AETHERPHON, global theremin family

I'll tell you why I think that theremists tend to make crude videos  
instead of good audio recordings.

Playing a theremin is, as we all know, not easy. Part of the idea of  
having expertise in theremin playing, unless you look at the  
instrument as merely a source of sound-collage effects (nothing wrong  
with that, mind you) is being able to hit all the notes and sounds  
you intended to hit - cleanly, directly, and in-tune.

Now, as we are all surely aware, there are a lot of things that one  
can do in a recording studio situation that can help deal with any  
problems one might have in capturing a performance. Overdubbing is  
the most obvious thing, so if your first take isn't quite in tune, do  
it again. In fact, break it up and do the whole performance in  
sections, "punching in" which takes are the best.

This is aside from the most dreadful tool in the modern digital  
studio's toolbox, the auto-tune program, which pulls out-of-tune  
notes in a pre-recorded performance back into tune. (Modern pop music  
would be much different without auto-tune. Brittany Spears wouldn't  
have a career, for one thing...)

But using such methods for recording and "doctoring" a theremin  
performance? Why, that's CHEATING! Worse, it's BLASPHEMY! How would  
we be able to tell who has the REAL chops on the theremin if anybody  
can just FIX BAD NOTES as they record it???

Hence, the popularity of using video recordings of theremin  
performances. Even if you tried to overdub or auto-correct the audio  
track, the moves on the video wouldn't quite match up, and everyone  
(meaning all the other theremin geeks) would KNOW you were not  
"live". If you are SEEING the thereminist actually playing the  
performance, then you KNOW they can't be "cheating" with studio  
techniques. (Techniques that any other musician, regardless of how  
great a player they are, have no problem at all using. There's not a  
professional recording artist alive that doesn't use overdubbing and  
punching-in of multiple takes in the studio. It's normal. But to the  
thereminist, it's just NOT RIGHT!)

The video format is, in essence, a form of musical dick-waving. "Hey,  
you can SEE me playing those notes, so everybody knows how awesome a  
player I am!" The quality of the sound recording is secondary to all  
their fellow geeks knowing how great they can play.


On Oct 19, 2010, at 1:07 PM, David V wrote:

>   Hello all,
>
> You all know that I am a collector and afficionado of theremin  
> music.  I
> wish I could play, and maybe someday I will, but for now that's not my
> role.  I am content to discover and promote those who can play,  
> whether
> they're professional or amateur, and give them a regular stage on  
> which
> to perform.  For now, audio is the most easily manageable format for
> programming.  I made a video once.  Once.  Once was all I could  
> handle,
> at least in a fashion that met my standards.  I have since stuck with
> audio because.....well, frankly, it's less work to make sound  
> decent. :-)
>
> Which brings me to YouTube.  I'll be honest, I haven't followed it
> much.  The videos, well, some of them are good.  Some not so much.   
> What
> irks me is that in some of them, the playing is really quite good, the
> type of performance I'd like to feature, especially for someone who
> hasn't made a name for themselves.  But the audio quality stinks.   
> Now,
> it's not like I'm pressing CDs over here.  My audio stream is 96kbps,
> which is on purpose.  It's good enough for streaming on the Internet,
> but not so good as to pose a threat to those who ARE pressing CDs and
> trying to make a living at this.
>
> But still, what I'm finding is that, instead of making audio  
> recordings,
> many thereminists are skipping this step entirely and shooting crude
> videos.  I'm not really talking about the lot of people out there who
> have apparently just decided to take up the theremin and are publicly
> embarassing themselves with videos of their "progress"...I share  
> others'
> distaste for this practice, as it has been pointed out that this
> wouldn't typically be the case with any other instrument.  But even
> after getting to the point of playing in tune and beginning to inject
> some emotion into their playing, so many still seem content to  
> shoot low
> quality video than high quality audio.
>
> So I hope that you all continue making audio recordings.  I've had to
> start extracting decent audio from YouTube videos when I can, but I
> really still prefer good music in good audio quality.  After all, I  
> need
> something to keep me busy and out of trouble. :-)
>
> David V
>
> -- 
> -----
> DAVID V -- synthetic music for humans
> -----
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