madtheory on myspace. It’s all the rage now.
Live album launch
Roaring Forties album launch today, two venues, two PAs, nice weather. See you there!
I recorded this in the Savoy on an Alesis 24 track. I took direct outs from FOH mic pre amps, and had the Sony ECM 717 at FOH for audience and PA. This is a great little mic! Mixed in Pro Tools with NS10M speakers, thanks to Rupert for PT guidance 🙂 I mastered it in Cubase so I could use the True Tape plugin.
Latest stuff
•New service: band photography.
•Colm O’Sullivan on electronic music in Cork, Evening Echo Sept. 8th article here.
Email Colm to suggest artists for the compilation.
•Liz: Complete track with real cellos by Adrian Curtin.
A review of the premiére of Liz in May 2004, where it formed the musical part of a modern art and ballet performance.
Images from the performance.
•Who can it Be Now? The classic Men at Work track, madtheory style.
•madtheory live: rehearsals in progress (pics soon). VJ Cashel Horgan is on board for cool visuals.
•Radioplay: Tune in to An Taobh Tuathail on R na G, Cian plays madtheory tracks. Monday – Sunday 23.00 – 01.00.
madtheory press release
M.A.D. theory or Mutual Assured Destruction was a cold war theory stating that should one superpower attack the other, both would be annihilated. It ensured that a peaceful balance was maintained.
Do we feel that this reflects the two members of the band? Two sine waves wildly out of sync, merging to form one harmonious line; each element of their personalities bringing something new and different to the other, bringing order to chaos?
No, we just thought it was a cool name, but it does evoke our formative years- the late seventies and early eighties, when nuclear war was a cloud that hung over our heads. As kids back then, we tried to imagine the future: Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Leon Theremin, Kraftwerk, Moog synths, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, the Linn LM1 drum computer, Thomas Dolby, The Buggles, Tron, the BBC Acorn, Pong, 2000ad Futureshock.
madtheory recreates that futuristic vision from the past. The sound is retro futurism: music that acknowledges the past and moves forward into the future.
Personnel: Ken Hayes, Tomás Mulcahy.
Media activity
•Radioplay: Tune in to An Taobh Tuathail on R na G, Cian has been playing madtheory tracks. Monday – Sunday 22.00 – 24.00.
femmepop is Margaret O’Sullivan, produced by Tomás.
•A review of the Accidental Tourist album, produced by Tomás, appeared in the Evening Echo Thu. Jan. 27th.
“I found that Tomás was challenging for me in that he brought out the best in the stuff” said Ray. “He was good and affirming as well.” Don O’Mahony on the album itself: “Good songs with high production values”.
•Full article here.
•Tomás’s studio diary is here.
•Album available in Virgin and The Living Tradition.
•Free download– complete songs! Tomás recently remixed two songs by his old band Grand.
Scroll down to the bottom of the mp3 page.
•The Stanley Super 800 EP is due in April, mixed by Tomás. See their site for tour details.
Current Projects
•madtheory live: Rehearsals in progress.
•It will be live sequencing, mixing, and a little keyboard and Theremin playing too.
-The two Kawai sequencers are synchronised and we’re setting up songs at the rate of one per day.
-Gonna keep it simple, otherwise I’ll never do it, so no video.
•The Stanley Super 800 album has been released, and the band is on tour.
Tomás mixed it, and even played some synth on it.
•Accidental Tourist–
-The album is set for release in August.
•The website is live- look out for Tomás’s studio diary and pics.
The truth is finally known!
Barney seems innocent and sweet but in fact he is Satan.
It’s all very simple:
1. Start with the given: CUTE PURPLE DINOSAUR.
2. Change all U’s to V’s (which is proper Latin anyway):
CVTE PVRPLE DINOSAVR
3. Extract all Roman Numerals: C V V L D I V
4. Convert into Arabic values: 100 5 5 50 500 1 5
5. Add all the numbers: 666
Thus, Barney is Satan.
Making Love
You all know the old saying that home cooked food tastes better, because it’s created with love.
To test this theory, scientists contracted a chef to cook two separate meals with the same ingredients. While cooking the first one, he thought only about negative things and all the stuff that makes him angry, and cursed and sweared at the food. While cooking the second meal, he thought about positive things and all the stuff that makes him happy, and whispered sweet nothings to the food. As a control, a second chef also cooked a meal with the same ingredients.
These three meals were then served to three separate groups, A B and a control group C.
Results:
group A:
80% thought the meal tasted “off”.
10% thought it was OK.
10% thought it was excellent.
Group B:
79% thought the meal was fabulous.
12% thought it was very good.
9% said it was fine.
Group C (control):
45% thought it was good.
50% thought it was OK.
5% excellent.
