Wow, Kids! Be the First on Your Block to Download the Virtual Theremin!

[WombatWoman]

Many of us who grew up with '50s sci-fi movies have a secret hankering for a theremin of our very own. For those of you to whom the 1950s is ancient history: a theremin is not a multivitamin product. A theremin is an electronic musical instrument whose eerie sound is unmistakeable. You "play" it by waving your arms in the air above it! How cool is that?!

Think "Forbidden Planet". Or, much more recently, "Mars Attacks".

Now we can all make our own spooky UFO music, by downloading this neat-o Desktop Theremin!

The download is fairly lengthy, but well worth it for a theremin freak. The program has many features to be fiddled with; a bit of practice will enable you to amaze your family, confuse your neighbours, and make your dog howl as if tormented by a banshee.

Shockwave 8 is required in order to run the Desktop Theremin.

Woooooo EEEEEE OOOOOO......

 

[crab]

Hmm I would but this hospital has sh!tty phone lines & I'm connected at 24Kbps.
Sounds cool tho

 

[Stark]

groovy.

 

[ratkil]

k, fess up, who spiked the wombat's cheerios this morning? ;-)

It is good to see you back though.

 

[ultravox]

The first time I saw Zep, Jimmy Page used one in "Whole Lotta Love"...not much arm waving there. He just passed his arms over it quickly and away he went.

 

[Bozo Galora]

I once went to a Clara Rockmore Theremin "concert".
If you want to hear the beauty of this instrument, check out a CD called Gravicords, Whirlies & Pyrophones (Ellipsis Arts)

A thousand books could be written about Theremin, the Russian Edison.

I almost bought a Theremin for a very gifted daughter of a friend of mine.

What was that line? "Klaatu, Barada, Nictu"

Another instrument that fascinates me is the Daxaphone (also on CD)

 

[Bozo Galora]

And, as far as the "waving of the hands", its not necessary with the Theremin. One hand controls frequency (up and down) while the other controls intensity (in and out). The whole point of the instrument is to allow a natural interface from the brain to the output that is produced. In other words, no strings, valves, reeds, etc.

Edit: Rythmic waving IS used for vibrato tremolo effects.

 

[DAGTA]

My ex built a theremin a while back. Interesting instrument.
-DAGTA

 

[geno]

Weird but cool

 

[jjm]

A bit late, but let me just say welcome back to WombatWoman. The quality of the forum suffered greatly without you.

 

[Fiddy]

If you put the weirdness control all the way to the left, and move your cursor along the top of you desktop right to left, it will sound like the beginning of a old CARS song.

 

[Bozo Galora]

Edit: Hmmmmmm, appears these links are too long to take

Well, just go to http://images.google.com and type in theremin