Etherwave Pro sound

I would like to hear your comments about the Moog Etherwave Pro sound.


I don't have a Theremin yet! Nevertheless, I am interested in the sound: I like most the classic RCA Theremin type of sound, as played by Clara Rockmore.

Apparently, much of the "organic" quality of the RCA Theremin sound is due to "oscillator coupling". This makes the timbre correlate with frequency, as explained here:
http://www.paia.com/ProdArticles/thereton.htm
Note the bit: "Some listeners find the sound of the current crop to be lacking in this kind of character..."

Also, rectifying is mentioned here:
http://homegarden.expertvillage.com/videos/theremin-special.htm
The waveform shown is only theoretical though.


I have listened some Etherwave Pro sounds too: These frequency sweeps are from a review by Jason Barile:
http://www.thereminworld.com/sounds/EtherwavePro/FullRangeEachTimbreMidRegister.wma

Does anyone know, how the Etherwave Pro makes its sound? For me it doesn't sound very different from a static waveform oscillator fed into a filter ... Although the timbre still correlates with pitch because of the filter, this would be very different from the oscillator coupling effect mentioned above. Anyway, judging from these test sweeps, I find the sound to be quite synth-like and not very organic. IMHO of course - I don't want to offend any proud Etherwave Pro owners here!

The manual says:
"These timbres are classic theremin tones, carefully crafted to emulate Leon Theremin’s original designs, as well as some tones that the theremin has come to be known for over the years."
and about the filter:
"When the Filter control is all the way clockwise, all the harmonics of the theremin’s tone pass through, making for a very bright timbre. As the control is turned down, less of the theremin’s harmonics are allowed to pass, making the timbre much more muted. In addition to the Filter control having an effect on the filter, the pitch affects it as well. This feature can help create a more natural sound throughout the range of the theremin, as the harmonics of the theremin change with pitch just as they do in an acoustic instrument."
Why is a dynamic filter used/needed? If the original Theremin has a filter, it is most likely static.


Best regards
Jari Jokinen

Hi!

The magic of Clara Rockmore's sound has more to do with Clara's technique and musicianship than her Theremin's tone.

To compare a frequency sweep on one Theremin with a masterful performance on another is really an apple/oranges comparison.

In fact, in the Clara Rockmore video, she briefly speaks about her Theremin and plays a frequency sweep on it. And guess what? There's nothing particularly interesting or magical about the frequency sweep. Oh, but when Clara starts to make music...!!

The Etherwave Pro utilizes the heterodyne principle to produce its sound.

The coupling you mention is a characteristic of oscillators. Thus, theremins tend towards a sine wave in the upper registers and brighten up as the note gets lower and approaches zero-beat.

As you get into pricier Theremins, such as the Epro, the major difference is in playability -- that is, the pitch antenna will exhibit linearity over a wider range.

Anyway, you seem interested and particular about tone quality -- and so am I though I have learned that playability is of primary importance. Without playability, the most interesting timbre will never be musical.

btw -- my first Theremin was a Theremax and the Paia article about coupling is excellent and understandable.

The wave, brightness, and filter control the user-settable timbre of the Epro. The wave actually changes the waveshape from triangle, square, sawtooth, and many things in between. The brightness and filter are similar in function and it takes some experimentation to find the tone that you want.

The preset timbres are all useful.

A couple of months ago I transcribed a Cesar Franck work and in the course of the work, used all of the Etherwave Pro's preset timbres plus one user-settable timbre. You can hear it at:

http://kevinkissinger.com/FranckPfv.shtml

The user-settable timbre is very useful -- last year when I recorded "What Child is This" (Greensleeves) I matched the Epro's timbre to my recorder. You can find this at:

http://kevinkissinger.com/thereminmp3.shtml (You may have to scroll down to find it.)

Anyway, hope this provides a few answers to your questions.

First of all, Clara didn't plan an RCA. Oh, sure, she had one, but that's not what she played in concert. Clara's instrument was individually hand-constructed for her by Leon Theremin himself. He even made some of the parts by hand, making it truly unique. He made a similar instrument for his patroness, Lucie Rosen, but it is no longer in playable condition.

