EtherWave+ Controlling MIDI Sample Libraries
I've been away from experimenting with how the theremin can be a viable MIDI controller and wanted to get back to that for a bit as I need to use it in a piece I'm working on. Forgetting the Theremini for a second here which may be another feasible option using the new app that allows MIDI note generation, I wanted to see if I could use the CV outs from the Etherwave Plus in conjunction with a Eurorack CV-to-MIDI converter to do something useful.
I took the gate, volume and pitch CVs from the Etherwave and connected them to a Doepfer CV-to-MIDI converter and connected that to an iConnect USB MIDI interface in turn connected to my computer (need to see if that Doepfer can connect directly). I then loaded up a few Kontakt5 plugins in Cubase on three separate tracks. One track uses a wind patch from the very unique Soniccouture Geosonics sample library. Chris Watson went around the world sampling sounds of nature (desert sounds, swamp sounds, water/ice sounds, etc.) and these were integrated with two optional synth oscillator-like controls you can mix in. I put down a simple background using one of the desert wind patches - wanted to see how it sounds with some voices.
Then I loaded up two vocal sample patches (from Soundiron's Voice Of Rapture Tenor and Voice of Rapture Soprano). I selected my theremin CV to MIDI/USB device I created as the MIDI input to the Kontakt5 plug-ins and played/triggered vocal lines using the theremin. I also tried playing/triggering just vocal "ah" sounds using the setup and that worked too. So I can now use my Etherwave Plus like this as a viable MIDI controller to control pretty much any sample library I want.
What you hear here are sampled Latin phrases triggered by the theremin in various ways. This technique is used in movies all the time. We are constantly exposed to disjoint Latin phrases and our minds take it in as some language, not the linguistic garbage that it really is (unless maybe you speak flutent Latin). It's more an effect.
I've been meaning to see if I can trigger MIDI samples using the Etherwave Plus in this manner and it works well - with one proviso. In this setup, the volume antenna is treated like a CV gate. This means I need to retrigger the volume on/off every time I need to play a "note". This will have limitations. I need to see if a foot pedal applying some CC control might make for more flexible performance - CC control to impose portamento and other more theremin like techniques into the sample playback. This can easily be done by just drawing CC shapes in the DAW where they are needed, but it would be nice to do it in real time as you perform.