These results show that the old saying is now a viable scientific theory.
Scientists now believe that, by having the chef cook two meals in the same manner and carrying out a molecular measurement on each one, the molecular difference will be love in the form of matter. They are hoping that they will be able to duplicate this difference molecule in large quantities and then spread the love across the globe.
The PAiA Theremax Theremin
The PAiA Theremax Theremin
Tomás Mulcahy
http://www.madtheory.com
Written 7/6/00, last revision 5/3/04
The Theremin was invented by Lev Sergievitch Termen, or as anglicised, Leon Theremin. It is one of the few truly original modern instruments. Many other forgotten electronic instruments used its heterodyning method of sound generation- for example, the Ondes Martenot. Its invention was simultaneously a new way of producing sound and a new way of articulating notes. It solves a problem for electronically driven acts by also being visually interesting. In my experience, audiences find the sight of someone playing a Theremin very intriguing. It’s also great fun!
I was bitten by the bug around 1990, but at the time there was no easy way to get your hands on a Theremin. There was Bob Moog’s Big Briar Etherwave. Adding all the optional extra features to the Etherwave (especially the MIDI) makes it extremely expensive. Enter the PAiA. It doesn’t have MIDI as such, but, as we shall see, it does lots of things that the Etherwave doesn’t, as standard.
You may have heard of PAiA. They are probably the most successful supplier of electronics kits in the world, having been in been in business since 1970. John Simonton, the brains behind the company, has always been interested in music and audio. Mark Vail considered him significant enough to dedicate a chapter to PAiA in his excellent book “Vintage Synthesisers”.
So I was delighted to discover that this company produced a Theremin kit, the 9505 Theremax. I made my purchase purely on the basis of what I had read of PAiA’s reputation, mostly on the Internet. People were saying that this was an excellent instrument, with a tone very close to the 1929 RCA Theremin, which is the one that featured in all those Hollywood B-movies. Quite a few Theremins are available these days, as a quick search on the Internet will reveal. But the PAiA is among the cheapest, yet it is very highly rated among Theremin aficionados.
What it is:
The PAiA 9505 Theramax Theremin is a solid state instrument supplied as a kit. It is designed to play and sound like the classic RCA (valve) model designed by Leon Theremin himself. To quote the manual: “Theremax employs the same heterodyning principles as the original Theremins and produces the classic sound while adding embellishments made possible by the economy of transistors and integrated circuits”. It features control voltage outputs for volume, pitch and velocity (of which more later) and a gate/trigger output too, so it can be used as a controller for an analogue synthesiser. These features are expensive optional extras on the Etherwave.
Building it:
Anyone who’s methodical and good with a soldering iron should have no trouble with this kit. A deep knowledge of electronics is not required. The instructions are concise, and the board layout is very clear. If you’ve never built a circuit board before, you may find the joba little tedious, because there are over 100 components to solder in. A good 25 Watt soldering iron is a valuable investment for this job. Weller and Antex make good ones. In fact, a good soldering iron and a set of electronics tools is essential for any studio. A warning: if you’ve never touched a soldering iron in your life, don’t start out soldering with this kit. Practice by making andrepairing leads for your studio. That said, the instructions supplied with the kit offer very good, clear advice for the less experienced, including “tips from the pros”.
Make sure you start the work in a well lit room where construction will not be disturbed. No kids or pets! Good ventilation is advisable, because the solder fumes are rather unpleasant. The manual advises that you solder in all the components in one sitting. This way you won’t loose track of anything. It took me about 2 hours. I didn’t rush it, took a few long breaks and it turned out to be quite a therapeutic exercise. The most difficult part is reading the resistor values. A colour coding system (industry standard) is used to denote the resistance, because the body of the resistor is too small to print numbers on. The manual provides a table of colours and values, but some people may have difficulty telling the difference between maroon and red. A magnifying glass will save you strain here. The whole task is eased by the manual, which manages to provide foolproof instruction without being patronising. Wiring the pots into the board is also a little awkward, because there are lots of wires and the board is relatively small. If you find yourself going cross eyed, take a break!
