Rob Schwimmer's Moog Melodia

Melodia Pix

Rob Schwimmer graciously brought his Moog Melodia by my house back in September.  I sampled the audio and took some pix of it:

http://www.thereminworld.com/album/rob-schwimmers-moog-melodia/17791

It was repaired / updated and signed by Bob Moog himself, which makes it a real museum piece.  The battery holder was replaced to take more standard (these days) AA's, and the phono jack output replaced by 1/4" TS, also more of the modern expectation here.

Tuning is done via front panel mounted variable caps, the one on the pitch side is highly sensitive and so rather tough to get the adjustment right.  It would benefit from a 10:1 gearing and / or perhaps some vanes removed.

Melodia Audio

Here's an audio sample of Rob's Melodia: https://d-lev.com/audio/2023-09-17b_rs_moog_melodia.mp3

Here's a D-Lev preset emulation, Melodia note first, followed by D-Lev: https://d-lev.com/audio/2023-12-06_melodia_vs_d-lev.mp3

It's not exact, but then again the D-Lev synth wasn't designed to ape other Theremins.

[EDIT] Fixed the second link, sorry about that André!

I get a 404 error for your second link.

Works ok here

Thank you for the loan and the opportunity to photograph and sample it Rob!  It's a real collector's item.

My Melodia Of Love

Playing a tune with the Melodia preset (plus reverb): https://d-lev.com/audio/2023-12-08_my_melodia_of_love.mp3

It has a very pleasant timbre - a bit like a female flute, if there were such a thing.

Anatomy Of A Preset

Here is the D-Lev melodia_0 preset as viewed in the librarian command line software:

On the 0_OSC page there is some -pmod of the harmonics level to brighten up the low end.   A tracking notch filter on the FLT_OSC page suppresses a certain harmonic when playing certain frequencies.  And that's pretty much it!

Differences compared to the tvox_3 preset:

Differences between the melodia_0 and melodia_1 presets (some volume and less pitch modulation of harmonics, a bit of odd harmonics, and pseudo-stereo):

So for those who are uncomfortable using the librarian to pump preset files to slots on their D-Levs, here is a manual procedure:

First, to see if your software is sufficiently up to date, go to the FILT_OSC page and see if the xmix knob will go negative.  If it won't you need new software first.  If it will go negative, then do the following:

1. Copy tvox_3 (in slot 58) to a convenient empty slot, say slot 200, then edit it:
2. On the main D-Lev page set bank[1].
3. On the 0_OSC page set harm[8], pmod[-16], treb[0], bass[0].
4. On the FLT_OSC page set freq[1568], pmod[26], xmix[-26].
5. Save the preset.

To create the melodia_1 preset:
1. Copy melodia_0 (in slot 200) to a convenient empty slot, say slot 201, then edit it:
2. On the 0_OSC page set vmod[16], harm[9], odd[3], pmod[-8].
3. On the RESON page set xmix[8].
4. Save the preset.

My Melodia Of LovePlaying a tune with the Melodia preset (plus reverb): https://d-lev.com/audio/2023-12-08_my_melodia_of_love.mp3It has a very pleasant timbre - a bit like a female flute, if there were such a thing.

Wow very nice!  I saw Rob play live once at Joe's Pub in NYC I believe.  I always wondered why it sounded so much different from my Melodia. Obviously no enhancements on mine, though I did have it serviced by a local electrician.