect. May be a failure of mine. To be proofed.

"Fred's Skywave H1 mutes audio in negative area. My Paradox MX does this too."  - ILYA

I stand corrected, thanks!

"I thought the linearity is enhanced in the near zero difference range due to coupling to some degree. Pulling effect. May be a failure of mine. To be proofed." JPascal

Logs / exponentials can't deal with zero, so the very end at zero beat is necessarily non-linear.  The ESPE01 (and YAEWSBM) expand the bass end by eliminating coupling, and I've always assumed this made the low end more linear?  Though I've heard that the t-Vox Tour uses coupling somehow to enhance linearity?

To re-create the RCA sound I used some coupling and will look at the linearity effect.