"maybe you created the first theremin that got x-rated." - xtheremin8
Ha ha! I must give credit to a Thereminist here in NJ for whom I've done some surgery on his instruments (ESPE01). When he came over the first time he did a very identifiable orgasm-y thing on his Theremin.
"...that wobbly pitch on the second video at 0:05 and the in the third at 0:33..?"
It's nothing really, though I'm glad you brought it up because it could be misinterpreted as a flaw. The prototype is on a carpet with pad underneath, so it shakes around some when I'm fiddling with the knobs (sorry, not shouting at you, just wanted to emphasize that). There's a fluorescent desk lamp a foot or so from the pitch plate (my cramped work space) which makes jiggling things worse (in a capacitive sense, not a mains hum sense - the hum filter crushes all hum). If I shake it on purpose with the formant filter on it sounds a little like giggling.
This is why the Kowalski Theremin - where the left hand is manipulating performance controls - is a large-ish box with four firmly supporting legs.
"quantisation is something i still can't get around with. i think it's the spacing between notes. the start/end point..thing. but i see benefits like to learn phrygian or other more exotic scales, that are not obvious to our western-chromatic tuned ear. or different tunings like the lucy scale for example. colundi everyone? which scales have you in peto on your machine?"
Pitch quantization is isolating the note value, then applying a non-linear function to it so that the value is smoothly biased towards the end points. Stronger bias gives stronger qantization.
The Theremini has pitch quantization, as well as scales and base key settings, so I pretty much knew the value of it, which is not a whole lot to me. The prototype only has chromatic quantization so far, though I might make it more complex later (it might only take a day or so of work to make it like the Theremini). I turn it on a bit (setting 1 or 2) sometimes when practicing, it helps make things sound better, though it interferes with vibrato. It's an interesting toyish feature, which is probably why it was included in the Theremini.
You bring up a good point though, that quantization with scales could help train the ears of those who are new to music theory - or it might just make them lazier!
"that leads me to another question i had and was always to afraid to ask: that led tuner. now in action it makes a bit more sense...i worked some years ago some days with a local synesthetic artist and she told me much about how that is different and such, to see tones in colours. so that strikes me every time i see rgb leds and the possibility to create almost every colour with. but i don't know if such a thing would be possible, to have a big led changing colour according to the played note."
FredM waved me off of color changing due to some people being color blind. I thought emphasizing certain notes on the tuner with a different color (very much like the black keys on a piano) would help, but it really interfered with readability.
Having a single LED changing color might be interesting to watch, but I don't think it would be discrete enough to really be useful. With the prototype tuner certain scales have patterns that are pretty obvious (major, minor) - in different keys they are rotated.
In the end, color is another axis of information, though for some reason my brain can't process it quickly enough.
"a nice book: "push turn move" it's all about interface design in electronic music, if you like fat heavy prints,1.7KG, it's published by bjbooks in denmark."
Thanks for the pointer! I'll look into it. I've read a certain amount about UI design on the web and a lot of it is fairly practical (group common things, don't have more than 5 or so things in a group, place the most important things at the edges of the group, etc.). Synthesizers have a lot of adjustments, and tend to have poor UIs. Yamaha has made some notoriously bad UIs (FS1R, Motif Rack, AN1x - I owned 'em and now I don't, and the UI's were largely to blame).
[EDIT] Ooh, that's a pretty looking book!
not necessary for her, she is married....
![https://f1.blick.ch/img/incoming/origs4819380/644253663-w1280-h960/stock-image-fail-soldering-iron-bob-byron-1.jpg"](https://f1.blick.ch/img/incoming/origs4819380/644253663-w1280-h960/stock-image-fail-soldering-iron-bob-byron-1.jpg"){kind=link}