Sunday Synth Jam: BarbieWire performs Cool Son live at the Box Salon in Toronto on October 21st, 2009.

via BarbieWireMusic

This is a demo for Drawdio – a pencil that lets you “draw” instruments.

While creator Jay Silver compares it to a theremin, it’s closer to a Tannerin or Electro-Theremin.

via wakeupsilver:

Imagine you could draw musical instruments on normal paper with any pencil (cheap circuit thumb-tacked on) and then play them with your finger. The Drawdio circuit-craft lets you MacGuyver your everyday objects into musical instruments: paintbrushes, macaroni, trees, grandpa, even the kitchen sink…

One day I bought a “harmonium” kit at the street market in Bangalore. I hacksawed the keyboard off to make the first ever Drawdio circuit. We played with it at a local school in the slums using plants, water, our foreheads, etc. My friend told me graphite would work too. Meditating on it, I realized the Drawdio circuit should be literally attached to a pencil to “draw audio,” and that’s where the name came from: Draw + Audio.

DIY: Make it. Remix it. Play it.

See http://drawdio.com

This is a demo video for a video theremin, created with Max For Live in Ableton Live 8. 

via akihikotube:

Max For Live (ableton & cycling’74) Video Theremin Tutorial Patch

This video demonstrates using Max For Live with a Wacom Tablet to control the Analog synth instrument in Ableton Live 8.

The “Wacom Theremin” offers a lot of expressive musical potential, with 5 degrees of control over the sound.

Details below.

via rerunnermusic:

The live.remote~ object passes data at many times the resolution of MIDI (one of the great things about the Wacom tablet and sample accurate modulation from MSP to Ableton Live using the API objects in Max for Live).

The Wacom tablet has 5 degrees of hi-res expressive freedom (see below for mappings). Very promising, this is just a quick little study… Cheers.

x axis = pitch (tempered)
y axis = volume
pen pressure =vibrato amount
tilt axis y = vibrato rate
tilt axis x = detune +/- semitone.

Ranjit Bhatnagar’s Lev is a robot that plays the theremin.

And while he’s far from being a virtuoso, he plays better than a lot of thereminists.

Lev may be the ultimate MacGyver music hack. He was made out of an old floor lamp, some plumbing supplies, a few empty mint tins, and some microprocessors.

Lev is named after Lev Termen or Leon Theremin, a Russian scientist who invented one of the first electronic musical instruments, an instrument which is played without touching, and which bears his name.

via MoonMilk, synthgear

Sunday Synth Jam: This is another very nice theremin performance by Peter Pringle, Duparc’s L’invitation au voyage.

Pringle’s intonation sets an example for other thereminists and the intensity and expression of his playing is equally amazing.

via copperleaves:

This is one of my favorite songs from the works of French composer Henri Duparc, originally written to a poem by Charles Baudelaire. I have taken certain liberties with the arrangement in order to make up for the absence of the words which are extraordinarily powerful.

Duparc lived an unhappy, tormented life and did not write many compositions. Along with composer Camille Saint-Saens, he founded the National Society Of Modern Music in his native France.

I should mention that I probably would not have been able to play this on my Moog Etherwave Pro theremin if it’s volume circuit linearity had not been greatly improved by the addition of the EPVM1345, a tiny module invented by French engineer Thierry Frenkel.

This is the music video for theminist May Roosevelt’s Phantasma, made for the Moog Halloween Theremin contest.

This video’s fantastic on a lot of levels – including Roosevelt’s performance and the video filming and editing.

Let me know what you think!

via MayRoosevelt:

My video for the Moog Halloween contest using the etherwave standard!

Music by May Roosevelt.

Video done with the help of Alex Al.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s another entry for Moog’s Halloween theremin contest, working the cute baby angle.

via matrix12x:

My 17 month old playing with the Theremin. She loves to play, and often uses her head or entire body to play.

In this video she is playing Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals Aquarium. She likes the modular synth on the side.

The insides of the Theremin is a Moog Etherwave, in a Paia Tmax case. I like that case a little better because you can put sheet music on top.Also I am submitting this for the Moog Halloween Theremin Contest, please vote for her.