Clara's instrument produced a frequency sweep as did any other Theremin, but it had a very particular waveform pattern, which was carefully tuned by Prof. Theremin at her direction. Further, it had the unique property, due to its peculiar set and arrangement of tubes, that it changed its waveform depending on what the player was doing... so if you listen to Clara's recordings, it sounds as if it is changing vowel sounds as part of the music. (It seems to have depended on such factors as velocity and in which direction the pitch is changing.) If you listen carefully you'll realize that Clara was undoubtedly very aware of this effect and used it purposefully to, at times, make it sound so much like a human voice that several people I've played her recordings for have actually thought I put on the wrong recording because they were "obviously" hearing a human singer, not the funny instrument I was telling them about.

Add to that the fact that Clara was an incredible virtousa with practically superhuman musical talent, and of course nobody can duplicate that particular sound. The instrument was special, [i]and[/i] she understood how to control its specialness.

All of that said, I firmly agree that playability is the absolute #1 most important consideration in a Theremin if the owner intends to play melodic (as opposed to "free form") music with it. You can always mess with the tone after it comes out of the instrument, but if you can't control the instrument, what's the point?

Thank you. I will listen your recordings.

> To compare a frequency sweep on one Theremin
> with a masterful performance on another is
> really an apple/oranges comparison.

> In fact, in the Clara Rockmore video, she
> briefly speaks about her Theremin and plays a
> frequency sweep on it.

I should have mentioned, that I have listened those sweeps in that video. Not exactly magical, but one can try to listen analytically: For me, it appears, that her theremin timbre changes more in correlation with pitch - despite taking room acoustics and tube amplifier coloration into account. I can make a RCA/Etherwave Pro sweep comparison sound clip later.

Listening Etherwave Pro reminds me of some sounds I made with Jupiter-8 and OBX-a synths long time ago: I would adjust the oscillator pulse width, but never got it to my liking: As the oscillator waveform had to be the same across the pitch range, it was too recognizable and "tight" - no filter magic could hide that...


Best regards
Jari Jokinen

It would be interesting to hear sweeps from Etherwave Standard!

"There's nothing particularly interesting or magical about the frequency sweep. . . "

Oh there is! All of Termen's handmade instruments (including the revordings I discovered of him playing some later Russian tube instruments) have this glorious tone about them, something that's clearly electronic, yet unbelievably human and instrumental.

I do agree though, getting the 'Clara' sound is about 90% technique. Having Clara's custom theremin presumably would't help you if you're no good at playing, but setting the E'Pro to setting 5# or 6#, and using a very fast vibrato (imiating the claraesque scoops and 'vjooooms') can bring the instrument to nearing a passable imitation.

But really, why would you want to mimic a style that someone else has done so well? I think it's excellent that players like Lydia, Peter and Carolina have all developed their own, unique styles of performance - even though I daresay all are capable of emulating Clara's style (although probably not yet her virtousity). Judging by her recent performances though, Carolina is nearly there.

You have to bear in mind that Clara was not in her prime when all those famous recordings of her were made. Whilst technical skill presumably decreases with age, understanding of expression, the music itself and general maturity would increase. Which presumably is why Clara's theremin performances are no less than 800x more expressive than anyone else's I've heard.

[i]It would be interesting to hear sweeps from Etherwave Standard![/i]

I have been examining the waveforms produced by an etherwave standard recently, and, particularly with the brightness turned up, the waveform, and hence timbre, does vary in relation to pitch.

> I have been examining the waveforms produced by
> an etherwave standard recently, and,
> particularly with the brightness turned up, the
> waveform, and hence timbre, does vary in
> relation to pitch.

Indeed, if the timbre didn't vary, it wouldn't sound very good for us:)

I am concerned about the character of the timbre change: In case of Etherwave Pro, I seem to hear a more or less static waveform changed by a filter. I am trying to like it, because the Etherwave Pro is said to have good playability...

Jari, the organic-ness comes from technique. Not the waveform itself. Seriously. Anyone could make Clara's custom theremin sound awful. Furthermore, the E'Pro is so wildly customisable that ut doesn't take much jiggery pokery to make it sound like pretty much whatever you want.

Pamelia can turn it into a steel drum, a cello, a voice, a bass guitar, a choir . . .

> Jari, the organic-ness comes from technique.
> Not the waveform itself.
As a professional musician I certainly appreciate Clara Rockmore's playing. The music she plays, is very good too! Still, one can try to ignore that and evaluate just the sound of her instrument. It would be impossible, if we were discussing for example a violin or a trombone (my main instrument). Sorry, if this sounds obvious to you...