Omer Yosha has created a beautiful, elegant interface that uses infrared sensors to control music applications. Touch-free interfaces, of course, date back to the Theremin, but Omer is trying some new things here, creating an invisible matrix of controls in the air. And I love the way the physical object looks. He writes to tell us about the details:

I’m an Interface Design student from the FH Potsdam (near Berlin), i have a musical background, and the idea to create an AirPiano developed as i was playing around with the Arduino board, Processing and some IR sensors in my free time. It was fun controlling MIDI through moving my hands in the air, so i eventually found a way to set it all up in a way that makes sense and that is easy to control.
The concept behind the AirPiano is having a matrix in the air, with virtual keys & faders. The location of each key must be very clear for the user and easily learnt. The AirPiano is therefore only one example of an application that could adopt this concept. Since it is only the first prototype i built, it features at the moment a matrix with 3 layers, 8 keys for each layer. As long as a key is triggered, a note plays and an LED underneath the virtual key turns on (unfortunately it is hard to see it on the videos). The LEDs give the user additional feedback. The device is connected through USB and communicates with the AirPiano Software, which allows the user to assign each key/fader with a Note/Controller number, Channel and Velocity as well as transpose and save/load presets. The AirPiano Software can communicate with any MIDI instrument/sequencer. It is of course a polyphonic controller.
The AirPiano is not only fun to play, it also invites to experiment, to explore endless arrangements and develop new playing techniques. It might be useful for DJ performance, as a music therapy instrument or as a toy.
I’m at the moment trying to look for investors and people that could help me take this idea further. I presented the prototype two months ago in the Hannover Messe and received very good feedback. The concept is protected as a Provisional U.S. Patent Application.

If you can help him, chime in! I’d love to see what develops.

Here it is controlling Ableton Live:

More photos and another video to give you a sense of how this works (it’s particularly clear once you see the software interface):

Our friends at the Spanish-language site Hispasonic.com are streaming Theremin music live for free worldwide from the Ethermusic Festival in Moog country, North Carolina. (Pictured, right: Randy George.)

Hispasonic TV

When it’s not live, the previous recording plays on continuous loop. From Hispasonic’s Xabier:

Now we are just replaying the yesterday concert. The next live webcast will be at 2:30 AM (GMT+2) - 08:30 PM (GMT-4).

And speaking of Moog, here’s an update from Frank Schubert, who played at the show, regarding Moog’s new guitar:

The show was great.  We opened up and then did a piece with Justin from Moog who was playing the guitar.  Then they did the formal announcement, described the guitar and then Justin and his band played a 25 minute set with the guitar.  Kevin Kissinger played a great set and then was joined by Justin on the Moog guitar as well.  There were a bunch of people shooting video and photos.  They will most likely make them available – I will let you know when they are posted.  We did not take any video.

I did get to play the guitar for a minute.  It felt great.  It also sounded great when played.  So I think it is official….

In comments — a correction to Frank’s description:

Jason Daniello from MoogMusic demonstrated the new Moog Guitar and his band’s name is The Broomstars

Okay, so that bit where I thought it was an April Fool’s joke — sorry! (Yeah, my April record hasn’t been so fantastic, since the Ableton Vocoder also appears to be in development.)

If anyone has other photos/video, drop us a line!

There’s a simply insane amount of electrified music happening here in the US this week:

• Bent Festival NY: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights are concerts at the Bent Festival in NY, not only of circuit bending but other DIY sound, as well. Stop by Saturday during the day for a day full of workshops. (also on Facebook)
• Thursday, Bent NY sponsor The Tank will be hosting Warper Vs. Splice, a 2-floor audiovisual collision in downtown NYC; I’ll be on music + eyethings in the middle of the evening. (See Facebook)
• Saturday, The Tank hosts the 8-bit crowd, also concurrent with Bent, at the regular Pulsewave, in case at that point you’ve had your fill of bending and higher bit depths
• Bent Festival Minneapolis does it all again next weekend (Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights) for the middle of America, with workshops during the day. Don’t miss our friends Beatrix*Jar (above) and CDM’s Mike Una giving a free workshop — get there early for one of 12 MIDI-to-relay kits to use.
• Ethermusic Festival in North Carolina won’t just have a lineup of all the world’s great Theremin players, with people like Dorit Chrysler (below), Lydia Kavina, Sheuh-Li Ong, and other important people, plus CDM readers Scott Burland and Frank Shultz doing a Theremin + lap steel duet. (Thanks to Frank for the heads-up!) It’ll also have something else…

It sounds as though Moog Music is going to officially announce the thing they’re making that involves subliminal guitar images during Ethermusic. So, if you’re there, bring a camera for any one of those reasons.