The kit includes a 110v wall wart power supply. This is useless on this side of the pond, and PAiA do not supply a 220v version. They included it in the kit anyway because it wasn’t economical for them to unpack it. That’s the attention to detail that keeps companies healthy. A standard variable power supply works fine instead, but make sure it is a regulated model capable of 12v@500mA. Unregualted ones will add 50Hz mains hum to your Theremin sound. Suitable PSUs are stocked by most hardware shops.
I decided to build my own case. Well actually, I got a carpenter friend to knock something up! This was very simple. I gave him the dimensions of the lectern case (downloaded from PAiA’s website) and he cut it from plywood. You could probably persuade your local DIY shop to do the same for you. The measurements are very accurate and should not cause any difficulty. The PAiA case is quite small, so light plywood (say eight millimetres thick) is the easiest thing to work with. Once this was nailed together it turned out to be very solid. PAiA point out that the Theremax can be built in to anything you like, from a shoebox to a sculpture. You could put yours into a mannequin like the Bonzo Dog Dooda band did in the sixties! The antennae are held on with butterfly screws, to allow you to dismantle them for transport. This makes it easy to create a left or right handed Theremin. There’s enough length in the antenna cable for this to work either way. For me this is another big advantage over the Etherwave, which as far as I know cannot be easily altered for southpaws. I would recommend that you purchase the front panel from PAiA. This is far easier than measuring out and drilling the holes for the sockets and knobs yourself, and it also looks really good.
The final step after assembly is to calibrate the oscillators. This could be an awkward procedure because it requires the adjustment of four inductors, which are not noted for their stability. However the manual details the procedure very clearly, so a little patience is all that is required. It took me about 30 minutes to do this, and the achievement of a perfect Theremin tone was very satisfying!
On the PAiA website there are some tweaks and tips for the Theremin. I aded the “gimmick”coupling capacitor,
which is very easy. It improves playability by reducing the lower range of the pitch.
Sound:
As well as a sine wave tone, Theremax provides a square wave, which due to its rich harmonic content is useful for processing with outboard filters, or a synth with an audio input. The timbre knob allows you to choose between
sine at one extreme and square at the other. Theremax has Control Voltage outputs for pitch and volume which will work with Volt/Octave or Hz/Volt synthesisers. It can be interesting to double the Theremin’s tone with an analogue synth- it gives bizarre and unpredictable “musical” intervals. I tested this with a Yamaha CS10 which is a Hz/Volt synth, and it gave me a useful pitch range. Tthis reduced range has the advantage of being easier to play, but you sacrifice the true Theremin tone. A volt/octave synth should provide a much wider pitch range. The PAiA itself is capable of deep sub bass and almost supersonic highs in one swoop, so watch those speakers!
Because the Theremin has such a pure tone, most digital reverb units create a mush of sound. I recommend any Lexicon (obvious you might say!) or a Sony- I’ve used both. My preference really is for echo, the grungier the better. I’ve had best results with an analogue delay unit. However a Theremin sounds especially good without any effects at all, as it’s tone can be reminiscent of the human voice, particularly in the high register where it can be most soprano-like. A good (Lexicon!) ambience setting can be useful here. Experiment with the LPF or high damping parameter on your reverb unit- a dull reverb is often best. Orchestration is very important. In the Theremin track on the mp3 page, the simple Theremin melody is embellished nicely by the chords played with Mellotron and JJ Jeczalik sampled choirs.
According to Clara Rockmore, Theremin virtuoso, with the death of Leon Theremin, many of the musically useful features of the original Theremin circuit design were lost, along with his secrets for building and voicing theremins. A lot of research has been carried out over the years, and Bob Moog had some personal contact with Mr. Theremin shortly before he died. But having compared the two, I feel the Theremax has a more authentic tone than the Etherwave, and also allows more sonic variation. The Etherwave certainly has the aura of a more serious instrument, and has slightly more stable tuning. If you’re gigging the Theremax you must allow some time to set it up. On one occasion I found I had to go through the recalibration procedure about half an hour before an open air gig. I’m not sure if Theremax didn’t like the one hundred mile journey or the local electrical supply. Considering the (pretty significant!) difference in price between Etherwave and Theremax, the PAiA is a remarkable instrument.
