Therisynth

[richardnixon]

Here's a pretty simple 3 osc patch, but controlled by a theremin (audio input into G2).

The theremin's audio output is tracked by a zero counter module which then feeds pitch control signal to the 3 oscillators in the patch. An envelope follower also tracks the amplitude of the theremin signal so you can still control the volume of the synth from the Theremin.

There is also a switchable "autotune" circuit with adjustable key and glide (between quantized pitches) for those of us thereminists-in-training.

Finally, the Control Pedal morph group has been patched to the filter cutoff so you can control filter sweeps from your foot while your 2 hands work the theremin (Hey Darwin, where's that 3rd hand I always seem to need!?).

*for best pitch tracking, experiment with the waveform settings on your theremin. In theory a sine wave should work the best. (eg. On my Moog Etherwave, having both the waveform and brightness knobs fully counter-clockwise produces the best pitch tracking)

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Therisynth.pch2
Description:		Download (listen)
Filename:	Therisynth.pch2
Filesize:	2.45 KB
Downloaded:	1692 Time(s)

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[Gordon Charlton]

I'm a thereminist seriously considering getting a G2 engine with the specific intention of driving it with my moog etherwave.

Could you comment on how well the pitch and amplitude tracking work with your patch?

Ideally, would it be possible to provide an audio file with the audio output of the theremin on the left, and the output of your patch on the right, please?

Also could you take a screen snapshot of the patch please, as I would like to see what it looks like but cannot load it into the demo software.

Thank you.

[blue hell]

Welcome Gordon.

To see the patch you could download the real editor at http://www.clavia.se/products/nordmodular/software.htm and open the patch in that one. It will not play the patch then of course, without the hardware.

When you install it you might want to not let it take the pch2 file extension, so that by default patches will still open in the demo software.

[Gordon Charlton]

Jan, that was a very helpful suggestion. Thanks.

And richardnixon, if you're still around, that's a lovely patch - I'm a complete beginner, but I can see how it works and it looks like an ideal starting point for when my finances allow me to actually buy a Nord. In fact it looks like a good patch to take with me to a shop along with my etherwave for a test drive.

[blue hell]

Gordon, there might even live some helpful g2 owning forum member near you, but you'd have to be a bit more specific on your location then I guess

[Gordon Charlton]

I'm sitting on the sofa by the window in the living room.

Is that specific enough?

Oh.

Er.

Ah, I see.

Near Watford, Herts. I've put the kettle on.

[blue hell]

[richardnixon]

Hi Gordon,
The pitch tracking on the G2 works extremely well, much better than I had thought it would. I do sometimes get a bit of what sounds like hi-freq aliasing when the theremin's pitch is near zero beat, however, since one rarely actually plays at that frequency, other than for effect, it isn't a bother. There can also be some odd noises when you go from barely touching the pitch antenna to actually touching it. Again, this isn't done very often so it doesn't become a problem (although we did use this sound on a friends record as an effect with great results!) Also, as I mentioned in the original post, set both the waveform and brightness controls fully counter-clockwise for the best tracking results.

The Amplitude tracking is also spot on, it's very responsive, almost exactly like the unprocessed theremin.

The autotune section is a bit of a joke and not very useful. There is a glide module to make the transitions between "quantized" notes a bit less abrupt, but that only helps so much. It's original intention was to be able to also convert the pitch tracked theremin to a MIDI signal (which would obviously have to be quantized to specific MIDI notes + pitchbend), but that didn't work out either.

The patch certainly does allow for some great tonal variations with the theremin. You can't help but smile when doing a long glissando and sweeping the filter with a foot pedal

[Gordon Charlton]

[richardnixon]

[Gordon Charlton]

Excuse me while I air my ignorance for a moment.

My first thought was - well you could use the nord to do the audio->CV, but I noticed it doesn't have CV out.

But then I noticed the demo lets you connect CV lines to the audio out. I didn't post this because I realised CV out and audio out were at different levels etc. so not compatible.

Then I saw a link to this: http://synthesizers.com/q125.html in a posting over on thereminworld.com so now I'm wondering if you could use the nord to do the conversion and send the result to its audio outs, then tweak the audio outs of the nord so they fitted the CV ins on your voyager.

Probably there's some good tech reason why not, but it's a thought.

[varice]