Turn an iPhone Into a Pocket Theremin

Earyauteur writes "The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) is running a story on an interesting motion-controlled iPhone application which uses the iPhone's 3-axis accelerometer to control a digital synthesizer. The musical instrument is played much like a theremin with the added ability to perform music using different musical scales. TUAW also links to a YouTube video which shows a performer demonstrating the iPhone instrument."

Comments

And use your iPhone as a pocket dictionary

[Anonymous Coward]

So you can figure out what a Theremin is

Re:And use your iPhone as a pocket dictionary

[NeverVotedBush]

I would mod you up if I had mod points.
The video is pretty cool, and so is the application (apparently now available at the Apple Store), but the comparison to a Theremin is a bit off.
All the tilts were from front to back. Maybe if they add side to side (if the iPhone has those accelerometers as well), then it would be more Theremin-like with both pitch and volume instead of just pitch.
How to play a Theremin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd4jvtAr8JM

Fun, but not a theremin

[theefer]

The musical instrument is played much like a theremin [...]

Clearly whoever wrote this has never seen, let alone played a theremin.

You don't play a theremin by rotating a mobile phone (or anything) in your hand. There is no notion of angle, since you play with your bare hands, only distance. The distance to the vertical antenna determines the pitch, whereas the distance to the horizontal circular antenna controls the volume. The whole point is the expressiveness of playing music with your whole body.

If you want a small silly toy theremin, you should order Vol. 17 of Japanese magazine Otona no kagaku (the whole thing is in Japanese, but easy enough to build). You can only control the pitch, the sound is pretty awful, and you cannot place calls with it, but at least it's a theremin.

Re:Fun, but not a theremin

[Earyauteur]

The musical instrument is played much like a theremin [...]

Clearly whoever wrote this has never seen, let alone played a theremin.

Actually I have built a Theremin from a kit. It worked when I was done soldering -- so I have both seen and played a Theremin if it matters to any one here besides the pedant trolls. I included a link to the theremin in my submission so without knowing anything about me you might have noticed that I at least knew what Leon Theremin and his instrument looked like.

Re:Fun, but not a theremin

[DynaSoar]

The distance to the vertical antenna determines the pitch, whereas the distance to the horizontal circular antenna controls the volume.

That may be true of the "real" Theremin. Jean-Michel Jarre plays one in "Water For Life" among other video performances, and was shown on the late 50's Mickey Mouse Show. However, some have two vertical antennae, and some have plates flush with the top. There's (typically) pitch and volume antennae, and the configuration is irrelevant.

That said, another difference between a theremin and the iPhone widget is the fact that the former maintains a continuosly varying pitch, whereas the latter is programmed to chunk off the notes into a preselected scale.

Another similarity is that neither have a mechanical feedback mechanism, requiring that it be played by ear as much as by hand. Playing by ear requires some tonal ability. A lot of people don't have that innately and if they can learn it, it takes a long time. Probably longer than the desire to learn to play their phone.

At least theremin manipulation is roughly linear as opposed to rotational, so visual feedback can more easily be associated with the aural.

Another YouTube video of Cosmovox

[Earyauteur]

Someone uploaded this recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDvoW68x9no

Re:really?

[retchdog]

I noticed the same thing, but came to a different conclusion: it's real, and it's shit. Even past the registration inaccuracies, the transitions between pitches are just plain awful. They could have at least tried for some sort of smooth (possibly adaptive) interpolation. As it is, "musical instrument" is too generous a label, let alone "theremin".

I guess for $2 you don't expect much, but please don't even compare this trash to a theremin.

Re:Not a theremin

[paulthomas]

Cosmovox owes some of its inspiration to the Theremin, an early 20th century electronic music instrument which is played by moving your hands near an antenna. Cosmovox can convincingly imitate the sound of the Theremin, and other similar electronic instruments which haunt pulp sci-fi movies, yet Cosmovox uses the computing power of your iPhone to do far more.

From the app developer's web site: About Cosmovox.

Theremin comparisons aside....

[Starmengau]

The way this app is designed, it seems, you have the ability to "perform music using different musical scales." Therefore, this "instrument" has a much lower barrier of entry than a theremin, because it requires much less exactness to play in a way that -sounds good-.

Of course, it's also possible that the person in the video is just the best Cosmovox player that will ever live and has been practicing for months, but I suppose the world may never know.

Fixated on touch

[SuperKendall]

If you get the same results for very similar input, in what way is it not like a theremin?

Some posters here seem way too fixated on the fact that you are holding the phone while waving it around, while ignoring it's a similar control scheme to a real theremin.

I mean, what if in theory you could just wave your hands around and make sounds like a theremin. Would that not essentially be having a "portable" theremin? Now hold a phone in your hand and do the same thing, suddenly it's totally different... I don't see it.