Technical questions

Hi all, after wanting a theremin for several years, I finally found the money this month. I bought the EtherWave Standard, and I am very pleased. This is my first electronic instrument.

I do not own a dedicated amp, so I installed the theremin on my old Denon amp using the CD input. It works fine, but I just wanted to ask if another input would be better. I can choose from CD, video, phono and tape recorder. I suppose that phono has the same problems as guitar amps, but what about the others?

I do have some problems tuning it exactly as I like using the instructions from the manual. My music room contains two large wood stoves, and I am not able to get further away from either one than around 8 feet. The rest of the room is made of stone and wood. Could this large amount of metal be the reason for my tuning problems?

Apart from this the theremin is fantastic. Is it extremely tiring for the arms to practise, but that will soon go away. The sound is awesome, but I find the fingering quite difficult to master.

/Andy

It sounds like you have plenty of clear space around your theremin. This is probably not the cause of you difficulties.

This issue is currently being discussed on Levnet. Here is what Thierry had to say on the matter...

"A carefully tuned Etherwave can be much better playable than expected.

A second point is that I got the impression that in the last past months there are less efforts on the side of moog music inc. to deliver correctly tuned instruments."

I'll let Thierry or Fred handle the tuning techinques.

One handy item to have is the Etherwave Hot-Rodding Manual. It has tuning instructions and board layouts that will help you identify the components that will need to be adjusted.

Etherwave Hot-Rodding Manual (http://media.zzounds.com/media/HotRodEtherwav-61308b443310389fcaa4afcea1e728e9.pdf)

Thanks!

The hot-rodding manual is quite interesting. I am a licensed radio amateur, so the technology is not completely new to me. It could be fun to try and tweak it.

Found a good zero beat tonight, and managed to get a good range. Also worked out a much better tone than the other days. Sounds very nice now.

Fingering is still problematic, but it is getting closer. It appears the the tuning slides a bit during the first half hour. I had to fine tune zero beat a couple of times. Is this correct?

/Andy

Yes, it is normal for it to take 10 to 15 minutes for the circuitry to warm up and stabilize. 30 minutes seems a bit long.

Theremins are very touchy things. Make sure you are not exposing it to regular or wide changes in temperature and/or humidity.

BTW....I think either the CD or Tape input would be fine for the time being. The theremin puts out a "line level" that's perhaps a little higher than these were designed for, but if you're not having any issues you should be OK.

It might have been only 15 minutes. I did not time it. I will remember to turn it on in time for it to stabilise before I tune it.

[i]Jeff S wrote: "Theremins are very touchy things. Make sure you are not exposing it to regular or wide changes in temperature and/or humidity."[/i]

Then my learning curve will be quite steep. My house is only heated by woodstoves, which means the temperature and humidity varies a lot. So far my piano has survived. Hope the theremin can handle it as well.

/Andy

Well, that may be a bit of a challenge. Both instruments are susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity. The effect on the theremin will be much more immediate. The goal then would be to reduce fluctuation as much as possible and allow the instrument time to stabilize before playing.

As far as the fingering goes - be patient - it is just a matter of time. One key is to temper your expectations and enjoy your playing time so you don't become discouraged. If you keep at it, you will progress - slowly - but, it will happen.

You may want to save up (your money) and attend one of the increasingly common theremin workshops in Europe. This would give you the opportunity to talk with other thereminists and take a lesson from a much more accomplished player.

vespandy wrote:

My house is only heated by woodstoves......

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

My house is also heated, in large part, by wood stoves. I have seven theremins and no problems. Is your name Lars?

No, real name Anders, but I used to have a lot of work-related travel, and outside Scandinavia Anders is hard to pronounce for most, so I adopted Andy. Much easier.

I was a bit worried about the piano when I bought it, but it handles the humidity and temperature changes without problems. It does not need tuning more often than pianos in continously heated surroundings.

We will see about the theremin. Last night I turned it on as soon as I got home, and first played on it hours later. After tuning, I had no problems and everything appeared stable during the evening.

I looked at the Hands Off 2011, and it could be nice to participate, but my work does not allow for planning that far ahead. I will keep an eye out for other workshops in europe.

/Andy

He Anders,
for example Without Touch 4 (http://www.theremin.musikschule-lippstadt.de/) just around the corner.
Dominik

Apologies for my blatant hijack.
Fred.