How do i make a theremin

[Onkel Dunkel]

Ok this might sound silly :P I have a Moog Etherwave theremin witch i try to learn how to play. Then i got this strange idea. Why not try to recreate the sound of my theremin in my Virus Just for fun and maybe for sequensing it and at the same time i could practice my sound designing skills (or lack of same ). I didn?t think it would be very hard but i can?t seem to get the sound right Does anyone have any brilliant ideas? For people who don?t know what a theremin is check:
http://www.thereminworld.com/
and
http://www.moogmusic.com/detail.php?main_product_id=14

It?s the one on Moog?s website i want to copy. There is also audio samples of it on their site...

[Juho L]

The simplest sound on earth.

-Single sine wave.
-Monophonic.
-Lots of portamento.
-Slow pitch LFO to aftertouch and volume on modwheel.

There you go. Then just spice up the sound with light distortion, delay, chorus, what ever you like.

[Onkel Dunkel]

Thanks, i?ll try that though my keyboard dosn?t have aftertouch (i knew i skould have bought the KC ).

[Juho L]

Originally Posted by Onkel Dunkel

Thanks, i?ll try that though my keyboard dosn?t have aftertouch (i knew i skould have bought the KC :wink: ).

Well, you could set the vibrato amount on assignable knob and use it. This of course makes controlling the vibrato and volume simulteously a bit tricky.

[phreak]

Jep or just use a env mode LFO to do a little Delay of the Vibra. Just use TRI shape with maximum conture to get a up ramp. Set the speed to little above half and rout that to the LFO amout wich u use to do a vibrato. The AMP envelopment gots a little bit of attack, almost max decay, half of sustain and release(?!?) dont know.

[Juho L]

Originally Posted by phreak

Jep or just use a env mode LFO to do a little Delay of the Vibra.

There' s a delay function on the LFO itself.

[subosc1]

or you can just use the theramin patch already created by someone. It is called theramos & just deconstruct it. I think it came with the 1024 upload.

[Onkel Dunkel]

Hmmm, tried both Juho?s suggestion and the "theremos" but they both sound to nice and clean. The real thing has a more harsh or raw sound if you can call it that. I did a recording of both and when zooming to the waveforms you can see that the theremin is not a pure sine wave. Have a listen:

Pure wave from the virus:
http://hjem.get2net.dk/revolution/thermio.mp3

The real thing:
http://hjem.get2net.dk/revolution/theremin.mp3

Sorry about the poor audio quality

[Juho L]

Originally Posted by Juho L

Then just spice up the sound with light distortion

You forgot to add the saturation.

[Onkel Dunkel]

You forgot to add the saturation

Danm i forgot That helped (a bit) It also helped using the analog Moog filter instead of lowpass. Still not the same though Maybe i?ll twidlle around with some knobs and see if i can improve it when i have more time :P