It may be 2009, but you can still play electronic music as though you’re an invading alien visitor from the future. Just ask The Sonic Manipulator, an electronic musical performer and inventor, alias Claude Woodward. His musical creations range from warped radios to instruments derived from turntable scratches and Theremins. And then there are some instruments that seem to be sonic weapons. (Apologies to recent protesters in Pittsburgh.)
CDM reader Andrew Cordani caught Claude at the UK’s British Invention Show. Claude is apparently a Perth, Australia transplant, by way of Cambridge, though Andrew writes that he “has been known to travel about a bit (Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Alpha Centauri, Epsilon Indi, Teegarden’s star and further).”
Making music into an object – the central genius of recording – could be a wonderful thing. But the CD was always somewhat utilitarian as a distribution mechanism, with its easily-splintered plastic jewel case and inserted artwork that paled next to the grand visions of the LP.
Moldover is the latest artist to experiment with ways of re-imagining the musical object. Already a fan of custom sonic circuitry, he made his CD into a circuit board. Some of it is just aesthetic, like the printed lettering. But there is also integrated noise-making circuitry for a very simple optical Theremin (well, at least, a light sensor-driven oscillator), plus a headphone jack. There’s actually quite a lot of function you can get out of that when plugging into a computer.
The album itself is comprised jazzy bleepy jams (in varying proportions). You do pay for this deluxe, handmade circuit goodness. The US$25 “Pocket Edition” seems to be the sweet spot, with a pocketable version of the circuit board. It still has a built-in speaker, turning the jewel case into self-sufficient sonic hardware instead of a throwaway. The $50 version comes with the full custom-printed circuit board for the track listing, but you can’t pocket it, which means you have exactly $25 and one custom Theremin less in your pocket.
The joy of being on YouTube is you get strange comments like this:
Who let you out? of your mom’s basement? Go back to building lego trainsets to transport your cocoa from the kitchen to your computer desk.
Hey – that’s a great idea, come to think of it.
Justifying the musical object can sometimes get ridiculous, but so long as there are genuinely creative ideas that fit the music, I think music may have a more interesting future in the post-industry world than it did before.
Updated – previous applications of this idea: I’m typing quickly before I head to lunch, and I commit the major sin of not mentioning our friend Tristan Perich’s infamous 2005 release 1-bit Music. Whereas Moldover is turning the packaging into an instrument and inserting a traditional CD, Tristan made the entire jewel box the playback mechanism – the album is embedded in the circuitry, and you listen to it directly.
An electronic circuit is assembled inside a CD case with a headphone jack on the side. The device plays back 40 minutes of low-fi 1-bit electronic music—the lowest possible digital representation of audio.
We talk a lot about novelty, but my hope is people rip off both Moldover’s and Tristan’s idea here – and invent their own twist on this concept. I’d love to have a shelf full of circuit CDs, instead of dead, silent plastic!
(If you don’t know what he’s talking about, see here.)
Yes, in case you’re looking for a creative way to practice your Theremin playing, here you go. Now, where’s our Theremin Hero game? From the description by Glasgow-based YouTuber conquerearth, previously seen using the Theremin to play “Still Alive.”
This is even more fun with two people playing! One person controls left/right, the other controls jump.
Its not just limited to the theremin. Its even possible to hook up a microphone and use your voice to control the game! Or a guitar! Or a violin!
Heres how it works:
The sound from the theremin is split into its frequency and amplitude components in real time, which are then mapped to values in a linear scale representing the X and Y axis. Pitch becomes horizontal control, and Volume becomes vertical control.
The X and Y scales are then cut up into different zones. In this case, Left; Right and dead zones for the horizontal, and a single trigger and dead zone for the vertical.
The trigger zones are then mapped onto a virtual joystick hooked into an emulator.
The end result is a fairly usable input control for playing games like mario. The bars give the much needed visual feedback as to how “in tune” you are, so you have a better feel of where the trigger points are.
I’m sure there’s a deeper meaning I could extract about gestural controllers, expressive musical instruments, and the meaning of life, but it’s Friday and it’s lunch break time. If you can do my job, feel free – add in comments. (If your cat walks across your keyboard, it’ll still probably come across as more intelligent than an average YouTube comment, so have at it!)
Based on work with the Oblong g-speak “spatial operating environment” gestural system – research that inspired the film Minority Report – our friend Trey Harrison has been doing some wonderful work with new Theremin-style interfaces. He writes:
I have been working with Oblong Industries (http://oblong.com) and
took some of my
spare time to combine their technology with my Salvation project
(http://slvtn.com)
and build a theremin-like instrument.
There are three degrees of control:
Pitch is adjusted by moving hands left and right.
Volume is adjusted by moving hands up and down.
Vibrato is adjusted by moving hands foward and backward.
Many players and hands are possible, and the control can be applied to any MIDI instrument.
I like the fact that two hands are only the beginning — invite friends for collaborative sessions and get an octo-armed version! The pitch scaling certainly makes it easier to hit the notes, although it does remove some of the expressive pitch bends of the original Theremin. It’d be nice if an additional gesture (pinching, perhaps?) could allow you to warp between scale degrees.
Score one for “old school” on the Theremin – minus one for “old school” on the Minimoog keyboard.
There’s plenty of debate about whether or not you can justify splurging on the extra cash for the Moog name on synths and effects – no one questions Moog’s quality, but there is other great boutique gear out there that gets far less attention. But one area where the Moog line is unquestionably superior is on the Theremin. And the Etherwave Plus at US$519 is an instrument you can really sink your musical teeth into over a period of years. With the addition of a Control Voltage output, you can control other instruments and effects, too. (Reader velocipede checked out a demo with Theremin controlling a guitar filter.) CV outs for pitch and volume are separated, so each hand gets isolated control. It’s a lovely setup, and I wouldn’t hesitate to get the Plus version.
So, the Theremin gets a little more old school with the Etherwave Plus. But meanwhile, Moog Music has announced they’re building only 200 more units of the Minimoog Voyager Old School model, which we admired at last year’s NAMM. This keyboard added retro wood-paneled styling, but took “old school” literally by eliminating patch memory and MIDI – the very features added to the Voyager that gave it more modern appeal. I expect the Old School may never have been intended for a longer run, but I’m not sure any of our readers will mourn its loss – the response to losing MIDI was a resounding “huh?”, and the Old School still costs US$2595.
Still, you have to give props to the Old School for having the best slogan ever, even if it was only used internally: “Got Balls?”
How many products dare you to use them based on features they don’t have? (Too bad Moog didn’t use this as the official slogan, suggesting their answer was “Nope.” Well, at least as far as marketing. They’re no Synthi.)
I’d still love to see a Moog product that’s not an effects unit but does bring a little something to bargain-minded synth lovers. Maybe a NanoPhatty?
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