Playing it:
Theremin is probably one of the most difficult instruments to play, because you have to tactile feedback as you would with, say, a violin, which is probably its closest relative. So you need a very refined sense of pitch. Actually, playing
Theremin is a good way to develop your sense of pitch. Clara Rockmore originally studied violin until a hand injury at an early age made this physically impossible. By chance she came across the Leon Theremin’s newly developed instrument, and adapted what she had learned. She developed many innovative techniques, such as aerial fingering, that allowed her to play rapid passages with legato or staccato articulation. In an interview in the 1970s, Rockmore lamented the fact that many people had come to her over the years to take lessons, but she had to turn them away because viable instruments (Leon Theremin oroginals) were not available. But most serious players agree that the current resurgence of interest has resulted in more musically useful Theremins being produced. The PAiA is certainly good enough to begin learning classical Theremin technique. It’s worth purchasing the tutorial video from the Big Briar website. You should also get to see Steve Martin’s film “Theremin, an electronic Oddysey”. It’s very moving to see what Theremin suffered at the hands of the KGB, and how close he and Clara still were, having been separated for many years.
A Theremin will respond to any sort of movement within proximity, so position it carefully at gigs. Often performers just whoop it up, not hitting an exact pitch, just using it as a theatrical device. This can be great fun! Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips uses an Etherwave for this purpose in concert.
A foot switch input allows muting of the internal tone source without disabling the CV outputs. Switching with it causes an audible thumping sound, but it is useful when you have no free hands. The Velocity Control Voltage lets you trigger notes on your synth according to how quickly you move your hand towards the volume antenna.
Like everything else on a Theremin this is quite difficult to master, but you may prefer not to master it and leave the results to chance.
The front panel provide volume and pitch trim controls. These need to be set prior to a performance once the instrument has warmed up, and often during a performance as well. The pitch trim is set by keeping your hand away from the pitch antenna and adjusting the output pitch so low as to be inaudible. However I often set this dial fully
to the left, because it reduces the pitch range and makes it much easier to play tunes. When set this way the Theremax has a range of about 3 octaves, so it needs to be muted when not in use, otherwise it will produce a constant audible tone. The “gimmick” coupling capacitor also helps to reduce the range.
If you don’t have a problem with building it yourself, The Theremax is superb value for money when compared with the Big Briar instrument. It also has some nifty features that no other models have as standard, such as the comprehensive voltage control facilities. It is an easy kit to build, and with a little care you get a superb
instrument. This is a serious Theremin at a very non-serious price.
Links
PAiA:
Check out the very illuminating technical article on Theremin tone by John Simonton.
Bigbriar:
Bob Moogs company. They also sell videos, CDs and “minimugs”! CDs
by Theremin virtuosos Lydia Kavina Clara Rockmore available, as well as an instructional
video by Lydia and a documentary of Clara Rockmore.
137
Interesting electronic music site with good article on Theremin playing and
links to other sites.
Obsolete.com
History of Electronic Musical Instruments. Quite comprehensive, and count all
the other instruments that used Theremin’s heterodyning to generate their sound!
British company
Longwave, who
make a solid state Theremin also based on the RCA valve classic, as well as a pocket Theremin.
The
Theremin web ring. There’s a very interesting interview buried in there with the man who played on the Beach Boys “Good Vibrations”. It seems it wasn’t really a Theremin…
The visit to Realworld
In 1997 I was working in Secret Garden Studios in Glanmire Co. Cork with Rupert MacCarthy- Morrogh. The Kelly Family were living in Cobh at that time, and used to use the studio for CD copying and rehearsals. One time they decided to do a vocal overdub, and brought in their own engineer from Germany, a gentleman by the name of Stuart Bruce. At the time, he was moving back to England with his family and setting up a studio in the Realworld complex. The Kelly’s didn’t do much work, so Stuart chatted with us all day! He was a great story teller. He gave us some cool tips for recording. He was a modest chap and I discovered afterwards that he had worked on a lot of great albums from the eighties.

