THE LOST VOLTS THEREMIN
Uncle Howie
A new theremin is being marketed by a British concern called Lost
Volts. (lostvolts.com)
I have watched Thomas Grillo review and play this new very basic, and
very poor, version of a theremin with innumerable drawbacks. These are:
Horrendous non-linearity
Muffled sound
No timbre control
Sound changes basic timbre with volume changes at some settings of the
loop volume control.
Pitch and volume antennas too close together
The only good item is the master volume control knob that can
provide a vernier adjustment of the line output to keep from
overloading the amplifier.
Go to:
thereminvox.com. for your introduction to this new toy.
Uncle Howie
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Peter Pringle
Uncle,
Our friend and LevNet colleague, Gordon C., has ordered one of theses theremins and will no doubt soon have plenty to tell us about his impressions of it. Of course, Gordon is not a precision player and many of the defects that you have pointed out (if you're correct about them) may not bother him.
In my experience, the technical requirements of experimental, avant garde and FX thereminists are quite different from those of us who play Poocheenee.
Gordon Charlton
To address the points Uncle Howie raises,
I regard linearity as a positive attribute, but I started on a Kees, and I was OK with that. We shall see. If not, I think a certain theremin luthier of my acquaintance might be interested to see what horrors lie within its aluminium enclosure and advise me of what is and is not feasible. ;-)
I want to hear the basic sound on my amp and sub before I pass judgement. (Note for people putting up demos - ideally I would like uncompressed audio files that are recorded direct rather than milking the amp. I do not want the characteristics of your amp colouring the sound. I want to play back the file through my theremin amp and hear how that colours it.)
Timbre control is a difficult one. There are countless ways to shape the sound - which ways do I want it variable? All of them! As that is not practicsl I'm slowly accruing various means to vary the timbre of my existing theremins to my liking. Hopefully the timbre of the LV3 will respond well to my outboard effects, and hopefully in a different way to my Kees and my etherwave.
I rather like the way the sound distorts at higher volumes. It's not unpleasant to my ear (but i reserve judgement until hearing it live.) I am particularly keen to find out how that works with wah pedals and my Talking Machine pedal. I see it as a feature rare than a bug.
The pitch rod and volume loop look rather close to me too. For gigging purposes it's going to be my spare theremin, in case of emergency.
I agree that the master volume control knob is a good thing. Thierry's mods to my instrument included that and I am very glad of it.
That it plays low frequencies is another positive for me. Again I refer to Thierry's mods - I love the low notes he has given my etherwave, and I have even found good use for the sub-sonic frequencies it can produce. My ideal theremin would range from 30 kilohertz to 30 beats per minute!
I would like to see an effects loop - a way of inserting effect pedals after the oscillator and before the volume control, so they always receive a full volume signal. This makes some effects pedals more useable for me. I had one fitted (a rather fancy one at that) by you know who, and I hear that Subscope theremins now come with an effects loop. At some point I will likely be investigating the feasibility of doing the same with the LV3.
Gordon
Gordon Charlton
I received my LV3 theremin a few days ago and have had opportunity to play it a little, and these are my first impressions.
It's built to a price. This was confirmed by the maker, John, who I collected my LV3 from. It comes in a stock aluminium enclosure, there is no on/off switch (you unplug the power supply, and/or pull the audio jack out if there is a battery inside), installing a 9 volt battery is not made easy, the thread for fitting it to a microphone stand is tapped into a strip of Perspex (from the look of it) fixed to the base plate and the eye protector on the top of the pitch rod is (I think) one of those plastic caps that covers a screw that has been countersunk into wood. The three control pots are fitted on the underside of the circuit board, which fits exactly in the enclosure and is put in upside down, so the knobs are on the top of the enclosure rather than the side, which is good for left handed players.
Installing the battery requires removing the volume loop, unscrewing four screws and sliding the base plate off the enclosure. The battery holder is on the circuit board.
The thread for fitting to a mike stand is for the smaller of the two standard mike stand fittings. All of my mike stands (except my tabletop mike stand) came with a small screw fitting on the top, and an adaptor ring in place to make it a larger fitting (i.e. the fitting for an etherwave) so this is unlikely to be a problem. The instrument is small and light enough to be supported by a miniature mike stand such as one suitable for miking a kick drum (not a boom) which would be good for tabletop use. Or you could use a tabletop camera tripod with an adaptor ring to convert the thread to fit. Available on Amazon. (It also has four little rubber feet that it can stand on.)
