Category: theremin

Soma COSMOS

The legendary tape-loop experimental art setup pioneered by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, later labelled “Frippatronics” has long held fascination for me. Tape loop overdubs that interfere, decay and randomly reassign have the potential as a musical system to elevate play into really different places.

I saw a post on HAINBACH’s youtube channel comparing and contrasting “loopers”, I was instantly fascinated by a relatively recent instrument out of Soma Labs in Poland – the Soma COSMOS. Labelled as a “Drifting Memory Station”, it is a modern re-creation of a tapeloop setup that has a huge number of variations, or algorithms, that have the job of repeating and distributing incoming audio across a number of tracks in various places in the stereo field. I knew I had to have one. Finding a distributer and subsequent back-ordering has taken an age but I now own a unit and wasted no time exploring it.

Initially, I patched in my Stylophone Gen X2 into the input, and began noodling to see what the various algorithms do. There is a 2 and 4 channel tape loop simulation, with loop lengths varying from 2.5, 9.5 or 22 seconds, a huge reverb chamber algorithm and an asynchronous granular delay algorithm – all 4 do really different things with the incoming signal.

My first recording used the stylophone, giant reverb and you can watch a recording of me performing it here:

The sound on the YouTube post-processing is a little grainy (and not true to the recording), the Soundcloud recording is as it was recorded during the session:

By noodling, I found the best results came from restraint – the loops get dense really quickly unless you throttle the feedback. “Drift” settings control how the input and subsequent repeats are distributed in the stereo field and “Blur” controls how quickly the signals melt into each other. It seems to prefer MONO input as it then creates the stereo picture as the sounds evolve – all very interesting.

Additionally, apparently i can download NEW firmware that reassigns the Cosmos into a percussion station and a conventional looper, so there is LOADS more to explore in this instrument. I have barely scratched the surface of its capabilities.

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Narwhal

It was a dark and stormy night, after a cold and grey day.

I hooked my Clara up to my Ditto+ looper pedal, scrolled to an empty track, plugged the iPad in, selected a “tundra” wind voice and recorded a gentle wind that develops into a storm and then abates over a 3 minute period. Then, using the Ditto+ I player over that, layering ethereal voices strategically, concentrating on the narrative – a total of 6 extra passes to get an ambient piece I titled “Narwhal”.

The only post-production was to fade in and out cleanly top and tail. Very pleasing that a piece can emerge, as played – I like this style of composition.

It reminds me of an arctic soundscape … but you be the judge.

Amp

For both my Claravox and Theremini I usually use headphones, reasoning the god-awful din I am generally making should not be shared.

Annoyingly, the headphone socket on the Theremini is a 3.5mm plug, whereas the Claravox has a 6.35mm (1/4 inch), so I learned quickly that a QUALITY dongle that converts pays in the long run. I had some little one-piece converters that are microscopically loose so crackle, whereas the extender cable I bought is flush and positive.

While I was working at my last school I used to borrow a powered keyboard speaker from the Music department over the holidays because hearing the instrument in the room rather than through headphones is different, and sometimes I like it. This speaker cost a fortune (well, beyond that which I was prepared to pay) because it had so many features – I actively had to dial the gain down to near ZERO else the feed from the theremins were too loud.

Eventually I figured I would have a mixer feeding the speaker, and a laptop controlling that, so did not need all those inputs or advanced speaker control on the actual speaker.

Having a gig experience further drove my desire to be able to make noise that can fill a space, so set about looking for a powered speaker that had the dynamic range for both Clara and Theremini. I settled, after much agonising, discussion and comparison of published specifications on a relatively cost-effective Behringer:

It has a 10 inch speaker and a smaller tweeter, nice solid construction, handles and so on – a terrific (in my opinion) value package from StoreDJ, which I had delivered.

Connecting it to both theremins produces a lovely warm sound and fills the room even on low volumes. In tests I triggered all the dogs in my suburb by using high frequencies at high volumes – and boy is it loud without distortion at high levels.

The unit is nice and portable and, should I ever decide to gig again this will be a terrific tool. It is nice to see my home studio expanding.

Cover

When you think about the word “cover” in the context of a musical instrument, you often jump to a “cover version” – this post is about a physical cover.

Claravox dust cover.

The Claravox does not come with a travel case, or any means of storage except the beautiful original packaging (which I will certainly use for transportation). Storing it when not being played, I decided it needed a dust cover, and my talented wife came to my assistance.

Essentially a rectangular “bag”, hemmed and double-seamed cotton-blend, the solution also contains an antenna sleeve for the volume antenna (the stickey-uppey one) to prevent it from eventually punching through the corner of the cover, and a headphone sleeve that allows me to hang my headphones over the pitch arm without leaving marks.

I like the simple black utilitarian style, just perfect. One corner folds over and hitches slightly on the volume antenna to make it sit square. I am hoping it will keep the instrument safe and dust-free for years to come.

Vox

When browsing the Moog website, quite naturally I was drawn to the Claravox Centennial Theremin as my “if I could have anything, I would want that” choice, only to be disappointed to learn that it was discontinued as an actively produced instrument. Mike, my best friend, now deceased, and I had discussed for many years getting a Theremin, what made a good one, whether we would buy a kit and build it or whether we would buy a pre-made one, but his declining health made such discussions merely academic towards the end.

dedication

I was not really interested in buying one second-hand: call me pretentious but I do not want to buy an electronic instrument that someone else wanted to get rid of, my experience is that they want to get rid of it for a reason. I was new to me, it had to be new new.

vox box

I bought a Etherwave Theremini because of the extra synthesiser/editor functions, and still love it for being a gentle “in” to the highly opinionated and secular field of Theremin playing. It’s digital re-creation of the Theremin experience is fascinating, yet widely reviled in the same community for whatever vapid reasons.

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