As I write this, both Moog’s and Ethermusic’s sites are hiccupping; hopefully the Evil Carolina Server Hag hasn’t gotten to them. I’m sure all is well as you read this.

Now, I’m embarrassed to admit that I can’t actually play Theremin any better than this cat. Not worse, necessarily. I’m very much on the cat’s level. Fortunately, I won’t be playing Theremin tomorrow at The Tank.

The Martenot is a bit like the Theremin’s sexy, friendly younger sister. If the Theremin is a tricky-to-drive race car, the Martenot is a sleek, road-ready coupe. (Okay, I’ve been watching way, way too much Top Gear.)

Anyway, the Martenot gets way too little credit. It’s played the theme from Star Trek. (Not a Theremin.) It’s played Radiohead. It’s played some really gorgeous Messiaen. Martenot met Theremin and the two went on to direct the course of electrified music in the 20th Century.

The Martenot has gotten a lovely round-up on MetaFilter:

Ondes Martenot, or, When Maurice Met Leon

… and you can read more at Obsolete.com, or even Encyclopedia Britannica. (Those over the age of 25, you can explain the retro appeal of these early treeware Wikipedias.)

Andrew Cordani of Midisticks sends this our way, and just at the right time — the Martenot is a terrific example of the kind of thing you can do with continuous controllers, like ribbons. So go pick up that free ribbon circuit kit and get with the inventing! Come on, "will exercise more" is no fun as a New Years’ resolution, is it? How about "will build my own Martenot"?

Just in case mastering the subtleties of playing a Theremin isn’t hard enough for you, you’re in luck: you can master the subtleties of building a robot that has to then master the subtleties of playing the Theremin.

Sarah Angliss, a human Thereminist in the UK, sends us this video of a creepy doll robot playing the Theremin. (If you’re prone to the jeebilies, you may not want to watch. Sarah writes, “I’ve posted my latest jam with Clara 2.0, the theremin playing robot doll, on YouTube. Hope you enjoy watching her talents (or lack of them).” (Technical details after the jump.)

Our friend Ranjit promises this week he’ll bring his Theremin-playing bots to Handmade Music, so if you’re in the NYC area and free this Thursday, you can meet them in person. If not, here they are on YouTube playing “Crazy”. Ranjit describes thusly:

ROBOT BAND! LEV the thereminbot and his newly-built pal thumpbot play “Crazy” with help from a 20-year-old MT32 synthesizer. OK, Lev’s a bit out of tune, but hey, ROBOTS. A tribute to The Ether & Aether Experiment’s marvelous performance.

I don’t know. I’m nervous. I think we’d better whip up some Theremin Laws of Robotics quickly. (Wait — on second thought, those conflicting laws don’t work out very well, do they?)

More technical details on how Sarah pulled off her creeptacularly brilliant robo-Thereminist:

Handmade Music, the semi-regular evening of DIY musical oddities brought to you by CDM, Etsy, and Make Magazine, will mercilessly descend upon yet another peaceful Brooklyn evening. Expect an informal, free party + show and tell + science fair featuring self-made electronic musical projects.

Already confirmed for the lineup:

• The MIDI Pick, a pressure-sensitive DIY digital guitar pick by Roy Vanegas


• Mystery musical controllers from Eric Singer, the mind behind the world-infamous LEMUR, an educational outlet in Brooklyn and collective of musical robot/electronics-creating artists
• Theremin-playing robots and possibly other surprises from series favorite Ranjit Bhatnagar. (See the Theremin robots in action, covering Gnarls Barkley. If we’re really lucky, Ranjit will bring his students. Students, if you’re listening, we’d love to have you there!


