Theremin Attack Problem

The Moog Forum Theremin Forum
1

Hi Everybody,

I’m new here so excuse me for asking stupid questions :slight_smile:

Some years ago at Frankfurt Music Fair Pamelia Kustin showed me some quite exciting double bass style licks on her Etherwave.
It almost sounded like plucked notes.

I own a Theremini. I know it’s a completely different instrument, but still I recently tried to reproduce this.
But no matter what sound I use and how fast I move my hand (away from the volume antenna) I just cannot get a decent attack.
It wouldn’t have to be percussive like on a stringed instrument, some tuba sound would be good enough.
But the attack is always soo very slow, much slower than a typical brass sound on a minimoog.

Now last week I saw Carolina Eyck playing 16th notes by wobbeling her left hand past the antenna.
This, too, doesn’t work at all on my Theremini, because the response of the volume is so slow, the sound doesnt stop when my hand is passing the antenna.

How can I calibrate my volume antenna to obtain a faster response?
Or do I have to change some parameter settings?
Or has this problem already been solved by a firmware update? (so far I haven’t installed any)

Thank you for your time,
BernieF

2

I haven’t experimented to get this kind of sound but perhaps you can try

  1. Calibrating so max volume is close to the antenna so you get a quicker ramp to max volume.
  2. Adjust delay to make sure you are not using too much for what you want to do
  3. Maybe play with the filter using the app to open it up quickly.
  4. Set your range low to get more of the bass response you want.
  5. I’d try one of the wavetable waveform settings that have more antenna control options.
  6. Also try set yourself to a fully pitch corrected mode to test as you will get a faster note attack there because portamento will be removed. If you get close then you can start to add back in some portamento.

Of course you should make sure you are running the latest firmware but I don’t recall that addresses things related to what you want to do here.

And perhaps a chill pedal would let you get very fast on/off control.

I’ll play around and see what I can do.
Rich