Pedal to control brightness/waveform/etc.?

Hi all,

I don't really play with the brightness or waveform knobs on my Etherwave much as I'm really concentrating on basic techniques and consistency, but it seems to me that it would be interesting if you could adjust these while playing, as an effect to generate a more dynamic sound. Obviously adjusting the knobs is a possibility but you can't really be playing at the same time. A pedal could allow the player to subtly change the sound while playing a sustained note or passage - is this at all feasible? Has anyone experimented with this?

Hi bendra,

You might try a distortion pedal, which would brighten louder notes.  A wah-wah pedal might work for adjusting the filtering.  A guitar multi-effects pedal could give you both, along with echo and reverb and other neat stuff like looping.

Yes, using an external pedal is obviously an option, not exactly the same as what I'm thinking of. 

-incidentally-

If I want to use guitar pedals (I probably do eventually) should I consider reducing the etherwave's audio output to guitar-like levels by replacing the R33 resistor as described on page 9 of the "Hot-Rodding your Etherwave Theremin" manual  

Some pedals let you set the input level to "line" and if that's the case then you wouldn't need to mod your EW (EtherWave).  

I'd recommend against modding the EW to lower the level in any case, as that gives yet one more way for noise to get into the signal chain.  You can always stick a resistive divider (or similar) in an external box to do the same thing.

You could set your EW to really bright and then dull it down with an external, controllable, filter.

Thanks to both. (And btw name's not brenda)

I can certainly try the cable, it's cheap enough. I'm actually quite happy with the sound I'm getting, but I'd like more dynamic options, like to have, say equiv of 9-o'clock-on-the-knob level of brightness for most of a melody but increase it to 3 o'clock for one part of a phrase to get a nice emphasis. Its true that there probably does exist somewhere a guitar pedal which can do the equivalent.

"I'd recommend against modding the EW to lower the level in any case, as that gives yet one more way for noise to get into the signal chain.  You can always stick a resistive divider (or similar) in an external box to do the same thing."

I didn't even know that. Thanks for the tip, dewster!