Moog Music Forum

Hi,

I would be really grateful for some help.

I just got a Theremini, which is my first theremin, knowing nothing about the instrument. I had a lot of fun with it - until I tried to calibrate it.

First, it played as if the pitch control was switched on, couldn't make the "classic" sound anymore. Then, I tried calibrating again (didn't realise you had to fo that)- then it was completely messed up. I read the instructions, and tried doing the factory reset. I've done so a few times now, and now it makes no sound at all! Is there no way to make it work like when I took it out of the box?

Dk77 wrote:I just got a Theremini knowing nothing about the instrument. I had a lot of fun with it - until I tried to calibrate it. First, it played as if the pitch control was switched on, couldn't make the "classic" sound anymore. Then, I tried calibrating again (didn't realise you had to do that)- then it was completely messed up. I read the instructions, and tried doing the factory reset. I've done so a few times now, and now it makes no sound at all! Is there no way to make it work like when I took it out of the box?

Hi Dk77,
I have to confess: The very first time I took an Etherwave Plus Theremin to my office and unboxed it, I set it on an all wood table (which should have worked just fine). But I was disappointed to find that I couldn't get any sound out of it. I even took it to Service to see if there was a loose wire or something. It turned out that the wooden desk had metal reinforcements on the underside of the table. They were reacting with the Volume Antenna which creates silence when your hand (or metal) is near it.

So... my first piece of advice is to mount the Theremini on a mic stand. It is the "right" way to use a theremin. If your mic stand only has the standard 5/8" threaded end you'll need this to adapt to the threaded hole at the bottom of the Theremini:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MA100OSS

Once you have the Theremini up in the air and away from nearby metal objects (4' or more is good), you'll be able to calibrate your instrument correctly.

Obviously there is always the possibility that there is an actual problem with the unit but, in every case I've handled, it has always been a problem of the Theremini being too close to metal (or other humans).

Hope this helps,