Stuart in the Big Room

The thing at the back with the basketball ring in it is the diffuser in the main studio. This photo doesn’t do it justice, because in real life it looks like a cathedral. The door underneath the ring leads to the smaller room, which looks like a chapel. It’s very impressive, but compared to the other rooms it’s a bit freaky, so not many people use it!
We got on so well that he invited us to visit his new studio and to have a look at Realworld. So in October, after the APRS show in London, we did. The atmosphere at Realworld was amazing, and the staff were very friendly and chatty. We looked in on the Pro Tools editing session for a Shiela Chandra album and met the producer Hector Zazou who was very warm and welcoming. The sound of Shiela’s voice was very beautiful on the studio monitors. The engineer was hard at work backing up the session onto ADAT while everyone else was having dinner in the sumptuous dining hall.There was a chef and a chandelier- amazing! Even though PT was fairly new back then, we thought it was a bit odd that he trusted ADATs more than a CD-R, because we were using ADATs then and knew how unreliable they could be. Of course, CD-R turned out to be not so great either!

The Work Room
We had an Ace Ventura moment when we opened the sliding door in The Bunker, because the water for the mill runs underneath the building. The soundproofing was very impressive with the door closed!
At the APRS, Sony had a nasty looking bouncer standing next to the Oxford mixing desk on their stand. We avoided him and instead Richard Chappell showed us Peter Gabriel’s Sony Oxford. Did I mention that everyone at Realworld was really nice? Richard looked tired (I think there was a party the night before) but he was very happy to show us around the writing room and talk about equipment.

Sony Oxford desk in the Writing Room.

A corner of the Writing Room.
The building is amazing, all wood and stone. The atmosphere is inspirational, and it feels like a great place to make music. In the writing room I was in heaven, because the Fairlight famously used to incredible effect on Peter Gabriel’s fourth album (which lists the Fairlight samples used) was right there. I he got to touch that actual instrument, instantly curing me of my geeky synth spotting affliction (not really).

The classic Fairlight CMI IIx as used on Security, and clearly gigged a lot too!
We were so blown away by the place that we didn’t take nearly enough pictures. For example, Stuart’s own studio was based around an Amek Mozart and a couple of ADATs. He had 3 Akai S1000s, a Prophet 10, a Fender Rhodes and a rack full of synths and tasty outboard. One wall had shelving covered by a curtain. These shelves contained an exotic selection of guitar pedals, baby synths and drum machines. Stuart kept them there to help inspire musicians and keep them happy. We saw all the different rooms, which used different materials in their construction to give a range of acoustic spaces. All of these rooms were beautiful places to be, and also looked very beautiful.

Stuart’s Oberheim Matrix 12 and Roland JD-800 with Alesis MMT-8 sequencer

Stuart’s stupendous Prophet 10.
The place was crawling with Eventide Harmonizers. There was gear everywhere. There was a Mitsubishi 32 track in the corridor, and Peter’s EII was being used as an ashtray. To give an example of scale, our studio was based around an 02R. Peter’s keyboard mixer was an 02R. But there was a distinct lack of gear lust in the place, and no snobbery. Peter records on anything- ghetto blasters, ADATs, Sony 3348 and Pro Tools. It was all about inspiration, not gear. The mic collection was extensive and impressive.

Peter Gabriel’s Yamaha CP-80 piano with MIDI.

Peter Gabriel’s Hammond B3

Peter Gabriel’s Prophet 5, a Rev 2 I believe.

Peter’s Fairlight CMI 3
Our visit really showed me that the single most important feature of a studio is the atmosphere. This is down to the people working there, and the building itself. I also learned that professionalism is really about trusting people.