Pure analog sound on the night of Halloween, for the Moog Music Halloween Theremin Contest 2009.

via SemenCritico

Night Of The Theremin is a terror-filled short about a strange encounter on a dark, desolate highway.

Here’s the sequel – Dawn Of The Theremin:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy Moogloween!

via iloveanalogue:

Learn more about the Moog Etherwave Theremin at http://www.moogmusic.comLearn more about Bob Moog’s Legacy at http://www.moogfoundation.org

Free Music Friday: Electronica artist and music blogger Mark Mosher has released a new album, Reboot, that’s just a little spooky.

Mosher says:

Two years in the making, REBOOT is an album containing 7 richly layered electronica songs that blend contemporary synthesizer sounds with classical music motifs. The end result is dark electronica for those who love synth “ear candy” with a “dirty” industrial edge.

Make sure you check out the track They Walk Among Us. It dives straight into B-movie territory, with its use of theremin, flying saucer sounds and vintage horror sounds. Could be a perfect soundtrack for Halloween.

Mosher has released Reboot with a pay-what-you like model. You can preview the album above or check it out at his Bandcamp site. If you like it, you can download it for free or pay Mosher whatever you like.

Mosher’s suggested price is $6 for the album (7 songs, 22 min. + digital booklet) and $1 for singles. Enter $0 for free download.

This “wee theremin”, the Gakken Theremin, is sized for a Barbie doll, but Ken Moore proves that it’s actually “playable”.

via kenmoore:

For my wife’s baby shower our friends Sarah and Mika got us a tiny Gakken Theremin so we can get our girl a head start as the next Theremin virtuosa. It’s a fun but very sensitive instrument, and since Sidney can’t even get her hand in her mouth yet I’ll wait a few more months before starting her lessons. THANKS SARAH AND MIKA!

Jan van Nuenen created this IKEA solar-powered optical theremin thing, the Sunnan Synth.

The Sunnan Synth is made with an IKEA Sunnan solar lamp, photoresistors, pots and a cmos 556 ic. The IKEA Sunnan lamp is $20 at IKEA stores, and if you buy one, they donate another to UNICEF to help kids in small villages.

Moog Music is celebrating Halloween with a Halloween Theremin Video Contest.

They’re asking thereminists to recreate the classic sounds of horror/sci-fi theremin in a music video.

Here’s how it works:

1. Create your best Theremin video with a Halloween Theme.
2. Upload it to your YouTube channel.
3. Post the YouTube URL for your video on the Moog Music Forum www.moogmusic.com/forum in the Theremin Forum, under the Halloween Theremin Contest topic by Saturday, October 31 at 3:00 pm EST. If you are not already a Moog Music Forum member, you must register.

Prizes:

• 1st prize – Best Video – MF-104Z Analog Delay
• 2nd prize – Most views – MF-102 Ring Modulator
• All contestants whose videos make it to the poll will receive a Moog t-shirt. Limit one t-shirt per video.Videos must be at least one minute in length. Theremin(s) used must be manufactured by Moog Music.

OT: Georgia Brown, who claims to have the largest vocal range on the planet, is hereby The Human Theremin.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think!

DJ/Producer Gaudi scratches the theremin at Techno-Tribal, “the North Bay’s largest and most epic dance party of the year.”

It looks like Gaudi dispenses with the tradition of theremin playing and takes it in a new direction.

A very cool performance from a party that does truly look epic.

This is a gorgeous transcription and performance for theremin of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s song, Opus 21 #7, Zdes Xorosho (How Fair This Spot).

Peformed by Peter Pringle.

via copperleaves:

According to the New York Times, Rachmaninoff attended a demonstration of the theremin in 1930, given by its inventor, Leon Theremin (a fellow Russian), at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Apparently there was a woman in the audience who leapt to her feet after the first number applauding and shouting “Bravo! Bravo!” Rachmaninoff who, according to the article, was sitting behind her, loudly exclaimed, “Sit down Madame! You Exaggerate!”

At the time, the instrument was unknown and there were no musicians, other than its inventor, who were competent to play it.

