I'm not sure how I feel about this device being called a theremin, but that doesn't mean it's not cool. If you thought playing the theremin was hard because you can't touch it, playing the Teletron must be even harder because you don't even move!
Photo theremins are well known in our circles for being closer to the novelty side of the spectrum of theremin-like instruments. They typically include just one
control for pitch, have short ranges, and poor and/or fixed timbre.
Jacob Joaquin has broken the mold with a post on the Csound Blog featuring an optical theremin controlling Csound, the open source synthsizer construction kit of electronic music fame. Jacob reads the photo sensors with an Arduino board and feeds the output into Csound, which generates the audio. The video demonstrates two different Csound instruments: the first one being a pretty good traditional theremin mimic, and the second really showing off the power of this platform.
Kudos to Jacob for making me re-think my opinion of what a photo theremin can do!
With its accelerometer, digital compass, and sound generation capabilities, the iPhone has become a popular platform for theremin simulator applications. We've put together a handy round-up of all the theremin apps we could find. Many of these are also available for the iPod Touch or iPad too.
Octant is an acoustic-robotic band built by lead singer Matt Steinke. He's raising money to produce a record of the mechnical band's songs. His "Optical Theremin Sampling Watch" is availble as a premium for a donation, the details are on the Octant Kickstarter project site.
Skip Note Studio's entry into the iPhone theremin category is Air Melody, an app that combines an innovative pitch wheel with traditional theremin-like dynamics controls to create a truly playable instrument. On top of that, it feautres built-in iPod controls so you can jam along to your favorite tracks "thereoke" style. I recently took Air Melody for a spin on my iPhone 3gs with iOS 4.0, and... read more
Yes folks, that's a bazooka wired up to work like a theremin. This ultra-modified theremin was on display today as part of the "Beating swords into ploughshares" exihibit in Farnham, Surrey. The exhibit featured a set of recycled military equipment transformed into musical instruments.
Today at E3, Microsoft finally unveiled the long-awaited productized version of the Project Natal video inteface for the xBox 360. The new official product name is "Kinect". We first saw this device demonstrated at E3 last year, and the hype has been growing ever since.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, Kinect allows you to play games on your xBox 360 by simply moving your body. It's similar to the Wii Remote in concept, but you don't have to hold any sort of remote control device. Simply save your hands and magic happens. Sounds familiar?
Watching the Kinect demos and reading about its capabilities got me thinking... This is an opportunity for someone to make a really good video theremin. Today's video theremins are fun, but quite honestly they're all "toys" at best. With the detailed movement resolution Kinect has, the full body image recognition, and its ability to map your face onto an on-screen avatar, you could imagine a really special video theremin interface. What if you could perform on a virtual RCA Theremin as Leon Theremin himsef?
I have no idea if there will be an easily accessible development SDK for the Kinect, but surely someone will figure out how to write code for it sooner or later. What that time comes, I hope they think about making a video theremin with Kinect!
This video's actually been around for quite a while (it's over 2 years old), but I just ran across it and thought it deserved a bit of attention. The project uses ARToolKit, a software library for building Augmented Reality (AR) applications, and a webcam to simulate a virtual theremin.
In the video, the player holds 2 sheets of paper decorated with specific glyphs. A webcam recognizes the glyphs and can calculate their 3D position and orientation, translating that into control messages for the virtual theremin.
The video is annotated throughout with text in Japanese, so if any of our Japanese readers could help with a translation, perhaps we could learn more about this very cool concept.
I think there's a lot more that could be done with this idea, such as letting a person play a virtual 3D RCA theremin complete with a realtime simulation of the actual RCA sound. Anyone out there up to the challenge?
Ugo Sangiorgi has a new spin on the concept of a "phone theremin". Unlike most theremin apps on phones which rely on dragging your finger across the surface of the phone or tilting it back and forth, Ugo takes advantage of the compass in his HTC Tattoo and manipulates sound with a coin.
Check out the video on his blog here. Great stuff - can't wait to see what the final product ends up looking like!
