Theremin is an electronic tool, patented in 1920 by Leo Theremin. A typical Theremin uses two oscillators – one that generates a static frequency, the other a variable – and amplifies the difference between the two signals, creating sine waves at different frequencies, thereby creating different heights. Theremin uses a secondary circuit to control amplitude. You can control the pitch / volume with your own hands by adjusting the position of the hands relative to the two antennas, making it one of the few instruments in the world that you play without touching!
Theremin’s tone is well known and can be heard in countless horrors due to his somewhat unnatural and ghostly tone. Theoretically, theremin produces a fundamental tone like a pure sine wave, and pure sine waves sound unnatural because most sounds in nature have overtones. Theremin is considered one of the most complex game tools in the world. It is not only “fretless,” like a violin, but even without strings, and its tone does not just naturally fade, but rather its volume decreases manually. In other words, to get a staccato, you need to control not only attack and hold, but also attenuation. This contradicts the way almost any other tool works.
In fact, Theremin was the first synthesizer in the world to use electronics to “synthesize” a pure electronic tone. We tried to recreate the sound and feel of this instrument, focusing on such things as portamento and vibrato, since without a properly modeled technique, the Theremin simulator would be a little more than a sine wave generator.
Sampling the theremin would be somewhat illogical, since the bulk of the theremin sound is related to smooth portamento / slides. The instrument produces a continuous signal, which can only be reduced in amplitude, but never stops, so when switching from one tone to another, portamento will always be produced if the previous note has not been turned off.
Our tool seeks to implement most of this behavior. Our tones are generated by purely mathematical sine waves. You can play notes with portamento and you can play more distinct staccato if you let the notes fade out. Amplitude and vibrato can be controlled individually or together using the pitch / / or modulation wheel. Portamento can be set to normal or slow, but portamento speed will decrease or increase depending on the interval being played (closer to portamento notes at a higher speed). Chorus and reverb effects are included and allow you to create slightly different tones.