Although Rachmaninoff never wrote anything for the theremin, one of his compositions, VOCALISE, has become one of the standard transcription compositions for the instrument. In regard to this song, HOW FAIR THIS SPOT, written for piano and voice in 1901, I found the following information on the internet:

“Rachmaninoff and his wife were on their honeymoon when he composed the work, which, not surprisingly, he also dedicated to her. Moreover, he had recently recovered from a depression caused by the disastrous 1897 premiere of his Symphony No. 1, which undermined his confidence and ability to compose until the appearance in 1901 of his ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 2. This was obviously a blissful time in his life, then, true to his nature, Rachmaninoff was moved to write music here about romance and passion, leaving out the sunshine and merriment he must also have felt. The song features one of the composer’s most soaring, beautiful vocal melodies that would not have been out of place in a slow movement of one of his concertos or symphonies. The accompaniment is appropriately subdued and just as romantic as the vocal line. The text, by G. Galina, describes a pastoral scene where young lovers have come to be alone with nature and themselves. This lovely song typically has a duration of just over two minutes.”

This is a trailer for The Italian Moog.

RE_production is producing a documentary movie on Moog instruments in Italian music, directed by Ernesto Romano.

Description:

The movie shows all the most significant Moog experiences of the Italian music history, from the Progressive Rock to the nowadays electronic experimentation, through the voice and the notes of the main musicians.

All of them, from the milestones to the youngest artists, express an endless passion for all the Moog inventions, since they have been introduced in Italy during the Seventies, until the last products.

Finally, all the musicians express an extraordinary love for Bob Moog, as everybody say, the father of synthesizers.

Der Erlkonig on Burns B3 Theremin, performed by Thomas Grillo.

via ThomasGrillo:

Enjoy a rendition of Schubert’s Der Erlkonig performed by thereminist Thomas Grillo on the Burns B3 Original theremin, with recorded audio accompaniment by pianist, Kristian Banatzianou.

Find the B3 theremin, and more at
http://www.soundslikeburns.com

Accompaniments available at
http://www.pianoaccompaniments.com

Sunday Synth Jam: This video captures a great cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, arranged for piano, vocal, theremin and MIDI theremin by Peter Pringle.

Details on the theremins & synths used below.

via copperleaves:

First of all, I’m sorry this video is so long but I wanted to sing all the verses of it that I could find. Leonard Cohen (who wrote the song) said that he wished people would stop singing it but you might as well ask people to stop looking at the Mona Lisa! In its genre, this song is a masterpiece.

I discovered Leonard Cohen back in the early 60’s when a family friend gave my parents a copy of LOVE WHERE THE NIGHTS ARE LONG, a collection of the works of Cohen and his friend and mentor, the late, brilliant Irving Layton. I had never really appreciated poetry until I read that book. Perhaps what has always impressed me most about Leonard Cohen’s work is his ability to be distant and objective about his subject while resting quietly in its heart.

There are two theremins in this video, Samuel Hoffman’s 1929 RCA and the Moog MIDI Ethervox. I have never been able to sing and accurately play the theremin at the same time, so verse three (where I play the Hoffman RCA) is the only verse where I did not sing live. The MIDI theremin (which you see on verse five) is fairly easy to play while singing. Simple gestures of the arm trigger sounds from a separate MIDI module (in this case a Roland JV 2080).

The keyboard on this video is a Korg Triton Extreme (doubled with a Roland Fantom XR). The advantage of an electronic keyboard over an acoustic piano is that there is no leakage into the vocal mike when a singer is playing and singing at the same time. Nothing will ever replace a good Steinway but the latest generations of electronic keyboards are awesome!

The mike I used is a cordless Sennheiser that I have had for years. It was given to me by Sennheiser when they sponsored a tour in the 1980’s and it works as well today as it did when I got it.

Here’s a little bit of trivia you may not know about the RCA theremin in this video. According to Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong’s biographer, Andrew Smith, Armstrong actually took a recording of this theremin with him into space for the moon landing in 1969. The previous owner of this instrument, Dr. Samuel Hoffman, used it on his 1947 recording, MUSIC OUT OF THE MOON. Neil Armstrong liked the sound of it so much that he made a cassette tape of it from his personal record collection and took it with him to the moon.

Andrew Smith ends his book, MOONDUST, with the following words, “…..when I’ve thought of Apollo, I’ve thought of him [Neil Armstrong] and his little band drifting out there toward the secret Moon…..spilling theremin music out at the stars.”