The volume loop is springy and just slots into a couple of holes. On a couple of occasions I have touched it while playing and there was a lot of crackling, but not every time. I think coating the end with a conductive grease might alleviate this. The pitch rod has a screw fitting, and it also easy to fit and remove.
The circuit board looks to remove easily, but casual dismantling is not something I am inclined to do in case I muck it up. Also I think I would need a hex key to dismantle the pitch rod attachment. I like the enclosure, but it looks as if it would be fairly straightforward to put it in a different box. I did not ask John about this possibility, so it would be good to consult with him first. I noticed some trim pots inside, but they are not mentioned in the user manual, so I plan to leave them well alone.
The enclosure is quite small. Nonetheless, by using the far end of the long volume loop I can play with my arms almost of far apart as when I play my etherwave. (I tend to favour the near end of the volume loop.) I usually tune the pitch field so that the full range is available to me. To get a better spread of notes I'll be tuning the LV3 so that I need to step back for the lowest notes (i.e. those lower than a classical repertoire typically calls for) and I'm ok with that.
It takes a while to warm up and the pitch field stabilise. How long will vary according to environmental factors and the player's sensitivity to the geometry of the field and their tendency to compensate for variation subconsciously. Switching it on first and then doing all the other stuff you do before you play, including having a nice cup of tea or whatever you do to get into a relaxed state of mind, is a good idea.
I will defer judgement on the linearity to classical players, but to me it feels pretty much the same to me as the etherwave (with Thierry's extension) except for the three centimetres closest to the rod, where it goes very high very quickly until I can't hear it, and in the very low notes, where it spreads out rather than contracting like my etherwave. And it goes down to about 5Hz (again a guess, I can hear beats on my sub that are slightly faster than I can count in my head).
The volume field has an interesting geometry. With the control knob about half way, moving my hand slowly up from the loop, the volume gets louder, the the timbre gets a bit of distortion and it continues to get louder, then it gets quieter again. Making the field larger will mean you need to step further away before it goes silent, and you will have to raise your hand higher to distort the tone. I imagine classical players will place it above reach. Making the field smaller will mean the distortion kicks in sooner. I have not found a setting that makes the sound distorted all the time, but I can get it very close to the loop. Naturally adjusting the volume field like this will mean that either you will be playing very softly all the time, or very loudly. You can adjust for this with the output volume knob, to turn down loud distorted playing or turn up soft undistorted playing. There is some interplay between the two knobs, the volume field adjustment knob and the output volume knob, so it is not quite as straightforward as that. (I think. The jury is still out on that one.)
I like the undistorted timbre. The sound of a theremin depends a lot on both the player and the amp, but with me playing it through the most neutral amp I could afford (designed for singer songwriters with acoustic guitars and microphones playing small venues) it sounds very clean, and not unlike my etherwave with both waveform and brightness knobs set to about 11 o'clock (exact settings vary from one etherwave to another). I would describe it as a pure, ringing tone, pleasantly richer than a sine wave and without any obtrusive overtones. I think a skilled player could make it sing in the mid-range.
The distorted tone is quite harsh in the mid-range and better suited to the lower register, where it has some oomph. It has a lot of overtones, and seems well suited to filtering, such as with wah and formant filter pedals. (I haven't got to trying that yet, mind you.) The transition from unfiltered to filtered gives a bit of a "sh" or "ch" sound if you move your volume hand quickly through it, but moving very slowly into it gives individual harmonics entering the sound like controlled guitar feedback. It's a small range, so you have to approach it delicately. I have been building up cluster drones on my delay and just sneaking very slightly into the transition zone now and then to add little icy stabs. It's the sort of thing I enjoy doing.
I think this is a worthwhile addition to the budget theremin market, and for less than £100 is value for money. An etherwave costs around £360 in the UK, for comparison, and it is at least half as good an instrument. Its target market includes newcomers wanting to dabble their toes in the water without committing to a major expense and non-classical players. Whether a classical player would want it as a second theremin I will leave for them to decide. Battery power does make it well suited to busking, and the lack of grounding in that situation is probably easiest overcome with an antistatic wrist strap connected to the instrument, although I am sure more elegant solutions could be devised.
Gordon