Whats this sound? (1 Viewer)

[fansap]

Hey,
I is recording in zee studio tonight and I was wondering if anyone knew the name of this instrument.
I don't know if I dreamt it but it changes pitch if you move your hands closer or further away from it.
I think it's the sound used in the original Startreck?!
Anyone?

 

[hop]

would that be the thermin?

 

[anonymous coward]

a theremin.

 

[hop]

or the correct spelling: theremin?
check http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/11.02.95/theremin-9544.html

 

[Keeror]

It's a theremin, and the way you described is the way it works.
You'll hear one in the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations"
I think the high pitched "ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo" in the Star Trek theme is an Ondes Martenot, a keyboard thing - a kind of early electronic organ (afaik).

Hiroshi from Acid Mothers Temple had a kind of theremin with him on their recent Irish tour - except instead of being the usual metal rod with electro-magnetic field setup, his was about the size & shape of a tracker ball, and the sound was controlled by waving his hands across it's twin laser beams.

But that might have actually been amidi controller that he had set to trigger thermin-like sounds. I just don't know.

 

[anonymous coward]

the good vibrations thing is a 'tannerin' which makes a similar sound, but is pretty different, ie - 'hands on'

 

[fansap]

I'm assuming I couldn't get my hands on one then?
Keyboard it is

 

[billygannon]

fansap (24 Apr, 2002 02:57 p.m.):
I'm assuming I couldn't get my hands on one then?
Keyboard it is

There's definitely a few knocking around....but at such short notice it could be difficult to get your hands on it....

 

[Keeror]

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/11.02.95/theremin-9544.html

The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson tries as best he can to explain his own use of the Theremin in "Good Vibrations." A friend of a friend owned a Theremin, Wilson explains. Wilson was terrified by it but decided to add it to what he considered the scary cellos in the mix of "Good Vibrations." When Wilson vocally imitates the whine of the Theremin, you can see that he might have spotted something in the music's quality reflected inside his own troubled life.

 

[Keeror]

On the other hand....

http://www.tompolk.com/Tannerin/Tannerin.html

Like the theremin, the Tannerin is a portamento instrument. Unlike the theremin, the Tannerin has fixed reference points on a dummy keyboard so the musician knows exactly where notes can be found. Also, unlike the theremin, the Tannerin's contact switch allows for stacatto notes, which can be played as fast as the forefinger can move. The attacks are naturally hard, but can be softened by quick rotation of the volume control.

Below is the instrument that was used on the 1999 Brian Wilson solo tour. Darian Sahanaja, leader of the Wondermints, Brian's back up band, commissioned me to build it for the 1999-2000 tour

 

[anonymous coward]

Keeror (24 Apr, 2002 03:02 p.m.):
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/11.02.95/theremin-9544.html

The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson tries as best he can to explain his own use of the Theremin in "Good Vibrations." A friend of a friend owned a Theremin, Wilson explains. Wilson was terrified by it but decided to add it to what he considered the scary cellos in the mix of "Good Vibrations." When Wilson vocally imitates the whine of the Theremin, you can see that he might have spotted something in the music's quality reflected inside his own troubled life.

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/4611/tannerin.html

it's not the same thing as Leon Termens instrument, although it is called the 'electro-theremin'.

http://www.tompolk.com/Tannerin/Tannerin.html

 

[rumpus]

We have one (theremin)...still getting used to it. Snakey (Mike) bought it on the interweb from America.

We saw another antique one recently... as big as an old radio...with all sorts of controls on it...


it was kewl.


(I guess it's not a far cry from an old radio, really.)

 

[Keeror]

I guess this one clears it up all right!
Another mystery solved. Well done Thumpeders!

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/4611/tannerin.html

We are calling the instrument the Tannerin to honor Dr. Tanner and to distinguish it from the traditional theremin. There has always been a bit of confusion as to what exactly Paul's instrument was. It ended up being called an electro-theremin though it is not a theremin in the technical sense of the word. I might add that Paul himself did not name the instrument. His instrument was finished at 2 in the morning prior to its first recording session. The producers needed a name right away, I suppose. Paul said his friends referred to the instrument as Paul's box. So, through the years the instrument became known as the electro-theremin. An interesting point is that when the first record album appeared in 1959 (Music for Heavenly Bodies), the liner notes set the record straight at the very beginning that this was not a traditional theremin. They even compare its sound to Sam Hoffman's RCA theremin and point out how Paul's uses a sine wave. The liner notes make it clear that the instrument is a mechanical theremin- one utilizing a mechanical apparatus to control pitch.

 

[Keeror]

The real question is,
Has anyone out there got a spare Sruthi Box they could sell me?

 

[anonymous coward]

Keeror (24 Apr, 2002 03:13 p.m.):
I guess this one clears it up all right!
Another mystery solved. Well done Thumpeders!

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/4611/tannerin.html

We are calling the instrument the Tannerin to honor Dr. Tanner and to distinguish it from the traditional theremin. There has always been a bit of confusion as to what exactly Paul's instrument was. It ended up being called an electro-theremin though it is not a theremin in the technical sense of the word. I might add that Paul himself did not name the instrument. His instrument was finished at 2 in the morning prior to its first recording session. The producers needed a name right away, I suppose. Paul said his friends referred to the instrument as Paul's box. So, through the years the instrument became known as the electro-theremin. An interesting point is that when the first record album appeared in 1959 (Music for Heavenly Bodies), the liner notes set the record straight at the very beginning that this was not a traditional theremin. They even compare its sound to Sam Hoffman's RCA theremin and point out how Paul's uses a sine wave. The liner notes make it clear that the instrument is a mechanical theremin- one utilizing a mechanical apparatus to control pitch.

told you so.

 

[snakybus]

I'm nearly certain the Beach Boys used a tannerin rather than a theremin on "Good Vibrations". I bought a theremin last Summer, and it's cool. We've used it on one song on our new album. When I was buying it, I read up a lot about it, and was surprised to find out that the "Good Vibrations" instrument was a tannerin, even though the sleeve notes of Pet Sounds mentions the use of the theremin and says that Wilson also used it later on "Good Vibrations".

If you look at TV footage of the boys playing "Good Vibrations", you'll see that Mike Love (beardy, moany guy) is unquestionably playing a tannerin rather than a theremin - it's like a pedal steel, offers more control, whereas the theremin is an aerial or metal bar.

now for yeh!

 

[fansap]

Thanks very much...
Not one insult either.

 

[Keeror]

Well, you can see how the theremin/tannerin confusion arose - the name tannerin is relatively recent, and before it was called an electro- or mechanical-theremin.

 

[Unclealo]

rumpus (24 Apr, 2002 03:07 p.m.):
We have one (theremin)...still getting used to it. Snakey (Mike) bought it on the interweb from America.

We saw another antique one recently... as big as an old radio...with all sorts of controls on it...


it was kewl.


(I guess it's not a far cry from an old radio, really.)

How about dueling Theremins on Saturday! We (HGF) use one as well. It's taken me 3 years to get to the stage where I can (kind of) play riffs on it. Mostly I just crank up the delay pedals and make cool noises!

 

[snakybus]

Yeah, you're a proper theremin player, not like me. I can't seem to hold a note so I've just use it for twiddly noises so far. Also yours is much cooler, with more knobs and a bigger aerial yokemajig.