• David Brynjar Franzson with a generative piece using custom software built in Max/MSP

And I’ll have a new iteration of my video/gesture-controlled musical creation, which allows users to virtually navigate musical structures via a webcam/DV cam. Going to keep working on that until it develops into something, then share how to do it, hopefully. I may have a surprise or two, as well, in addition.

But that’s just the beginning of the lineup, because part of the lineup can be … you.

Share Your Work in Person

As always, we welcome projects in progress to show off and share. Got something brilliant? Got something partly finished? Got something completely broken you can’t figure it out? Bring it out. I know we had at least one person from the circuit bending challenge in the greater NYC area, so of course we’d love to bring some of that into meatspace / the real world.

Share Your Work Virtually Around the World

I’ve felt bad that we can’t involve the global CDM community, much of whom, as it happens, don’t live in the NYC area. (A remarkable number of you are in Australia and Norway.) So, the circuit bending challenge video submissions worked so well, we’re going to open up the event to virtual projects on the Interwebs. Got an unusual music project — even one in progress — you’d like to share? Send us photos and/or embeddable video links by Thursday morning New York time or so, and we’ll feature it here on the site and hopefully (if wifi is cooperative) even have a “kiosk” going at the party. Best way: drop us a line on the CDM contact form.

Fair game: circuit bending, chiptune - vintage gear, DIY controllers, handmade software (code, Reaktor - Max - Pd patches, SuperColldier, whatever), hacked hardware, the works.

Drop by!

As always…

Where: Etsy Labs (blog)
325 Gold Street, 6th Fl.
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(the building has a big clock tower on it. Do NOT put too many people in the elevator! Read the sign!)

Subway: Take the A/C/F to Jay St. or B/M/Q/R to DeKalb.
Map

When: 8:00pm - whenever

Cost: FREE (light refreshments provided; feel free to bring some more)

Bring stuff if you like, or just come to hang.

Ranjit Bhatnagar, aka Moon Milk Labs, sends this crazy video of his robotic Theremin playing away on Patsy. (After the jump, Theremins playing Crazy, the song.)

See also the Moonmilk YouTube page for more. Yes, the robot struggles a bit with the Theremin … but then again, so do I.

We’ll be getting up close and personal with this bot this Saturday at the Etsy Halloween party, along with me working on some ghostly video-controlled music and various other oddities and surprises. And we’re just one part of a whole, wild Halloween fiesta courtesy Etsy Labs and friends. Come out if you’re free, and if you’re in other parts of the world, expect some project details soon. (Not to mention our big CDM holiday this weekend, which is the Circuit Bending Challenge, on Sunday.)

Come As You Aren’t: Etsy Labs Halloween Party [Storque @ Etsy.com]

Ranjit had a really lifelike robot that played violin beautifully, but I made the mistake of giving it a Voigt-Kampff test and it’s been a little, erm, odd ever since. Think that’s Crazy? This is:

If you want a look at the future of music, DeVotchKa might be a glimpse. On first hearing, you say, “hmmm, they sound sort of Eastern European … punk.” And then you realize they’re singing in Spanish. In fact, this band, which got an extra injection of popularity from the movie Little Miss Sunshine, is a hybrid Romani - Greek - Slavic - Spanish - Latin - Punk - Folk - Rock indie band that got its start playing burlesque.

What does this have to do with digital music creation? Because if technology is every going to escape being a novelty, best left to studio recording experts or electronic-specific niches, artists will first have to liberate electronic sound. That means, much as we love the Theremin being used as a Star Trek cover instrument, its repertoire will have to broaden, finally freed from its “sci-fi” trappings.

Speaking of going beyond traditional instruments like keyboards, the urge to reinvent pitch interfaces continues. Via comments, we’ve got some additions. tripmastermonkee points us to this demo by DJ Woody on the Vestax Controller One, the turntable with pitch control and pitch buttons seen previously on CDM:

Sure, there are other ways of acheiving the same result (there usually are), but there’s something wonderfully material about seeing it done on a turntable, and the results sound really unique. PS: said it before, but will say it again, Scratchworx is an awesome DJ web publishing powerhouse.

And if you just can’t get enough Theremin cover tunes: