An experiment that could change the world of Rock and Roll Theremin as we know it forever! Well, maybe not - and sure to rile some purists - but an idea that is worth exploring for the possibilities I am sure. Enjoy!
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16 thoughts on “Frets on a theremin??? whaaaaat???”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ben Verdel says:

    If you change shoes, your earth impedance changes. Thus also the note

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Tentoes says:

    I think if you added that feedback, it would not be a therermin. The musician is the feedback. But then, all I can play is the tape recorder.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars David & Teresa says:

    Fran get a Moog Theremini it has pitch correction.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jess Hull says:

    I think doing this kind of ruins the charm of the Theremin but may be a useful teaching and learning tool.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars kumoyuki says:

    one does not play a theremin. one becomes the theremin.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Chiavaccio says:

    Great!👏👏👏

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Paou Compli says:

    Unless quantized, how would an active feedback system actually work? I would have thought it would need some form of additional input to know ones hand position (since it only has information from the same things that put it off pitch anyway) – maybe some kind of combination instrument where a distance sensor combines to drives pitch and the theremin sense is "toned down" just modulating that? (excuse the pun)

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Skippy the Australian says:

    Why don't try a trautoninm?

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Org@nicCold says:

    The most untunable instrument in the world… Maybe a Raspberry to control it? But there are so many variants, even the sun activity will interfere lol.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars EarlySwerver says:

    Might be a good application for a VR headset.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Paul W says:

    Really Cool!

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars The Verse Shed says:

    Another reason to love Fran . . . the shelves stacked with vinyl.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars dale116dot7 says:

    Maurice Martenot did something about this, you might want to read up on him and the instrument he made. There are a couple of new versions now and I am one of the designers of one of them, a friend of mine assembles them and we have the circuit boards built at a local pick and place assembly shop. Check out Aurore Dallamaggiore playing one, the instrument that she plays with wooden legs is one version (I think the last model) by Maurice. The one with metal legs is one that I did the software and much of the circuit design and board layout on. The newer version she is playing also does the automatic tuning, almost exactly as you described. To play it, there are two different pitch inputs that can be selected with a switch. The keyboard is pretty much a standard keyboard design but it is suspended on springs with an encoder to measure side-to-side motion for vibrato. The other input is a ring or “bague” that the player wears, there are “fret markers” on the instrument and a separate tuning process for both the position measurement of the ring and also the oscillator; the automatic tuning function is one we’ve had in there for a while, though Dave Smith added the automatic tuning functions on the Prophet 5.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Android TV Box says:

    Would wearing an earth strap help with the accuracy Fran?
    I know those theramin things drift like mad and the valved (tube) ones are even more 'drifty', but I'm sure that it would be possible to make them more stable, like maybe playing them in a Faraday's cage as well? 🙂
    Autotune seems like cheating somehow! lol

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars mVm MotoVlogMusic says:

    The Theremin is the ultimate “let’s play it by ear” instrument.

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars MaximusNYC says:

    I got an "optical theremin" a while back (just a light sensor that controls the pitch of an oscillator). I also bought an autotune pedal to use with it, to quantize the output. You could do the same with a traditional theremin (tho of course the purists would howl).

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